UMX as3xtra

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Paul E. Wogg
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Joined: Mon Jun 06, 2011 6:35 pm
Location: Lower Sackville

UMX as3xtra

Unread post by Paul E. Wogg » Sun Jan 26, 2014 12:12 am

Bought one.
Tried it tonite at indoor fly.
Disappointed,
I am no where near a good pilot...but this just acted odd.
I requested another with the same plane to try mine...same result....odd flight.
Even stranger....the other 2 with the exact same plane had issues as well.
Porpoising....and uneven flight.
Mine seemed to want to go verticle immediately after take off.

After I got home, I tried to reset flight modes, it refused, double checked the how to on YouTube from horizon hobby...I am doing as per manual...
I tried to set alternate flight modes,
It refused,
Kept just binding with steady red...(it should have acknowledged flight change by 3 blinking red)

Seems I got a dud....or I'm missing something,

I am using the recommended batt @ 45c..

Disappointing.

I looked at RC groups, and there are similar issues, and most recommend the alternate flight modes....but I can't get it to switch.

Not sure where to go from here I guess.

I will try again tomorrow of Rebind and reset flight modes.

Just disappointed overall.

P
3 point landing! 3/100 that is.
HEFA #72
MAAC # 84092

astroflyer
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Joined: Tue Jan 27, 2009 5:14 pm

Re: UMX as3xtra

Unread post by astroflyer » Sun Jan 26, 2014 9:55 am

What radio? I've seen this three times locally now and all were fixed by using the flight mode switch on the transmitter.

If you have a dx8 for instance assign the gear function to the flight mode switch. That is the switch on the font top left side of the transmitter. That is a three position switch.

Make sure the model is in default mode. If it would not change mode for you it should be still in default.

Then to get rid if the porpoising the flight mode switch would be set furthest forward away from you.

That plane requires a three position switch to be able to take advantage of all three flight modes.

You can however fly it with only two of the modes on a dx6 .

You just have to figure out which switch is controlling the fight modes. On the one I checked out that was also the front top left side switch and again the switch had to be the forward position.

Once understood this is an excellent plane. VERY difficult to understand the bloody manual however. Lol

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steve
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Re: UMX as3xtra

Unread post by steve » Sun Jan 26, 2014 10:06 am

Hi Paul,

I have one of these as well and although it has flown extremely well, it is now starting to "wag" in knife edge and occasionally causing unwanted elevator deflection. I did change to the alternate flight modes which did work to a degree but overall, I'm not a fan of the a3x and wish I could turn it off completely. It does seem to be a wide spread issue affecting most of these planes as can be seen when doing a search.

To try and minimize this issue, what I have found on mine is having trims and any sub trim set to 0 helps a lot. Make trim changes buy bending the push rods and try to be at least 5 feet away when making any mode changes or binding. It seems that if you can bind and or get a positive result to a mode change when your radio is right beside or near the plane, it may be corrupted.try it again, being a distance away, and that may
help.Also, make sure you move the throttle as per the manual as that it
important to "set" the mode. Lastly, ensure throttle trim is set to neutral. You may have accidentally hit this trim causing the receiver not seeing " low throttle" setting to lock in the mde change.


I hope you can get it working as the plane itself flies very well and takes a lot of abuse.

Steve
Steve

astroflyer
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Re: UMX as3xtra

Unread post by astroflyer » Sun Jan 26, 2014 10:09 am

Note it is important to have the plane in default mode. Page six in the manual. Use the reset to default mode stick settings.

On the ones I fooled with we also could not set any other mode, but were able to get the plane back to default by using The restore to default setting.

astroflyer
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Re: UMX as3xtra

Unread post by astroflyer » Sun Jan 26, 2014 10:18 am

Steve is correct about the trim. With the as3x in any plane trim should be handled by manual adjustment of the push rods. You can use a couple of clicks on the transmitter but much more than that upsets the gyros somehow.

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steve
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Re: UMX as3xtra

Unread post by steve » Sun Jan 26, 2014 12:10 pm

Agreed....

After a "crush" or two, my first sense was to adjust digital trim. It seemed to amplify the "wag" and was lessened when at 0.

It is strange though that the overall unwanted oscillations seem to be getting progressively worse even after numerous resetting of the modes.

I'm going to try a full system default as you have suggested. I haven't done that at any time so maybe that will cure alot of the small issues.

Stay tuned.

I hope you get yours working Paul with some of these suggestions. It really
is a nice airplane that will fly very well.

Steve
Steve

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Paul E. Wogg
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Location: Lower Sackville

Re: UMX as3xtra

Unread post by Paul E. Wogg » Sun Jan 26, 2014 12:28 pm

Thank you very much for all the input,
I am using dx6i
All sub trims 0, and trims are zero,
I set the dual rates as manual suggested with 50% expos
I did set the trims manually on the plane itself right out of the box,
I did try f mode, and I believe Brian did on his as well...I saw no change, and it appeared not to change Brian's either.
I had Brian try mine, and he said it was definitely not right....then the other 2 started doing the same...
Strange it effected all 3 planes last night....everyone was getting elevator wag , or ailerons suddenly shifting.

When I got home, I tried doing a reset, as well as change flight modes, but I do not get 3 blinking lights,
I watched procedure on YouTube...
And I believe I am doing it correctly,
I tried a Rebind as well, then started again, still, no 3 blinking light.
I have a dx5e I will try today...maybe it's my radio?
I did see the same issue on rc groups, and the fellow was sent a new module...apparently the one he had was faulty.
I will advise what I get with trials today.
I like the plane, I hope I can get it working.
P
3 point landing! 3/100 that is.
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astroflyer
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Re: UMX as3xtra

Unread post by astroflyer » Sun Jan 26, 2014 12:56 pm

I don't understand why they have those other mode settings at all. I may be misinformed, but my belief is that the flight mode switch is there to give you any one of those modes when you use the switch. so why would you have to change modes in the first place??

anyway what worked in the two with dx8 that I adjusted was make sure it was in default mode. then assign channel five which is gear to the flight mode switch.. then the three flight modes worked off the flight mode switch, with the throw farthest away from, you taming the elevator oscillation.

same thing with the dx6. only difference was you have only two of the three flight modes. once we set that one to default and used the top left hand side front switch as flight mode switch everything worked.

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steve
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Re: UMX as3xtra

Unread post by steve » Sun Jan 26, 2014 2:09 pm

I use a 9303 with a module for my indoor stuff and my switch settings are like what you use in the DX8.

In all honesty, I dont really see any real difference in flight characteristic regardless if switch setting. Mine will torque roll with only aileron input on all flight modes. I can even turn my back to the plane. It is that solid but in knife edge, nothing seems to stop the elevator wag however, it is more pronounced when I have even the slightest rudder input. Maybe next time, I try the mode I want and "try" not to make corrections and see if I'm causing the issue to some degree??

Steve
Steve

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bdg
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Re: UMX as3xtra

Unread post by bdg » Sun Jan 26, 2014 3:25 pm

Paul / Steve / Al / Louis,

I have just been "playing" with the AS3Xtra configuration with my DX8 after some questionable flights yesterday. I never really did spend enough time with the manual and used a spare default program in the Dx8 for the AS3Xtra and that is the start of the problems.

Problem #1 - GEAR and FLIGHT MODES were all inhibited in the general program settings.
Solution #1 - I have corrected this and have assigned Flight Mode to GEAR (as gear is channel 5) and have inhibited the gear switch on the Dx8 for Channel 5 operation.

To be safe, I have returned the plane to default settings. The light flashes three times for the "general flight / Standard AS3X" (and possibly for others... did not try) but not for the "reset all to default settings"... for this it only goes solid and stays on.

With the flight mode switched used for "flight mode" selection at the plane (per page 6), mode 0 is normal and the elevator operates as we would expect. Mode 2 - pulled in - is "hover assistance" and the elevator operates extremely quickly and to full throws. This is exactly what was happening last evening.

I agree with Steve and the AS3Xta is a FANTASTIC little flyer and is absolutely perfect for the gym.... just gotta key watchful and do our best not to get in the way of other flyers!

I did find a few tears in the foam but those would not have contributed to the issues last night... and have now been repaired :-).

There are configuration videos on the HorizonHobby website for various radios (Dx6i, Dx7s, etc.) which you can access by the "playlist" option at the top left of the video or by waiting through them in sequence. The videos are at the bottom of the AS3Xtra main webpage.

Hang in there! I am confident that we'll all be flying happily again soon!

Brian

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