Stubfart RAGE

So awhile back I was going over Super Dave Osbourne - the world's greatest trainer plane in my RC Collection.

 

These things look like rudimentary toys, and while they aren't complicated, you do have to be on the ball because there is a lot going on with them that can get you into trouble very quickly. Trouble with these things is part of the hobby actually - figuring them out before they become a bigger problem, and correcting them in such a way as not to create other problems.

I quickly found I had a burned out receiver - the gizmo that takes the inputs from the radio and outputs them to the various flippers and flappers on the plane. No problem - my buddies at Spektrum are here to save the day!

They don’t label the outputs either. We are all supposed

to know that 1,2,3,4 are throttle, ailerons, elevator and rudder…

🤬

I bought one, checked the polarity and hooked it up. Nothing. Fuggin cheap chink electronics!!! Dammitandblast!!! I went down to the store and bought another one. It failed too. I was livid at that point. I went into my plunder and dragged out my trusty DMM. Battery was at 6.9V. I went into the manual. it will run off anywhere from 4V to 9V. I checked the continuity and resistance and the numbers came up fine. They are polarity protected so no smoke got out. I was just stumped. These are the latest and greatest receivers out of Spektrum and feature the new antenna-less technology. By my reckoning, these things should have worked.

I went down to the hobby shop and the old stubfarts behind the counter came out to help. They did everything I did and got the exact same results. We all hemmed and hawed about it and even pulled a new one off the wall and it failed too. 

Then the kid in the back came out and showed us the secret. See those orange bars on the front there? That is actually an on/off button. And if ya look in the manual it even tells ya up front how to use it.

It’s the eternal answer to any malf involving electronics.

“Is it turned on…?”