Failsafe problems, help/ advice required

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theblackvanman

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Hi, im new to this forum and am looking for some help/advice. Here's a quick rundown of my problem- In december my friend and i purchased 3 maverick blackouts, one for me, one for him and one for his son, his sons was for christmas and as such didnt get used till post 25th dec. The other 2 were run in properly and the failsafes check to make sure they were ok, they were used for the first time around mid december. On its first use the failsafe failed on my friends, after around 40 mins use it shot off at high speed, my friend tried to brake then turned the transmittor off but it still went on its merry way until it hit something that wouldnt move, the impact destroyed the bodyshell completley and caused sever damage to the suspension at one corner. My friend returned the car to the shop where purchased and they fixed the failsafe and a transmittor problem, but he was told the cost of the shell and new parts to the front end were not covered.
Fast forward to last saturday, due to weather over christmas and work commitments we took the blackouts back out for only their 3rd use since purchase, mine was running ok and then the same problem occured, it shot off at high speed and neither the brake or failsafe could stop it, it hit my son, knocking him off his feet before hitting a metal park bench at high speed, the damage to mine is worse that that to my friends and my son is quite lucky that it only clipped him as it was going flat out at the time and i had no control over stopping it. My questions now are.

1. Anyone else had a problem with these?
2. Should my friends repair/replacement costs be covered as its less that 8 weeks old.
3. Will my repair replacement costs be covered?
4. Do we sent all three back as we are now in fear of it happening with the other one
 
I would say if they were RTR cars (what ever make) and other than charging batteries & adding fuel, you didn't have to put a spanner to it then they should be fully covered (although I bet most aren't).
If the fail safe was an add on or the car came as a kit and you've built it yourself, the shop/manufacturer may well question how well you built it - I'm not slagging off your mechanical skills btw -

It might be worth contacting the distributor from what ever country you're in or the manufacturer itself and posing the question to them directly.
 
Mike1970 said:
I would say if they were RTR cars (what ever make) and other than charging batteries & adding fuel, you didn't have to put a spanner to it then they should be fully covered (although I bet most aren't).
If the fail safe was an add on or the car came as a kit and you've built it yourself, the shop/manufacturer may well question how well you built it - I'm not slagging off your mechanical skills btw -

It might be worth contacting the distributor from what ever country you're in or the manufacturer itself and posing the question to them directly.
Click to expand...

Thanks for your reply, im in the UK and the model was bought RTR, failsafe was fitted to it already, i've spoken to the Uk distributor and they said they will only cover parts that fail and not damage to other parts caused by parts failing
 
ive had bad experiences with fail safes & as such i no longer use them, but i am going to get a remote kill switch soon which kills the engine from the transmitter should sh!t happen!
 
Was the failsafe servo position set to neutral or brake from the tx? If it was set to full throttle then it would take off. Is the throttle servo working ok now? Might be shite electronics like the KM's. What Mah is the receiver battery? I don't think the failsafe works when the receiver battery dies. If its only 1800mah or similar you may have run low causing it to feck off out of control. I run a 4100mah and it lasts longer than I need.

Where in the UK are you? Where did you get them from?
 
Im in Bradford, the car was supplied by rabsport via hpi in derby, the failsafew was set at brake, the battery is 1800mah but was fully charged before use and wouldnt have caused the truck to accelerate as it did, they are trying to go along the angle of it being used in the wet, but i pointed out that all the internet advertising states it has sealed units and is ideal for use in wet/mud
 
It sounds like your failsafes, both of them, were set incorrectly at the factory. It happens. If your receiver pack runs low, the failsafe kicks in. If the failsafe was mistakenly set to full throttle instead of full brake, the car will take off and not stop until, as you saw, hits something hard.

To properly set your failsafe depends on your controller (radio), but there is usually a button on the F/S itself.

Turn off your receiver switch (on the car),
Push the button on the F/S,
Go to full brake with the controller (the controller must be turned on)
Then turn on the receiver switch. This will set the F/S.
Now turn off the controller and see if it works correctly.

I personally don't think the manufacture should warranty the product, unless something is broken before it fires and runs for the first time. Any model should be checked over thoroughly for defects and radio function before the vehicle is even fired...

These aren't like a 15 pound Savage getting out of control from user mistakes, these are 30 pound machines that are capable of 40-50mph, which can hurt someone if not under control! Every step must be made to protect yourself and those around you. Imagine if that runaway vehicle would have slammed into someones child and seriously injured them..

Even though I completely disassemble and reassemble any RTR I buy, I still will not let anyone be around me during the first few minutes of running a new vehicle, I need that time to be sure the vehicle is doing what I tell it and I also need that time to get used to the characteristics of it.

Fix your car and make sure everything is in perfect working order before you fire it up next time. It also doesn't hurt to put the model up on a block or something to get the tires off the ground. That way if the model slams to full throttle you can kill the motor right there.

Be careful!
 
I didn't see you last post before I posted mine...

If the servos get wet they are shot! Nobody will warranty them, even though the company/website says they are water tight or whatever, they aren't... In the past 4 years, I have smoked over $600 in just Hitec servos and I have never been able to get a single servo replaced...

Just as a heads up, most RTR's come with the crappiest radio gear they can find to stick in the car to sell it, we just replace them. Why trust a $1000 model to a $5 servo!
 
Mike1970 said:
If the remote kill switch is operated from the transmitter, what happens if the battery come loose or you go out of range?
Click to expand...

A Killer Bee automatically kills the engine during a radio glitch, or battery power loss.
 
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Sorry dude, but it sounds like an incorrectly set failsafe hitting the throttle instead of the brakes when the battery got low.

I've done it myself with a Nitro car. I now allways check that the failsafe is set right by turning the Tx off after I have connected the Rx battery and before I start the engine. I also check the remote kill button is working before the wheels hit the floor.

To answer Mike, a kill switch works by permitting the engine to run when it is on (rather than selecting to kill it, it's reverse logic). So power loss, signal loss, low battery, transmitter being turned off, or hitting the kill button (on a 3 channel set up) will stop the engine. Usualy the only thing that will stop a kill switch from working is either being incorrectly set up, or the kill wire to the ignition coil being severed/pulled out of the switch.

All a failsafe can do is move a servo to a preset position, so if you loose power (like the battery plug coming adrift), or the servo jams, or the servo gets fried, you are still up poop creek.

In an ideal world you'd have a failsafe to hit the brakes and a killswitch to make sure it doesn't runaway.
 
don't give up on them bud just make sure the 3rd truck is sorted and failsafe set correctly before you go out with it. If it came with a 2.4ghz set then you will be able to set it through the menu on the handset. As said above, check it returns to brake when you turn the transmitter off before you start the engine.

Get them sorted and set up right and you will forget this ever happened. Just put it down to inexperience and part of the learning curve. If you need any assistance with parts, assembly, set-up etc just post a thread in the relevant section & you will be up and running in no time :D
 
Thanks for the replies, i really appreciate them, Trip- as im in the UK im covered under the sale of goods act, part of which states that the product must be suitable for the purpose sold, and as they advertise it as good to run in wet/muddy conditions then it has to be suitable for that purpose, if it isnt then its mis-selling the product. If and when they replace the 2 damaged ones then i will make sure the failsafe is set correctly, and will also do the same with the third one
 
Wow that must be nice! We don't have anything like that over hear, if we did there would be no more infomercials trying to sell us "Magic Wiener Enlargement Pills", or "How to buy a house with 50 dollars down"

I had a similar situation happen to me when I got my first nitro, I went from Futaba servos to Airtronics servos and didn't reset or test the failsafe. The controller had a bad AA battery and shut off, the failsafe went into Failsafe mode as it should, but Airtronics' servos are wired opposite of Futaba, so my truck ran off at 40mph while I was breaking in the first tank of fuel... That caused $650 worth of damage to a $500 truck! Total loss, nothing was salvageable after the second car ran it over...

Lesson learned!
 
There's a sports shoe / trainer simply marketed as comfortable for walking about in, on UK TV, but on Mexican it's so special, it gives the backside a workout as you walk, without going any further, permitting you to lose weight / tone that area ... with the footage to cover the ad .... !!!
Al.
 
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