Berserker IW-04 – Some help would be appreciated

[Admin]

Evenin viewers…

Picked up my package from TE today. One IW-01 for my 12 year old brother, 1 IW-04 for me to muck around with.

The 01 works perfectly. No glitching at all, and it s quite fast. He s gonna have a ball with it. 😀

The 04 however…

Happily I pull the bits out, assemble the antenna and insert the Xtal.
I install batteries, turn on Tx, then truck….

Nothing. 😯

Oooookay. Xtal mustn t be seated right. Push it in snug and try again. Nothing. Then (a few seconds later) extreme craziness. Throttle and steering go haywire for a few seconds then stop.

Hmmm. Perhaps a dodgy connection to the antenna (check) Nope. Tight connection.

Maybe a dodgy transmitter? I pull out my MR-01 and install it s xtal. Try using Perfex to control IW-04. Nope. Still dodgy.

O.K Try using Iwaver xtal and Tx with MR-01. Sweet! Runs great!

So. Tx is O.K and Xtal is OK. Antenna connection is good.

On a hunch, I remove xtal from IW-04 then turn it on. (No Tx). It goes crazy for a sec, then stops! :dead:

Persevering, I eventually get about 1 min of controllability from it, then it stops.

Any hints :question: What should I try next :question:

[betty.k]

check for dry solder joins, especially where the crystal and aerial goes. maybe the crystal socket is too lose inside, bend the legs of the crystal apart just a little so it makes definate contact:8ball:

[Admin]

Thanks for your help. I stripped it back to the PCB, but didn’t see anything out of the ordinary (I couldn’t work out how to see the bottom of the PCB without breaking the solder for the motor wires which were attached to the PCB case). Tried adjusting the Xtal. Still no good. It drives (with some glitching) for about 30 sec then just dies. Maybe there is uber interference in my area, since the MR-01 glitches when the Tx is off. But that doesn’t explain why the IW-01 worked perfectly. FETs are fine. No sign of any scorching or blistering (not that there should be). This is becoming slightly annoying. I hope I don’t have to send it back to Hong Kong for a replacement.

[merc-blue]

slexlaw its not glitchingwhen the TX is off thats more of a built in warning to say hellow im still on.. (really more like where the hell is my signal

[betty.k]

merc, that’s true in the case of kyosho stuff, but the iwaver pcb’s just stop dead with no signal.

now i think about it there may be a short out problem. you need to remove the screws that attach the motor to the pcb and lift the pcb up. under there the battery terminals may be touching the pcb itself. put some tape over the battery terminals if needed. i’ve never had a mad force or iw04 but in my iw01 the battery terminals were almost touching the pcb:8ball:

Edited by – betty.k on 01 February 2005 00:54:51

[Admin]

Thanks betty.k

That has done the job. 🙂
Unfortunately I broke one of the steering servo leads off where they were dodgily soldered onto the PCB. So, off to buy an iron and solder the bugger back on. :smiley2:

Once I get this one going, I’ll get onto the (nelly 1.3 + PN S04) mod for the MR-01.:evil:

Edited by – Slexlaw on 01 February 2005 08:30:28

[merc-blue]

slexlaw done much soldering before?.. if not BECAREFUL its easy to kill the iwaver as nismo just learnt i would suggest reading a “how to” thing

[Admin]

Nah, I haven’t soldered since 1989, but my housemate did electronic engineering at QUT, and he reckons he is all right. At any rate, caution is my main concern. I don’t want to kill it, now that it works.

[Admin]

Update – The operation was a complete success.
After putting all 4 steering wires back on the board (they were REALLY cr@p joints) she’s a goer.
Thanks for your help betty.k and merc-blue.

[betty.k]

no sweat, glad you got a positive result!:smiley2::8ball:

[Author]

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