Raven 3 Issues

All,

I am having issues with a Raven 3. I have tried to reach out to Featherweight and am not getting a response so I am hoping someone ran into a similar issue.

The raven does calibrations fine, and after a calibration, you can run the FIPS test and it activates the channels when it should. If I do not run a calibration that does not work.

When I tried to run it in a vacuum chamber all it did was beep 8 times followed by 7 times and then recycles. It never goes into flight ready mode. The battery attached is 7.2 so 7 makes sense on power up but I do not know where the 8 comes from. It is acting very strange regardless of being in the perch, simple circuit, or direct wiring.

It also resets its programming at random times back to default. Has anyone else seen these symptoms?

Randy

Don't know about the first issue with needing to calibrate before activating channels.

The vacuum chamber test sounds to me like something is not right with the unit. When mine go through the start sequence, they always get to a point where they will either emit 4 beeps - one corresponding to each output channel - indicating that:

• the device is near vertical and
• there is something connected to the output channels

or a single low beep indicating that the device is either

• not in a near vertical orientation or
  
• there are no lighters detected on the outputs.

I have never seen one just go on beeping out the battery voltage as described.

This and the random resetting of the programming suggest to me that the device should be left on the ground and not flown. Featherweight can answer a lot more definitively than I can, but I definitely would not be flying that one.

My thought was the same. Is it vertical? It won’t go into “ready” unless it is.

A vacuum chamber won't trigger the acceolerometer.

The vaccumm chamber is standing up and it is working since an RRC3 operates fine when I activate it.

The raven just never comes out of the 8 and 7 beeps. I even hooked a 9 volt in and the perch 1s battery and get the same beeps so it is not voltage. Does anyone have any better contact info for Featherweight than the gmail address and site contact? They do not seem to respond to either.

Has this device ever flown? Does it work more normally when it's not in a vacuum chamber?

When you say "resets its programming" what do you mean? Do you mean that you set it to non-default values in FIP, everything seems to work, and then later when you plug it into FIP it's back to the defaults? That would be very bad if that's what's happening.

As others have said, the Raven detects launch with its accelerometer and can't be tested in a vacuum chamber.

mikec said:

Has this device ever flown? Does it work more normally when it's not in a vacuum chamber?

When you say "resets its programming" what do you mean? Do you mean that you set it to non-default values in FIP, everything seems to work, and then later when you plug it into FIP it's back to the defaults? That would be very bad if that's what's happening.

As others have said, the Raven detects launch with its accelerometer and can't be tested in a vacuum chamber.

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That would explain the chamber issue, thanks for that informtion.

It has flown, and it failed in my L3. It was at the default settings for baro primary apogee. It was set for 2000 feet for main. Neither of those charges fired despite beeping out correctly on the pad then. I had the accelerometer +2 sec as a backup and 1500 but I do not think those fired either since there was no data from the flight itself and the RRC3 fired as expected, they both went into the same backup charge.

FIPS wise I double checked it at the field and despite setting it per my checklist at the proper AGL values, they reset to default. I reset the the night before and checked them again the day of and the settings held. I wrote that off as me possibly not pressing the program button. When I got home and hooked it up to try to recover data I noticed all the AGL's were back to default values.

It is acting very strange, I would not fly it again unless Featherweight looked at it first but I cannot seem to get contact with them to set that up, It is a $150 paperweight right now and a poor one at that...

Seeing the responses here it seems to not be anything common, so I just need to get them to look at it. Thank god for backup electronics!

I would fly it again as a “ride along” in a different rocket.

I have 10 ravens and have never had ANY sort of failure. I would be glad to send it on a ride along next to 2 of my alts if you want. Let me know. Be glad to help.

JDcluster said:

A vacuum chamber won't trigger the acceolerometer.

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JD is correct. IIRC, the device must see positive acceleration for a short period of time to detect launch. Check the manual.

GRIFFIN said:

I would fly it again as a “ride along” in a different rocket.

I have 10 ravens and have never had ANY sort of failure. I would be glad to send it on a ride along next to 2 of my alts if you want. Let me know. Be glad to help.

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Let me see if Featherweight gets back to me at some point. I could send it on a ride along but I think your familiarity with the Raven may give some insight if you powered it up, so I may take you up on that.

I have six of these and have never had a problem. About to buy two more.

Maybe give Adrian a PM on the forum too. He may just be snowed under with other issues currently. He is normally very helpful and responsive. Adrian A is his user name here.

GRIFFIN said:

I would fly it again as a “ride along” in a different rocket.

I have 10 ravens and have never had ANY sort of failure. I would be glad to send it on a ride along next to 2 of my alts if you want. Let me know. Be glad to help.

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Send Griffin ANOTHER one...
Umm...betta think about that...how do you think he got the other 10..

blackjack2564 said:

Send Griffin ANOTHER one...
Umm...betta think about that...how do you think he got the other 10..

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Jim, Bahahahaha...

I sent Adrian a PM, he has not been on here for a while but I guess it could not hurt. I know he has a day job and all.