[lazun]

We tested out the RX in a new environment. We placed it on a balsa sheet 4X6 with heat shielding tape at the top and the RX on the bottom. RX is in the shade. The balsa and tape are in sun light. With the ambient temp of 87 degrees the RX was at 133 degrees!!! No power too it. No direct sun light too the RX. Not even inside the fuselage. Just on a test bed of balsa with heat shielding tape. We did not wrap the RX in foam. However, it was shielded from direct sun light.

Futaba is going to have to seriously look at this and test it out. Our feelings on this are Futaba is going to have to rectify this according to our findings. We could be wrong. However, the facts are pretty convincing to us. A bigger heat sink, chip or board that will take higher temps. Talking to some engineering folks (not specific to this area, but in the electronics biz); they say tests are done up to the mid 250’s and higher on household items.

We have not seen hot temps yet in the USA since these RX’s were release. I can guarantee you it will be very difficult to keep the temps below the threshold we discovered. Even with the RX in the shade we were seeing pretty high temps and it is not very hot outside yet in PHX. This will not be a simple fix, because keeping the temp down will be hard. The temps rise too the 100’s in 1-2 minutes. Remember we flew all winter and in the evenings with no problems on these Rx’s. However, 4 different Rx’s have failed under these warmer conditions.

It was unfortunate when we spoke with Krysta on Thru we had not stumbled onto this. We got our RX’s back from her with no problems to be found.

I hope Futaba can answer our concerns and guide us and others too a solution. I want to be clear we are not engineers. We are just pointing out some facts on tests we have conducted.