...so you don't break your prop The 1.5m Fox from R2hobbies comes fitted with a 30A Flycolor ESC, the default setting of which is "unbraked". Unfortunately I only realised this as the Fox came in to land off a short approach, with the prop still busily whirring.
The Flycolor ESC is a Shen Zhen Electronics unit, with manual available here. As far as the setting the brake is concerned, it's the second noise-tone heard after you power-up the ESC, with transmitter throttle stick having been set to full "up" beforehand. Flipping the throttle from fully "up" to "down" at this second noise-tone should change the ESC setting from "unbraked" to "braked", what you need for a glider. Additional setting changes can be done as required, following the table on pages 5-6 of the manual...
...it's the second tone you want My recently acquired Phoenix 1600 came with a new blue ESC (compared to previous unidentified yellow in the Phoenix 2000), accompanied by an instruction booklet which, amongst other things, provided instruction on how to set the brake on the ESC. It does seem odd that the default is set to "brake off" when most of their products are gliders... Anyway, my attempts at finding the three beeps proved fruitless and had to resign myself to rather compromised gliding, with the large prop whirling busily in the breeze, and with the risk of doing the prop in on landing. Fortunately I came across this forum post #58. To summarise succinctly, the crucial moment is when one hears the second musical tone. Don't bother with trying to identify the tone amongst the myriad sounds the new unit makes, you'll just end up reprogramming random settings like I did. Anyway, I am happy to say, that after the first attempt with the new instruction, the ESC brake is now on and I can look forward to a bit of gliding tomorrow morning. And, by the way, if you were wondering, Volantex is the new Lanyu...
