Wakera 8s gimbal potentiometers?

I have an 8s thats around 6 monthsold but has seen a ton of sim time and the aileron potentiometr started to input it's own right inputs. I swapped the rudder one out with it to see what the sccore was and indeed it is the potentiometer that's worn.

Walkera and every seller I can possibly find cannot or will not send small parts or sell pots or even entire gimbals for the devo range. You must send them back plus they did not like the fact I had opened th tx to diag the fault despite them taking a week to even reply and even then ,less than helpful. I'm told they have uk service centre but it's another week disloved while I wait for the reply as to where.

I managed to get 2 second hand spares from sellers that had faulty or broken units around but the other can't be far behind and after searching for weeks for this damn potentiometr I am at a loss and have ordered some aurora 9 gimbals to try and fit. I see taranis gimbals fit the 9xr but has anyone fitted any non walkera gimbals to an 8s or similar?

Better yet has anyone found a source for these potentiometers?

If not then i'm going to have to drop walkera hardware for good as I refuse to buy devo 7 units just for the damn pots

I had one go bad on me also on my Devo 7.

That should be a standard PC mount type potentiometer.
If you measure the value you should be able to get one at one of these places.
A lot of people on the forum get parts from Digikey including myself.

www.mouser.com

www.digikey.com

I have looked for weeks, value you can find, form factor it seems is not.
The pot fits into small space inside the gimbal and must be this shape to do so or mods will be needed.

At the rate I have been going thorugh them, I want a drop in replacement if possible or mod once only to be able to drop in something or solder it in. I have a few coming to attempt to fit. If someone has found one or done mods PLEASE drop a link.

Hobbyone are sending me a single pot form old devo tx and only charged me for postage which was cool but that less han 6 months solid simming so don't see the otehrs holding out much longer either. The said they cannot sell parts but woudl look into it for me, just like most other sellers.

Hitec refused to sell me a pot or gimbal and do not trust their customers to even fit a gimbal or pot. I was told they consider it too much liability. That's teh only pot that I see look sane form factror apart from possibly the taranis gimbals. He did tell me theuy were rated for 1 million cycles. Sounds great untill you consider what 3 hours a day of piro circuits and flips gets you there within 6 months then you must send your tx away.

For the price difference I thnk it's about time companies started using hall sensors, cheap ones seem to be rated at 5 million cycles.

Seriously if I had know this was going to be an issue I woudl not have touched Walkera at all, it's a joke and not a funny one. I was todl not to take the walk for my main tx and now I understand why. Bang for buck and protocol support are pretty useless when no spares are available. Wlakera customer servoice is also beyond unhelpfull too.

If you have asolution please post it but be sure i have scoured parts sites and found nothing or even got a rely from any of them.

Walkera simply will not send or sell spare potentiometers.

I was offered one spare one for free if I bought a 12s as a reduced price of $349. What a joke. I used to love my Walkera stuff, now I truly feel let down.

Now we know why there's noone at heli masters flying walkera

Someone finds a drop in replacemeny and I perosnally paypal you enough to get horriby drunk. I have too many receivers on all my multis and some micro heli I truly dig to want to dump it all.

DIY Walkera module for teh Taranis or th9x would be the next best I guess.

I did not screw up my Devo8 so I am not sure but if you are willing to solder a new trim pot on the little board there should be many alternatives like this one from a German distributor: Reichelt Trimmer .
Similar parts are available from the above mentioned Digikey and Mouser.

Could you post the dimensions of the body and shaft diameter? Hard to tell from the picture.

Maybe there's something close (small) enough that would go on a new circuit board layout to connect it to the header connector. Circuit boards are cheap now.

Thanks rbe2012 but I do not see anything this form factor or type of shaft. I understand a normal pot will in theory work but just soldering it to the board will get nowhere.

The pot has a flat shaft that enters the gimbal. I don't consider snapping one off an old pot and gluing it on to another a suitable outcome. It may work but I will not risk a heli on it personally. If you find one there please post. It also has a very small standoff just above teh board but underneath the shaft that keys int a slot and stops it rotating although that could be easily negated with some hotglue or bracket adaption.

Jazzjohn, I have taken some more pics with some digital calipers, hopefully these are a little clearer for to see.
plus.google.com/u/0/photos/1075901461916.../5965875813461477329

Still waiting for the hobbyone pot and Walkera still haven't sent me anything or confirmed they are going to, just keep getting passed to other people who ask for pics and then say they will not sell or send spares.

Taranis gimbals arrived to test at least when i get round to it but im considering making a 9xr my sim tx as the taranis gimbals just fit apparently and full sets of spares are available.


Now if I could get a walkera moudule for the th9x, 9xr or taranis i'd drop this propriety, no spares crap sharpish. If spares were available I would go 12s or another 8s.

Apologies if I'm posting something dumb (wouldn't be the first time, and sure as hell won't be the last )

did you look at this thread? www.deviationtx.com/forum/how-to/1525-how-to-replace-stick-pots (which is what vlad_vy referred to before)

Yes I do indeed see that thread but there is no resolve unless you are prepared to pay for the cheapest option (servo) and remove it, brutally expensive if you want 4 or more. Its cheaper to buy a dev07 and take them out which I will not be doing.

Waiting on replies from jr etc...

Thanks for the details Vlad, step closer at least, the form factor is perfect

I have similar problem, one of pots in Devo 8s is worn out.

After reading some topics about pot replacement I bought

Japanese NOBLE remote control model aircraft with precision potentiometer 5K rocker shaft length 10MM XV09411N1OFF--10PCS

They fit perfectly, but...something is not working right. At the very end of potentiometer resistance is nearly the same as original (about 4,7-5k), but the characteristic is different.

On original firmware looking at monitor it gives about 1/3 of the whole range when moving the stick around. Of course stick calibration gives an error.

Any solution? Or true replacement pot for Devo 8S?

You may need to recalibrate tx after installing. I have 2 devo8s, one with these in all 4 spaces and another with 2 replaced - they work perfectly for me. Iv'e also recommended them to 2 other walkera users who have used them without issues so you should be fine after a recalibration I feel.

The centre is denoted with notch that cannot be changed and the actual value of the pot is not important if the centre is set and calibration is done. I had a 2ohm pot in there before that calibrated ok and worked to test before I ordered the Japanese ones from alibaba, I just couldn't use the tx with that pot as it wouldn't physically fit.

Good luck

Are you using original firmware or DeviationTX? Because on original firmware it just gives me a calibration error (one pot replaced only). Haven't tried this on Deviation, could work, but I had other screen problems with this firmware, so I'm sticking to original one.

The tx with 2 in is original firmware I use on the sim and the deviation 4 8s has all 4 replaced.

I can't think of any logical reason why it is giving your tx issues but I am curious. I'd try a second one if you have it and move a working one (complete with daughter board) to that spot - results should return some answers at least. It's quick to change them if you don't have to re solder.

Sorry I don't have anything more useful for you.

micro wrote: I can't think of any logical reason why it is giving your tx issues but I am curious. I'd try a second one if you have it and move a working one (complete with daughter board) to that spot - results should return some answers at least. It's quick to change them if you don't have to re solder.

Unfortunately it also doesn't work - calibration error. Two new also won't work. It seems like a different type with different characteristics (wider max angle), so microchip sees only small resistance change when moving sticks, when max value is the same as original ones.

What is the marking on your pots? On mine it's 220Tv

What is the characteristic of this pot, linear or logarithmic?
I think you may need a linear one.
Take a multimeter. messure one old and compare it to the new one.

I think it’s linear, but I heard there are some pots with narrow or wide min-to-max angle, so at the end position the value is the same, but it reaches max value quicker. Gimbal gives only like 30 degrees angle of pot rotation, so stepper characteristic is better.

It’s hard to measure characteristics without a scale, but I’ll try to make it.

I’ve also tried to install DeviationTX firmware 4.0.1. Stick calibration is successful, but there’s a different issue. New pot (probably because of poor scale) has hysteresis around zero. So moving stick from low to zero position gives a value of 0, but moving from high position to zero ends with value 16. It’s hard to fly with that, when middle stick position is not always 0.

My pots from japan say 220T also but I'm not so sure that is a V after, it's kinda smushed and smaller than the other characters. It is a linear pot though when tested on a multimeter. I'd guess 220 degree turn linear pot

The only other place you can try is walkera directly which while is possible, was the most unpleasant daily email back and forth trying to justify them selling me some for around 4 months. I got a few spares with the daughter board also this way but it was not worth the hassle. I offered to pay for them, pay for postage and relinquish any warranty on my tx but it still took months to convince them so it is possible but I won't be trying it again.

plus.google.com/u/0/photos/1075901461916...07590146191691602951

I'd love to know why this isn't just working for you, please post if you do get to the bottom of it. Does a working one complete with daughter board in your tx work fine if you move it to the axis that has an issue?

micro wrote: My pots from japan say 220T also but I'm not so sure that is a V after, it's kinda smushed and smaller than the other characters. It is a linear pot though when tested on a multimeter. I'd guess 220 degree turn linear pot

...

I'd love to know why this isn't just working for you, please post if you do get to the bottom of it. Does a working one complete with daughter board in your tx work fine if you move it to the axis that has an issue?

Yes, I'm guessing it's 'v', but it's like you wrote - smaller.

Working one moved to the "broken" axis works ok, so it's the pot only issue.

I did some measurements, as expected original is stepper than nooble:



Angle Noble Walkera
0 277 135
10 448,7 145
20 684 110
30 957 136
40 1251 137
50 1475 88
60 1716 175
70 1857 140
80 2031 144
90 2303 610
100 2575 1241
110 2779 1810
120 2957 2958
130 3234 3147
140 3511 3609
150 3730 4061
160 3906 4675
170 4107 4704
180 4252 4726

Nonlinearities are because of my poor measurement stand I have no idea what to do next with this, as clearly original Walkera pot is different.