DIY: Convert the Pico to a failsafe

[Diemaster]

EDIT: I decided to put it back up. no reason to punish u all. i'm geting so many PM's about it.
Also i'm working on getting the pics back up. i dont know where they went.

http://www.ausrc.com/forum/showthread.php?p=187150

Dirby is the :beta: tester for this DIY as i made these modified picos for him. (these are your instructions )

all u have to do is change the relay to normaly closed instead of normaly open.

as u may or may not know u can use the bigger battle switch to kill the engine in event of batt, range, or wire cut failure using the normaly closed side.

it's very simple to modify to do this.

This mod will void your warenty and u can not return it. thus take care not to ESD damage the unit and or damage the pads. delicate soldering is required.

i will not be held responsible in u doing these mods, continue at your own risk.

#1 order and receve pico switch:


#2 take pico out of packaging:


#3 check propper function.

#4 cut off heatshrink protection.


ESDwarning: touch ground b4 u handle the unit now. ground needs to be a earth ground like a water or pipe or your computer metal case.

#5 mount in a small vice or Helpinghand(R) holder.


#6 De-solder these 6 points and be carfull not to deolsder the part in yellow.


#7 remove the relay off the main board.


#8 remove this pin from the relay.


#9 cover this pad w/ electrical tape.



#9 re-solder these 4 points on the relay.


#10 add a jumper to the last 2 pads.


#11 reshrink around to keep durable. dont use packing or stoch tape as pulling the tape off the roll can create static electrity that will destroy the switch.

#12 install as a normal kill switch. i recomend inside the engine. i'll add the instalation to the motor later.

as a demonstration: light pod ON = engine gets killed.

Normal opperation. Pico ON & recever ON = no kill (pod off)


no radio signal Recever on but dim light. Pico flashing (pod on)


turn off recever or other low battery / cut wire. no recever light or pico light. Pico will lose power killing engine (pod on)


BTW heres the typical instaltion schematic


EDIT: INSTALLING IN THE ENGINE!

ok so i finaly got around to installing it in the engine. of course the engine wont start as i broke the sparkplug and now i cant fine a replacement

I am so confident in my mod that i opted to NOT have the kill button instead the Pico will REPLACE the button

so i started by cutting off the button and puting the wires in the pico.


then u installit in the engine where the button would have been. obviously if u have the button space will be an issue. just protect the pico from the engine heat and spinning flywheel of death


i was excited and didnt take pics but for a bling factor i covered up the hole for the button with packing tape. to create a little windo to see the light.


and yes it is a pico in there not a green button


if the light is on solid u can start it. off or flashing will kill the engine

ENJOY

[Monsterman]

Cool mod bud.. How much would it cost to have you do something like that for another member? Member pays for the part, shipping, your time? Sure wish I had skill like that

[ScoobySting]

Where's the pico sold? I'm from Quebec, Canada.

[Monsterman]

Originally Posted by ScoobySting

Where's the pico sold? I'm from Quebec, Canada.

Not sure of all the sites but googled it and came across this place Pico Switch

[ScoobySting]

Thx, monsterM
S

[Diemaster]

Originally Posted by ScoobySting

Where's the pico sold? I'm from Quebec, Canada.

thats why i took the first pic. it's at dimention engernering here: http://www.dimensionengineering.com/PicoSwitch.htm

monsterman. it would cost ~$3 in materials to do the conversion after buying the pico and shipping. less then the battle switch and far less than the AMS failsafe.

[Dirby]

that is fantastic.
sure is nice to see someone who knows what they are doing.
Dirby

[ScoobySting]

The 1st pic's a little hard 2 read (maybe I've been too long staring at screen )

[richmills]

Can the CBE failsafe be modified in the same way?

Is there any difference between the pico switch and the CBE failsafe? (appart from the wires pre attached to the CBE switch)

Thanks

[Diemaster]

Originally Posted by richmills

Can the CBE failsafe be modified in the same way?

Is there any difference between the pico switch and the CBE failsafe? (appart from the wires pre attached to the CBE switch)

Thanks

to my knolage, there the same unit so yea it would work.

[condor]

If you use the Battle switch , you don't need change anything. It comes with connections for normally open or closed. I used one for a while and if the radio loses power( I had the battery go flying on a bad bounce once) the motor stops.

[TurtleRacing]

Originally Posted by condor

If you use the Battle switch , you don't need change anything. It comes with connections for normally open or closed. I used one for a while and if the radio loses power( I had the battery go flying on a bad bounce once) the motor stops.

Do you have a link?

[phatdad]

DAHM That is a great mod. Motor shut down. SWEEEEET !!!

[richmills]

Originally Posted by condor

If you use the Battle switch , you don't need change anything. It comes with connections for normally open or closed. I used one for a while and if the radio loses power( I had the battery go flying on a bad bounce once) the motor stops.

Do both the battle and pico switch's work with the spectrum? (Spent all last night searching)

Why did i buy a CBE failsafe for twice the price of the pico switch?

[condor]

Originally Posted by TurtleRacing

Do you have a link?

http://www.dimensionengineering.com/BattleSwitch.htm

[condor]

Originally Posted by richmills

Do both the battle and pico switch's work with the spectrum? (Spent all last night searching)

yes it will

[gunner221]

anyone else tried this mod ? and how easy was it to do. Got a pico on order and I think i might give this mod a shot

[Diemaster]

EDIT: added installed into engine pics and schematic

[Dirby]

i played with the Diemaster pico kill switch this week end.
it did everything i asked it to do.
i still have the kill switch mounted in the engine.
fired it up than hit the engine mounted kill switch.
engine died
fired it up turned off tx
engine died
fired it up turned off the rx
engine died
fired it up used trim switch
engine died
on the first tank the buzzer and beeping alarm on my m11 tx started going off and i contuned to run it for another 20 minutes so the tx batt would fail and the engine would quit but it ran out of gas before the batt went dead.
took the Baja to another place to run that same day did not change batts in tx.
ran another tank and the tx batt alarn started going off and ran for another 15 min than ran out of gas
tx batt never did get low enough to cause the motor to quit.
i will try this again this coming weekend useing the same batts that are in the tx now and maby i will have a batt failure than and it will kill the motor
when i turn off the tx the engine quits
love this kill switch
Dirby

[PQRS...]

cool gadget man!! so it just kills the engine if anything else goes down? thats what i gathered after reading this? never heard of a "pico" switch before...
so say if you batts die and your throttle is wide open, this would kill the spark to the engine and prevent it from blowing itself up before you can get to it?