RMG question

[Ole Codger]

I am assisting a friend with his 12 and in need of your sage advice. The sail servo (RMG) responds for about 15-20 minutes and then goes into the "fail safe mode" and the sails adjust it and stops working. This indicates to me that there is a signal interruption between the transmitter and winch. By toggling the power off and back on again, the winch will respond and work again for another 15minutes. Initially I was using a Futaba 2.4 T4YF transmitter with a R2004GF receiver. Thinking that I had a transmitter or receiver issue, I substituted my Spektrum DCX 6 transmitter and AR 2004 GF receiver, which works fine in my 12, for the Futaba equipment. This did no resolve the problem, so I replaced the Futaba plug connecting the winch with the receiver, thinking I may have a poor connection. Still no joy.
The battery is connected with a "Y" harness, with one set of leads going to the receiver and the other to the winch. The battery pack is delivering a full 6 volts, but just to rule it out, I substituted a different pack. When I lose sail control, the rudder servo continue to perform. I am certain that I am missing something basic here. Your help would be very much appreciated , as I don't know what else to try.

[bigfoot55]

I would try New battery pack. Sounds like weak cel to me, and I have had that experience in multiple packs.

[Ole Codger]

Thank your for your reply. I may have failed to mention that I did install a fresh battery 5 AA cell NIMH 2600 mA pack that is delivering a solid 6 volts, same results. I really appreciate you taking time and vast experience with these winches to help me .I understand that they have a voltage regulator built in. If this is malfunctioning, could this be the problem?
Trust that you and your family are staying well and avoiding this virus. It looks like you are experiencing the same heat there as we are here in Charleston. We re doing a little sailing, but with this heat I am suffocating wearing a mask.

[rs vernon]

My 5 cell NiMH store bought packs deliver slightly more than 7 volts when fully charged. 6 volts sounds low. Maybe just use a regular 5 pack. Maybe it is your battery charger.
The instructions for an RMG winch say that you can change (lower) the voltage for when fail-safe kicks in. Maybe that was done to the extreme.
There has to be a logical reason for your problem. It may be something gone wrong in the winch, or not.

Scott

[Ole Codger]

Thank you both for directing me back to the voltage as the source of the problem. As I mentioned I had 6 volts coming directly from the battery and also 6 volts going into the receiver through the "Y" harness, thus assumed that I would have the same going into the wench. As the battery leads were soldered into the winch leads, there was no simple way to determine the power going directly into the winch. I then traced the leads from the battery to the wench. The wires ran under the system board and were not readily visible, so I removed it. In so doing I found that instead of the battery leads running directly to the wench, a connector plug had been installed . On disassembling the connector and cleaning it, everything is now working. Apparently there was just enough corrosion to allow some current flow and then it would probably get hot and shut down completely. The connector sits directly on the floor, so would be in contact with any water that entered the hull.

It is great having access to this forum to solve problems.