kurt2022

My Feedback: (18)

I have made a decision to remove all my ar7000 receivers from my gas planes, 6 out of 9 of them! Last Saturday I was flying my h9 cap 232 and on the first flight I had the plane go out of control twice on me but thought it was high winds or a little rust from not flying for 2 weeks. Well on the third flight all hell broke loose and it went out of control 3 times and I barely escaped losing my cap! When I got her on the ground we checked the cap over and both receiver lights were on and NOT flashing! I packed up for the day and headed home. After thinking it over the ar7000 receiver is NOT what I want in my planes anymore. The ar7000 has 2 radio frequency links and that simply is not enough!!! I have had extensions to the satellites fail before and that basically will put you down to 1 rf link and you will have fades no matter how well you install the receiver and that could throw the plane into failsafe and on a windy day this is totally unacceptable!!! I have decided to buy ar9000's or r921's that come with 3 rf links out of the box and add a fourth satellite to them from my ar7000's, which gives me FOUR radio links! A fellow rc pilot and I were talking and believe that an ar9000 with 4 radio frequency links compared to two with an ar7000 has to be something like 300 times less chance of radio failure!! That is what I want in my planes, more redundancy then what an inferior ar7000 offers!!!

scooterinvegas

My Feedback: (1)

If you mark the one your having problems with, I will take of 6 off your hands for ya for $90 + shipping.

kurt2022

My Feedback: (18)

Sorry, I have plans for the satellites, if I sold them they would be receiver only minus satellite!

flyallday

I'm very glad you got your plane back in one piece. I fly 4 planes with the 7000 and have never had a problem - ever.. Do you fly with many others or is there some kind of interference you are getting? I usually just fly with one other friend at a private field and in the middle of nowhere. There are so many things that can go wrong which brings me to mind what I discovered last night while re-binding a new plane I will maiden soon. When I went to put the bind plug in, the throttle cable was barely seated in the receiver! This would have surely lead to disaster. I then went through all my planes and double checked all connections, electric and flight control. Taught me a powerful lesson, treat it like the real thing before every flight like I always do.

Harry

nonstoprc

My Feedback: (90)

Give futaba 2.4 a consideration.

kurt2022

My Feedback: (18)

No, I'm a big fan of jr/spektrum, these receivers have been in these planes 3 years or more on average with very good results! There is 3 years of history to make my judgement and in that time I have only destroyed one plane and that was the dreaded flame out on takeoff, and the engine was immediately sold! I have had very good luck with the ar7000. But their are better ways of doing things and an upgrade to a 4 link system gives me much better peace of mind simply because four is better than two. I have 2 planes with jr 922 powersafes and one with a jr 1222 powersafe and I have never had the slightest of a glitch with 4 rf links.

nonstoprc

My Feedback: (90)

whatever. Keep in mind that Futaba does not 2.4 need two, three, ... satellite rx's for reliability.

scooterinvegas

My Feedback: (1)

$40 without the satellites

Ill just use Y cords and bind 2 Rx per plane! LOL

Rafael23cc

My Feedback: (6)

Neither of you know how Spektrum works then. The radio is only capable of sending information on 2 frequencies. The additional receivers on the aircraft, are there for path diversity, not to increase the number of frequencies used. So the system still uses 2 frequencies with additional path diversity.

Sorry that you are having problems with your receivers. I use AR7000 receivers on helicopters, and have not had any problem. There is a significant difference between the construction of an airplane and the construction of a helicopter in regards of materials used, and the proximity of large metal objects to the receiver itself. You might have other underlying problems that are manifesting thru the receiver.

Rafael

B Shipp

My Feedback: (13)

Hey Kurt,

So if I get this right, you are getting rid of all of your AR7000 RX's because you had 1 failure in three years? Also you state you made a judgment call after the three years of history with only an engine failure and one set of led's not flashing? What do you think caused the potential problem? The main RX the satellite RX maybe the battery or switch harness? What kind of detailed testing or analysis did you do?

I am not trying to flame you, but your description of what happened is so disjointed it just doesn’t make sense. Can you be a little more specific…

Brian-

rctom

So what you are saying is you have been flying the AR-7000 for 3 years and it's been flawless and now suddenly the design is no good? Does that make any sense?

Something changed that affected the situation, and before you condemn the receiver you need to figure out exactly what happened. If you don't you can not know if the problem was with the receiver and it could easily fail again with a new receiver.

The AR-7000 have been used successfully in thousands of installations, I'd look at anything else before deciding the receiver is the source of the trouble.

TF

kurt2022

My Feedback: (18)

I have had a few glitches from the other planes along the way and I KNOW that 4 rf links is a much more bulletproof set up! Rafael the self ordained brain surgeon , I deal with people like you all day long at work and yes 4 rf links are better than 2. I have flight logs on my larger investments and check the number of fades per rf link after almost every flight and have a very good idea what is good and what is not! I have found the further back you can put the satellites in the plane the less fades will occur that has come from hard data from my flight logs! To me, failure is not an option...PERIOD!!! An ar7000 is good but I want the best, hence 4 rf links!!!

Texastbird

It sounds like you need to upgrade to the DSMX system ASAP.

rmh

Connectors are a problem I have seen on old 7000s
I tend to replace rx's after a while just to eliminate items subjected to shake n rubbings etc..
On th new electric stuf - this really in minimized
I also bought the new DX8 system to see how the DSMX systems work.
redundancy plus more hoppin around should pretty much cover all bases
I looked at other systems but No Bind n Fly and No model match = No way Jose

kurt2022

My Feedback: (18)

Yes, I have been looking at the jr 9503 and will probably buy one when they are in stock and then I will have my first dsmx r-921 receiver to try out. I think dsmx will be an improvement!

kurt2022

My Feedback: (18)

B Shipp,
I know that it could not be the battery or switch because both the rx and satellite lights were on, if a brownout occurs both lights would have been flashing. I do wish I had a flight log on that plane Saturday but didn't.
rmh, kinda my thinking too, I'm sure the cap has had somewhere around 200 flights in 3 years with no problems but I had a gigantic warning Saturday and I think I should heed the warning!

blikseme300

My Feedback: (118)

Kurt,

I find your rant kind of funny as last time we spoke you were trying to convince me about the superior system you were using and bashing FASST. It's OK, you can choose to use what you want as this is still a free country.

Bliksem

kurt2022

My Feedback: (18)

Carl,
Don't know much about futaba but when I was considering which 2.4 radio system to go with futaba had the "heat issue" arise and I decided on spektrum! I just could not imagine having to buy umbrellas to keep the sunlight off my planes! I'm sure futaba has come along way over the last 3 years as has jr/spektrum. Today, if I was not already committed to spektrum and could afford to buy all new receivers for my planes I would probably go with a hitec aurora system, but then again maybe not! So when are you going to use one of your free passes and come fly with us again??

rcpilotaviator

My Feedback: (14)

Im wondering if we are looking in the wrong place. It could be the radio. What was the battery level on your transmitter.

kurt2022

My Feedback: (18)

10.6 volts

Rafael23cc

My Feedback: (6)

I do not know what you call RF links. But in reality if you understood the system, and IF I follow your logic (?) then a receiver with ONE sattelite would be 4 individual RF links, as each receiver is capable of listening to the ONLY 2 frequencies that the radio is capable of transmitting. Again following your logic (?) one receiver with 3 satellites would have 8 RF links, but since the radio is only transmitting on 2 frequencies, 6 of those RF links are redundant, that is where PATH DIVERSITY comes from. If one receiver happens to be shadowed by any object, the others pick up the slack.

I would appreciate it if you laid off the insults, nobody insulted you here.

Of course 4 is better than 2. I just don't know where you get your numbers and the understanding of how the system works.

Rafael

blikseme300

My Feedback: (118)

Kurt,

Yes I have heard of the heat issues with FASST, but never noticed it as I never leave my planes in the direct sunlight as all electronics, especially batteries, are thermally sensitive.

All radio systems have come a long way for sure, but it sounds to me that something has changed with your setup. It worked fine for a long time and one day something is wrong. I don't think it is your choice of systems that is the problem, but something in the mix has changed. You need to find it before something bad happens. It might be your TX or solar flares, who knows?

As for flying at your club again, I prefer to use my freedom of choice and stay with my own group and field as nothing has really changed at your club. Thanks for the invite though.

Bliksem

airbusdrvr

How did you come to the conclusion it was the receiver? There are so many other components that could have intermittently failed( servo extensions, servos, etc.). I just find it curious that it was an "AR7000" failure. There is no way one could say this other than through conjecture.

kurt2022

My Feedback: (18)

I don't know for sure what the problem is we checked everything that could have caused the problem on the ground but nothing would fail. I have used ar7000's for 3 years with just a few glitches but nothing to the extent I had last Saturday. I have put longer extensions on all my other planes but this one and think it could be an older 6" extension plug issue, but I'm not sure. I am not knocking the ar7000's as they have served me well. I have a 36% katana, 33% ultimate and now 30% edge 540 all on r922's or a r1222 all with four rf links and never have experienced the first glitch! That has contributed greatly to my decision. I know this problem could be with the transmitter or servos but I think after testing it is not. I do think the 4 link system is much superior and consider this an upgrade.

nonstoprc

My Feedback: (90)

I have been using Futaba 2.4 gears on my iMac and pattern planes for over two years. Flawless.

If I have to worry about radio equipment failure I could not practice so often

Go to yourtube and search for clips comparing this scheme and Fasst. It is educational and an eye opener.