ORIGINAL: AJsToyz

Mike,

Do you know if all the deals out there with the modules and transmitters that are coming with two receivers are promotional deals or just going to be stock items?

Andy

ORIGINAL: Chancho



Brendan,

I've got one 9 ch that came with my radio. I've sent the promo rebate in for the (2) 7 ch receivers. However I will still have a few planes that need to get fitted over. The best pricing I can find is Tower Hobbies which offers a bundle of the module and 2 receivers, either the 2.4GHz module and (2) 7 channel receivers at $129 or the module and (2) 9 channel receivers at $199. With the standard Tower coupons that brings it to $109 for and $174.99, respectively for two more receivers of your flavor. Whereas the 9 channel receiver alone costs $99.99 and 7 channel is $69.99. I'm leaning to buy the 9 channel module and receiver combo, but I would rather buy (3) 9 channel receivers at that cost as I really don't need the module. I think I'm stating the obvious as your team is aware of this. However, now that it's almost flying season 2010, myself and probably others will be looking for the new standard receiver combo pricing sooner than later.

Oh, and how is the stock for the 7channel receivers. Should people sending in their rebates expect a quick turn around?

Thanks to you, Mike and Hitec for taking the time to entertain our queries out here... ''Most appreciated.''

ORIGINAL: LQUAN Hi Mike, I have a suggestion for the next firmware upgrade for the A9. The throttle lock is a good idea. However, the software should not allow unlocking when the throttle stick is not at the lowest. Being a software guy, I know this is difficult because the engineer does not know when the throttle servo is reversed. Especially, Hitec allows servo reverse to be programmed through the programmer. How about a warning telling the idiot at the sticks to move it down before unlocking?

ORIGINAL: Chancho



Brendan,

I've got one 9 ch that came with my radio. I've sent the promo rebate in for the (2) 7 ch receivers. However I will still have a few planes that need to get fitted over. The best pricing I can find is Tower Hobbies which offers a bundle of the module and 2 receivers, either the 2.4GHz module and (2) 7 channel receivers at $129 or the module and (2) 9 channel receivers at $199. With the standard Tower coupons that brings it to $109 for and $174.99, respectively for two more receivers of your flavor. Whereas the 9 channel receiver alone costs $99.99 and 7 channel is $69.99. I'm leaning to buy the 9 channel module and receiver combo, but I would rather buy (3) 9 channel receivers at that cost as I really don't need the module. I think I'm stating the obvious as your team is aware of this. However, now that it's almost flying season 2010, myself and probably others will be looking for the new standard receiver combo pricing sooner than later.

Oh, and how is the stock for the 7channel receivers. Should people sending in their rebates expect a quick turn around?

Thanks to you, Mike and Hitec for taking the time to entertain our queries out here... ''Most appreciated.''

ORIGINAL: LQUAN

Hi Mike,

I have a suggestion for the next firmware upgrade for the A9. The throttle lock is a good idea. However, the software should not allow unlocking when the throttle stick is not at the lowest. Being a software guy, I know this is difficult because the engineer does not know when the throttle servo is reversed. Especially, Hitec allows servo reverse to be programmed through the programmer. How about a warning telling the idiot at the sticks to move it down before unlocking?

ORIGINAL: Chancho



Thanks for the update Brendon,

Still the best deal at Tower with Super Club savers - Notruthless, but thanks...

Great test Andy - that should be plenty of time on the transmitter with the stock battery for most folks... It's good to know I can get that many hours out of the stock battery. I am going to a 2700 mAh NiMH transmitter pack, but no LiPo for me, though. Sometimes I go to the field on a Saturday morning and come home around 8pm. Or I want to make it the whole weekend without charging the transmitter.

I noticed something today on the receiver batteries. (I've just charged them after playing with the plane for 2 charges of transmitter time!) I'd been programming away and leaving the plane on for long periods of time in between test programs and mixes for the past few days. My Cub has a 4 cell 2700mAh pack in it that usually can last a weekend of flying with no issues. I'm pulling a good load off the pack using JR DS821's and a cheapo for throttle. Anyhow... I didn't give much attention to receiver voltage until the transmitter started giving me steady beeping tones... ''this was the low transmitter battery warning.'' I ignored it to see what would happen... When the voltage finally got to around 4.6 I decided to thumb the sticks back and forth to see if I could get the voltage to drop below the 3.5. You can't actually see the voltage drop on the transmitter because the peak loads are so intense and quick. The voltage sag is at its worst toward the bottom of the discharge curve, too. I was able to repeat several times while jerking the sticks that the movement would stop for a slit second here or there. The blue light would flash on the 9 channel Optima.

What happened was that the voltage was sagging receiver control voltage to below the Optima's 3.5 cutoff voltage. As soon as it cut off the receiver it also cut power to the servos, relieving the load and the sag, then immediately the voltage in the pack would recover to above 3.5 - allowing the receiver to come back on line. This split second was totally acceptable and I have to believe totally recoverable should the plane have been on final. And I doubt I'd be jerking full rates on all controls while on final, too. It was an impressive with the Aurora's Normal Mode - bind/link time under this condition - under 1 sec.

''This would never happen to you, right?'' Wrong! say you had a pack with 1 bad cell that you thought was good. (this happens more commonly than one would think...) You could find yourself in the same scenario except in the air. The good news is that you have telemetry feedback beeping at you probably long enough to land your plane safely. However, the manual and other info out here details warnings and procedures to make redundant precautions to prevent letting your receiver's control voltage go below 3.5. I'm going to look into one of these routes... I'm thinking to go with page 21 of the manual and use a Castle Creations - CC BEC feeding 5.0v to the receiver off of a 5 cell pack and the raw pack voltage going to the SPC port. I run 5 cell packs in line with the CC BEC on other planes with a constant 5.0 v out as to give the servos a constant voltage througout the flight and doesn't depleat the pack too quickly with a higher voltage. The $21 CC BEC is nice because you can buy the optional programmer to set your voltage, it's a dedicated voltage regulator and it's rated 10AMPs.

Sorry to ramble but this may help a few of you. I would run the tests at home when you get your A9 and see for yourself. I wouldn't get a new rig like this, plug everything in and jump out to the field. I highly recommending everyone to cycle your stock transmitter battery and spend a few days with your first plane setup to learn as many functions as you can before running out the field right away. I've read countless stories of success in these threads, but I don't like to see or hear of anyone crash because they flipped a wrong switch, etc.

I have to comment on the telemetry. Receiver voltage readout, next to useless in my book. Use a loaded voltmeter before each flight and use proper batteries, no brownouts, blackoutsopcorn: