soop7667

My AR7000 shut down one time on my Raptor 50 and down she went - I wish I could set my failsafe points on the pitch servo! I'm happy to say that I had a faulty battery pack...It was the first time running that pack ever. It was a JR 2700 Mah 6V pack and to this day that pack behaves the same was it did on that day - Looks fully charged on the volt watch, but when you put a load on it, down it goes. Either way, Other than that I've had no glitches, no loss of control whatsoever. The Spektrum line of TX/RX Systems, as far as I'm concerned, is excellent. It does take a little too long, I think, for a link to be re-established though. Am I correct in gathering that there a fix for this???

It always sucks when a model goes down and it seems there's just nothing you can do - Been there, done that. There's a few things you can't really say though - You can't say that it isn't nice to turn your radio on and fly, you can't say that spektrum is a crappy system, and without really knowing what happened...you can't say it was the spektrum that caused it. I'll continue to fly my Spektrum for as long as I have a model to fly, or until something better comes out.

bruce88123

Sounds like that battery needs a new home - the trash can. Or an environmentally safe equiv.

rgoldy

In a way, you're lucky to know what happened. You are also answering a question that was brought up at the field the other day: since heli's run only 4 or 5 servos as a rule, are they having the lockout issue on the same proportional scale as airplanes? Does the Futaba system have this same "reboot" time? Why does it need this "reboot" time? Maybe it seemed like a good idea to the programmers but real world people don't like not having control over their plane for 3-5 sec intervals. Do people that run those power panel things have any issues since the Rx is isolated from the servo power? Maybe these questions have already been asked/debated but now since it happened to me-it is obviously more important. BTW-measured the volts on the batts today (10 days later), one batt was destroyed and the other still measures 6.3V.

jmohn

I think many of the earlie issue I had with the 7000 were running too many servos on my ESC. I have since switched to a BEC or flight pack when ever I user more than four servos. The P39 was running 5 servos with a no BEC or flight pack. I may have over loaded the receiver and caused a shut down, but don't know for sure. I did send the receiver back to Spekrum and they couldn't find anything wrong with it. It was not fun watching my plane make a crater and not be able to do anything about it. I was able to salvage almost all the electronics, except the batter pack (a new 6S pack...ouch!).

Still, at the fields I fly the odds of some idiot pulling up and turning on his transmitter without checking the board is much more likely to knock me out of the air, unless I am using my Spekrum radio.

tenkisan

My Feedback: (1)

Hi all, I bought the Spectrum DX7 because I lost a plane due to ignorance. (not extending antenna on my 6EXAS system) The first plane I flew with the DX7 and AR6100 receiver augered straight in from about 250 feet up and 300 yards out. I started with a cheap and trustworthy flyer but chose not to use the AR7000 receiver as I had plans for it in my larger Magnum .56 FS mounted Sky raider. I've flown my Electrifly foam C182 for over two years on my old system with no problems. I switched over to the AR6100 park flyer receiver and zeroed all servos and control surfaces before it's inagural flight with the Spectrum system. During the first flight I adjusted the trims and brought it back safely but wasn't totally satisfied with the trim settings. On the second flight, I was turning into the wind at altitude when I noticed it pitched up uncommanded, rolled over and dove straight in with no reaction from control inputs. I noticed the transmitter gave two single beeps as it was going in, but being it was a new system, I didn't know what that meant.

I'm thinking the pitch up and roll was the receiver going into fail safe. Since I was still working on setting the trims, I hadn't reprogrammed the fail safe with the new trim settings yet. I think I learned a valuable lesson on AR6100 receiver range but it was well within the range of the previous Futaba R156F crystalized system. Is this normal for the AR6100 to be less than the R156F?

What do ya think?

rgoldy

The only time that I ever heard mine beep is when you turn them on-maybe the people at Spektrum know differently. Possibly your switch is bad/battery low or was it a timer (I don't use that function)? I don't think the Tx knows if it is locked on or not-it is just spitting out commands so I don't think it knows if/when it looses lock and wouldn't know when to beep.
Sure be glad to get mine back. jmohn likes the fact of not being screwed up by others on the same channel. I am falling in love with the fact it doesn't care about RF from my gas engine which is playing havoc with the FM and PCM's that I have had to borrow.

bluemagic98

Well I got a new DX-7 For my 85" WildHare Cap-232 it has 4 hitec 5645 and one 5955 on the rudder and a standard on the throttle. I also have 2 2000MAH Nimh Batteries and dual switches Ive allways ussed spcm and a 9303 TX with out issue. I needed to use the electronics I had in this plane for another WildHare product the SU-26. The price of the new spcm RX drove me to rethink purchasing A new system so I got this DX-7 Then I find this Thread. Now I have delt with new technology and lost a few planes. i was one of the guys who followed the instrucktions to the letter on the Evolution 58-GX2 ( the first 58 gx sucked in a ring they replaced that with a new GX2 ) and I ussed a 6V battery on the ignition as per the instructions. Now they say use a 7.4v I also had issue with the programming and the flashing lights. Those instructions are now updated as well. I also had my share of updates on a well Known DA-50R engine However that engine never cost me a plane. So now i want to use a DX-7 and its in the box to my left. If there is something I should Know Ide love to hear it. Being a crash test dummy for new products has worn me thin. So if im missing something here please fill me in Im running out of planes

dsnyder

There are no known problems or issues with the DX7. The range of the AR6100 is good for slow and park flyer aircraft.

rgoldy

I SO want to believe you on this. I am too deep into this Spektrum thing and, being unemployed right now, can't afford to change. As of Friday my system was being returned with the explanation of "we replaced your receiver". Why? I have 2 more I bought at the same time-what do I do with those? I was asked if I had any problems with them. As of now-no, but I didn't with the one in my Extra either. All I want to know is, and I am sure others do to, if it was my fault, what did I do wrong (feel free to post the fact that I am stupid and don't know what I'm doing-I can handle that)? If it is the Rx's fault, what is being done to fix it.

dsnyder

Things can go wrong with anything, but there are no trends of any problems with the system. If there was a problem, it was a one off issue with that component. I don't know the specifics of the equipment you sent in, however as I said, there are no trends of problems.

bluemagic98

Well

The proof is in the pudding as they say. The whole weekend went well not a single glitch in this radio. our site has a record of glitch issues and we have them all the time in any radio system. Till Now!

fokka

Ive been having problems with my DX7.

When its working its fine. Ive had about 12 good flights no problem. After switching off my radio and refuelling between flights the RX seems to have problems binding with the TX, even though it was working perfectly 5 mins before. The main receiver seems to get a solid steady light, but the smaller receiver still flashes and indicates it's not linking up.

A bit of a PITA I guess I'll have to take it back for servicing.

dsnyder

Make sure you are not standing very close to the model or near large metal objects when attempting to link the TX with the receiver.

rgoldy

Expand on that comment please. I turn on the Tx and then the Rx. Most of the time it works right away but sometimes you have to go thru the process again. How can you not be "close" to your plane when you are doing this? and what is "close"?

dsnyder

Take a few steps back to see if it changes. If you are standing right near the RX with the TX you can overpower the RX. Also power on the TX, wait a few seconds, then power up the RX.

fmnspooch

Hey guys,

Ive been flying all of my planes with the DX-7 for 6 months now. I loved the system up until last weekend. On final approach, my BVM Edge 540 2.6m just locked out. The plane went into fail safe, I had no response from the TX whatsoever and it went in. We did a post-mortom on the plane and everything checked out fine. IT JUST LOCKED ME OUT. I am running a Powerbox with 2 Litium ion 4300 packs. voltage was 8.1 after checking, connections on everything were good, the plane had fuel. Top of the line equiment all around. Too many Thousands of dollars to mention, just in case my wife finds this by some miracle. Its funny how so many people keep mentioning that they have had problems on final approach. DSNYDER keep stating like a ROBOT, " THERE ARE NO TRENDS OF PROBLEMS". Like an addict admits he has a problem. Get real. WHERE THERE IS SMOKE THERE IS FIRE. HOW MANY PEOPLE HAVE TO TELL THE SAME STORY OVER AND OVER AGAIN FOR YOU TO REALIZE THERE IS AN ISSUE? You don't need to be a rocket scientist to read between the lines. The sysem is good, but it is not bullet proof. We can live with glitches, its part of the hobby, but don't try to pretend your product is without sin. "who's more foolish, the fool, or the fool that follows him"....

dsnyder

There are no trends, literally thousands of DX7 users are out there, including myself, and there are no trends of any issues. If you have a problem, our service department is here to help.

kevinvw1

I will probably go for a DX7 soon. With my flying abilities you'd never be able to prove who was at fault

pedromvf

Dear all,

I have heard wonderful things about DX7 and I have convinced my father and another friend to buy it as the best RC system regarding failures. The 2.4GHz technology is fantastic and what spectrum has done is a fantastic package. However, when you are at the other end of the line and experience a fault and loose not an airplane only but the time you have dedicated assembling it, you start to think harder about the system.

The first flight of my system was 2 weeks ago. Having a buddy lead I was flying with my instructor and my airplane did not respond to my commands, my instructor intervened and recovered the airplane. I was suspicious of it but I thought: “Ok, it was probably you that did something stupid”. Last Sunday I went up (first flight, everything charged) and after 5 min she started to drop, I was at around 70m high and ¾ engine, I lost control and ask my instructor if he got the controls, He said no and I could watch his finger moving all the sticks and the airplane diving, nose down into de ground. The impact was so hard that the receiver was in pieces, the fuel tank ripped in 3 places.

I recovered everything and the battery was fully charged, the switch was working perfectly fine. All the experienced members of my club were surprised and their conclusion was that it looked like I had my battery disconnected. After reading all the posts it is not difficult to see that it is something that repeats itself.

Even worse, on the same day I went up with a trainer (from my friend with a DX7) and after a few minutes of flying the same problem happens, I lost control, my instructor was cursing everybody and, suddenly, he got control again. He decided to land and not help us anymore until we solve the problem.

The main fact is that there is a fault. Yes it can be bad components, manufacturing problems etc. What is really worrying is that in the website, Spektrum said the receiver was designed to work with 3.5V but they say you have to keep a minimum of 4.5V to the receiver. If there is an issue with voltage why not ship the package with a 6V battery instead of the 4.8V?

Sorry for the long e-mail but it is my experience, I like the system, but I don’t trust it now until I have a reasonable explanation of the problem and a solution.

rmh

why don't you change the battery to a 6 volt?
if your particular setup overloads the 4.8 -that is YOUR responsibility- the system does work very well on 4.8 battery-as long as YOU have model which does not overload it

rgoldy

Lets back up a second. Remember, these radio systems have to appeal to everybody and not everybody has access/knowledge about servos and voltage drops and how to measure them. If I am a beginner and I purchase a "package" and that package includes the TX, RX, servos, switch, and battery-I would expect them to work together with no problems. Start throwing 6-10 digitals into the equation and you have another discussion. If the 4.8V cannot drive the 4 servos that come with the package (and I am convinced it cannot) then the package needs to come with a 6V battery.

kryptonite

The DX7 has been in use at my club for quite a while now. There is yet to be a single incident with the radio. This, plus the experiences of thousands of others seems to indicate that the system is reliable enough for hobby use.

Now there are of course, single incidents from users. Perhaps the battery connectors are not making perfect contact. Perhaps there is a weather or military doppler radar beacon overwhelming the signal. Perhaps there is a dry solder join on the receiver board or some other component. The possibilities that can cause a lockout are endless so its hard to say what exactly is responsible for each incident.

It is not a 100% failproof system. Nobody can claim that and still make it still affordable to hobbyists. If you want a triple redundant failsafe system that meets military/aerospace requirements - be prepared to pay what NASA or the Pentagon pays. For the rest of us hobbyists, 2.4Ghz DSS is a great system that represents a big leap in reliability over traditional FM radio. If you suspect your system is faulty, send it back to Horizon for a checkup. Simple as that.

bluemagic98

I have been flying with this system for some time with a 98" Monocoup. I have 6 servos 5 of them the same as the ones that come with the system and one HS645 high torque metal gear servo on the rudder. It has flaps and all i do with it is touch and goes with the flaps. I put a large fuel tank in this plane to feed a Zenoah 23. The flights are ussually 15 min this plane flies about 1/2 hour. The most ive been able to put back into The stock battery is 350mah. I have had zero problems. One thing I do do is setup a lot of planes for other club members that for some reason can not do this themselves. The other thing I do is Train other pilots as well as new club member orientator. This gives me the opertunity to check out and or fly almost every model at our field. The most comon thing I find is a servo linkage coming to a full stop before the stick does. The end poit adjustments on 90% of the planes I see are off. I wonder if some of these failures are due to stalled servos. I was unable to find a spec on the current draw of this servo in operation as well as stalled. I can just imagine that a stalled servo or 2 might drop the voltage to a point where the model is trying to rebind itself to the transmitter.

As with any new technology there is allways a learning curve. Let us all be thankfull Bill Gates isnt in the model busines or god forbid the radio busines.

pedromvf

"why don't you change the battery to a 6 volt?
if your particular setup overloads the 4.8 -that is YOUR responsibility- the system does work very well on 4.8 battery-as long as YOU have model which does not overload it"

Dick to you I have only one answer: you don't buy a car expecting it to fail because it has to appeal and they put tires that will not last for 5 minutes; are you expected to read all the forums and realize that when you buy the car you have to, also, buy a new set of tires?

pedromvf

Don't misunderstand me, the thought behind the system is great, the problem is when you buy a TV that doesn't work you go to the shop and change it, when you buy a radio that doesn't work you lose an airplane, a receiver and an engine (in my case). I lost the confidence in MY DX7, I don't know if it was a problem in my receiver or a problem in my transmitter, like Kriptonyte mentioned, manufacturing problems can occur in any system.

In any case, seems to me, that most of the faults we have heard of are related to power to the receiver and it only shows that either a batch of these receivers was badly built or there is a fault that only become aparent when it started being sold to us, like a battery pack of 4.8V.