newtek007

My Feedback: (1)

I've been using the Futaba 9CAP with the conversion module with 3 airplanes and 2 .50 size helicopters. I have not had one problem to date. I use mostly the 7 channel module and I have one 8 channel module. again, no problems what-so-ever.

On-Your-6

My Feedback: (196)

ok my 2c worth. I had problems with Spektrum ar6100 rx's. After 4 crashes and a lot of heart ache and back and forth from Spektrum,  I sent the suspect rx's back for the 2nd time plus my radio. After a strongly worded letter, Spektrum changed out the lot and gave me Ar6200e's. It didn't help with the financial loss but they kind of met me some of the way.

My annoyance is how we were all sold on this technology as being so much better and "hit" proof from 72 mhz. I have spent a fortune changing my whole system out only to be hit with new problems. Low voltage, lost signals, antenna pointing this way or that, upgrades, recalls et all. This is utter bull as the manufacturrers seem to release their products and let "us" the buying public find the bugs that they do or do not know about. That is unacceptable in my book. To boot, when they have a problem that crops up multiple times, they go stick their heads in the ground and deny it. Instead, they should issue a notice via email and send a notice to be posted up in every hobby store in the country.

I love this hobby with a passion and I just wish the manufacturers would take it as such too. It's no fun to lose a plane that cost $100 or $20,000 due to "lock out". The old cry used to be "deadstick" for me, now it's "oh crap I have nothing"!!!

Thanks

Rob Bloor

Hi guys
Ok some more info, completely independent report, guy flying 1/4 scale cap at weekend flying past at about 100ft model rolled to the right with engine wide open and crashed. This is to much of a coincidence now to ignore and something needs to be done. Now stopped using my Spektrum gone back to 35, had ten flights now with Futaba 2.4 no problems to report.
Can we have some constructive factual reporting instead of us all ripping into each other, we might just find it useful.
Kind regards to all
Bobby

BaldEagel

There are too  many incidents that seem to happen for no reason, some myself included have no issues at all, some are having issues with all different types of 2.4Ghz systems, somewhere there has to be a common theme that will give us an idication of what is going on, those persons with issues need to look to those without issues to see what is different in the instalation details, perhaps I can start the ball rolling with the following:

1. Type of system.
2. What type of batteries are you using, 4 cell, 5 cell, what Mah, and how many.
3. How many Mah did the battery take when you recharged
4.  What servo's
5. How many remote Rx's if relevant.
6. What ambient temp at the time of the incident.
7. When the incident happend did you take note of the link light on the Rx.
8. What Mah did the Tx battery take when you recharged.

Please feel free to add any you think may help and I will update and post again.

Mike

acw

My Feedback: (1)

Woketman

My Feedback: (6)

Me:

-  Futaba FASST
-  Whatever servos I had
-  two A123 packs from Electrodynamics
-  Electrodynamics fancy switches
-  Electrodynamics diode based battery isolation circuit

DavidR

My Feedback: (1)

Hmmm... what works for me....


JR and Spektrum stuff for 2.5 years now, hundreds of flights on turbine, edf, helis, and giant scale. Batteries, nicad, nimh, li-ion, and lipo. Regulators, duralite (recently in Electra) Fromeco, and the JR/Spektrum 20 Amp with the cooling fan. JR servos, throughout.

What Ithink is important, proper setup including mechanical setup and proper linkage geometry, (nothing new here) minimizes servo load, and keeps current draw to a minimum. Proper setup including a variety of different orientations of the satelite recievers. Proper range checking, including as many different orientations of the aircraft as possible, both engine off and running. I have personally had nothing but solid results.

What Ihave seen...... sloppy installations where no thought was given to the reciever orientation. Minimal battery capacity, and lousy linkage geometry leading to high current draws.

In other words set it up right and it works.

DR

Rob Bloor

Hi
    Good constructive post Bald Eagle, here was my setup.
                         Spektrum 9100 Rx with 4 satelites all orientated as per the book, 2.4 module in my FF9 (which is flown regularly on 35MHz) Dual 3600mAh Rx packs one of which one was discharged after the crash 3100mA removed, 2 Futaba 9402 servos on Elevator 2 hitech digital on Ailerons. All constructive comments welcome

        PS I do have a Boomerang with a 7000 Rx flown with same Tx that has given no problems to date.

                         Kind regards Bobby

GrayUK

What works for me.

Futaba FASST 12FG.

14, 8, 6 and 7 channels rx’s

Normal switches (sometimes doubled up).

Standard Nimh bats, max power 2600 ma.(single bats per plane)

Hitec and Futaba servos.

I fly Wren Turbines. Also Heli, and prop models.

Flying FASST since Feb 2007.

Tested in extreme conditions and also in very intense 2.4 rf environments.

Once the zero GUID issue was resolved not one glitch, twitch or moments concern.

Paul

Rob Bloor

Hi Paul
Thanks for your input. I am also flying my Fasst system now with no probs, there seems to be very few probs If any with the Futaba system. I have always flown Futaba spose I was a fool to change also been flying jets for a long time as you know so no instalation issues here. Consigned the Spektrum to the bin now cant trust it anymore. And before anyone accuses me of Brand bashing, everything i have said is fact. Keep the good constructive comments coming chaps.
Kind regards
Bobby Bloor

Big feet

Hi all,
Now this is the type of information I started this thread to collect.
BaldEagel, thank you for the post that got this back on track, I appreciate it.

We, the moddellers, need to collect and interprate the data for ourselves, as we can not simply listen to the marketing hype from the manufactures. I am not slatting them, they have a product to sell and R & D expensis to cover, but as others have said, we should not be the testing ground for them.

I have moved to 2.4, JR12X using JR 1221 Rx's, duel Lipo batteries through powerbox switch/regulator units.
I test the data after every flight and to date have had no problems, apart from some rx packet loss, >30 after a flight. Normal figures for me are > 10 with much higher figures considered within normal operating conditions.

David, the Bidirectional system you describe sounds impressive. A Blackbox would certainly clarify a lot of issues people have had. We could well learn a lot from such a system.

Keep the detailed setup info comming,

Cheers,

David Gladwin

Know that you can almost never determine the actual cause of a crash due to radio issues.....its almost always your/or someone else's best guess.
[/quote]

Well, having had some experience with the Weatronics system and gaining more every day I can now say with some confidence that the above statement, is no longer true.

It is a most important issue and nothing is worse than losing a model and NOT knowing what the cause was.

With the new Wea system one can actually watch the radio performance during set up to optimise the antennae position and orientation and thereforethe Rf strength (in dbm) and link quality (as a percentage) which is all displayed in real time on the PC andcan alsobe monitored duringflight by your copilot, and remeber there are TWO receivers in the box. !In addition it is all recorded continuously on the SD card in the tx via the downlink so even in the event of a total loss crash, the data is all there for evaluation, including data on your transmitter. Of course the Tx will also give you a warning of low battery voltage,in the aircraft or tx., or low Rf strength in real time either aurally, visually or both.

I am no rf engineer but so far asI can see ALL of the parameters monitored and recorded by this system will allow the user to make a very detailed analysis of his radio's performance, meaning an end to unexplained crashes, at least sofar as the radio performance is concerned., and of course the data can be evaluated as matterorf routine tosee how the radio is performingduring every flight.

I guess in the fullsize world this would be an accident investigator's dream, (we would almost certainly know by now exactly what happened to AF447 if such a system had been installed in the Airbus) is now available to we modellers at a very reasonable price, no more guessing., we have HARD data and facts to work with.
Regards, David Gladwin.

BaldEagel

After the hype involved with the XPS system and the aftermath of its non hopping lock out nature, I am very carefull what systems I will jump on the band wagon of, it took Graupner with their clout to sort out XPS (IFS in Europe) and even now after numerous upgrades I will not go anywhere near it.

I will wait until the Weatonics 2.4Mhz system has proved itself in real time situations before I jump again, never thought I would say that, but once bitten twice shy.

Mike

Rob Bloor

Hi David
                  This weatronic gear sounds excellent is there a uk distributor? it says on the web site that Ali is the supplier but he doesent seem to have it on his web site. is it a complete outfit with Tx Rx etc as weatronics dont appear to show it on thier site.        or is it me!!!! Lol
                     Had more flights with the FASST with the reciever inside a composite glider with the fus made using chrome coated glasscloth, 35 Mhz has a fit inside this fus so I thought it a good test for FASST. After range checks etc no issues to report.
                                                        Kind regards
                                                                   Bobby Bloor

David Gladwin

I know Ali was the distributor of the earlier weatronics system but I am not commercially involved so don't know the latest arrangements, so you must ask him. If one of these units had been fitted in his Hunter the crashmay well have been avoided as it informs the pilot of problems such as battery voltage, Rf problems etc and certainly the exact cause would almost certainly now be known from the data stored in the Tx.

You can of course order directly from their web shop and initially you need to buy a transmitter unit as wellas the receiver, thereafter , of course, receivers only, and if using multiple receivers for different models theQuickbind feature allows connection in about1 second when thereceiver has been previously full bound to the Tx. . I saw a lot of units packed ready for shipping on Monday so production status certainly has been achieved.

After my visit to the offices on MondayI spent much of yesterday exploring my own receivers with the latest GigaControl (V 2.06 is the latest) and the more I see the more impressedI become.

Regards, David.

BaldEagel

David

On the Weatronics thread there is a Funtana that crashed with the Weatronics gear installed, and they say that they have no idea why it crashed, they sent the printed off file to the manufacturers to look at.

Mike

Rob Bloor

Thank you David for the info, I will talk to Ali to see what the arrangements are. Keep the info comming you guys!!!
Kind regards
Bobby

KatManDEW

My Feedback: (6)

A of mine and I tried Spektrum modules in our 9C's. I flew a faomy with mine a couple times and had no problem. But I flew a 40 size electric with it, which range checked fine on the ground, but glitched badly in the air. My friend tried 5 different spektrum receivers and could not get one which would range check, even just sitting on a bench, not installed in an aircraft. So we both switched to Futaba FASST. My friend has the 10C with both 72mhz and 2.4ghz modules. I have the dedicated 2.4ghz 10C. I have switched 6 planes to FASST so far, and my friend switched 3 or 4. So far we have had no problems (knock on wood). We're flying electrics, from foamy size all the wayup to 35%.

Another guy in our club has been flying the FASST module in his 9C since last year, in a wide variety of planes. Another guy in our club just got the FASST module for his 9C about 6 weeks ago. They have had no problmes.

The Spektrums we tried took several seconds to link when powered up. Our FASST setups link up instantly.

Rob Bloor

Hi Kat
Good post, seems FASST is the way to go as Paul says. Dont think anyone has complained about the Futaba FASST system yet !!!!! Is there anyone out there had any problems with the FASST system?
regards
Bobby

Boomerang1

I have had a few peculiarities (would not call them problems) with Hitec digital servos on the Futaba 14FS reciever.

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_61...84/key_/tm.htm

is the last page of the thread Paul Gray started on Futaba FASST systems.

Interesting reading, not just Paul's opinions, helped me make up my mind which system to use.

Still, both systems are popular. Spectrum being by far the most popular tells me someone must be happy with it! - John.

BaldEagel

I contributed to the thread mentioned above with the Futaba FASST system and Hitec serov's and concluded it is a problem when using Hitec 5645's on channels 4 too 12 (2.7 volt signal output), but does not seem to be a problem on channels 1 too 3 (3 volt signal output) or with other modern Hitec servo's, whereas with my Spektrum I have encountered no such problemwith servo's, however on the Spektrum I have encountered intermitent bind loss on start up, after a re bind the Rx continues to operate as normal.

Mike

KatManDEW

My Feedback: (6)

Looking at it logically and objectively - Spektrum has been available for quite a bit longer, with almost zero competition from the other major manufacturers, so it's no surprise that there are more Spektrum systems in use. That doesn't necessarily mean it's the most "popular", in the sense that it is preferred over other brands, because there haven't been many other brands to compare it with until recently. It does however help explain why I have heard of way more problems with Spektrum. Before anyone gets huffy - consider that there are more of them in use, so there are more opportunities for problems with them.

It will be interesting to see how the 2.4GHz market shakes out now that several other major manufacturers have stepped up to the plate with 2.4GHz offereings.

Bob_B

My Feedback: (11)

Kat good to see you in the forum. I'm a believer in FASST! Flawless performance in my Electra on 12S
Bob

Gordon Mc

My Feedback: (11)

Mike - appologies if this has been answered elsewhere that I haven't read yet, but what's the rationale for the inconsistency in output voltage between channels 1 to 3, and 4 to 12 ?

Thanks,
Gordon

KatManDEW

My Feedback: (6)

Good to hear from you Bob. Glad to hear your a FASST guy. Your aircraft are fast too