Luchnia

My Feedback: (21)

For the record I am not radio bias. I have a Futaba T18MZ, Spektrum DX7, and a JR 9505 and I have never had an issue with any of my radios or receivers Spektrum or Futaba.

One plane with spektrum 7 channel receiver had around 700 flights. Things I have found in the digital age that you have to pay attention to are servos, batteries, receiver location, and your wiring. I would put wiring and batteries at the top of the list. Good sense in those areas and you should have no issues.

I find these "brown out" threads most entertaining

PLANE JIM

My Feedback: (109)

This seems unbelievable-maybe you need to cool off a bit. Now back to the topic-what post number are the videos-thanks

RCKen

My Feedback: (9)

One time when I was at an event I had somebody come up to me and say that it was great to finally meet "RCU's Dad". I asked him what he meant by that statement. He said that a lot of times in the forum when the Moderator was cleaning up the thread is was kind of like growing up and Mom would keep telling you to stop doing something, you could pretty much ignore her and nothing much would really happen to you. But when Dad got home, or if Dad told you to do something, then you had better do it or it was a pretty good bet that you were going out back and getting a spanking. I laughed with him about it but as we talked about it I realized that more often than not that was the case around here.

Well guess what guys??? Dad's here!!!!!!!!!

Andy (BarracudaHockey) has been in here the last few days trying to keep this thread cleaned up and running on an even keel, but unfortunately there are a small number of members that seem to not be getting the message from him and they continue to want to cause problems in this thread. Well he's finally come to his wit's end and has asked me to step in and clean this mess up. So let me lay down a few things for you all here.

Normally when a thread like this comes up(discussing bad product) we try do everything that we can to keep the thread open and running fairly to all members involved in that thread. In fact, it was stated early in the thread that it wouldn't last long because we were discussing problems with a major manufacturer and they would make sure we closed down the thread. If you look through the history of RCU you will see that we do just the opposite, we want to be a source where members can get out information to each other about bad products in the RC industry. And because of this we will never let advertiser status dictate our moderation of the forums of RCU, period. We will keep forums open that fairly and openly discuss a bad product.

However, I have spent close to the last 3 hours reading every post on all 12 pages of this thread and I don't see it meets the criteria that I have just stated above. After reading through the entire thread it's my opinion that the goal of the OP is to force Spektrum to give him a new DX-18 radio in order to quiet him down. He stated that several times throughout the thread and I can't see any other reasoning for this thread than that. If the OP really wants to help other members then he would be doing so, however he is "refusing" to post his videos because one member made a comment that made him mad. Now if the OP really was here to help others as he claims many times throughout this thread then I think he could simply overlook a simple comment from one member and post the videos that would help other members (which he claims is all he's trying to do in the first place). And another point is that any time anybody questions the OP the response has become a heated attack. This simple will not be allowed here on RCU.

It's not just your posts and rebuttals that have been removed. There are a large number of posts that have been removed from this thread. Both BarracudaHockey and myself have gone through this thread and we have removed any posts where a member attacks another, the posts is way way off topic, or is just plain drivel.

Now with that said it's time for me do go all Dad on some of the members in this thread. If some of the members here in this thread can't participate in this thread without resorting to attacking each other then I would suggest that you simply bypass this thread completely and read some other thread, because if these attacks continue those doing them aren't going to like the outcome. I will put them in a time out that won't be fun. Period. Now for those members that are here really trying to help out in this thread, I am sorry that you had to read this statement. Sometimes I have to resort to that level to get my message across.

Now, as for this thread. I'll tell you all that it is on life support right now. Like I said above, my opinion is that I think that OP has motives for this thread that have nothing to do with helping others. If I'm wrong then I'll apologize. But to prove me wrong this thread needs to find it's way to a place where we are legitimately discussing how to solve the problems concerning Spektrum receivers. TopGun Winner, you say you have suggestions for fixing the problems?? Then if you really want to help out the RC Community please by all means we would be grateful if you would share them with us and post the answers along with your videos. But if the thread continues down the same path it's on now, I will shut it down, and I'm not going to wait very long before I make that decision to close it down. So the choice really is on you all on how I proceed here. I know there are a lot of members here in this thread that do want to legitimately help out and make a contribution to the RC Community by doing so. So let's all step up and do it guys.

Ken

giodog2000

I'd like to see the vids please. Thanks

sensei

Like RCKen stated, this was probably nothing more than a rant for a free DX-18 so I don't believe he has any video to show you. The hardest thing about these forums for the new guys is learning who to trust within.

Bob

init4fun

Thank You Ken . My take on the subject of brownouts was what I posted above , hoping someone new to 2.4 may be prompted into researching and learning more about the best practices of power distribution in out models . For anyone concerned with receiver power issues , of any brand not just Spektrum , My post here will solve the problem . No matter how small or large the model may be , if the receiver doesn't have to see the servo's power draw it will be a happy receiver indeed . Sorry to bump my own post but it really is just this easy to avoid electrical issues for the very reasonable price of a Castle 10A BEC . (for electric motor/Lipo models) or a separate LIFE pack for glow or gas models .

I provide the details of my experiences for nothing more than the hope it helps someone avoid the crunch , and honestly I wouldn't use half the channels of something with 18 of em anyway ......

init4fun

OOps , Sorry , I meant for this post to be included with the quote above ... My Bad ,,,

LarsL

RCKen,

I think you are spot on with your post that Dad was needed. Unfortunately for you, I fear you may get hit with a big lawsuit from the OP. He sounds like he means business.

As for me on this subject, I have found with all of the brands of 2.4 radios/receivers that I have used, robust electric power setup has completely eliminated any signal issues I that I had previously (1-time 7 years ago with original 1st generation receiver). Never a problem since.

Lars

Cashpoboy

My Feedback: (7)

All it takes is one time for me to never forgive a radio company. There only job is connection between you and the plane. If they cannot do that 100% of the time without a single exception then shame on them. I have seen first hand on multiple occasions the so called deadly 'brown out' and crashed planes all due to Spektrum. Stay away. Stay away. Stay away!!!!

phillyD

Oh My my my
Dad's chased way all the boyfriends LMAO. Thanks for the little enlightenment of power draw and receivers. If you have a high current draw application or heavy 3D applications, Set up you power system differently. I have not had problem with my TX and RX That I know of.

sherlockshah

My Feedback: (1)

My friend lost a 32000 dollar plane because spectrum. Hands down futaba is the way to go

HoundDog

My Feedback: (49)

Sorry to hear about you're buddy's 32K Toy airplane. That being said sounds like this guy has more money than sense. Does he?

jmiles1941

Hound dog I have 3 IMAC airplanes a 42% extra 300 8000 dollars a Dalton extra 260 6500 dollars and a 42% edge 540 8500 dollars that is just my IMAC planes I have 8 other planes I fly also a jet can cost up to 50000 dollars depends on the size and how many turbines , and these are not toy airplanes they are scale airplanes , the only toy airplanes are the FOAM PLANES!!!!!!

Cashpoboy

My Feedback: (7)

I could not agree more.

dirtybird

My Feedback: (5)

I hate to add to this post, but I just have to clear up some misconceptions.
First all 2.4 radios have a microprocessor. A microprocessor will reboot if it does not get sufficient voltage. If you have a brownout it is your fault, not the manufacturer.
second, I see a lot of fliers putting in a LIPO and a regulator. A regulator is an extra part that can fail and it wastes power. The best one on the market has to have a fan to keep it cool. It also can cause a brownout. If you must use a LIPO get high voltage servos.
BTW to me all aircraft made in china and sold ready to install equipment to fly are toys.

RCKen

My Feedback: (9)

I have been Moderating, Community Moderator, and the Forum Manager here at RCU for almost 14 years now and I've had many people threaten that they would sue me whenever I have taken administrative actions against them. I remind them that we have a very good legal staff here at RCU backing us up and to this date we have never been sued once. Here's the rub when it comes to bringing a lawsuit in an instance like this. This is a partial clipping from the RCU Community Rules:
All members agree to follow to the RCU Community Rules when they join our forum. So it's hard to bring a lawsuit against us when they are breaking our rules. Whenever we run into those type that run around threatening lawsuits we also remind them of another tidbit of information. RCU is a privately owned website and they are allowed access to our website only if they agree to follow the rules set forth by the owners of the website. Trying to sue us would work if we were a public website and we were had to take everybody that wanted to be here, but since that isn't the case most lawsuits usually fall by the wayside pretty quickly.

However, if anybody does feel that they want to sue me for my actions as the Forum Manager I will be more than happy to supply then with the address for the legal staff at Internet Brands. I've talked to them several times and they are a great group of people that love their jobs, which is back up all of Internet Brands many many online communities such as RCU, and love to see actions like this come across their desks!!!

Anyway, I just wanted to let you know where we all stand on that matter. I really didn't mean to detract from the thread itself and take it off topic.

To try to get it back on topic I'd kind of like to add my 2 cents worth here. Since I had to read all 12 pages of this thread yesterday I got a pretty good feel for what was going on here. I myself fly Airtronics radios that really only had one or two mentions in the thread. But like Futaba receivers our receivers have 2 antennas that are best placed so that are 90° from oriented from each other for best reception. There are 5 pilots at our field flying the Airtronics RD-10 radios and none of us have ever had any problems at all with these radios. Now common sense tells us that if we are going to have a plane that has a lot of high draw servos we set up a separate power bus for the servos instead of running the power through the receiver. Now I have ran my Top Flight P-51 using the Airtronics 10 channel receiver and I ran all of the servos through the receiver without any problems, but the receiver is designed so that you can plug 2 batteries into it. I have never opened it to verity by looking at the circuitry but I was told the second battery was a separate bus for the servos. Anyway, that's my 2 cents on the matter. As others have said, if you are going to run a lot of servo make sure you have the power to run them and run them away from the receiver. It's really RC 101. It's an expensive lesson to learn for those that don't want to listen, but if you cruise the pages of RCU (especially here in the Radio Forum) you will find hundreds of threads that will give you plenty of advice on properly setting up your high draw setups. It really doesn't matter what brand of radio you are using, if you are going to draw too much power through the receiver you are risking losing your plane. This is basic electronics, if you pull down the voltage below what your receiver needs to operate the chip in it is going to reboot.

Ok, I've said enough. Back to watching the thread. Hope I have helped some maybe a little bit.

Ken

wcmorrison

My Feedback: (2)

I commented once on this thread. I will go back to the early days. We were losing airplanes with then new Spektrum receivers. After a conversation with the engineers at Spektrum, we learned almost immediately 4.8 volt batteries were inadequate, if the servo demands made the voltage drop into the cut off range voltage for the internal electronics of the receiver, it drop out or the term "brown out." Yet they continued to ship Spektrum sets with 4.8V batteries. That is but an example of how bad they were.

One good things that came out of that experience with me was a move to 6.0 volt batteries and double or triple the MAHr ratings of receiver batteries. But I had not just those early voltage problems, I had plain old reliability problems. The receiver would lose bind, and I finally traced down to a satellite receiver being NDG. I replaced the satellite receiver and had more binding problems. I gave up. I went to another product, Hitec, and had absolutely no problems and have not had any problems for the four or so years. Not once did I lose bind. Yes, I did have a couple of Hitec receivers die on me but both were readily replaced by Hitec. The Spektrum people would not even answer my emails. I did not want to give the Spektrum equipment away, one guy begged me for it and I gave it to him with considerable warnings. He has since graduated to Futaba.

So it was a bad experience for me. For that reason I avoid all JR and Spektrum equipment. Might be okay today but they ruined their rep with me for keeps.

jmiles1941

Good information wcmorrison , but I still see guys at the fields getting ready to fly and they have to rebind their rx ,it seems like they have to rebind every time they come out to fly, I have seen this for at least the last 2 years , I believe all radio equipment is good and meets FCC requirements , but all the rebinding over and over has been by Spektrum , as for me I will always trust my Futaba and I am not bashing but my radio is rock solid easy bind and never looses bind FASSTEST is the best technology on the market today as for me I trust it 100% been with Futaba since there first 6 channel radio never had a problem of any sort !!!! But good luck to you guys with the Spektrums the clock is ticking and it will catch up with you , I have seen a lot of Spektrum crashes with no control , I have also noticed a lot of Spektrum radios with the new fliers and park and efly , Too me Futaba , Jeti , JR , Hightech , are top of the line equipment , that's my opinion .

Andy_S

+1 Airtronics, can't say enough about my SD-10G. I also fly a Spektrum DSM2 with no issues.
Speaking of being given a radio, Airtronics did just that when I had issues with mine... sorry, but it's a long story and under unusual circumstances that do not currently exist with there product line. No shipping stuff back and waiting for it to return, it was a simple matter of them replacing the radio outright. And it's a fabulous system. Some would say of out of date with no telemetry, redundant RF links, RSSI indicators, accelerometers, voice. For a state of the art system that just works, I will fly one for a very, very long time.

VF84sluggo

My Feedback: (55)

...Uh, thanks; but sorry, I don't get it.

Anyway, perhaps this will help clear up any equipment spell check concerns:
http://hangtimes.com/
http://www.fromeco.org/products/04frcwo-430s/

Good stuff, BTW...I highly recommend them. Oh, not sponsored by anyone, either. Just another RC guy recommending what's worked for him. Your mileage may vary.

carriontrucking

My Feedback: (24)

i have had the dx6i 7 and now the dx18 the only crashes I have had was when using batteries other than life or lipo when under a load its my opinion that the standard battery that powered those older radios is just not enough three times I have ground tested those nickel and lithium batteries and after 10 minutes of fiddling the sticks they would stop working (brown out) then 15 seconds later be fully functional again. now that's with out all the stresses of a real flight. the term brown out means not enough power to supply a given power grid. what I see simply is some modelers not wanting to give up the 20 or 30 bucks for a quality power source. also there might be other issues like binding servos ect.

VF84sluggo

My Feedback: (55)

^^^^ Concur 100%. When I switched to 2.4, my first radio was the Dx6i. I ditched any 4-cell NiCD or NiMH batteries. Went to the higher voltage 5-cells. Then, moved away totally to LiFe's (A123) and have run those unregulated with no issues. This complies with KISS and takes the low-voltage 'brownout' problem out of the equation.

When I got into bigger props and turbines, I went with the dual LiFe and Wolverine setup. Again, this has worked for me, and I use both Spektrum and Futaba systems. Any problems I've had have been all me, not the radio/receiver/power feed setup.

Rob2160

+1.

All receivers brown out with insufficient voltage. Just because some brands don't have "brown-out detection" doesn't mean they won't brown out.

I have tested all my receivers like this and they all stop working around 3 - 3.5 volts. Futaba too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiH_rgNPqUA

SkidMan

My Feedback: (17)

The unpleasant truth - It is up to the builder to prevent brown-outs.

HoundDog

My Feedback: (49)

WOW ...
Guess U really like IMAC (Watching Paint Dry). But everyone to their Own. I've never paid that much for a CAR. Always drove used or wife's old ones. 150,000 miles Or more. Highest I ever paid is $6100 for my Dodge Van cause it was 8 years old had 68K and Sto'N'Go. Seats went down the day I bought it 2 years ago and haven't seen the light of day since. Guess I'm Just "CHEEP". Back to planes I enjoy flying 80" to 96" War Birds. But that's what's so good about this hobby. Fly what ya like and Like what ya can afford.


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