likeswindinhair

I want to post by itself the results of my two lost planes, the reasons I have came to as to why it happened. I feel this deserves its own post. My radio is coming home and should be here , back from horizen service center. Im getting a info packet from horizen as to how to test your reciever for the firm ware update, that allows the reciever to stay on line, instead of going into reboot mode, that can take 3 to 12 secounds, before you regain control of your plane, while its in the air. I had also sent in my reciever along with my transmitter. Id like to thank the folks at horizen, they did replace my reciver as well. But they didnt and wont admit any fault in there products. I was asked, or it was assumed that I had the reciever for along time, for it did not have the update. When I told them ALL MY RECIEVERS WERE PURCHASED IN THE LAST 5 MONTHS, there seemed to be a problem, or a red flag for me there. It appears that when they updated the recievers the old stock or recievers that were manafactured before the update, STAYED ON THE SHELFS, to be sold to dummies like me. I made my purchases from HOBBY LOBBY to which i have other issues with besides the outdated recievers. Anyway there was no recall on the old products, BY SPECTRUM none. I also mentioned that the brownout and causes of were not mentioned in the manual. The guys at horizen has wanted to address this but the marketing guys who call the shots didnt want negative and confusing information to be included in the manual. But they did include information in the higher end transmitters, or at least I was told, and this is part of what is being sent to me. So no recall theres nothing wrong with there products, so that lets spectrum off the hook, and the retail store that sold it too you. So if you crash your high dollar plane its your bag there. Its up to you to test out your reciever to determine if it has the update. If it does not the update is free and could very well save your plane. Im testing all my recievers, once my DX7 is back. I suggest you all do the same there. EVEN IF YOU JUST BOUGHT IT. A voltage drop or interuption reboots reciever, and IT DOES NOT GO INTO FAIL SAFE. Your going to lose that plane bud, and there no way around it. And it your responsability, your loss. Test those spectrum recievers and safe your plane. SO IM CALLING THE SHOTS IN THIS POST...........RECALL.........................

likeswindinhair

I also have confusion and need your help. Theres a alternative to having a reciever battery pack. My sailplanes have little room as it is, espeacily for 2 battery packs. One is a voltage regulator . Upoun shoping is a beefier bec, to which you disable the one you currently have, where it feeds into your reciever. Which one, etc. any suggestions at this point whould be a great help. Im out alot of money on my two crashes. And need to get informed, right here , right now , no more crashes for this detrmined guy. How many pilots have we lost forever due to this problem.... AND THATS THE SHAME OF IT ALL

qldviking

the shame of it all is that retailers and importers happily sell you a radio/rx/servo set as the latest model, yet when i got mine it had the old ST47 servo's instead of the DS821's it was advertised with. Not knowing anything about the system, and calling the seller (importer) who quickly sent the right servo's, I queried whether it was the latest, he quoted model numbers etc, and all checked with what he called. My then experiences have been piosted here before, all I will say is I am sworn of spektrum period, never ever again. I was so disgussted with the whole episode I quickly sold my tx/rx on fleabay. The more I read on varioyus sites with the issues on Spektrum I have come to the conclusion that spektrum and thier various importers/agents need to seriously look at thier marketing practices and safety issues. To market a product that can and does fail, even with regulated power supply (6.6v a123 packs reg'd to 5.9v) tells me something just isnt right, and the attitude from the importers left a lot to be desired. will I ever go to 2.4g again? maybe when I can justify $2500+ for a jr 12 ch radio system, in the meantime I am more than happy to stay with 36mhz and crystals, they have worked well for me so far for many years.


edit: My system was bought november last year

likeswindinhair

I do feel that spectrum is a good radio, once this has been addressed. Beings how im in neck deep here, and its the only radio I have , and cant really afford to make a switch, Im soon to find out. Its my assumotion that I will join the ranks of the many pilots who have had no problems. And Im not out to damage any company, espeacily those at horizen service center. But hope to save planes here, and no longer experience this brown out deal. And its at this point where this site has increased in value to me and hopefully to you as well.

qldviking

I see where you are at, but to be blunt, service here compared to Horizon is chalk and cheese. I am lucky in that I have 4 Jr tx's, so ditching the spektrum junk wasnt hurting too much. I currently have 2 jr 10x's and a 3rd is on its way. I also have the 7102 and 6102, and somewhere I still have my old 388. All my radio gear is jr with the exception of one hitec slim rx, all my servo's are either jr or hitec with the exception of 3 seiko 050's. I am not shy of putting the $$ into my gear when I can justify the expense. I go to a local club that is small, and my freq is clear, and most of my flying is done on private property, so I cannot justify spending mega dollars on a hi-end system yet. I was contemplating getting modules for my tx's but again, too many issues with Spektrum gear and also being limited in what I can use. Also I still havent found out the cause for my 2 failures on a new system, a failure a number of others have reported, and which I could duplicate with my plane sitting on the ground, yet just change to a std 36mhz rx and no issues with over 100 flights now on that exact same set-up. Till I get a straight answer on why Spektrum will NOT get another look in

GBR2

My Feedback: (1)

I know you have sworn off Spektrum but so long as your servos would work with 6v input why not just use the A123 2 pack with no regulator? Lots of people do and it certainly would make it less vunerable to brownout, especially those receivers that don't have the Quick Connect feature of the 1.6 firmware.

jmohn

There are still lots of Spektrum receivers on the market without the update. Old stock that has not been upgraded. Just test your receivers to make sure. The first generation of the AR7000 & 9000 receivers didn't have the updates either so if you have one of them you should test them. All the JR 921s have the update.

With more and more people moving to Spektrum it's just a matter of time before we see more and more issues like this.

It's sad to see planes get destroyed by this problem, but what's even worse is the plane was uncontrolled for several seconds and could have hit someone. I was upset by the destroyed plane, but more upset that I could have hit someone and injured or killed them. Some of these planes are heavy and can do serious damage to people and property.

These receivers should have been pulled off the market two years ago, IMO.

qldviking

I got the regulators at the same time i got my A123 packs, I used one in my katana because I was getting into imac and noticed that there was difference from a fully charged pack to one that had some time on it, so to keep it even i used a reg. I was also told by the bozo's that sold me the Spektrum to use a reg with that battery type, no big deal, a reg weighs sweet fa anyway. I am curious as to how a reg can cause a brownout, especiaslly seeing as how that katana has over 300 flights without any glitches whatsoever on standard jr 36mhz rx. I have just sold my katana pending the arrival of my new bigger yak, but I will be running basicly the same set up. It works in my katana, my 1.60 ultimate, my 1.20 Ultimate and other planes. That the same set up doesnt work with spektrum or rather spektrum didnt work says a lot right there, whethger it was a power issue or some other problem I dont know. I just know my planes work and work well with what I am using, it aint broke so there's nothing to fix. I got a spektrum, the system broke, so i got rid of spektrum, now the system is fixed. Now I will admit that even the best can break down, but what sealed it for me is the treatment from the spektrum people here, and I am not thew only person to have had that shoddy treatment from them either. It was the same with DA motors a while back, which is why I will not even contemplate a DA these days, my gassers are 3W or BME. It boils down to several points, firstly there is a problem out there with spektrum rubbish and secondly they deny it bluntly and rudely, which is why I wont consider spektrum again. If I had gotten a straight answer and some service it would be a different story, its that simple

GBR2

My Feedback: (1)

Regulators have limits to them vs. straight batteries and all regulators are not the same. Personally to me if I can fly without a regulator (no matter what the radio system) so much the better, just another layer of complexity that can fail. In the end, to each their own.

jmohn

All power systems have limitations on them. Even a straight battery pack can only supply a max amount of amps given the wire size and other factors. A BEC or regulator allows you to use a higher voltage or multiple packs with more servos that can drain down a standard flight pack and cause it to drop volatage. I also can reduce the fluctuations in voltage and current that can happen when you use multiple servos at once or use high torque servos like retracts often use.

Whe you move to larger planes with multiple large, high torque servos you will have to go to a regulator.


Jeff

evan-RCU

I have two 2000mA NiMh packs on seperate switches going into different inputs on the receiver on my biggie...

qldviking

A single battery input will not reliably deliver the amps going straight into the rx, my batteries have dual output leads, both going to reg, and 2 outputs from there going to rx, I get at least 10 amps of usable power that way. more than I needed for the katana.

freeair

as long as you keep up good battery power to the receiver and make sure the radio is binded properly before each flight, all should be fine. one thing that was pointed out to me with the spectrum radios is the [receiver switch ] this switch runs off a small pc board and what happens is the solder to board seperates causing a no go, i allways use the top of line JR gold plated HD switch harnesses and when it comes to dual rx battery power i will use 2 of these switches so if 1 switch or 1 battery should fail , all is still fine.

rack

My Feedback: (11)

run two bateries instead of two leads i told you this before it will help with your problems

qldviking

the setup in the katana drew 8amps max, I had no need to use 2 batteries as A123 battery packs will deliver a lot more than reliably. The reason for the 2 leads is that the standard plugs wont carry more than 5 amps. AAlso I change out my batteries as soon they show signs of losing capacity or every 12 months, whichever comes 1st. My battery packs all get checked for capacity as well as volktage before every flying session. I take the trouble to find out what power supply is needed and cater for it. Same as I do when selecting servo's etc

freeair

so how do you connect up this dual lead battery pack ?

qldviking

into 2 independant heavy duty switches and then to the rx

rmh

I must ask- have you seen a degradation in the A123 in the time you have used them?
If so -itwould be the first example of it I have seen./heard of etc.. I won't liv long enough to cause any reduction in power in the A123's I use . Ipurchased them as DeWalt and as single cells from A123
no differences whatsoever.

but that's only based on doing a lot of use and balance charging over past 2 years as electric motor power ans rx packs
better yet - my older packs - charge up and balance the fastest -not by much but they show no signs of pooping out as do my Lipos etc..

rack

My Feedback: (11)

two leads is just stupid!!!!!!!!!!!!! if you want redundancy use two battery packs and not 123s use lions or lipos 123s wont discharge quick enough under certain circumstances no mater how many leads you put on them

qldviking

why would I waste mnoney on quality lipo's thatr cost the earth, for what? A 123 cells work well, can take a fast charge and have no fire risk either charging or on hi discharge rates, and on my std size (46-90 size) I use A123 str8 thru, I cant do that with a lipo.
As for reduction in output of a123 packs, no I havent seen it yet, but I still change them out after 12 months on my bigger planes. I have just ordered a box of 50 A123 cells direct from the manufacturer, so as I can make my own packs in whatever format I want. I have only heard of 1 A123 pack drop a cell, and that was also after a crash, yet I had a new lipo drop a cell on its 3rd charge. I do use lipo's on my small electrics, and even the hi end lipo's seem to have a short life (100-120) cycles when they start showing noticeable drop off on capacity, yet some of my 1st A123 cells have over 300 cyclesd and still charge up to 7.2-7.3v, and still load very close to peak. I dont keep track of all my packs, I have 3 which I have numbered and keep track of every cycle, the rest are just dated from 1st charge. I have also found that I can easily charge them on my normnal charger at hi rates with no adverse effect, but they do get regular charges on a proper A123 balanced charger too. On the whole I see more advantages with A123 over lipo without the risks. To me its a no-brainer, despite the small weight disadvantage its A123 all the way

qldviking

gee rack, you just dont get it, its not so much redundancy, its amperage I am looking for. Its quitre simple, you cant reliably run more than 5 amps through quality jr/hitec plugs and it drops to about 3 amps for the cheaper plugs. I use 2 leads from my rx packs with quality leads and plugs to deliver the 8 amps I need for my plane, its that simple

rack

My Feedback: (11)

if you nead that much amperage you are not going to get it by adding more leads on a 123 it just dosnt work that way