Well,I'll be hog-tied and dipped in turds!!!! I can do that too! How did I ever miss that? Thats one big feature I always look for in a radio nowdays. Man,I even read the instruction manual to see if I could do that and totally overlooked it.

God,thats one of the dumbest things I've done yet in this hobby,lol. It wouldnt be bad if I hadn't complained to all the guys at the field about me not being able to name my models like they could with their 7C. This must rank right up there with flipping my prop the wrong way for 4 hours while trying to start my first engine!

[sm=bananahead.gif]

goodness everyone is a critic. lol. sorry it was a typo.

LMAO. I feel your pain brother. I just taught someone how to put the names in their radio the other day and they have had theirs for 2 years now. lol...It happens.

Be aware that Futaba has been having troubles with the 6EX and some other models. My 6EX lost it's link to my receivers when I inadvertently left it on and fully discharged the battery. Now it has to go back for repair. This was after confusion about the unique ID problem (see [link=http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/forumid_125/tt.htm]here[/link] for more info). I don't know if the 7 has any problems, but you may want to carefully consider what brand to purchase.

Regards,
Jerry

This is old news at this point. Solutions have been found and implemented long ago. Yes, it was a bad situation for some but resolved with a free repair or free mod. A bit inconvenient but stuff like this happens. Just look at all the mods and updates they came out for the JR/Spektrum stuff. New tech = new problems.

Ah yes, but this is something new. I had my Futaba transmitter revert to the default ID by letting the battery run down. (What follows is a quote from the Futaba service advisory:'Despite countless hours of testing and evaluation under normal scenarios (e.g., turning the transmitter on/off in a typical manner, cycling batteries, etc.) we’ve not been able to eliminate this unique identification code.'). It seems that I have found the way to do this. My original post about the 6EX transmitter reverting to the default ID has been deleted from the Futaba forum presumably by Bax. My transmitter lost its binding to my receivers after the battery was allowed to run down. (My mistake - no excuse.) The fact remains that when I took it to the hobby shop to be tested for the ID problem it now fails! The very same transmitter passed at the same shop 3 months ago. The fact that my post on the Futaba forum about this issue was deleted seems to indicate that Futaba may not want to admit that there may be a problem with the 6EX series of transmitters. It remains to be seen if other 6EX transmitters will exhibit the same problem when the batteries are allowed to run down. Myself, I am moving to JR/Spektrum radios now.

Again, this may not apply to the 7C series radios.

Regards,
Jerry

Again, in spite of Futaba denials, this WAS seen and complained about before by more than one person. There have been no such complaints, that I have seen, if the repair/mod has been done. I suggest that you get it repaired and THEN evaluate it. It's free after all.

Free, except I have to pay for the shipping and have to be without my transmitter for ~two weeks. I have never seen anyone post that the ID was reset by draining the battery - or any other reason for that matter. Do you have links to posts claiming that the ID was changed? I am reluctant to test the issue, since if it does fail I will not be able to fly for another two weeks. Would you take the chance? I won't. My problem will be solved when I move to JR/Spektrum.

Regards,
Jerry

And it was, apparently, buried before Jerry or I could see it. Perhaps, after the initial hubbub over the duplicate GUIDs settled down, I didn't check in at the proper intervals to read evidentiary posts before they were expunged.

As a relative newbie, I have neither a great allegiance to, or an axe to grind with, Futaba. But I'm watching very carefully how they respond to this. I won't consciously give my $ to a company that doesn't have the integrity to own up to issues that potentially can result in the destruction of hobbyists' equipment, or personal injury.

Any legitimate complaint, such as Jerry's, should be taken seriously and investigated to evaluate credibility. If found to be credible, even if the problem can't readily be duplicated, it should be noted in the Futaba forum, where other owners of the 6EX can see it. Withholding this information is a great disservice to us, the customers, and we shouldn't tolerate it.

I'm quite content to give Futaba the benefit of the doubt with reference to the original oversight where transmitters were sold with identical GUID codes. We heeded their advice and were satisfied. But when something else comes up and their stance is to deny that a given scenario is possible or delete the cautionary words of fliers who've experienced a problem and try in good faith to report and enlighten us, I don't appreciate being left in the dark.

If they want to say that it can't happen, or shouldn't happen, or "that's not the way it's designed", fine. But leave the post so I can learn from the experiences of others and take steps to assure that I'm not put into a position to experience the same failure. Denials and attempts to obscure evidence of malfunction breeds distrust and fuels the rumor mill. Would Futaba prefer to have an actual event documented or have wild rumors and 3rd or 4th party recollections of what "I read about one time in the forum, but it's not there anymore."?

We invested in these radios with the intent to make our hobby safer and more reliable, for our benefit and the benefit of our fellow fliers. We want to be confident with our equipment and able to rebut uninformed members who stand before our club and say "I heard such-and-such about these Futaba FASST radios". We want to be able to point to the forum where Futaba has made their case in explanation about any given reported anamoly. It's pretty hard to do that when the posts disappear.

Clubs are going to eventually be forced to address the rumors and will likely come up with alternate rules governing the use of Futaba 2.4gHz equipment ironic, because this equipment was designed to eliminate potential conflicts and afford a high degree of confidence to us, as users. I like being able to go to the field, skip the step where I have to obtain a frequency pin, and turn my radio on and off without having to worry about what other fliers are using. If I have to go through some pointless rigmarole to mollify somebody who heard or read a rumor that Futaba didn't address or tried to ignore, I'm going to be putting my dollars into another brand that doesn't have this excess baggage.

Most often (but not always) when posts disappear from the Futaba forum it is because RCU members attempt (or do) turn the threads into "discussions". This is clearly posted as NOT being a "discussion" forum in the stickies at the top of the forum. When they become discussions the moderators (Krysta and/or BAX) tend to move the threads into a "discussion" forum. Seldom are threads eliminated entirely. Ya gotta play by their rules (their forum) or you may get spanked. They don't even have to provide this service. Did you notice there is no JR thread person any longer? Danny had to go to work.

Yes, I've read all the "stickies" and understand the polices, and appreciate the fact that there is an official presence authorized to address issues that are brought up in that forum. I've also noted that the JR rep was forced to abandon his position.

All we were attempting to do is to help Futaba in their efforts to determine a potential cause of this failure, and to make others aware that it can happen as a result of the battery going flat. They have noted the possibility of the failure occurring a short on/off switch cycle, and I'd think that they would want to test for, and warn against users leaving their transmitters on, draining the battery pack. The more that's known about potential causes of this failure, the better prepared we are to try to prevent it.

They've read all of the various "complaints" I'm sure and taken note of them. They have attempted to duplicate the switch problem but couldn't. They never said it didn't happen. They have also made (for free) hardware and software changes. And only a moron would think it's a good idea to run his battery down. Want to cycle your battery? Fine, take it out. Please note that I was not calling YOU a moron. Exercise due care with your radio like you should with anything that you have to pay for and you will be fine. Abuse it - good luck.

I did not leave the tx on to discharge the battery. It was left on inadvertently. The result was that it had to go back to the factory. Not warranted IMO.

Jerry

Hopefully you asked them to perform the updates while it was there so you can avoid this in the future.

Of course! Only a moron would not ask for the software update. It remains to be seen: 1) if the update will solve my problem, and 2) if they will test the battery drain issue. My guess is that they won't test it, so I won't know if it could happen again.


Not a moron,
Jerry