JR/Spekrtum LOCK OUT ISSUES
 

At the risk of opening a can of worms , i have to bring up the lock out issues jr has been having. i saw a FEW planes go in at a couple of shows this mouth. the pilot says they either got locked out or as others described, the radio just quit. there was even a whisper that the government was looking in a DSM problem. i can't swear to that but i can see a problem brewing if these "so called" problems continue . i have a 12x and had a 9303 and a DX6i and haven't had any problems yet. i am concerned however if there is a underlying problem i hope JR fixes it soon. I'm looking for input to this forum to see if there's a pattern of radio failures not to debate which is better , JR or Futaba.

RE: JR/Spekrtum LOCK OUT ISSUES
 

For me it's not a problem, I put THOUSANDS of flights on my DX7 without any problems. I how have THOUSANDS of flights on my 9303.

If you are asking which is better, it will indeed be a can of worms. Just keep in mind that opinions are like sphincters, everyone has one.

RE: JR/Spekrtum LOCK OUT ISSUES
 

the add reads i'm not debating or do i want to debate which is better. i'm trying to see if there's a pattern or not ,WB_1

RE: JR/Spekrtum LOCK OUT ISSUES
 

The only pattern I see with my JR / Spektrum equipment is 100% positive.

RE: JR/Spekrtum LOCK OUT ISSUES
 

I've been flying DSM2 since it was announced. (I've been flying RC for 50 years)

I have neither had nor have I seen any problems whatsoever.
Our fields (yeah, plural) are loaded with everything Spektrum and JR DSM2 .

No problems but lots of joy !

warbird_1 I would be quite interested in your source and their qualifications.

RE: JR/Spekrtum LOCK OUT ISSUES
 

Some people still don't believe there is a birth certificate, so how could we possibly overcome this issue[sm=72_72.gif]

RE: JR/Spekrtum LOCK OUT ISSUES
 

Look, it's strictly anecdotal but I can testify to one incident. I had just built an EDF Hobby Lobby F15, flew it with an old 6100e receiver and a 12X transmitter. After taking off and coming back around on my first pass it suddenly locked up, the engine quit, I had no control whatsoever and down it went. When I got to the plane the battery was still plugged in so I tried left stick and right stick and EVERYTHING worked. The plane was only about 200' away when I lost control. I had used this receiver many times without any incident.

Had the RX ever been in a crash? Yes, inside a foam Stryker body and it's worked fine since. Can we blame it on a flaky 6100e? Who knows. Maybe.

There were no other planes in the air and I was the only one at the field at the time. There are some houses around the periphery of the field. Could something there have generated interference? Maybe. Everybody has 2.4 phones and wifi these days. I've been in electronics for about 47 years and nothing surprises me anymore.

Anything that's made can have problems. It seems like the 2.4 technology has only been around for a few years and I'd bet the farm that there are numerous failure modes that JR/Spektrum either don't know about or aren't talking about.

Doug L.

RE: JR/Spekrtum LOCK OUT ISSUES
 

Oh! And when we SEE a birth certificate, not a copied COLB, and when that person stops obstructing all attempts to illuminate his past, maybe there will be more people trusting that person.

RE: JR/Spekrtum LOCK OUT ISSUES
 

what's your point?

RE: JR/Spekrtum LOCK OUT ISSUES
 

my source is real life. i see a few failures in my area at our local shows . i'm guessing about 4-5 . the radio's just locked out. that's what the pilots are saying. i have had no problems as of yet . I've been flying 2.4 dsm in my warbirds and my jet for about a year now . i'm just hearing and seeing a lot more than i am comfortable with , that's why i started this post. as far as the comedians go , if you don't have anything of value to offer ,then don't post. i'm trying to get to the bottom of the rumors etc . before i lose a plane.

RE: JR/Spekrtum LOCK OUT ISSUES
 

Chances are that it is inadequate battery power.
BTW, that is true for ALL 2.4GHz no brand is excluded.
They all are true microprocessors so the method (time) to reboot is critical.
The way to avoid it is to have adequate capacity and voltage available.
Spektrum solved the reboot time problem long ago. It is instantaneous, in the tests I've run on the ground.
As I said, airborne I've never experienced it nor have I seen it.
These RC forums would have you believe that it is ubiquitous.

With two A123 2300mAh cells in series you have a nominal 6.6 volts .
I do NOT use a regulator. I fly only JR Digitals and to date zero problems of any kind.

Yes it takes a special charger. For 2 cell Rx/servo set ups I use an FMA 4S now superceded by the Multi 4.
On my electric set ups (A123 for motive power) I use the FMA 10S.
All FMA chargers are available from FMADirect. Type it in and you'll have all the info.

Charge time 10 to 15 minutes.
One 2 cell Rx/servo pack will last for roughly five flights (six to eight digitals) before I recharge (Precision). Again 10 to 15 minutes or about the time it takes to refuel and restart.

Timing is the same on recharging my electrics. Five cells x 2300.
Flight time of 8 minutes is easily repeated.

I presently fly electrics only though I still have IC powered ready to fly.
If you fly extremely hard then 6 to seven minutes allows an adequate cushion on the electrics.
Want more time add battery capacity or learn to fly the sequences with the minimum power required .
Trust me, that makes it a whole new and interesting world of RC flight parameters and there is NO degradation in maneuver quality . I also am talking of electrics with unlimited vertical capabilities anywhere in the flight sequence.
I fly one sequence where 2/3rds of the maneuvers utilize extended vertical.

I've been using A123 since 2006 both in IC powered and in electric powered.

If you haven't tried A123 you are going to be amazed.
In my case and all those I know who've tried it, the standard comment is 'I'll never go back". I have long made up my own packs as when I started RC there were no 'ready made' packs but they are available from a number of sources now already made up. In 2006 the cells themselves were hard to come by.

You asked and I responded with what works for me and many others at the fields where I fly.

I'll never go back !!!!! Wonder where you heard that before. ;)

RE: JR/Spekrtum LOCK OUT ISSUES
 

Well I know that my crash wasn't electric power related. The 4S battery had a full charge and was still good after the crash

RE: JR/Spekrtum LOCK OUT ISSUES
 

it still might have been power related - perhaps the ESC/BEC didn't have enough cooling airflow and overheated, by the time you re-tested it could have cooled.

Or, it could have been a radio issue. No matter how good they make things, none of 'em are perfect..

RE: JR/Spekrtum LOCK OUT ISSUES
 

for example .. a guy was taking off with a ziroli sky raider ... just as it rotated the radio locked out. i was standing right there. he had flown the plane several times with out a problem. i believe he said he may have been running duralites with regulators though i'm not 100% sure about that. maybe some day the radio companies with come out with a log system to help you find out why radios lock out

RE: JR/Spekrtum LOCK OUT ISSUES
 

At my field I would have to say that we have had an unusually high ratio of planes just lock out and/or crash on Spektrum. The strange thing is that most of the crashes seem to happen in the exact same area of our field.

I have had two "lock-out" crashes myself flying my 12x and Ar500 receivers. I had never had any problems, and then in just a few days of each other, seconds after takeoff, LOCK-OUT. Then when we walked out to the crash sites, both times, everything works fine! Before both crashes, each plane had a great range check, the led was solid, and battery voltage was not the issue. My problem was with the receivers. After doing some testing, my Ar500's would at random times just unlink. After doing a Google on the AR500 Rx I found no shortage of pilots that have had similar problems. I emailed Horizon about this but heard nothing back from them. I then decided DSM2/JR was not for me and sold the 12x

Joey

RE: JR/Spekrtum LOCK OUT ISSUES
 

i'm a JR fan as well ,but if this get any worst i'm going to have to move back to futaba.

RE: JR/Spekrtum LOCK OUT ISSUES
 

I have also had 100% satisfaction with Spektrum. I fly the X9503 with all different Spektrum receivers with no issues, small lekkies to giant scale 3D. You do, however, need to be sure to orient the satellite receivers per instructions, if applicable. warbird_1 they do sell a Data Logger which will tell you exactly how well your receivers are functioning. Often times simply moving stuff around makes for a stronger radio to receiver connection.

RE: JR/Spekrtum LOCK OUT ISSUES
 

i have a data logger and i Orient the satellite receivers per recommendations . it seems the lock outs are very random and with out reason. that's what i'm worried about. like i said i haven't had a issues yet and i'm trying to avoid anything happening

RE: JR/Spekrtum LOCK OUT ISSUES
 

No failure is going to happen without reason and I also doubt it is random. If it was, I we wouldn't have so many fliers having 100% success with Spektrum. From my experience, it is user error 99% of the time. That includes using improperly sized batteries. That 1% could possibly be strong and unusual interference, which can knock out Spektrum only if its two randomly picked frequencies overlap. However, even this is rare and would need special circumstances to occur.

RE: JR/Spekrtum LOCK OUT ISSUES
 

i agree with you on the battery thing.when i switched over to 2.4 i got rid of all of my 4.8 packs and went to 6v on everything. my jet has two 6 volts packs running a redundant system . i did this because of the brown out issue some were having . for me it seems like a loss of signal do you a voltage fluctuation rather than just plain loosing the signal all together . that's what i'm thinking

RE: JR/Spekrtum LOCK OUT ISSUES
 

OK so I have witnessed at least 2 Spektrum issues at our field. I didn't know at the time what caused the first one but I think it may have been a transmitter battery issue. It was an electric that the gentlemen had just put down on the tarmac to take-off and all of a sudden the plane went full throttle on its own and he had no control, it crashed just off to the right of the field.

Last week my brother had just landed his EZ Sport with a OS70 4-stroke and DX7 taxied back to the pit area when the plane went full throttle on its own and crashed in the pits taking out a fellow flyers plane in the process. Turns out that the transmitter battery failed intermittantly and it went into failsafe(which was programmed incorrectly to full throttle instead of closed throttle). After charging and cycling the transmitter the battery fault was discovered.

You need to wonder if Spektrum is using quality batteries or cutting costs using inferior batteries.........Anyway CHECK your batteries and cycle them to make sure they hold up...........

RE: JR/Spekrtum LOCK OUT ISSUES
 

I've been flying Spectrum for over 3 years. I have had two brown outs, both with pylon racers runing 4 cell 750 ma AAA batteries. I swithed to 2 cell lipo's with regulators set at 6 volts and have never had another problem. It has been a year and a half now.

RE: JR/Spekrtum LOCK OUT ISSUES
 

HI
READ THE ARTICAL IN THE NEW AMA magazine AUGUST 2010 ISSUEabout preventing crashes from DONS hobbyhe does explain the problems and the fix-very good info and advice

RE: JR/Spekrtum LOCK OUT ISSUES
 

Hi tony0707, care to share some tips? I don't have access to AMA magazine [:o]

RE: JR/Spekrtum LOCK OUT ISSUES
 

Gotta agree about the ma article. Most useful one I've seen them publish in a long time. A little short on details but makes good points.
Shaggy