Radio issue? Your thoughts

[sinergy]

I am confused and thought I would get some input.


I have a brand new 9303.. got it in Dec. and it has been lightly flown for the most part, never dropped, travels in a foam case, basically babied.


I flew a handful of flights with it when I got it.. mostly on small foam stuff.

I then flew it 5 flights on one 50cc plane, then 6 flights on a different 50cc plane with a different receiver. I lost that plane on the 6th flight.. lost elevators, had throttle and ailerons (I believe) I know I had throttle.

Used the radio for probably another 15-20 flights on foamies.

The first 50cc plane I sold to my buddy.. he didn't have his radio yet so we used mine since it was already programmed.

Data log showed < 30 on each receiver, maybe 3 fades, and 0 holds after several different tests.


Now he got his new 9303.. re binded and flew the last 2 weeks with no problem. Unfortunately he tried to quick charge it and broke it over the weekend.

Sooo.. we rebind it to my radio tonight so he can still fly. 3 mins into the flight he looses it. A humpy bump turns into a loop on it's own.. gains it for a sec and looses it again... regains it and lands it.

I check the data logger and 0 on all receivers?? 594 fades and 2 holds.

I am confused.. so we reset everything and I walked away 200' with bind held and we rotate the plane several ways for 2 mins. Test again.. 250-300 on all receivers, 260 fades, and 1 hold?


This receiver (921) and extra satellite are all new.. less than 50 flights on them.


I can't understand why all the sudden the numbers are so high when nothing has changed and nothing has been so much as looked at the wrong way let alone dropped.


Has anyone seen intermittant problems with 9303s like this? I am wondering if I have had a random problem since day 1 and that was why I lost the other plane.

I didn't have another receiver to test but I am wondering since it worked fine all weekend for him and we rebinded today to my radio if people would lean towards a problem with my radio?


I know the proper answer is to send both in to get looked at... but I am just curious what people's take is on this and if anyone has heard of random signal strength issues like this?


Thanks!

[weezle]

I know you are using a power system from smart fly, if by any chance you put one of those pigtails into the battery/bind port would cause you to lose your bind. plugging a pig tail into the bind port basically puts it into bind mode and won't let it out.

[sinergy]

Yeah the plane that went in used a SF system.. but I didn't hook it up as you mentioned.

My buddy's plane that we had issues with last night has 2 A123 packs that plug straight into the receiver.. nothing fancy in the setup at all.

[bubbagates]

Jake,

Robert and I have been hashing this out over in the IMAC forum in the FARM thread

FARM East Coast IMAC Opener

Is the receiver in Robert's plane your old one or the one that came with his TX?

Though your description is a tiny bit different from his I still think the same thing I posted over there but lets take a look at your results first.

0 on all receivers indicates they rebooted which explains why control was lost and the number of holds prove that.

If they are the updated receivers, one of the LED's would have been blinking when you guys checked after he almost lost the plane. The high number of fades at the same time also indicate the reboot when combined with the 0.

As to why they rebooted goes back to Roberts description on the procedure used to do the bind/rebind. Usually I would say that power to the receivers was lost causing the reboot but his description shows that the bind was not done as it should have been.

The way I understand it is all that was done was to wait for the main receiver to go solid, not paying attention to the remotes. It's important to verify ALL receivers are solid. the remotes can take a bit more time to go solid though I could not explain why, this is what I have expereinced time and time again and is quoted in the 9303 2.4 manual though they also quote a very high number of fades (500) being allowed where the data logger quotes half of that on the package it comes in so I would go with the lower of the two which is the logger at 250.

my meager experience tells me that one or both of the remotes were never really bound properly and it was a matter of time until something went wrong.

In the other thread I likened it to a TCP 3-way handshake with the added benefit of stringent MAC address filtering so that they only respond to a single MAC, in this case Spektrum calls it a GUID (globally unquie identifier).

[robertp17]

Hey Bill I spoke with jake about the binding and he thinks they were all bound. I never looked at the satellites but he said they seem to all bind at the same time with this setup but he can chime in and give his thoughts. He is on the way over here with the data logger, radio, and another receiver. Will let ya know what we find

[bubbagates]

Cool,

just going by what was written

[sinergy]

I will be going there soon... they were all def. binded.

Although the 0 if it means a reboot is scarey. He has dual A123 packs in there so power should not be an issue. Going to have to look at them closer.

The receiver is the one that came with my radio.. I have 3 921s so he is using that one since they are all the same.

None have the quick connect upgrade... on the list of things to do. I have a new one coming from horizon with QC so will be upgrading the others once it arrives.

Thanks for the input.. will keep you updated!

[Zeeb]

Just one quick note about the Quick Connect feature; all the R921's/AR9100's have the Quick Connect but this was a running update. The initial version re-connects in less than 1/2 second but there are no flashing lights to indicate it has had a power brown out. The latest update is the one which causes the lights to flash, but it does not re-connect any faster.

Using an rx with the latest firmware version will help you troubleshoot the issue.

[sjohnson]

Sinergy
To anser your question first YES I have had randon problems with a 9303 and a spektrum module with a 7000 receiver. Lost a comp arf after about two months of flying this setup. Horizon replaced the reciever. Put the new receiver in a new 75cc Aewoworks 260. 20 flights later I tore up two planes in the pitts with the exact same problem. ( rudder deflected and throttle went to about 25%. No control from the transmitter.) setup 5745 rudder, 645 choke & throttle, 5955 elevator & ail. A123 straight to receiver. Voltage after crash 6.79.

[robertp17]

Im confused here... ok we tried another receiver with the same results. We tried another radio and did the bind 100% on all receivers and still the same bad numbers. How far away should you be for a range test? I think we were going to far away and if that is the case then I still dont know what caused my problem. I had a lot of trust in this system after 30 flawless flights and now this. Everyone says to move the receivers around but why after 30 flights would it suddenly be a problem on a manuever that I have done a bunch of times before? O well, the radio is getting looked at and the receiver is being changed with a new one so if I have problems now I will have to move the stuff around and try to get the best possible numbers on the data logger.

[sinergy]

We were too far away after refreshing myself with the manual.

We will do some tests on Sunday at the field.. maybe my new EF will come with me

[Panzlflyer]

I would look at anything that changed and the Smart Fly....If you had a hold the throttle should go to idle, for the other controls to not work means the Smartfly.
A loose wire on the remote will also do some funny stuff