I have a question, here is my setup.

Smartfly PE Competition 12 Plus
Hitec Optima 9 Rx
2 x A123 6.6V 2300mah

Ignition Battery 2S LiPo 7.4V 2500 mah
Standard Charge Switch
SmartFly Fiber Optic Ignition Cutoff Receiver into 3W ignition

Jumper from IC in PE Servo Bus rail to Ch 8 on RX.

My Rx is programmed for failsafe settings of all surfaces neutral, throttle idle and ignition on.

I have been doing some extensive testing related to possible issues with the Hitec systems, and noticed that if I turn off the Tx to force a failsafe situation, the ignition LED goes out, then comes back on after 1-2 secs. The surfaces do not assume failsafe position until after the LED come back on.

Is this normal?

I would have anticipated that providing there was no loss of power to the RX, that all surfaces should assume failsafe positions almost instantly, and that the ignition circuit should be uninterrupted, at least until the RX issues it's failsafe commands.

Thanks for any assistance you can offer in this matter

Hi Mark,
This sounds like a radio issue. It sounds like the Cutoff channel is not programmed for the correct position to turn it off in failsafe. Since your other surfaces act strange I think you need to contact Hitec about this. On the Competition 12 we just buffer and pass the signal so if they do no assume the correct failsafe position until a second after you turn off the transmitter this is what the receiver is doing, not the Comp 12.

Thanks for the fast response. I will certainly look into it further and report back with my findings.

Originally Posted by mwoodman

I have a question, here is my setup.

Smartfly PE Competition 12 Plus
Hitec Optima 9 Rx
2 x A123 6.6V 2300mah

Ignition Battery 2S LiPo 7.4V 2500 mah
Standard Charge Switch
SmartFly Fiber Optic Ignition Cutoff Receiver into 3W ignition

Jumper from IC in PE Servo Bus rail to Ch 8 on RX.

My Rx is programmed for failsafe settings of all surfaces neutral, throttle idle and ignition on.

I have been doing some extensive testing related to possible issues with the Hitec systems, and noticed that if I turn off the Tx to force a failsafe situation, the ignition LED goes out, then comes back on after 1-2 secs. The surfaces do not assume failsafe position until after the LED come back on.

Is this normal?

I would have anticipated that providing there was no loss of power to the RX, that all surfaces should assume failsafe positions almost instantly, and that the ignition circuit should be uninterrupted, at least until the RX issues it's failsafe commands.

Thanks for any assistance you can offer in this matter

I didn't think you could program the ignition to be on with the Smart Fly cutoff. Once the RX loses signal, the ignition is cut off.

You may well be correct, but I raised the subject at my field the other day and someone demonstrated that a Powerbox Sparkswitch will remain on through failsafe, using Hitec Aurora 9 and Optima 9 RX.

My first experience with any SmartFly products, so thought I would ask in this forum.

It all depends on your tx's fail safe programming. The first words of rrritchy's post said this. If you lose rx power you will certainly have the ignition kill turn off. But the tx setup determines what you want to happen in fail safe mode. My ignition kill is setup to stay on but throttle goes to a low idle.

Originally Posted by rrritchey

Hi Mark,
This sounds like a radio issue. It sounds like the Cutoff channel is not programmed for the correct position to turn it off in failsafe. Since your other surfaces act strange I think you need to contact Hitec about this. On the Competition 12 we just buffer and pass the signal so if they do no assume the correct failsafe position until a second after you turn off the transmitter this is what the receiver is doing, not the Comp 12.

OK, have done some more research. There is in fact a 1 second hold period before the receiver will assume failsafe settings. This is documented in the receiver manual.

I checked all my failsafe settings and they are as follows:

All surfaces neutral.
Throttle to idle.
Ignition ON

When the rx loses signal from the tx, it enters hold for 1 second, then goes to failsafe settings.

It appears that at the moment the signal is lost, the fiber optic tx integrated into the Competition 12 shuts off, and then turns back on when the failsafe command is issued by the rx. At no time is the power supply to the rx interrupted.

Is there any way I can ensure that during the hold period, the ignition stays ON?

Hi,
The Ignition Cutoff is going to follow what ever the receiver is doing during hat second. If it stops transmitting pulses then it will shut off because it thinks the receiver failed. If the receiver turns the Cutoff off during that second its going to turn off. The Cutoff is only following the receiver which seems to act very strangely compared to other receivers.

Why on earth would they program that mode to enter into a hold.state for 1 second at the onset of signal loss. That one second hold Can last an eternity if your max power in a manuver and lose signal.And you have to wait a entire second for every thing to initiate into it s set failsfae positions. ??? I dont understand that.
I am very conncered about the fact that I am flying with a dx7 and it has Very Limited failsafe features.
Only the thorrotle will fail safeAnd I have smartfly ignition cut offs on the two Edges.
ASAP when I can afford it I am getting a better Transmitter,jr 12 dsm probly.

Hi Bob thank you for the great Electronic goodies and gagets .
We love em and if it were not for ,You ,,and Kurt from fromeco.
We would be a giant pile of splinnters,Between the two of you
we can all build very reliable RC aircraft Control and flight systems.
And your both from the USA :-) . As long as I am in this hobby ,your my suppliers for what I see
as the most important parts of my Airplanes.

The Hitec radio sounds like it has a glitch. My radio's fail safe is either "keep same command" or you can program it to turn off or on. To turn off for a bit then turn on is not something I would ever want to do on an ignition kill or my control surfaces.