Help! PowerBox Royal, JR 12ch Rx & Flight Log Interactions!

[ljaganna]

Hello,

I was switching my 3W Yak to 2.4G this past weekend. I have been using the 9ch Futaba PCM Receivers with the Powerbox Royal in this plane without any issues for 1year.
I swapped out the old PCM receivers to two R1221s(12 ch JR) & updated my 12X for the new plane.
Everything seemed to be fine, but I found this very strange problem when trying to use a flight log:

If I plug in the flight log into either receiver...the black-box display on the PB-Royal restarts! BUT the receivers/servos all seem to have power, since the receivers are not showing a voltage drop(no blinking lights). This happens consistently.

If I put the flight log on a long extension(3feet), and do the exact same thing....no problems!

If I keep the flight log plugged in.....no problems either!

I put an ampmetere in series with the batteries....I don't notice any unusual current draw.

It is very strange...

Anyone else out there that is using the PB-royal with JR/spectrum and used a flight log?

Thanks,

LJ

[ljaganna]

Any help guys?

[Reza]

Sorry, I totally misunderstood you

[ljaganna]

Hello Reza,

The LCD display for the black box wasn't touched when I did this.....but when I plug in the flight log into the Receiver, the black-box display of the powerbox restarts.....there is no direct connection from the flight log to the powerbox royal....

Kind of weird. The extension I used didn't have a an amplifier...just regular 3foot extension.

[Reza]

Sorry, I thought you are talking about the LCD extension! I am not sure what's happening other than when you plug it directly to the receiver, something gets disconnected or looses contact when wiggling the connector there. If this is not the case, I do not know!

[ljaganna]

I did a few more experiments. Here is where I am at:
If I plug a servo directly into a spare slot on the Receiver, I can still get the Royal's blackbox LCD Display to restart. So this is not unique to the flight log. I re-installed one of my PCM Rxs, and this doesn't happen with the PCM receivers.

Recap of my issue:
Installed 2 R1221 JR receivers with a PowerBox Royal(RRS). After the system is powered up, if I plug in a flight data logger or even a servo directly into the receiver, it makes the Royal's Black-box display re-start! However the R1221 receivers are not showing any voltage brownout. Servos/controls all seem to work during this Black-box display re-start.

I put back the old PCM receivers, and plugging in a servo into those has no such problem.

This is a head scratcher....I bought this powerbox royal back in June'08...I know they had an upgrade back then for the 6014FS since that was a lower signal voltage....I wonder if there is some similar issue with the R1221 receivers?

Anyone have any ideas?

Thanks,

LJ

[ljaganna]

I got in touch with Powerbox tech support in Germany.
They were very prompt in responding & also provided clear technical explanations. Kudoes to them!

Long story short: This is not an issue.

Long version of the story: When you hot plug in a new device into the rx while the system is on, the capacitor on the display box temporarily has a low spike. That's all. I did plug in several servos, load meters etc and drew 2-3A of current and it was solid....just when you hot plug in a new device that has a sizable input cap...this happens. The receivers never lost power anyway...so I guess I was being overly paranoid....but better safe than sorry.

This actually speaks to the quality of the Voltage regulators that are in the powerbox itself. They have some pretty fast response current limiter ckts & regulator devices....which should provide solid in flight performance!

LJ

[Reza]

Awesome! Thanks for sharing!

[Pontiac_40]

Did you say 2 R1221 rx's. Do you have the Plane's control divided amongst the two? Could you share how you you did a bind with both Rx's together.

Thanks

[ljaganna]

This is a powerbox royal, RRS system.....so both Rx's control the entire plane. The Royal keeps the plane on RX-1 and if that goes into failsafe, it switches the plane over to RX-2, and vice versa. I have never had it switch receivers in flight......so this is probably a bit over done.

Binding is no different for 2 receivers....you just bind each of them separately or do not at the same time.