Intermittent reboots

[Galand]

One of my FS TH9's with smartieparts board and Er9x is rebooting randomly.
You can tell by the rapid beep-beep and by seeing the splash screen if you happen to be looking.
It did so when flying a tricopter yesterday, lost control and crashed it.
When flying airplanes before, by nature more forgiving, reboot is followed by rebind and you are back in control but the glitch is very noticeable.
It does this re-boot even when standing on the workbench untouched, which makes me doubt about a bad contact explanation. I also tried different batteries li-po and li-ion, glitch happens in both cases. So no idea whether this is H/W or S/w.
This morning, after sitting on my desk u8ntouched for 2 hours with power on and not doing any glitching, I picked it up, powered it down and back up and it subsequently rebooted 3 times all by itself, each time showing the splash screen and beep-beep.
I am baffled and hesitate to use this Tx anymore.

[Spoogy]

I don't know if this is the reason but there has been discussion at RC groups that the backlight which comes with the smartieparts board may cause such behavior. You can try that by disconnecting it does that eliminate the problem. I try to seek a link to that discussion at RCG....

edit: Not from RCG but same thing -> http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/foru ... =5744&PN=5 It claims that by setting 25ohm resistor in series with the backlight will solve the problem (with smartieparts backlight).

And more edit: http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showpost ... tcount=218

[GrootWitbaas]

This was a problem on the Rev2 board, But it has been fixed by Steven a long time ago. When did you get the board, is it a old one, in that case there is a fix and it is posted here

Here is from Smartieparts.com site

Revision History

Rev 1: Green board. First prototype. Had primary power issue that had to be resolved to function (click here for fix ). Had backlight power issue that resulted in too much power drawn from radio's CPU (click here for fix).

Rev 2: White board. Both Rev 1 issues resolved. Introduced possibility of radio rebooting when light turned off (click here for fix). No new features. Slight efficiency improvement with backlight. Some layout changes.

Rev 2.1: White board. Rev 2 issue resolved. No new features. Some layout changes. Different USB and EL connectors used (not compatible with previous revisions).

[Galand]

I don't know if this is the reason but there has been discussion at RC groups that the backlight which comes with the smartieparts board may cause such behavior. You can try that by disconnecting it does that eliminate the problem. I try to seek a link to that discussion at RCG....

edit: Not from RCG but same thing -> http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/foru ... =5744&PN=5 It claims that by setting 25ohm resistor in series with the backlight will solve the problem (with smartieparts backlight).

And more edit: http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showpost ... tcount=218

This was a problem on the Rev2 board, But it has been fixed by Steven a long time ago. When did you get the board, is it a old one, in that case there is a fix and it is posted here

Here is from Smartieparts.com site

Revision History

Rev 1: Green board. First prototype. Had primary power issue that had to be resolved to function (click here for fix ). Had backlight power issue that resulted in too much power drawn from radio's CPU (click here for fix).

Rev 2: White board. Both Rev 1 issues resolved. Introduced possibility of radio rebooting when light turned off (click here for fix). No new features. Slight efficiency improvement with backlight. Some layout changes.

Rev 2.1: White board. Rev 2 issue resolved. No new features. Some layout changes. Different USB and EL connectors used (not compatible with previous revisions).

Thanks Spoogy and GrootWitBaas.
My board is indeed a Rev 2 which I got about March 2011 and did not install until August.
I crashed a lot of models with "loss of control" after that and could never explain why, except blaming my poor flying skills or interference.
Two months ago a bought another FS TH9 and another Smartieparts board and gave the first one with the Rev2 to my son, who is a much better pilot and also hears better than I do. He came up with this reboot issue almost immediately having noticed the beep. The switch alarm and other alarms were set and, I guess, prevented finishing the reboot for quite a number of seconds. I eliminated all the alarms and that reduced the reboot problem to a glitch problem. But that still crashed the tricopter.
This seems to make sense. The second FS TH9 has a Rev2.1 board and I am upset at Steve for not having notified his Rev2 customers.
I looked at the soldering fix and I do not think I can handle it, which is why I bought the board to begin with!
I'll try to contact Steve to see if his much vaunted customer service holds up.

[GrootWitbaas]

I am 99,999% sure Steven will sort it for you.


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[Daedalus66]

I had the same problem with a REV2 smartieparts board (compounded by the fact that my 9x had a V1 board). Steven was extremely helpful and did more than I expected to set things right. So give him a chance to help.

[Galand]

I took the Smartie board and the backlight out.
Flew this weekend on two days. Not a single reboot.
Maybe I can fly after all!

[GrootWitbaas]

yes when the board is out the TX works fine. It was a trace misplaced on the board. You have now already the firmware, so contact Steven. He will most probaly ask you to send him the board and I am sure he will fix it for you.

Groot

[Galand]

The free replacement SmartieParts board arrived today.
Steven stands behind his product!
Thanks and congratulations on that.

[GrootWitbaas]

Yes that is the type of service we all want from every where. Steven sets a extremely good example of true Customer Service.