RC Car failsafes ??

[propnut]

Hi guys

I use the standard Flysky module and receivers and have had quite a few hair raising moments with lost signal and not at extreme range either. I was wondering if anyone had ever tried installing one of the available add on fail safes that are made for RC cars in aircraft? I can't see why they wouldn't work and am hoping they will at least give me a sense of comfort I nothing else. I would rather set the plane into a death spiral than have it disappear over the horizon and hurt someone.

[Rob Thomson]

As fat as I know non of the flysky rf / rx combinations have a fail safe option.

Upgrading to frsky resolves that issue.

[gohsthb]

it probably depends on the failsafe module and how it works. Do you have links to any? I'm not familiar with them.
-Gohst

[Crucial]

Add on failsafe example. http://www.duratrax.com/accessories/nitro/dtxm4000.html
And another http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wt ... XEYG2&P=ML

[Kilrah]

These would work but not on all channels. The Flysky receiver "holds" the signal on certain channels in case of loss (module wouldn't work with those), and disables the outputs for some others (would work there). Not sure which is which anymore though.

[MonkeysPunk]

This is the main reason I switched to the Frsky modual,and for PPM

[ShowMaster]

Reasons to consider a Frsky upgrade.
First off failsafe, says it all.
Second no more loss of control or Hair Raising signal losses.
Ok, cost to upgrade is one consideration but I have to think that one loss of signal full on crash of your car will cost a lot more in front end parts then a one time tx module upgrade and the cost of a new RX.

No more accidental starting of you car on the table, floor, or burning tire tracks in the new carpet. No more buying a $20 bag of car parts to get the special piece I broke.
I had my own parking space at the hobby shop when I went through the RC car phase.
Pay now or pay later and often it the hobby oath we seem to take.
SM


ShowMaster
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[propnut]

Hi Guys

Many thanks for all the replies. Well I have ordered one of these

Failsafe on Ebay

I have an investment in these receivers having 8 x 8 channel 4 x 6 channel and 2 x 3 channel (which by the way do have failsafe) and so would like to see a return on my investment. Additionally I do already have a number of both DFT and DJT Frsky modules as I have quite a few radio's and will I suppose eventually migrate one of the DJT modules to my 9X but as we are all inherent hackers would really like to see if I can find a workable solution.

Now here is the bizarre thing. I live in Surrey and if I fly at a place called Chobham Common which is a very large natural nature reserve I have NO issues whatsoever. I can fly all receivers to the limits of my eyesight. However if I fly at my designated club which is close to the M25 then things can get hairy.......but not always and ONLY with my Flysky stuff. My FrSky stuff and 35Mhz have never had a single glitch there ??? Go figure. There must be interference there as there is a large telecommunications mast, a hospital, an Ambulance station and a trucker stop all nearby but why only on the Flysky stuff??? I have read plenty of reviews on the Flysky stuff and the only receiver that has any reported issues is the 3 channel.

[ShowMaster]

Let us know how it works out please. A lot of posts discussing FlySky/Trunigy failsafe options have been made.
SM


ShowMaster
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[propnut]

Sure will do......and sorry I realise my references to my flying sites make no sense to anyone not in the United Kingdom. I tend to forget the global nature of forums even though I am an IT consultant specialising in network design and work for an International company

Either way country and locality aside the fact that I am seeing this behaviour does suggest a level of swamping or severe attenuation due to possible nearby RF. The fact that it is only affecting FlySky may indicate that they are not "hopping" nearly as well as they claim

[jhsa]

yeah, there is a lot of RF noise for sure.. what do the spektrum owners at your club say?

[ShowMaster]

yeah, there is a lot of RF noise for sure.. what do the spektrum owners at your club say?

Good question.
I think my dx7 dsm2 would lock out when we flew close to a golf course fence. Never an issue after going Frsky.


ShowMaster
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[propnut]

Don't think anyone at my club uses Spektrum come to think of it. Actually, based on my experience in computer networks specifically in the arena of Wireless, when 2.4Ghz came out I did warn guys that it would not be a utopia. Even in computer networks over lapping channels AND frequency swamping as well as external RF noise causes massive attenuation, packet retransmits and data loss. Why should our implementation of the same band prove to be any more resilient. In fact it may actually prove to be prudent to reuse FM one day seeing as the open nature of the 2.4Ghz band is making it open season for anyone who wants to make anything that uses RF.

[propnut]

Whoooo hoooo it works

Take a look at the video

Working Fail Safe

[propnut]

It works guys, I did try and link a video I put on YouTube to my last reply but got an notification from the forum stating it needed to be approved. Hopefully that will come up soon

[ShowMaster]

Good to know thanks.
Try it on the other channels and post the results please.
I don't know of they hold and will not work the same. Many have asked about fail safe for other channels using this RX.
Usually most good brushless esc's will kill the throttle if the throttle pluses disappear, already a fail safe built in.
I don't know how brush esc's work with loss of ppm input?
Does not work if the last good position is outputted by the RX with loss of signal.

I


ShowMaster
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[propnut]

On the 8 channel receiver channels 4 + 5 do not work but all the rest do. The great thing about ER9X is that of course I can take my rudder and assign it to 6, 7 or 8 so still a result. I haven't tested the 6 channel but will do so and report back

[Kilrah]

Just be sure to check every receiver you want to use it with, it's known that there are different versions, and not all have the hold on the same channels... Like some output a PPM signal on the battery connector, but not all...

Sent via mobile

[propnut]

Yes, good feedback thanks.

I have now tested the 6 ch receiver and it works on every channel

[edk83]

So glad I found this thread as this weekend I have been playing with the same thing!

I bought a hobbyking buzzer and soldered it to an rc car failsafe. Worked perfect on my fs r6b. I then went to fly and found I only have about 100ft range! Now I know what cause this to happen last week, at first i thought a sudden big wind gust but now I know it was signal loss.

[BBvideo 425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mPVw3G3nNc[/BBvideo]

So I binned the r6b and put my r8b on. No more signal loss and i can walk right to the top of that field with no dropouts. Only issue is that the buzzer only sounds once when i turn off the tx now im useing the r8b.

Guess what its on channel 5! I will move it to channel 6 tomorrow!

[jhsa]

Did that multirotor just go through the window?? I hope it was your house, or you must have been in serious trouble..

[edk83]

It killed my neighbours greenhouse! The crashing of glass was really loud, was like oh shi....!

3 panes of glass and a lot of tidying up, only cost me £15 lol

Moved the failsafe / buzzer to channel 6 and it stays on all the time now when tx is off

[jhsa]

Better to fly those things at the field.. not in urban areas.. Lucky there was no cars or people there..

I have a couple of multis also..

João

[edk83]

Yeah I may need a bigger flying area. Behind my house there are about 8 fields so I fly way out over them usually. Just so happened that when I lost rx connection the quad was pretty high and pointing back towards the gardens!

[propnut]

Did you happen to open up your 6Ch receiver and see if the antenna had come adrift from the PCB. The antenna is coax so the outer shielding and the inner core need to be soldered. I have read numerous reports of the 3 channel failing but until now never the 6Ch. If you haven't already thrown it away would you be prepared to post it to me to take a look. Judging by your video footage you are in the UK right??

[edk83]

Ah ok thanks for that. I think the antenna had come away from the board tbh but its gone in the bin now.

Do you know if the 8ch ones are the same? The 8ch one that I'm currently using had a break half way along the ariel so I resoldered it. I was not aware that they are coax so does that now mean that my 8ch ariel is shorted out? I have tested the range on it and it's pretty good.

I have got another Turnigy/flysky 8ch on order from hobbyking, will swap it over and retest once it arrives from HK.

[propnut]

TBH at the price of these units if you aren't sure then you should just bin and replace. Is it worth losing a model or worse hurting someone. Even with failsafe if your Quadcopter or Heli drops out the sky because FS has cut the throttle it's not just going to give someone a new hairdo.