Range issues with Devo 6S

Hi,

I have a Devo 6S running the latest nightly build. Up till now all of my flying has been in my yard with no issues. I recently got a 250 class racer and am learning to fly FPV at the park. I had some issues with the quad dropping out of the sky but I thought I had just got too low on the throttle and cut off the motors. However I decided to check my range tonight and see what I am actually getting and it is pretty poor.

I tested two different Lemon PPM RXs, one on my Nighthawk 250 and one with satellite on my Eye One Xtreme at 150mw. With telemetry off and both the quad and tx about 5 feet off the ground I only got about 400 feet of range before the bind was lost.. I also tried a Walkera Ladybird V1 at 150mw and got almost the same exact distance. The ladybird might not be a good choice for a range test as I have no idea what type of distance that should get but the Nighthawk or EOX with the Lemon RX should be better than 130 meters on flat ground with no trees or buildings in the way.

Any suggestions or things to check?

Thanks and regards,

Dennis

Orientation of antenna?

RedSleds,

Thanks for the reply. TX antenna was straight up and down about 4 feet off the ground. The rx antenna was about the same height and tried in a number of positions but the distance where binding was lost only varied by a few feet. I opened up the TX and the antenna connector seems to be soldered to the board OK and the connector seemed to be a tight fit..

Try my mod, this could help you.

Thanks for the suggestion.

I just did the range test in the TX . I tried it with two different quads, both using the Lemon RX. One had the satellite and one did not. I also tried the Walkera Ladybird V1. In all instances the Tx was about 4.5 feet off the ground antenna pointing straight up and the quad was at the same height holding it out at arms length and walking backwards.

Lemon RX w/o satellite bound as DSM2 15 feet before bind was lost
Lemon RX w/satellite bound as DSMX 3 feet before bind was lost
Ladybird V1 15 feet before bind was lost

I tried different orientations of the rx but it didn't change the distance much at all before bind was lost

So here is the real question, does the 6S just have poor range or is it an issue with using DSMX/DSM2 on a Lemon RX on the Devo? Going by a recommendation on another thread I bound the receiver with DSM2 instead of DSMX and that seemed to improve the range some. But I still only got 500 or so which still isn't very far. I am trying to decide whether to try a Devo Receiver like the RX701 or spring for a Taranis with an FrSky receiver which supposedly have great range.

I don't really want to buy another radio if I can help it as I like the feel of the 6s, not to mention the money could be spent on other quads.

Thanks for any advice.

Dennis

I believe I'm having the exact same issues with my 6s, keep getting lost signals at 100mW at no more than say 80m! Both using OrangeRX DSM2 and a genuine Spektrum DSMX. No telemetry.

I have been running at 150mw and getting about 400 ft. With your 100mw, the calculated difference in range would be about .6 which is very close to your 260 feet. I switched to DSM2 and got better range but still far from what others are getting.

That said PB etc say that running at 150mW will likely not see a proportional increase in range, as the system starts to max out.

I can confirm that DEVO has better range than DSM2

My test: **My DSM2 Rx is not genuine Spektrum**
1.Set power to 100uW
2.Walk away till LED goes off (AR6200)
3.Do the same with DEVO Rx (RX705,RX1202)

At around 15meters AR6200 barely respond to Tx. If I wrap my hand around Tx antenna, Rx lost signal completely.
Same thing done to DEVO Rx and DEVOs still have solid connection at same distance, position, orientation, antenna wrap.

Block137

Thanks for the reply. Did you test to see how far you could go with the Devo before it lost signal? I will order a devo receiver like the RX701 if I thought it would get me significantly more range. I am not looking for a km (thought that would be nice) but a quarter mile (400m) would be nice, especially if I do some FPV racing where there are lots of trees etc. and reception and better reception will be needed. It is just frustrating when you hear of people getting huge range with a Taranis and FrSky for about the same price as a Devo radio.

A better antenna is not an option?

AFAIK the antenna is pretty-well optimised, apart from being in a fixed position that may not be the most conducive to clear transmission.
I was of the belief that the 6s used the same module as the 8s, so should be a full-range TX?

RoGuE_StreaK wrote: I was of the belief that the 6s used the same module as the 8s, so should be a full-range TX?

The 6, 8 and 10 all use the same CYRF module. I've actually swapped modules between the 6 and 10.

Can't help much with range issues - I only fly micro and nano stuff with the 6S, so don't often get to even 100' of range.

Tonight I put a Devo RX701 on my quad and the range is significantly improved over my LemonRX PPM with DSMX or DSM2.

On the 100uw range test with the LemonRx I got about 3 feet with DSMX and about 15 feet with DSM2
With the Rx701 I got almost 70 feet even with lousy antenna placement.

It was raining or I would have done a full power range test but I think it will be much better than the 4-500 feet I was getting before.Hopefully this will solve my issues with the quad dropping out of the sky when flying FPV.

Thanks for everyone's help and suggestions.

Dennis

Have you tried this new nightly build? It has increased my range significantly, I will post a 100uw range test later. Also, you need to be careful when mounting receivers on a carbon fiber frame as it blocks 2.4GHz.

See my answer from this thread: www.deviationtx.com/forum/3-feedback-que...monrx-dsmx-sat#38145

Lemon...Lemon...Orange...Lemon......Orange...Lemon.. Problems over problems from forums over forums from threads over threads

I can't read it anymore!

One of the killer threads was on RC-Networks (German forum) and a user complaining about his DX10T because of plane crashes...and then at the final end his new tests showed that with genuine newer DSMx Spektrum RX this was not the case anymore.

So put your SAT away.
Take a genuine newer full DSMx Spektrum RX with DataLog (e.g AR6210+SAT, carbon fiber RX/SAT with longer antennas, AR8000, etc.).
Put a TM1100/TM1000 on and ground range test your exact distance, check your antenna orientations and analyze your Spektrum FlightLog.

Not sure how telemetry / range checking works with DEVO RX and DEVO telemetry modules.
Is there any "FlightLog" (Fades, Holds, FrameLosses) like Spektrum or RSSI like Frsky has?
Never had to do it...I don't use Walkera RX / telemetry here. Sorry. I just have one RX of a MasterCP lying around and I can not test with it (missing Walkera ESC).

Greetings

Thomas

Thomas.Heiss wrote: See my answer from this thread: www.deviationtx.com/forum/3-feedback-que...monrx-dsmx-sat#38145

Lemon...Lemon...Orange...Lemon......Orange...Lemon.. Problems over problems from forums over forums from threads over threads

I can't read it anymore!

One of the killer threads was on RC-Networks (German forum) and a user complaining about his DX10T because of plane crashes...and then at the final end his new tests showed that with genuine newer DSMx Spektrum RX this was not the case anymore.

So put your SAT away.
Take a genuine newer full DSMx Spektrum RX with DataLog (e.g AR6210+SAT, carbon fiber RX/SAT with longer antennas, AR8000, etc.).
Put a TM1100/TM1000 on and ground range test your exact distance, check your antenna orientations and analyze your Spektrum FlightLog.

Not sure how telemetry / range checking works with DEVO RX and DEVO telemetry modules.
Is there any "FlightLog" (Fades, Holds, FrameLosses) like Spektrum or RSSI like Frsky has?
Never had to do it...I don't use Walkera RX / telemetry here. Sorry. I just have one RX of a MasterCP lying around and I can not test with it (missing Walkera ESC).

Greetings

Thomas

No one is asking you to read or comment. If your only answer is 'Get a genuine Spektrum', what are you doing on DeviationTx? We are trying to help the OP with his issues using a Lemon Sat, if you have no advice for that issue, then there is no need to post here.
Thanks

Block137 wrote: My test: **My DSM2 Rx is not genuine Spektrum**
1.Set power to 100uW
2.Walk away till LED goes off (AR6200)

At around 15meters AR6200 barely respond to Tx.

You should try to compare the range tests to genuine Spektrum transmitters.

I found that 30-60m full-range with AR6210 on DX8 is equal 1mw power output up to ~60m on AR6210 with my Devo10.
See the other corresponding threads (also threads on 100mw vs 150mw tests).

I may be able to repeat the range test with 100uw, 300uw (even already did so) but I am almost sure that this does not compare to ~60m distance?!?

Sorry, I can not show here concrete m distances on 100uw, 300uw. Would have to repeat test first and write down numbers specified to nightly build firmware version.


I just want to try to tell you guys that you can not really range test without seeing what is going on on the protocol low level side.
It's the F + H numbers that counts for me and which are important.... even on >20-40 F you would not expect that you see no plane reaction / RX led blinking (hold).
So what are you testing, if you are going to completely loose plane steering control for multiple seconds (so you can see no reaction) on 15, 30, 60m distance? Even at 60m and sporadic holds I could steer the rudders most of the times. I had to go far >60m to get a complete "steering rudder stop".

Doing tests on 100uw may get a very different result than trying to achieve ~30-35m (according to HH/Spektrum) with e.g 300uw or 1mw.
So you may have to expect that limiting the power output will get a lower distance numbers?!?

But let me try to re-test my AR600, AR6210 and AR8000 on 100uw+300uw.

Could you please also test your Lemons and Orange and Spektrum AR6200 DSM2 on 1mw?

Greetings

Thomas

I made a note in the bug tracker .
Since then I have done a range test at 100mW using my Devo 7E with a 2db SMA Antenna running build ef0d76d and the new 6S running 39cfdaf.
I live in the city, so 2.4GHz is super crowded in my street. My friend held the receiver with an attached servo at about 1,6m above ground and I walked down the other side of the street.
I tested the Orange RX R1020X CPPM in DSM2 and DSMX and the Devo RX601.
The results are a bit surprising:
The 7E managed about 10m before the servo stopped moving, regardless of protocol or RX. Measurement accurate to about ±1m.
The 6S managed about 2m also regardless of RX. If I turn my back on the TX, the range seems even shorter.
I want to donate the ORX R1020X to the deviation project. Who should I send it to? Thomas.Heiss, vlad_vy or Indigo? Before sending I'll test it against another ORX R820X to make sure it's not a particularly bad one.

I did find some info somewhere that there were early Devo 6s transmitters that had reduced power like the 7e. You could tell if you had the lower power version by the last digit of the number under the battery cover. Unfortunately I can't find that link again. Mine is supposed to be the higher power version but 100uw range check with two different Lemon PPM rx (both with and without satellite) were similar to nfnity's numbers 1m for DSMX and 4 meters for DSM2.

As I mentioned previously, with a Walkera RX701 I got almost 20 meters at 100uw.