New RX suggestions

Hey guys, well, I got a new f12e after my old one died... I am about to start the process of gutting and rebuilding my quadcopter and have got new flight controllers and so on ordered.

I can make use of the Devo RX I have now, but it's only an 8ch ppm and Deviation wont talk to it anyway... So I want to drop it and get a better RX.

I would like something that would actually let me use all 12 channels on the f12e... Want to have RSSI so I can feed it back into the telem. And good range.

What would be your suggestions on that? I was kinda looking at the FrSky x4r but I am not sure what all has to be done to make the TX work with that RX can anybody shed some more light on that?

I ordered a lemon RX for DSMX protocol. 12 channels and only 3 wires. Openpilot and cleanflight are able to handle it on a cc3d.

just a suggestion but I'm happy with that

The FrSky X4 won't work - yet. I believe the protocol is in the last stages of being reversed, but haven't seen any code yet.

The FrSky D series work great, but they only have 8 channels (BTW, deviated Tx will give you 12 channels - even the lowly 7e).

Deviation's DSM support has 12 channels. I'm not sure what else does that has telemetry support. Personally, for getting 12 channels IIm plan on going with the orangeRx 620X SBus version. I've had reasonable luck with OrangeRx, and the 620 has telemetry built in. Not clear what you need to get battery voltage, though. If you can use SBUS, that's preferred to CPPM because it doesn't have any latency issues. There are pilots who claim to notice the latency issues when you go to a CPPM frame wide enough to handle 8 channels safely, let alone 12.

Interesting... How's the reception on those with the Devo TXs?

I am getting cuav pixhack so SBUS is what I was planning on using, I am cramming everything in the body of my Scout X4, so I would like something with long enough antenna leads to run out the holes on the body that were there for the DEVO RX which are like 6 to 8in long.

I'm not really worried about telemetry on the RX. Have got a long range 3dr telem radio I'm hooking up to my tablet so I will get all the telem I need there.

I really want to make sure I get something with some pretty good range.

www.deviationtx.com/forum/3-feedback-que...evo-8s-and-ppm#38626

www.deviationtx.com/forum/3-feedback-que...7e-transmitter#38541

Looks like PPM and Spektrum SRXL AR7700 and AR9020 receivers may provide full DSMx channels (>7CH, >9CH)?

So, am I correct in assuming that at this point, there is no way to get a RX with the full 12 channels AND RSSI?

From what I can tell none of the DSM stuff supports RSSI. FrSky doesn't support SBUS so no more than 8 channels off of that gear...

Surely there is a way to get all 12ch AND RSSI isnt there??

aBs0lut30 wrote: From what I can tell none of the DSM stuff supports RSSI. FrSky doesn't support SBUS so no more than 8 channels off of that gear...

FrSky supports SBUS - just not on the older Rx's. The older Rx's also don't have 8 channels. Deviation doesn't support the newer ones (yet).

DSM Telemetry provides "Fades" and "Holds". With RSSI, I can just set an alarm for whenever that falls below some level to alert me that my signal strength if fading. Not sure what to do with the DSM telemetry values.

Thomas.Heiss is a major DSM proponent. Maybe he can provide a pointer to a tutorial on how to use the DSM flight log data with Deviation to get warnings about radio signal strength issues. I know I'd like to see that!

Surely there is a way to get all 12ch AND RSSI isnt there??

I use DSMX protocol with Orange Rx S.BUS receivers. Only thing is that devo only allows sending 12 channels on dsm so you still don't have all 16 channels. You also don't get a true analog RSSI out of them.however you do get several different signal strength indicators, it's called "spectrum flite-log".

Tho note you can't get these readings out of the RX so you can't see it on your ODS, you can see it on the transmitter and set audio and vibrating alarms for them which is how I use it. I have an alarm start at >100 fades and >2 holds.

So you guys trust the Orange? Havent really seen anything bad, but see a lot of people saying they wouldn't trust it in an expensive RC.

I trust the new 1220x series (620x, 720x, 820x, 920x esc) in everything. I've never had an issue with one. Get well over 1km range in the worse RF environments, built in telemetry, S.BUS out without an inverted (if you can solder SMD). I love them.

Spektrum FlightLog warnings:

Holds > 0 (there shall be NO holds at all)
FrameLosses > 40 (better adjust to >20-30 if normally F are lower within normal test flights if you really care for warnings)
F = 0 is optimal

Continuous 45 FrameLosses = 1 Hold
Nevertheless you could have e.g >40-90 FrameLosses (N O T continuous!) and may still get 0 Holds!!!

Spektrum talks about <50 FrameLosses and 0 Holds within 10 minutes flight.


Fades:

Fades A/B/L/R: usually no activated warnings on test flights to test out antenna placements and/or plane electronics

If Fades A = 255 (0xFF max) IMHO something is wrong - at least this was on my side as you do not expect THAT many fades comparing all A/B/L/R.
If the other (SAT) antenna still receivers signal , then even no FrameLoss may occur.

On DSMx according to Spektrum manuals there are no absolute Fades numbers, as it was suggested by them with DSM2?!
If L/R are counting much higher than A or B (if fades on L/R supported by RX), then the placement of 2nd antenna is not optimal.

The lower Fades (all), the better...

Personally I checked for Fades > 80, I rarely get over 80/100 with 450 heli with AR8000 at a low-noise field within some time range in NORMAL conditions and good antenna placements (if all is well). May have to test long range.

I am sure that there are some Fades max guidelines on some forums like RCGroups by some bigger plane / heli pilots.


TM1000 / FlightLog manuals are not too bad.


I had shown some real life FlightLog number values flying my Blade 4503D 6-8 min. with AR8000 + TM1000 at low-noise field on specific DeviationTX nightly build version in the "Spektrum DSM telemetry support" thread.

Thomas

aBs0lut30 wrote: So you guys trust the Orange? Haven't really seen anything bad, but see a lot of people saying they wouldn't trust it in an expensive RC.

How many of those people would trust Deviation with their expensive RC? Same situation - you've got a third party reverse engineering the protocol without support from it's creator, no access to documentation on it, and so on. You can see this in the odd way the things interact: The new OrangeRx Rx's don't work with their old 6-channel Tx's, Deviation doesn't work properly with some of the Spektrum licensed RTF boards, Deviation sometimes works better with DSM2 than DSMX with both Spektrum and OrangeRX (at least that's what I recall), etc.

Bottom line, the radio gear is unlikely to be the weak link in the system. Anything going wrong - a lose solder joint, a connections not quite as tight as it should be, whatever - can cause your aircraft to fall out of the sky. So you want to test everything as thoroughly as possible before flying. For radio gear, that means making sure the Tx controls all generate the proper motions on the aircraft, and doing a range check. And doing those tests any time something changes that might cause them to break - work on the aircraft, a crash, or even a change of or at the airfield.

Do that, and there's no reason not to trust the anything that passes the tests. If it doesn't, don't trust it, even if you're using a Spektrum-branded receiver with a Spektrum-branded transmitter.

I agree

Thanks for all the info guys!

I bit the bullet last night and ordered a 920x so we will see what we get when it gets here...

Just as a side note, anybody with an F12E out there that also has the tablet holder?

I grabbed one the other day and it got in last night and I was trying to hook it up. Would probably work great on other Devo's but doesn't exactly fit the f12e... Just wondering if anybody had one and had figured out a good way to make it fit?

Thanks guys!