Is there a problem with the DX6

[Rocker]

Just brought a DX6 (not the DX6i the black DX6 )Have just finished putting all my ic models on this transmitter .Now I am told a few people they have had a big problem with DX6 in it looses signal leading to several lost or crashed models.I am not trying to have a go at Spectrum here ,in fact I like Spectrum product that is why I brought the DX6 .So has anyone had any real problems with there DX6 or is it just people blaming there transmitter when a lot of the time it is pilot error!!!!.I do not want to put my models on this transmitter if there is a chance I will loose them ?

[Pete B]

Bear in mind that a good proportion of DX6 purchasers may be newbies who may make errors either in installation, adequate power supply or flying mistakes, so I don't think one can assume that there is a fundamental problem with the radio.

The one aspect worth highlighting is that there is only one transmitter antenna in the DX6 which is in a fixed vertical position. If you point the antenna housing at the model in flight there is a very real possibility that you will lose the signal at the Rx, as the transmission is at its lowest radiated level as per this diagram:

Keep the model off to one side or the other and you'll not lose the signal.

Pete

[Colin Carpenter]

I have seen half a dozen in use ,mostly in the hands of beginners. One lost its RF board after a few months. Easily diagnosed as the orange bar lights on the TX front refused to light up on turning on. Horizon replaced board in a week and it's been OK since. All others have been OK .Colin

[ben goodfellow 1]

hiya,,,,,,,,,and good luck from me .who knows if you will have problems ............maybe not .......though quite a good chance you will........you just dont know.............. fly low

[Denis Watkins]

As you say, Pilot error for CERTAIN

[Nic Jarman]

I put a Hobby King Lipo battery pack in my DX6 and had 7.8v. The plane flew a bit erratic but got it back and put the original batteries back in and everything is fine. I will put a diode in line with the battery and try again.

[Steven S]

Pete B

I believe that there are two antennas in the DX6, one vertical and one horizontal one in the handle. Here's some info from the Owners manual.

Edited By Steven Shaw on 09/05/2016 13:54:32

[Pete B]

There are NOW but I posted that in March. The DX6 was released with just one vertical antenna and they've just upgraded it in April to the dual antenna - as shown on their product page. 'See the 'Now with antenna diversity' flash?

Things change quickly these days, don't they?

Pete

[ron evans]

Well gentlemen, how can I tell if my DX6 has dual antenna, without taking it apart that is.

Thanks

Ron

[Pete B]

Look on the model number label - the single antenna is numbered 6700, the dual antenna 6750, I believe.

Pete

[William Macleod]

only problem I have had is pilot error. radio great

[ron evans]

Thanks Pete, unfortunately mine is 6700 so single antenna. I've had no problems so far but it does make you think

Strangely my manual shows a dual antenna radiation pattern, it will also work with DSM2 so perhaps the change was made when they changed to DSMX exclusively.

Ron

[Dave Hopkin]

Single antenna are fine, just dont point the thing at the model, keep it at 90 degrees to the ground and pointing to one side and it will be fine

[Pete B]

Spekky's manuals aren't the most informative and they seem to have made a policy of relying on forum threads to pass on the latest and most comprehensive information - and in my experience it seems to be the best way as, particularly with Airware updates, it would be next to impossible to keep an up-to-date 'official' manual available. It's worth having a glance at this one over on RCG - a mine of information for anyone with an Airware Tx.

No, the change to twin antennae is very recent and the DX6 has been out well over a year, so I'm a bit surprised your manual shows them!

Dave, I think you mean keep the Tx parallel to the ground, do you not?

Pete

[Steven S]

Posted by ron evans on 09/05/2016 17:31:36:

Thanks Pete, unfortunately mine is 6700 so single antenna. I've had no problems so far but it does make you think

Strangely my manual shows a dual antenna radiation pattern, it will also work with DSM2 so perhaps the change was made when they changed to DSMX exclusively.

Ron

I see that mine is a 6700 model also, and my manual shows the dual antenna. I now assume that I have a single antenna only. Oh well, I haven't had any problems with it, but I do wonder what prompted them to add the second antenna.

[Pete B]

Progress with the dual antenna certainly but I wonder why they didn't from the initial release?

Perhaps they realised that the single, vertical antenna could lead to problems with users inadvertently pointing it at the model. At least with earlier models such as the DX6i and DX8 one could turn the hinged antenna so it was parallel with the Tx, which gives you a better chance of a full strength signal.

Pete

[Matt Jones]

The issue is so prolific it's been named Spektrumitis, enough said!

[Peter Beeney]

I’ve been doing homemade experiments with model radios right back from the days of single channel and 27 MHz, and I think that without exception there has always been a more than adequate ground range, that is unless there is specific problem with the radio that’s reducing the range; and I’ve always accepted that the air range can be up to 10 times the ground range, too.

I’ve related this here before as well, but one little bit of tomfoolery we do is to place a 2.4 receiver on the seat of a metal folding chair together with a connected battery for power and a couple of servos. We then take the associated tx 660 metres (720 yards) to a point across a shallow valley that’s very close to a copse but it’s still a straight line of (distant) sight. A couple of mobiles as a comms. link, one each close up to the tx and rx. To make it interesting the rx aerial(s) always point directly end on toward the tx. Then to try and raise the sweat factor a couple of degrees even further we place 3 transmitters directly underneath the the chair. The strip is in-between too, and invariably someone is flying. I normally operate the tx, holding this at standard waist height, but pointing the aerial in every conceivable direction whilst operating the controls including directly toward and the opposite back to front, tx pointing away from the rx. It also includes a 5 minutes idle wait to check for any extraneous servo twitching from our close up transmitters.

So far this has been always 100% successful, we’ve never seen a servo arm out of place when it shouldn’t be, so to speak. We started doing this when a friend installed an Assan 2.4 hack module in his FF9; and the Assan lightweight 6 channel rx has an aerial three quarters of an inch long, which looks to be just a piece of ordinary wire, sticking straight off the PCB. This seemed to set the de facto standard, if this kit was this good, what was the proper stuff like? This was a few years back, and it includes a Spektrum Dx5e and AR500 receiver, again faultless. As an aside I’ve also had several ‘brown out’ type dabbles with this receiver, I’ve previously published the results on the forum; plus including a number of ‘this is definitely not the way to do it’ type installations, breaking every rule in the book - never the suspicion of a failure!!

This shouldn’t be seen as any form or example of a definitive test, check or example, there is no firm documented evidence. It serves our purpose, however, and in fact we haven’t done one of these for a while. Probably because we’ve not had any range issues recently. Still getting some Spektrum ‘deviations’ though, an experienced pilot having a sudden and unexplained total matchwood making episode just off the end of the runway only just the other day. But I’d personally now take a great deal of convincing that aerial orientation of any sort had any thing to do with it.

Many many years ago I still can remember a class tutor, when I was getting in a tangle with some aerial theory calculations, saying that he wasn’t absolutely certain either and he thought it was all a bit of a black art anyway.

Just simply another view for the thread really, but providing you have the space it would be an easy exercise to replicate, no special equipment needed at all.

PB

[John F]

Posted by Peter Beeney on 10/05/2016 15:29:59:

Still getting some Spektrum ‘deviations’ though, an experienced pilot having a sudden and unexplained total matchwood making episode just off the end of the runway only just the other day. But I’d personally now take a great deal of convincing that aerial orientation of any sort had any thing to do with it.

This is the most important aspect really, convincing the flying legend that it WAS their flying rather than the radio is a very, very hard thing to do, even with video evidence to show they were at fault!

[Ian Jones]

Some of the following articles in RC Aerobase may be interesting:

 

2.4 gHz. RF link problems 2 - Tx/Rx RF link principles

2.4 gHz. RF link problems 3 - Advanced Range Test Protocol

2.4 gHz. RF link Problems 4 - Causes and Fixes

2.4 gHz. RF Link Problems 5 - Failsafe Triggered

2.4 gHz. DSSS and SSFH Systems Explained

2.4 gHz. RF Link Problems 1 - New Equipment Failure

2.4 gHz. RF Link Problems 6 - Failsafe Strategies

2.4 gHz. RF Link Problems 7 - Faultfinding.

2.4 gHz. RF Link problems 8 - Failsafe Recovery Time.

Edited By Ian Jones on 10/05/2016 18:49:42

[Peter Beeney]

John, I think that if you are trying to say this particular incident was down to pilot error I think I would have to reply that in this case this was very unlikely. There is no video evidence to corroborate anything one way or the other, but another flying mate that I’ve flown with on a regular twice a week basis for perhaps fifteen years who just happened to be watching remarked as it was going in “He hasn’t got that!”. When you’ve been flying for many years and spent a lot of that time on the end of a buddy lead you do tend to automatically register the differing situations occurring.

Perhaps one alternative question I might ask myself is - “Why is it that only Spektrum pilots generally seem to suffer from pilot error?”.

I’d certainly agree there are many incidents caused by pilot error, I’ve always thought perhaps in the region of up to 95% maybe, however, I do have some slightly historical evidence regarding Spektrum.

In the very early 2.4 days 3 of us had Dx5e radios, 2 beginners and I had one to use as a buddy box because of the numbers of new learners with Spektrum radio coming along. The other two both had problems, one man lost two models, although in rather vague circumstances. But he changed to Futaba, which resulted in no more crashes, although that could of course just be coincidence. The other chap, now a regular mate, also had some incidents, one such was that when he was on a buddy with his instructor as they were on the landing approach with the instructor flying all contact was lost and the engine went to a fail-safe tickover. At the very last second the radio suddenly responded again, all was saved but they decided it was not wise to continue. So another Futaba sale. But this lad is nothing if not persistent, so he ‘flew’ it it safely tethered on the ground until the same thing occurred. With some careful tampering he established that squeezing the transmitter in his hands caused the RF output to fail but not to extinguish the leds on the front. When he examined the main switch he decided it really wasn’t up to the job so he simply by-passed it with a wire strap soldered across and to this day he uses it occasionally; he turns it off and on by removing and replacing one of the dry cells.The switch was faulty and I’m sure this has also been flagged by other forumites, too. The RF output has never been an issue; by the same token I spent some effort in trying to actually cause mine some grief but I was never successful. And as I mentioned previously, checking the brown out figures, I think on 3 separate occasions, led me to think my actual results were considerably different to what others were suggesting they might be. At least on my AR 500 receiver anyway. I think I’ve posted the exact information and details twice before…

As someone remarked the other day, ‘Spektrum woes seem to be getting less frequent. But is that only because fewer people are using it?’.

I don’t know, and I don’t have any axe to grind here, either. I gave my Dx5 to some schoolboys to use a buddy with their Dx6 transmitters. (Graupner is a directly straightforward buddy with Spektrum, so I’m ok). We never had any problems with 4 of these Dx6 transmitters, apart from my homemade leads acting up intermittently. When is a mono plug a proper mono plug? Only when it’s a Spektrum mono plug. The Spektrum plug is different (larger) in size, but only by half a minuscule; but that's enough for the standard plug to cause the occasional open circuit. So even the genuine Spektrum lead doesn’t appear to have any leeway as far as a reliable connection is concerned, but having said that I’ve never know this to be anything other than 100% reliable. So far……

Anyway, whatever would we talk about if radio gear became ultra reliable…

PB

[pete taylor]

For what it's worth, I flew using an original DX6i for years without so much as a glitch.

When the new (black) DX6 became available I bought one and transferred all of my models over to it and set the various models up as required in the memory of the new Tx.

I was very surprised when I began to experience one or two episodes of strange behaviour with what had otherwise been perfectly well-behaved models, eventually leading to 3 crashes.

The first I put down to servo failure, the model failing to pull out of a shallow dive. The second was a warmliner that felt generally sloppy in the air when it had previously been perfect. The sloppy, unconnected "feel" continued throughout the flight and resulted in a hard landing that cracked the fuselage and caused considerable damage to the wing.

The final straw was a semi-scale GeeBee with impeccable handling that inexplicably rolled hard right immediately after take off and spread itself along the runway!

After each incident I examined the radio setup and found no irregularities with the actual equipment itself or with the RF side of things. I had by this point become suspicious of the new shiny transmitter and after careful consideration I bought a Taranis with FrSky receivers and set about learning how to use that as well as a Turnigy i10.

Guess what?? Everything seemed to return to normal, including my model attrition rate. This has been the case for the past 12 months now, so perhaps everyone will excuse me for drawing what I see to be a reasonable conclusion that my DX6 was at fault.

Strangely enough, I fly with 2 others who experienced similar problems with their DX6's and had no problems before or since they got rid of them.

It's a pity really, as it's a great Tx with very user-friendly programming features. I did at one point consider modifying the DX6 to use the FrSky RF section and keep the Spektrum programming features, but decided to go with the Taranis in the end.

Spektrum have always denied having any issues with this radio, as they did years ago with the brown out issue, so I've drawn my own conclusions and will avoid the brand in the future.

[Steve Colman]

I seem to recall a similar discussion to this a while back in relation to the DX8, mine included.

Steve.

[Peter Beeney]

Just to confirm that the DX6 transmitters I quoted that the schoolboys and myself used were indeed the original DX6is. Sorry if I caused any confusion. These always behaved impeccably, not so much as a single glitch in quite a lot of use; but there was an occasion when on one tx the aileron servos reversed of their own accord; I found the reason as to how this happened and was able to replicate it but why it should have happened I was never able to completely understand. There was a completely separate story at the patch at one time, too, about this odd aileron reversal on a DX6i. It can happen.

PB

PS If the later transmitters really are causing problems, and indeed resulting in models being difficult to control and crashing etc., then this would appear to be a remarkable step for Spectrum to take. Very unusual.

Edited By Peter Beeney on 12/05/2016 11:12:21

[Dave Hopkin]

Control surface reversal - I have experienced that on Taranis (once) third or fourth flight of the day (so the model set up was not disturbed at all) connected LiPo flight battery - usual pre-flight waggle, Ailerons reversed.....

Flipped channels 4 and 5 over to correct the orientation on the TX, rest of the day it remained the same way ever since.....

Still dont understand why.....