S6R receivers

[Geoff S]

Hmmm ....

It occurred to me that I'd been using my oldest Taranis that I bought from Giant Cod (IIRC) because it was the only place that had them in stock. If anyone remembers I blew up a MOSFET in the charge circuit because I tried to charge the battery with my Graupner 16 charger and had to replace it (the MOSFET that is). In the meantime I bought a second Taranis from T9 (they were cheap then and you got an aluminium case as standard!). That Taranis is just about always used with either an Orange DSMX or Flysky external modul for indoor models so almost never for Frsky equipped models

So I've just tried out my number 2 Taranis (the one I use all the time for Frsky equipped models when flying outside) and it binds and operates perfectly as far as I can tell without a full check in a model. The bind is solid and the servos move as expected.

It looks like the really early Taranis RF module is different in some way. Is the RF circuitry on a separate PC board? I was just about to open up the one that doesn't work to have a look.

edit:  I've had a look inside the older Taranis that doesn't work with the S6R and the RF board is labelled D16HV2

Geoff

btw I've written to the Frsky support team via the Contact section of their website asking if they're looking into the problem. Not heard from them yet but it was only a few hours ago so not surprising.

Edited By Geoff Sleath on 14/11/2016 15:37:33

[Mike Blandford]

My prototype Taranis also has a D16HV2 (doesn't work with S6R), but the prototype Plus has a D16HV3 (does work).

I haven't opened up the early production Taranis.

Mike.

[Seabee]

I have had a prolonged exchange of emails with FrSky technical support trying to resolve this S6R binding issue. They were helpful and instructed me to try various things none of which worked. They gave no indication of being aware of this problem on the 10/11/2016

[Seabee]

Just checked my RF board is a D16HV2 and it doesn't work with either of the two S6Rs that I have attempted to bind.

[Geoff S]

Looks like the RF board may be the culprit then. At least we know. Let's hope Frsky will offer a replacement board. I'm OK because the transmitter I'd have been using in 'anger' does work with the S6R but I'd rather my two were the same.

Geoff

[Mike Blandford]

I have now checked my early production Taranis and it too has a D16HV2.

I've made direct contact with FrSky development regarding this.

Mike.

[Geoff S]

Thanks, Mike. I feel quite relieved that at least we have a prime suspect and it isn't me for once I was getting very frustrated and spent a lot of time experimenting and even more thinking.

I've checked my records and I bought my first (suspect) Taranis in August 2013 from Giant Shark (not Giant Cod) and my second from T9 about a month later. The T9 stock was definitely newer because they had none in stock earlier. They were quite hard to get at the time and lots of people had been eagerly awaiting them.

I've also contacted Frsky again mentioning the suspect V2 RF board and suggesting they might like to supply a V3 as a replacement. No harm in asking.

Geoff

[Andy48]

Ah! That may explain a lot. My early Taranis went up in smoke ( in reality it simply died), and the main board was replaced by T9, so I certainly have a later issue main board.

[Mike Blandford]

FrSky have admitted to a bug relating to loss of elevator output and have released updated firmware for the S6R, see: **LINK**.
I just tried this, but it doesn't fix the D16HV2 problem.

I used the STK device to do the firmware update with no problems.

Mike.

[Geoff S]

Yes I've installed the international firmware and it works OK. I used my transmitter to download it - it's a lot easier than using the STK interface.

Thanks for the heads up.

Geoff

[Mike Blandford]

I partly wanted to test my STK, and partly I couldn't find my crossed cable! I've since found my crossed cable and will probably use the Tx in future.

Mike.

[Geoff S]

Mine seems to be working OK now but it wouldn't work in Stabilisation mode at first because I hadn't included a gain control to channel 9. It seems to be an option according to the manual but just leaving the channel without any input effectively sets the gain to zero despite setting it higher in the Config S/W. So nothing moves.

I've used the S1 pot and you need to set it to 50% with 50% offset because the range is from 1.5 mS for minimum (zero) gain to 2 mS for maximum. I think the maximum is what you set in the Config S/W but I haven't checked that.

Failsafe can only be set from the transmitter because the button on the S6R is only used to perform the self check after binding.

Thanks to Mike Blandford for some of the above. He's been a great help. Perhaps I'm paying the price of being an early adopter but this receiver shows a lot of promise. I have other models it would be useful for but need more channels. Hopefully a S8R is in the offing, though perhaps adding a second receiver via the Sport might do the trick except I haven't a clue how to do it

Geoff

[Chris Bott - Moderator]

One tip Geoff, now you have it working.

Start with the gains quite low for all modes you intend to use. I'd say 50% max, maybe even lower to start with.

Also - the gain control from the Tx on Ch9 ONLY adjusts gain on stabilise mode. All other modes are fixed gain.

[Chris Bott - Moderator]

PS - My Tx module is also a V3

[Mike Blandford]

I have had confirmation from FrSky that setting the direction to the value 0x80 is valid for turning off compensation on a channel.

Mike.

[Andy48]

Posted by Geoff Sleath on 15/11/2016 20:42:26:Hopefully a S8R is in the offing, though perhaps adding a second receiver via the Sport might do the trick except I haven't a clue how to do it

Geoff

Pretty sure this will happen, otherwise why start the gain control at ch9, and the control channels at 10 and 11, rather than 7,8 and 9 or am I being too logical?

[Chris Bott - Moderator]

You're probably being more logical than FrSky, Andy48.

Mike - good to hear the confirmation. We already knew it worked.

[Geoff S]

Posted by Mike Blandford on 16/11/2016 18:37:17:

I have had confirmation from FrSky that setting the direction to the value 0x80 is valid for turning off compensation on a channel.

Mike.

Not entirely sure what you mean. Is that hex 80 ie 255 decimal? Do you mean that if (say) you're using the S6R on a rudder elevator or model you need to set channel 1 to the value you quote so that it isn't used?

Andy48: That's what I'd thought. There has to be a reason for the gap left between ch6 and ch 9

Geoff

[Chris Bott - Moderator]

Geoff, Mike is referring to the mod he made to the LUA script.
Currently that's the only way to set Ch5&6 so that they are not stabilised.
I'm sure that now the answer has been brought to FrSky's attention, they will incorporate the option into the PC/STK program too.

[Geoff S]

I was surprised that isn't an option in the S6R congig program. AFAIK the LUA scripts can only be used with Opentx v2.2 and I had enough problems with that earlier to make me hang fire on installing that until it's beyond the beta test stage.

As it stands the S6R is only useful for a 4 channel model with 2 aileron servos on separate channels (something I do often). It's a pity they wasted a channel for an extra elevator servo which few people need. If for mechanical reasons 2 elevator servos are convenient then they can be put on a Y lead fairly easily provided you take the push rod to the appropriate side of the servo arm.

Geoff

[Chris Bott - Moderator]

Absolutely Geoff, I was emailing Frsky about this almost as soon as I had mine.

It's such a simple option for them to add to the setup program, that I'm sure it won't be long.

Whereabouts are you? If there's anyone close who has 2.2 and the LUA then we could set this option in your Rx in a couple of minutes. Although I'm not quite sure what would happen if you ran the PC config tool again afterwards.

[Geoff S]

I live in Belper about 10 miles north of Derby but really it's not an issue at the moment. I've fitted the S6R into my foamie Riot where it's replaced a V8R4-II so I only needed 4 channels. (it flies perfectly well with aileron servos on a Y lead).

I'm just waiting for a suitable day to go up to Ashbourne to try it in anger. I have the sensitivity controlled by S1 so I'll start with it turned well down. I think I'll try the Auto level first - and a few mistakes high It's the Stabilisation I really want to use to see if it helps flying in the blustery conditions we get up there.

Gordon Whitehead was flying his beautiful Bucker Jungmeister at the Ashbourne scale day last month and he confessed to using a 3 axis gyro stabilisation module on that. If it's good enough for an aeromodelling guru like Gordon it's good enough for a piloting numpty like me

Geoff

[Chris Bott - Moderator]

Good, I look forward to hearing how you get on.
Remember the gain control has no effect on modes like Auto level.

If it's simply smoothing out the gusts you want to try (and that's really all I really want from it too) then Stabilise mode is what you want.

Edited By Chris Bott - Moderator on 16/11/2016 23:39:57

[Mike Blandford]

Geoff: Don't forget the channel 9 gain only affects the stabilisation mode, it doesn't affect the auto level.

When setting the direction of compensation, the 8-bit value 0x00 is sent to the S6R for the inverse direction and 0xFF is sent for the normal direction. I found that sending 0x80 turned the compensation off.

I have the configuration of the S6R working in ersky9x, including being able to turn the compensation off. As an option you could backup the flash and EEPROM of a Taranis and flash ersky9x and use that to configure the S6R, then put your flash and EEPROM back.

I just carried out a test. I have my S6R set with ELE2 direction as Off. I ran the S6R configuration program using the STK device to connect to the S6R. I read the S6R, then, without changing any values, I wrote the data back. When I then looked at the S6R settings from ersky9x, the ELE2 direction setting was still Off, so it seems the S6R configuration program tolerates the setting, although you probably need to leave the option alone to avoid it being changed.

Mike.

[Mike Blandford]

I've been experimenting with the STK device. I now know how to "talk" to it from the PC, and I've put together a program that will read and set some of the settings on the S6R. I had a small program that could configure the settings of the UART Sport sensor and I've extended this to be able to configure the S6R. At the moment it is a bit awkward to use, but it does allow setting AIL2 and ELE2 to Off, which the FrSky config program doesn't do.

Mike.