Spektrum NX6 Rx Voltage

[Chris King 3]

Hi,

Ive returned to the hobby and bought myself the new Spektrum NX6 as I couldnt trust my of 35MHz JR set.

I went that route because I liked the idea of Telemetry telling me when my battery was low and I should land.

Im setting up an AR410 Rx but I cant get the battery voltage over telemetry. I thought (perhaps ignorantly) that the Rx would return the LiPo voltage through the ESC.

I have Rx voltage but thats just giving me 4.9V and I know the LiPo is 11 odd Volts.There is Flight Pack Volts but that says 'no data'.

Might be worth mentioning that the ESC is connected to the Rx on channel 1.

I seem to be missing something fundamental here - can anyone help pls?

Edited By Chris King 3 on 21/11/2020 14:09:32

[Gary Manuel]

Posted by Chris King 3 on 21/11/2020 14:07:14:

Hi,

Ive returned to the hobby and bought myself the new Spektrum NX6 as I couldnt trust my of 35MHz JR set.

I went that route because I liked the idea of Telemetry telling me when my battery was low and I should land.

Im setting up an AR410 Rx but I cant get the battery voltage over telemetry. I thought (perhaps ignorantly) that the Rx would return the LiPo voltage through the ESC.

I have Rx voltage but thats just giving me 4.9V and I know the LiPo is 11 odd Volts.There is Flight Pack Volts but that says 'no data'.

Might be worth mentioning that the ESC is connected to the Rx on channel 1.

I seem to be missing something fundamental here - can anyone help pls?

Edited By Chris King 3 on 21/11/2020 14:09:32

If you think about it, the receiver cannot possibly know what voltage the LiPo is at because the only connection to the receiver is via the BEC within the ESC at around 5v (4.9v in your case). You'll need a receiver with telemetry inputs and a separate wired input in order to measure the LiPo voltage.

[John Lee]

Chris, have a look at the Spektrum Air Telemetry webpage for the various sensors that are available. Link

[Former Member]

[This posting has been removed]

[Chris King 3]

That makes sense that the Rx will only see the Rx voltage from the ESC - should have though of that!

Hmm. Looks like I've spent a lot of money on some kit that doesnt do what I wanted!

I dont think the AR410 or indeed the AR630 I bought will give me flight pack volts.

[buster prop]

You need a Lemon LM0052 receiver, DSMX full range 6 channel with telemetry. I bought one for an electric glider, primarily to give me height and vario information. As well as that it has a flylead which measures pack voltage. The lead plugs into the high voltage end of the balance connector. Will work on any telemetry enabled Spektrum transmitter, I have a DX7 G2 which does voice announcements. I use height and vario only, could have battery voltage if I wanted although it’s displayed on the telemetry screen to check between flights.

[Richard Ashworth]

Hi Chris. There is a spektrum equivalent to the Lemon LM0052 receiver, the AR6610T, DSMX + Telemetry. It’s in stock at on line Hobby shops at about £54, you would also need a SPMA9570A lead £9 to go between the receiver and the ESC/connector lead, a bit of soldering needed. The AR630 you have receives signal and does stabilisation, the AR6610T receives and does telemetry. I don’t think there is a 6 channel receiver that does all 3 that I can find.

Unfortunately the AR410 doesn’t seem to have a telemetry equipped variant.

I have flight battery voltage only in one plane, a thermal glider where time in the air and battery usage can vary considerably but for all my other planes I use a LIPO tester before each flight (to make sure I am putting a charged battery in) and at the end of each flight, to check battery charge remaining and cross reference the safe flying time for each model/battery then set a warning timer for the time I expect the battery to be down to 30% charge so that I have time for a couple of approaches and a landing. Using that procedure either a AR410 or AR610 (or older equivalents) is all I have needed and find them invaluable for monitoring signal frame blips (yet to have a signal loss, fingers crossed!)

In any case it is worth having a battery tester to check your battery before every flight.

Sorry if I am “teaching you to suck eggs” but losing a model unnecessarily isn’t fun!

Richard A

[Skip]

Like Chris I am returning to the hobby after a few decades and I'm looking at the Spektrum NX transmitters.

This is all very new for me and I could be way off course here however my reading of the Spektrum website for the NX6 is that you need a full suite of Spektrum "Smart" bits to get all the benefits which includes a Smart battery, Avian Smart ESC, AR6610T 6-channel DSMX®/DSM2® receiver (as per Richard A's advice) and the NX transmitter which is described across a number of paragraphs in their NX6 page here ** LINK **

Here are a few sentences from that page:

The NX6 therefore comes ready to provide the advantages of state-of-the-art connectivity and telemetry — just pair it with Spektrum Smart batteries and Smart Avian™ ESCs.

It’s available as a transmitter only (SPMR6775) or packaged with the Spektrum AR6610T 6-channel DSMX®/DSM2® receiver (SPM6775) — which is compatible with Spektrum Avian™ Smart ESCs for experiencing the full benefits of flying "Smart"

The Spektrum™ NX6 comes ready to provide the advantages of state-of-the-art connectivity right out of the box by supporting the innovative, all-in one telemetry of Spektrum™ Smart batteries, ESCs and receivers

Whether you need all those things to get the battery voltage fed back to the transmitter I don't know. As I said this is all new for me and like Chris I'm trying to work it out too! Apologies in advance if this has created any more confusion rather than helping.

Craig

[Chris King 3]

Thanks for all the advice. Certainly not 'teaching me to suck eggs'!

I didnt want to go the SMART route because I already have ESCs and batteries for my aircraft.

I'll probably stick with timing flights but will enable the Rx voltage warning for my Lazy Bee as it should be a bit of a floater now it's much lighter with brushless and LiPo.

TBH I probably would have gone with the NX6 even if I knew about not getting Flight Pack Voltage as I have the capability to add this in the future when I buy new Rx's.

[Frank Skilbeck]

Chris, while I am a big fan of telemetry, you can buy Lipo voltage alarms that plug into the balance socket, get a low voltage on one cell and they activate a loud beeper, so unless you were flying your Lazy Bee at 500ft plus you'd probably hear it. e.g. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Lipo-Battery-Low-Voltage-Alarm-1S-8S-Volt-tester-Checker-LED-display-Brand-New/254610838011?hash=item3b47fd11fb:g:JSgAAOSwxq5e5dwx

On my IC powered Majestic Major I have a Rx battery LED and fuel tank visible through the cockpit so on a low flyby I can see how much fuel I have left and the Rx battery condition

[gangster]

On my IC powered Majestic Major I have a Rx battery LED and fuel tank visible through the cockpit so on a low flyby I can see how much fuel I have left and the Rx battery condition

i have always done much the same. I am a fan of the old Flair battery checkers that latch even if they see a short break and flash a high intensity red light. Caught me out once , but in a harmless way. Last flight of the evening the sun was low and intense. Came round for a lowish pass and saw a red flash. Panic set in and I took it round and set up a landing with as little control intervention as possible. Went over to the model battery looked fine. I then realise the sun had reflect lied off the Sanwa anodised red switch plate. I do however wish you could still get those Flair alarms or something similar