Radiomaster

[Graham Davies 3]

Thanks Andy, that's really helpful.

 

It was hard to know what I wanted, as I didn't really know what was possible. Voltage sensor is a no-brainer. 

 

I now have a good place to start

 

Graham

 

[Mike Chantler]

@Andy does the TX16s work with V2? I thought it only worked with V1?

[Andy Gates]

Any receiver with S.Port can handle voltage via a Lipo sensor board.

 

Just be careful, the mini one can't be daisy chained to read 2 packs at the same time, the bigger one with the display can.

In quite a few of my planes I run parallel packs so I need the more expensive sensor but it is only a couple of quid difference.

[Andy Gates]

The TX16 should work with the V2 providing the 4 in 1 module has had the firmware update for V2.

The FrSky protocol list will change on the Tx, V2comes under FrSky X 2 in the listing.

I run a Jumper T16Pro so I can't be certain, my sons TX16 is with him at the moment so it has not yet been upgraded. One of my future jobs to be done.

Edited May 11, 2021 by Andy Gates

[MattyB]

3 hours ago, Mike Chantler said:

I've just converted from FrSky to Radiomaster. So far all the ACCST Rx that I have connected have worked fine (using v1 of the firmware). I'm tempted to try RadioMaster Rx.

You could, but Frsky just threw some lawyers at them so the D16 Radiomaster RXs have been withdrawn. I would probably recommend vanilla Frsky gen 2 D16 ACCST receivers like the R-X6R, R-XSR etc as the best choice, as they are pretty cheap but have an excellent rep for range and quality. Of course the beauty of the MPM is that you can buy pretty much any RX you like, and once bound they work seamlessly - the only definite thing to do is make sure that you have a telemetry capable RX in anything above park fly size, as you the. Always have signal strength and receiver power supply voltage available, and can add other sensors where it makes sense. For park flyers I use the Lemon DSMX receivers, they work great and cost peanuts. 

[MattyB]

2 hours ago, Mike Chantler said:

@Andy does the TX16s work with V2? I thought it only worked with V1?

Yes, it can definitely do ACCST v2 following the MPM firmware update a few releases ago.

 

https://www.multi-module.org/using-the-module/protocol-details/frsky-x2

[Mike Chantler]

Thanx. Had not spotted that.

[ken anderson.]

hello Graham...i have the T16s...have a look here at the protocols supported by the MPM Module...Protocols_Details.md   may be some help for you..i tried to post a link to the MPM page on the Git hub site....didnt work ?

 

ken anderson T16s dept.

Edited May 12, 2021 by ken anderson.
link didn't work due to me.

[Graham Davies 3]

Morning Ken,

 

Yep, I saw that and glazed over a bit!

 

I understand I can use pretty much any receiver (except FASST, of course!). I was interested in suggestions. And maybe some pros and cons. I'm a bit old school having returned to the hobby 18 months back. I use a 9CAP with a 2.4 module and whilst it's plenty for much of my needs, the techie in me sees the benefit of some of the telemetry options. What I don't want to do is buy a TX and some RX, get the wrong one and not see any of these benefits...

 

Cost is another one; as long as gear is reliable, I don't care what brand I use. But FASST receivers are a bit more expensive. This becomes a factor when pricing up a project, and has the effect of causing me to wait. I'm not keen on waiting; I usually then change my mind 6 times...

 

Andy's brief summary was helpful because I now know a rough direction, and also understand a use for SBUS, which I didn't really get before!

 

Graham

[Mike Chantler]

OK - help, I'm trying to understand the differences between V1.3.1.36 & V1.3.2.77.

 

Is there something that summarises the major version changes and any gotyas? Going through the commits looks rather lengthy(!)

[MattyB]

1 hour ago, Mike Chantler said:

OK - help, I'm trying to understand the differences between V1.3.1.36 & V1.3.2.77.

 

Is there something that summarises the major version changes and any gotyas? Going through the commits looks rather lengthy(!)

 

This page on Github summarise the major changes in each release....

 

Releases · pascallanger/DIY-Multiprotocol-TX-Module · GitHub

[Mike Chantler]

Many thanks

[Andy48]

18 hours ago, Graham Davies 3 said:

Thanks Andy, that's really helpful.

 

It was hard to know what I wanted, as I didn't really know what was possible. Voltage sensor is a no-brainer. 

 

I now have a good place to start

 

Graham

 

If you are flying electric, its a current sensor that is a no brainer not the voltage sensor. The current sensor will tell you the actual battery consumption.

 

Voltage sensors have their uses for identifying failing cells early, but different types of lipo have somewhat different voltage/capacity discharge characteristics and you can be caught out. Higher C batteries tend to maintain a fairly constant voltage and then drop off suddenly.

[Mike Chantler]

Thanks guys for all the advice. I was needing to flash a couple of new S8R receivers so decided to go for LBT ACCST2.1 and upgrading the TX16s multi-protocol firmware and it was all fairly painless with your pointers ?

21 hours ago, Andy Gates said:

Very worth doing the V2 firmware upgrade too.

 

Andy: what was your reason for upgrading - to keep current, or where there specific things you wanted from V2?

[Andy Gates]

Here is MY reason Mike which I am sure someone will disagree with which is why I have written it in this way.

 

To keep current? Not really as my system has been working pretty well so far although I do fly in quite a clean environment.

 

3 items in all my reading about the upgrade appealed to me.

 

First was the very vague possibility of the radio system causing one of the control surfaces to go to full deflection, which knowing Murphys law and my luck would be at a low height part of the flight (take off or landing). This would possibly total my aircraft, and as almost all my machines are scratch built this would be a big loss in terms of time and effort.

 

Second was the possibility of getting a slightly better range out of my existing equipment, we can never have enough of that really can we?

 

Third was the chance of getting more / better telemetry, the G series FrSky receivers promising better accuracy of the variometer installed, others giving a live signal quality reading as well as the dB readings.

 

I can't prove the first as I have never suffered the issue, second I am testing out with my glider and thermalling but no where near the limits yet, the third seems to be coming true and extra telemetry is showing up on discovering sensors.

 

I have only once ever suffered an issue with a FrSky receiver, a V8FR-II. Twice I lost signal and the fail safe kicked in and the plane crashed, the cause eventually traced to a poor coaxial cable connection in this particular receiver.

[Mike Chantler]

Thanks Andy. I have a couple of 6 channel G receivers and will have a look at their telemetry.

[Andy Gates]

Good luck with the soldering Mike, be very careful!

[Mike Chantler]

lol, i carefully soldered the first one in and discovered that I had put it in the wrong way around! I was too scared to desolder it so now have a special cable just for this one. Not good practice I know, but I think I might have destroyed it otherwise.

[David Hazell 1]

Guess who fried his Futaba T12K? I was trying to figure out why my improvised wireless buddy system wasn't powering on the receiver plugged into the square trainer lead at the back and I think I must have shorted something while using a multi meter - blown the voltage regulator or something - battery voltage bouncing all over the place and the unit beeping like a mad thing before it switches itself off. I tried re-soldering the battery pin outs on the main circuit board in case of a dry solder joint there but that didn't help...

 

Sooooo I went ahead and bought a TX16S from unmanned tech. The price has gone up a bit since their release when I didn't push the button on a purchase... £160 now! I also bought a jumper t-lite with the hope that I can get any of my three young kids into the hobby and they're all well used to gamepad style controller thanks to them receiving a nintendo switch last Xmas! I'm well impressed by the T-lite so far (specially as it costs less than 60 quid!), but a bit scared of the TX16S

 

I hadn't considered the fact that I own 3 T-FHSS receivers which won't work with either of my shiny new toys. So unless I can get my fut fixed cheaply (unlikely) I'm going to have to get some new rx's. My trainer (still not passed my A-test yet) is a 2nd hand purchased  .45 glow engined Flair ATS Kite has a T-FHSS rx. She's lovely to fly and keeps me on my toes if there's not a headwind to slow her approach. I also have a DB Gringo built for leccy which has an SFHSS rx in it (fine) and a lidl glider conversion I just finished which also has an SFHSS rx. I got a bit unstuck trying to set up the failsafe for the lidl conversion, but that would have affected any SFHSS plane. When I engaged failsafe, the throttle went full chat, seemingly no matter what I did - I only solved it by changing the weight of the input to -100%. I then found that the latest version of the multi module firmware has fixed an SFHSS bug to do with channel reverse on outputs not being recognised. I spent a couple of hours getting making sure I wasn't going to brick my jumper t-lite and it is all patched up fine, running the latest open-tx and also the latest multi module firmware. And sure enough the full chat throttle scenario is fixed! (I had to undo my -100% weight hack on that). Why oh why does my ESC talk backwards?!

 

Anyways, here I am a total noob in OpenTX land and I _have_ to swap out some Rx's... I would love to have some telemetry for how much battery is left and maybe range strength. I don't like spending too much cash... Recommendations? Thanks!

[MattyB]

The go to Frsky 6ch Telemetry ACCST receivers are probaly the RX series these days...

 

https://www.t9hobbysport.com/rc-gear/frsky-xr-receivers

 

• No vario - RX4R, RX6R and RX8R pro are all great; R-XSR for multiorotors
• With a vario - G-RX6/8 (though they are getting hard to get hold of)
• Less recommended (IMO) - X8R, X6R (have a bit less range and the paddle antennas are harder to install)

Another option is buying someones old D8 series Frsky RXs - they have a great reliability record and there are no fiddly firmware mismatch issues possible,but  you can't use the more modern telemetry sensors with them. Finally you could try the Radiomaster Frsky compatibles - unfortunately the D16 firmware versions are no longer available (Frsky threatened them with a lawsuit as apparently the firmware was stolen by an exiting employee!), but the D8 compatibles are and seem to work very well.

 

[David Hazell 1]

I got my TX16S model set up and it too was ignoring reversed outputs on failsafe - I had to go through the firmware and multi module updates and it fixed it. I had a bit of an issue when I went to put the SD card back in its slot, it missed the socket and fell straight inside the transmitter! I had to get the back off to fish it out (and did ratchet stiffening too). I was surprised that the back didn't just remove straight off like I'd seen videos of it doing, as it has an extra speaker in the back. 

 

Thanks for the advice re telem receivers. I had absolutely no idea what a vario was until I just looked it up, so I won't be needing one of those just yet. Maybe if I get into slope soary stuff.

 

https://www.flyingtech.co.uk//electronics/radiomaster-r168-8ch-pwm-frsky-d16-compatible-receiver - these guys have that illegal rx in stock, but only the "FCC" variant whatever that means. Ah looking it up, it's like DVD regions so FCC is no go for us.

 

I think I might plump for a few of the R86C/R88 jobbies and try to flog on the TFHSS rx's I've picked up.

 

I have SO much to learn! I will start watching some of the youtubers recommended above...

 

 

Edited July 19, 2021 by David Hazell 1

[MattyB]

1 hour ago, David Hazell 1 said:

...https://www.flyingtech.co.uk//electronics/radiomaster-r168-8ch-pwm-frsky-d16-compatible-receiver - these guys have that illegal rx in stock, but only the "FCC" variant whatever that means. Ah looking it up, it's like DVD regions so FCC is no go for us.

 

I think I might plump for a few of the R86C/R88 jobbies and try to flog on the TFHSS rx's I've picked up.

 

 

Don't worry about the FCC thing - 1) They can be flashed to EU LBT firmware if you want just as per any Frsky RX, and 2) many people still fly with FCC firmware even though technically it is not legal to do so, there is literally zero change of anyone ever being pulled up on it. 

[PatMc]

10 hours ago, MattyB said:

... but the D8 compatibles are and seem to work very well.

 

Matty, do you know if the Radiomaster D8 compatibles have Rx voltage telemetry as standard same as Frysky D8 Rx's ?

I believe the have RSSI level telemetry but Rx voltage would be jsut as important to me for slope soarers.

[MattyB]

1 hour ago, PatMc said:

Matty, do you know if the Radiomaster D8 compatibles have Rx voltage telemetry as standard same as Frysky D8 Rx's ?

I believe the have RSSI level telemetry but Rx voltage would be jsut as important to me for slope soarers.

The discontinued D16 variants did have, but it doesn’t seem like the D8 ones have the same functionality sadly…

 

https://www.radiomasterrc.com/article_cat-14.html

Edited July 19, 2021 by MattyB

[Glasshopper]

Hi I have read with concern your statement that the use of r/c kit with fcc is illegal. I have been using my Taranisx9 since 2014 in fcc as it was sold, and I regularly buy fcc receivers  from T9. Are you sure that my actions are illegal ?