spectrum trouble, or is it me !!

[john wadsworth]

Hi peeps.
I have purchased a new quad by HJ of guess where, "china", of course,
a copy of hji model with gps etc, and all seems well with it,
my problem is with the s/h spectrum dx6i and ar6100e rx.
and I cannot seem to get any transmition from the tx. all lights and sounds seem to be there,
but when linked to the copter, zilch.
I am not up on this setup as I do boats, "I know I am swearing",
1 should there be a light in the rx ?
2 is it nessesary to connect to the battery terminal ?
3 although I have printed off some pages from the web, the manual seems not to be very helpful.
surly, if I bind a new rx to the tx, which I have done,
and connect to the quad, all should be automatic, or do I have to set up for heli on he dx6 ?
I have ordered yet another orange rx and will try the whole thing over again,
but if it does not work can I assume that the tx is dead ? as I wish to return it to seller, on ebay.
next time I will buy new !!
Thanks for any help.
Cheers John.
P.S. On the control board of the tx, there is a green light and a flashing red light,
is this correct, or should the red be steady too.. Cheers John.

 

[Mike]

Once you bind, tx/rx communication should be good. The rx should power from the board. What board are you using? Are you trying to arm the board?

Here's a video of a guy binding tx/rx you have. I believe it shows how the lights should be. It's a heli, but it should be the same (except you'll probably want to set your tx up for acro for a quad.)

 

[john wadsworth]

Hi There.
Many thanks for the reply and vid.
My rx shows a steady light, so I do not think the problem is there, what board is it. I have no Idea, it is obviously a clone, but of what. all the info I can give is that it comes with a gps setup and has the usual amount of pins as
most other boards. and yes I am trying to arm the board, but despite the light on the rx looking healthy, andwith fresh battery, the system seems dead, I will keep on trying,
but I do not want to fry anything, that's why I am asking for advice.
Cheers John W .

 

[john wadsworth]

Hi There.
Many thanks for the reply and vid.
My rx shows a steady light, so I do not think the problem is there, what board is it. I have no Idea, it is obviously a clone, but of what. all the info I can give is that it comes with a gps setup and has the usual amount of pins as
most other boards. and yes I am trying to arm the board, but despite the light on the rx looking healthy, andwith fresh battery, the system seems dead, I will keep on trying,
but I do not want to fry anything, that's why I am asking for advice.
Cheers John W .

Having tried every combination of rx leads , and then put the tx and rx on one of my boats,
and found them to be working well, I have come to the conclusion that, I have fried something on my system board, so have ordered another, similar board, and will replace it. and go from there, wish me luck.
will report on my progress.
Cheers peeps.

 

[Mike]

That's not good! What board did you purchase to replace it?

Is the quad a kit, or did you buy the parts separately? Did the place that sold you the quad give you any instructions on which wire(s) to connect and how to connect them to the board? With Spektrum, you should most likely only be connecting one connection from the rx to the board. This should carry power and all channels. Do you have a way to interface with the board? (native USB support or an addon programmer?).

 

[john wadsworth]

That's not good! What board did you purchase to replace it?

Is the quad a kit, or did you buy the parts separately? Did the place that sold you the quad give you any instructions on which wire(s) to connect and how to connect them to the board? With Spektrum, you should most likely only be connecting one connection from the rx to the board. This should carry power and all channels. Do you have a way to interface with the board? (native USB support or an addon programmer?).

Hi mm.
It is a quad, supposed to be rtf but some build was needed, but was not difficult.
Chinese, h j brand, absolutely no instructions, they did apologise for that.
With the rx which is an orange one, I have bound it and it works fine, as stated, on one of my boats, and when I connected a servo to one pin at a time, sure enough, I gor=t a response from a different stick.
so I concluded that the tx/rx system was all in order.
but when connecting the rx to the quad although it lit up two lights, red and orange, the board showed a green, and a flashing red.and no command from the rx was being passed on, so it seemed, so I thought that somewhere had damaged the c/board.
Now for the confession. I did sort of get a wisp of smoke from the board on connecting something alon the line, but only for less than one second. so I hoped that I had got away with it.
(where have you heard that before!!).
I have no interface at all that I am aware of, sadly I am not electronically minded,
so good ins are needed.
hope that helps. the board I have ordered on another page of my computer, so I will have to do another post.
Cheers john.

 

[john wadsworth]

Hi. for reply see above, last message, I will get the hang of it, one day.
The control board I have ordered is a Multi wii AT mega 32u4 se flt con dsm2 baro mag gps.
and closely resembles the board that does not seem to work.
and has all I require to match it. also at 50mm sise seems to match the failed one.
Cheers and thanks.
John.

 

[john wadsworth]

Hi Peeps.
Well having received my multi wii board and installed it without any problems, I still cannot get the
transmitter to talk to the rx, even though it has been bound ,and shows a steady orange light, and the spectrum d6i is brand new, they say you pay to learn, thank goodness I am a multi millionair !!
I will wake up in a minute. A weird thing happens, when I plug a strobe light into the rx and connect the lipo,
3, 5000 hrs. in the strobe flashes merrily away, but when I turn on the tx, it goes out.
When I then plug in the same strobe into the control board, and switch on the tx, it works ok.
So my conclusion is that the problem is with the tx/rx , but how to solve it I do not know how.
I am using the orange series of recievers, is there any problems known with regards to this setup.
The board , on startup emits a healthy five bleeps. the tone rising on the last three. and two steady reds on the board.
Is there any techy wiskids out there who can help. as I am stumped.
cheers John. W.

 

[john wadsworth]

Ahoy.
The saga continues, it would seem that I need to either "flash", that on earth is that, or upload a programme for the multiwii32u4 se, control card that I have now on the quad, I am puzzled as to how I can do this, and have no idea as to what flashing is, I threw away my dirty old mack, long ago, on the advice of the boys in blue. I am only joking,
I had it cleaned and gave it to a charity shop !!
Seriously though, I have four folders and the instructions sent with the card, but cannot get m.s. to open them
and no idea as to what to do to get one of them onto the board.
and again I do not wish to fry anything. p.s I have now discovered that I do indeed have a native psv connection from the board to the computer but on connecting and opening up the folder marked 2.1, I am not getting either to talk to each other, so I am again groping in the dark, as to how to get the board to operate.
I find it rather concerning that with a dedicated forum, ther appears to be no one who
can help a senior citizen, get airborn.
Cheers John.

any takers ?
Cheers John w.

 

[Mike]

Sorry you're not having any luck. This forum is brand new, so not many members! One day soon! There are so many different quads and control boards, we don't have enough specialists yet =)

For now, you can check out the MultiWii forum for answers. I'm sure a search there will help you figure out how to flash the board. If not, someone should be able to help you.

http://www.multiwii.com/forum/

There's also this:

http://www.rctutor.org/flashing-multiwii.html

Do you have a link to the quadcopter you bought? It doesn't list which board it came with in the specs? Did you buy the tx/rx separately or did they come with it?

 

[john wadsworth]

Sorry you're not having any luck. This forum is brand new, so not many members! One day soon! There are so many different quads and control boards, we don't have enough specialists yet =)

For now, you can check out the MultiWii forum for answers. I'm sure a search there will help you figure out how to flash the board. If not, someone should be able to help you.

http://www.multiwii.com/forum/

There's also this:

http://www.rctutor.org/flashing-multiwii.html

Do you have a link to the quadcopter you bought? It doesn't list which board it came with in the specs? Did you buy the tx/rx separately or did they come with it?

Hi MM.
Yes I have a usb link to the computer, and it powers up the board when the esc and plane inputs a re plugged into the board. but now when I try to access the gui, (what ever that is) I receive messages stating that files are missing and files cannot be read,
So I am thinking that I had better farm it out and let someone with know how, set it up for basic flying.
from what I read in the multi wii forum I am not the only one having this sort of trouble.
surly any company selling this type of gear aught issue warnings or fool proof instructions. for the masses, or the whole quadcopter business could be brought into disrepute ?
Cheers and thanks.
John w.

 

[Mike]

I agree 100%. Good documentation is hard to come by in this hobby, probably because it's so new. I can understand there not being a lot of good info when it comes to DIY because of all of the possibilities of parts combinations, but you would think that any vendor selling a pre-built copter or a kit would provide documentations that detailed the thing inside and out. Hopefully things change soon =)

It sounds like the software can't talk to the board. Did you install the driver?

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uploads/463565377X19082X13.pdf

 

[john wadsworth]

Hi All.
Thanks very much for the imput, the learning curve is a bit sharp for an old fart like me. but the more I get to know , the better, some of it may even sink in.
All these bits of information will build up and as soon as I get to know the quad speak, then I will be off and running,
meanwhile I have taken what to me is the sensible way out, and purchased a fully set up quad, rtf/bnf.
See im getting the hang of it.
I have already amounted a good supply of spares. and look forward to building my first TRI/Quad.
Cheers for now. Ill be back.
John.

 

[Mike]

There is a lot to know about this stuff, so it takes time. Good luck with your new quad! Which one did you get?

 

[john wadsworth]

There is a lot to know about this stuff, so it takes time. Good luck with your new quad! Which one did you get?

Hi. Thanks for the info. I have purchased a KK450 bnf. all bells and whistles, from No1 sparkler, on ebay for £180, inc p/p. so hope fully I can start flying and join the local club, then proceed at leisure.
It has dawned on me that if anyone with excellent knowledge of helis, etc where to write a guide book on quads/tris etc with lots of good photos, they would be almost as rich as "Richard Branson".
Cheers John. W.

 

[Mike]

That's a nice copter for a good price.

You are right. Someone should write a book. There are a lot of newbie guides out there, but they mostly describe specific builds.