Spektrum 3 Spectrum Receiver Failures!

[fhu667]

My turn to rant. I've been flying less than a year, and I've had three Spektrum receivers fail on me. I only bought one of these new, so I can't be sure what their history was. However, they worked perfectly and then just stopped without warning. One failure resulted in a fly away. The one I bought new didn't even get replaced under warranty. Horizon was such a pain in the ass to deal with that I finally just gave up. I know that's not everyone's story, but it sure is mine.

So now I'm faced with a decision to make. I don't feel comfortable trusting my more expensive helis and planes to Spektrum, so I am thinking of converting to Futaba. I don't think I will even consider JR since they are so close tip Spektrum. I'm open to suggestions, but who else is there other than Airtronics?

Edit By Tony: I have put this post back as there is nothing against the rules with it. This can be a great thread for someone else that is having issues with their Spektrum system.

 

[Danie Dup]

Are you using the spektrum receivers with the satelite where your receiver's antennas point say vertical and the satelite's antennas point horisontal? I have not had any issues with mine.

I lost signal on my heli with a normal park fly receiver, but it turns out the batteries on my radio was very low at 4,6v and i think that was the reason why i lost signal rather than a poor receiver. Anyway i learnt my lesson and will never again put a cheap receiver in a heli and change the batteries in my radio regularly. A saving on the price of the receiver caused me 5 times the value in repairs.

 

[Derek]

I'm sorry to hear about you troubles with the Spektrum brand. I've been using Spektrum for nearly 3 years and haven't had an issue at all. If you are wanting to stay away from Spektrum and JR, some other options would be Futaba and FrySky. A lot of people are talking very highly about the new Taranis and the Taranis Plus.

Best of luck buddy!!!

 

[Slobberdog]

in 18 months of flying I have had one satellite go on me, returned it to Horizon Hobby and had a replacement back within 2 days, sorry for your luck with spektrum, but I think I would go either Graupner or Futaba if I was to change.

 

[Lee]

One brand thats been around for many years, is Graupner.
There new radios look very good. The receivers have built in telemetry.
They have been popular in Europe for many years, and now have a growing following in the US.

Bobby Barr on the RCToday Show, has been reviewing one after many years on Spektrum.
He has since changed all his planes and Helis over to that system.

 

[sarconastic]

fhu667,

I don't presume to know you or your flying styles or abilities but when repeated things keep occurring I would recommend you look at the situation a little closer. There is usually an underlying cause. I troubleshoot for a living most times and there is usually a reason things fail. If one fails then that is a fluke, two then you need to investigate, at 3 I am on an all out mission to find the root cause of the problem.

DO you crash a LOT, or unusually hard. Loose connections on batteries and their connectors and even servo wires can cause repeated failures. Servos that are drawing too much current for your receiver to handle can cause a repeated failure. Too many high power servos. Antennae wires cracked and causing interference.

Look for common items that were used in all the planes/helis that lost receivers. It is possible you got some bad ones, but it is also likely there is a root cause of the problem as well. Spend a little time researching and you may find the problem and prevent any future losses.

Good luck

Woody

 

[Tony]

One issue that I have had with mine doing this exact same thing, was the wires. More specifically the wire where it goes into the metal prong inside the small plug. These wires get brittle and they will break. For a minute, they will work, but with the vibration of the helicopters, they will work themselves loose and you will lose signal. Best possible option is to just get new wires and see how that goes.

There are thousands of people out there with Spektrum systems. I highly doubt that 3 Rx's have been bad and I would more closely look at the wires. I would even look at all of your other plugs as well such as your ESC plug where it goes into the Rx. If that breaks contact, then comes back, you have to wait for the gyro to reinitialize before you will have control again, and unless you are very high in the air, it's more than likely going to crash.

Replace those wires and see what happens.

I would stay away from anything china related. Frysky or whatever, you get what you pay for. Bottom of the line is Spektrum. Next up IMO is JR and their new DMSS system. Then you have Futaba which is great, but expensive, and Airtronics even has Tx/Rx out there that are really good, but very expensive. So you have options. I myself, love my DX8 and as I stated, the only failures I had were because of the wires.

 

[Stambo]

I would stay away from anything china related. Frysky or whatever, you get what you pay for.

Not wanting to be a smartass here Tony but what do you base this on.
I and many others have the Taranis and I are having great results.
Value for money I think it's pretty tough to beat.
I used Frsky module and receivers on my 9x before this and again, everything worked well, no issues.
Just curious as to whether you know of specific faults/weaknesses that I am unaware of.

 

[Tony]

I am basing this off of the results that I have gotten from electronics I have purchased from china. I myself will never run any of these electronics again, and I surely won't put them on anything of value to keep it in the air. I just don't want to risk my hard earned money and time on saving a bill or two on a one time purchase item. A Tx is an investment in the hobby, why not spend the money for something that has great customer service and is known to work? I just don't trust many of the open source items out there as you never know if there is a single line of code that someone wrote that takes a $3000 airplane out of the sky.

These are my opinions and my opinions only. This is what a forum is for. We give opinions based on what we have experienced and let the OP make their final decision. Again, I will not go any lower than Spektrum for my radio setups. There is a reason why Bert Kammerer, Kyle Stacy, Alan Szabo Jr, Bobby Watts and the like do NOT use china products. And I can assure you, it's not because they are sponsored. It's about quality.

 

[Lee]

In the FPV world FRsky is seen as one of the go to brands for range and telemetry.
The signal range is far superior to Spektrum and Futaba.
The RXs with built in telemetry are leading the way in this field.
(Spektrum take note) with there extra TM1000 box to carry round on your model.
Thats so last season LOL

Also with the FRSky Taranis gaining a huge following. It may not be the best looking radio,
but the fact the software is open source, what ever you want your radio to do, some guy has probably got a firmware update for it.

If I had the money for another radio, this is the one I would buy, for all my FPV needs, and keep the DX8 as my Heli radio.