DX6i/ar6000 comunication issues

Rcsailing.net How To ?
1

Ok so this past saturday was the big day for the ec12. first race.

Started the day out with the victoria. no problems.

finished the day withthe Odom No problems.

The Ec 12 however was a bit of trouble. I spent more time retrieving the boat with the rescue dinghy and swimming than I did sailing it.

The 12 sailed and tested well earlier in the week.

so I figured all should be good.

The boat would loose communication with the tx/rx sometimes @ 20’ form the dock at other times 100 yards… Boat would be sailing along fine, and no control

I swapped out batteries, rx’s batts in the tx, re bound the rx’s nothing changed rx seemed to help.

I I even ran a race with the rx above the deck… thinking I was getting loss of signal…but same thing happened.

Ive been running the dx6i and ar6000 for some time with no major issues except the occasional hiccup.

so my plan is to pull apart my battery connections/plugs in the boat and redo them…thinking that there’s a loose wire (all soldered connections) I have no switches on the boat that could have gone bad. I use the JST style connectors on the batty’s Shoudl I switch to the dean style?

http://www.batterieswholesale.com/buy_battery_pics/battery_pack_plugs_101a.jpg

the lipos were fully charged, the RMG was not beeping or signaling low batt shutdown range check worked…so I’m somewhat baffled.

I think tonight I’ll give my daughter my cell and the tx and tell her to start walking down the street while she’s jiggling he rudder while I’ve got my hands in the boat jiggling things to see if I can duplicate the problem…

I have another regatta with the 12 in two weeks, so I’ve got to get it figured out…

Any Ideas?

2

I have seen it where the RMG winch will pull so much power from the battery that there is none left for the receiver. To the point that LED on the receiver will go out completely. As the battery recovers, the receiver re-establishes contact…until the next time it goes out.

Test it using two batteries, one for the winch and the other for the receiver. If that solves the problem, there is a better soultion.

Spektrum offers a capacitor that stores a short-term charge. You plug it into any un-used channel on the receiver. You use a single battery, as before. The capacitor will store a charge from the battery. Then, as the winch takes all the power from the battery, the capacitor will have enough charge left to supply the receiver.

It worked for me.

3

Here is the capacitor.

http://www.spektrumrc.com/Products/Default.aspx?ProdID=SPM1600

4

I thought about that, but its an 1800 or 2200 ma 2 cell lipo… no heavy winds (less than 5) and once the batt recovers it should establish contact…

and it sailed well on my local lake for about an hour with no problems under similar conditions three days prior…that’s what got me baffled

the price is right on the capacitor though…shame they don’t show the spec on it so I can run down to radiosmack and buy a capacitor…

5

Hi Marc,

Mine and lots of RMG winches are wired so the winch has its own battery. The RMG manual has instructions. The Ec12 can handle a small bit of extra weight.

6

I wired up the rmg so the battery sends all of its power to the rmg which then sends its juice to the rx
http://www.rmgsailwinch.com.au/images/manuals/smartwinchuserguide0709.pdf

figure #2 on page 7

My boats is already at 24+ lbs… and I’m worried about the waterline length…

I may try setup #2 with a extra battery. but I’ve seen so many running around with the fig #2 setup and not having any problems…

since the tx and rx worked fine with the Vic and Odom they are functioning fine. Its gotta be something with my wiring. maybe bad solder joint??? which should not be an issue since it worked fine the day before… I hate electrical gremlins, especially when you can’t replicate the problem…

7

Mine is similar to Fig 2 but I also have a second battery to power the Rx. Hope you can figure it out.

8

maybe someone “hint hint” could post the values for the capacitor…so i can run to radio shack and try that before I start with double batteries…

I’m sure its something real easy and stupid…its usually the case around me…:slight_smile:

9

Im running a DX6 with ar6000 in my IOM.Usually it goes really well.Reciever in the boat,no ariel extensions above deck at all.
The other day the boat sailed off happily,tacked and gybed when I asked it too then just quit.Luckily it was heading back to me when the the electrics went on “strike”.
Changed batts,checked rx,checked tx,all seemed good???
Long story short…it turned out to be a loose connection between wire and plug at the battery end.Pulled it apart and re did the connection…no more problems.
Frustrating part was that as the investigation was going on the system would work well then for no apparent reason stop.

10

Yeah Mine worked fine on shore as well then got persnickety when she got put in the water…

I stopped by radio smak and picked up a few capacitors, and some new plug ends so we’ll see what happens…

11

We have found the problem…

I swapped out connectors no fixie…I installed a capacitor, no fixie

I’m using 3305 futaba servos for the rudder and sail trim

If I was doing delicate deliberate movements I was ok. but once I got “ham fisted” lets say I need to do a crash tack or sheeting out and hard over to avoid someone. it was too much and I got loss of contact.

if I tried using the rudder and sail trim together. again if I was ham fisted loss of contact

so I plugged the battery directly into the rx. and I could use the two servos with out any issues… YEA…so I looks like I’m going to have to use wiring setup fig 3 by wiring the battery to both RMG and rx and remove the red plug from the rmg plug on the rx

basically too much draw…
so I’m assuming that the voltage regulator ont he rmg was not letting enough juice through

knew it had to be simple…

BTW for those who are ec12’ers we are having a regatta in Columbia MD next week…

John come on up…you can stay at my place…

12

Thanks for the offer Marc. I’ll be up for the Pumpkin. That’s all the time I have this fall for traveling.