[michaely]

Originally Posted by davidmc36

"Thank you for your order from Aloft Hobbies.

Once your package ships we will send an email with a link to track your order. Your order summary is below. Thank you again for your business."

hi Dave,

Thanks for being an "early adopter".

Do let us know what the end costs were and, later, your experience with the Horus, especially, in comparison to the Taranis.

[davidmc36]

Sure will update you.

Came to $817.00 CAD shipped from Aloft. Assume I will owe HST when it gets to Post Box.

Not sure what actual price at say Rotorgeeks would come to since they have not actually rcvd any stock yet. Premier dealers like Aloft get first shipments.

Aloft tacked on 50 bucks to their price compared to overseas dealers but the idea there is they will handle no-question warranty work in-house.

I spent more than reqd but couldn't wait for next production run for other retailers to get stock.

Open TX for Horus (2.2?) just went Release Candidate about 24 hours ago and initial reviews are more than positive.

OTX is getting very polished these days with several built in wizards and widgets that make setting new models as simple as "typical" radios yet as powerful and flexible as the imagination allows.

Not sure if I will try FRTX for a while or dive right in to OTX.

[-Rick-]

Please keep us informed on how it works for you! I for one am very interested in this radio.

[davidmc36]

I sure will.

11 more days out of town for work so it should be waiting for me when I get home. Should still be some chance to get out during Sept in Ottawa area. Already have one good candidate set up with X8R Rx that should set up pretty easy.

[jsparky]

I know this is a thread for the Horus but this information is about the Rx attached to all Taranis transmitters.. so please read carefully it may save your plane someday..

The Setup

Great Planes Revolver 70 .. RCG 20cc gasser .. X8R rx

Near the end of of last year I was at the field and doing my usual preflight check.. when the engine suddenly stop and all flight controls stopped responding.. the plane was DOA ... I shut of the plane and transmitter and rebooted everything and all controls came back and the engine started... this happened several times.. ok so this plane doesn't fly today.. At home I started to tear into it.. I changed the Rx the ignition the wires the battery ,, everything... even to the point that I held a Rx in my hand with only a battery attached near the plane and the Rx went into a lock out condition.. and the only way to get it back was to turn it off and back on again..

The only thing I had not changed was the plug.. so I put in a new plug and the problem went away.. put the old plug back in problem came back... Ok so I figured something internal to the plug was creating some kind of stray RF signal that some how locked up my Rx.. Not a good thing to have happen but what are the chances of this happening..

Well this year after about 6 flights or so on that new plug the problem came back again suddenly.. I borrowed a plug from another member and tested it and again everything worked fine..

So it struck me kind of funny that two plugs could fail in the same way as to cause enough RF interferance to lock up my Rx..

So I tore apart everything and I do mean everyting looking to find out why.. I did resistance checks on new plugs compared to the one that I thought had failed.. no damage to the plug in anyway..

But !!! inside the plug cap... there is a spring that is suppose to touch the lead on one end of a 1K resistor that goes to your lead from the ignition module .. First off ... there was little to nothing of that spring inside the plug cap.. and second the was barely anything of the lead from the resistor coming into the cap for the spring to make contact with... examining the leads of the resistor I found high voltage scoring on the lead that is suppose to contact the spring which contacts the plug.. This was the source of the arcing that caused the stray RF signals.. Not the Plug..

Now before someone says that it was bad shielding around the plug cap.. nope... that was checked as well... All shielding was in place and good contact..

Why a new plug would fix things I can only guess that it may have slightly less resistance than even a slightly used one and therefore changing the conditions..

But I have fixed the problems with the ignition leads and re-installed the orginal plug and everything is now working fine..

The ALERT is to the potential problem of a FrSky Taranis Rx going into a lock out condition as a result of stray RF generated by a bad high voltage ignition.. This problem cannot be diagnosed by listening to the engine run as it will not cause any noticeable difference to the engine running..

If your FrSky Rx is showing a slow flashing red light... your in a lock out condition.. and only powering off the Rx will reset it again..


The stray RF is a broadband spectrum ... as to how far these stray RF signals can reach is only guess work without a crap load of fancy equipment and a dozen engineers ...

And yes it can happen to any radio system .. It is not restricted to the Taranis .. the effects could be and most likely be different in each radio brand out there..

And the worst part is .. it may not even come from your own plane..

You could be flying in formation with a buddy and his plane is giving off stray RF...

Give a whole new meaning to the term

" I WAS SHOT DOWN "

Here is a prime example.. buddy of mine got this 50cc plane from someone and decided he would never fly it.. so he traded it to me..and after checking it over... wonders to be found in used airplanes but check the pics... this ignition was installed in an 89 inch 50cc extra 300 and the guy was flying it like this..

[stegl]

Hi Jeff :
You have done a great job of analyzing your problem and yes that could possibly happen to any radio system. I am interested in the Horus radio for my son as he is still on 72 Mhz and ready for new radio system , although every time I ask a question about the Frsky radio system I get shot down as being negative . No . in fact I want to make sure I get a dependable, well designed and built system and that philosophy hasn't failed me yet. And yes , I may sound negative at times when I knock what I believe is a failing in that system; or any other radio system.

Back to your issue......It would have been interesting if you could duplicate the problem with other brands of radios on 2.4 in the same setup ;to see if that lockout issue exists or whether just glitches without turning off the receiver to reboot and correct as that would be difficult to do when in the air. Ie JR , Futaba or Airtronics.

Well done !

[cosmith]

Originally Posted by stegl

Hi Jeff :
You have done a great job of analyzing your problem and yes that could possibly happen to any radio system. I am interested in the Horus radio for my son as he is still on 72 Mhz and ready for new radio system , although every time I ask a question about the Frsky radio system I get shot down as being negative . No . in fact I want to make sure I get a dependable, well designed and built system and that philosophy hasn't failed me yet. And yes , I may sound negative at times when I knock what I believe is a failing in that system; or any other radio system.

Back to your issue......It would have been interesting if you could duplicate the problem with other brands of radios on 2.4 in the same setup ;to see if that lockout issue exists or whether just glitches without turning off the receiver to reboot and correct as that would be difficult to do when in the air. Ie JR , Futaba or Airtronics.

Well done !

I had a loose fitting plug cap cause 'glitching' with Spectrum hardware...it was sort of flyable though, no lockout and landed in one piece.

[jsparky]

just and update... but the revolver with the funky lock out problem flew this morning with no issues...

As for the FrSky Taranis.. I wouldn't fly anything else now.. just the fact that the telemetry monitors my signal to the plane is worth it's weight in gold.. I did have a receiver go bad on me while in flight the year before last and the fact that it monitors that signal and warned me... I landed safely and saved my plane... what price could you put on that...

So now we take you back to your regular program of the Horus...

[4*60]

So why is this in the FRSKY Horus thread. You yourself say it can happen with any system so it should be moved to a general thread that ALL will read. It is good info about the connection problem but the RF interference is not new as stated. Not sure why people are hesitant to choose "new thread"

[jsparky]

Originally Posted by 4*60

So why is this in the FRSKY Horus thread. You yourself say it can happen with any system so it should be moved to a general thread that ALL will read. It is good info about the connection problem but the RF interference is not new as stated. Not sure why people are hesitant to choose "new thread"

because of the Rx lock out....

yes it can possibly have an effect on other Rx

my info only pertains to the taranis Rx being " locked out "... I have no info on what will happen to other brand Rx...