What does a norma VX1 flight log look like?

[trillian]

I have two brand new sats with cables and I will be looking for the best possible place to locate them, most likely having one on a skid strut and the other on a boom support, that way they're both well away from the frames and unlikely to be shielded behind the engine or pipe etc.

[Angelos]

Unfortunately I did not have a 'save as' option in the browser

I know Chrome doesn't have Save option in the menu, but you can right click in the page and you get Save As in there.

I actually don't find it difficult to read, but I am used to reading horrible pages of code all crammed together.

Ok, let me rephrase what I said. I don't actually want to read it; I want to look at it. The HTML has icons which are colour coded based on severity. Thus you can quickly look for the red ones rather than reading the entire thing. BTW, the icons show in Chrome but not in Edge. Presumably there is some compatibility issue with Edge reading the base64 embedded icon data.

On a related subject, have you found Spektrum DSM2 sats to be any worse (or better) in general than DSMX?

In theory they should both perform equally well in uncrowned club. The DSMX has has frequency hopping that will perform better at large events where multiple models are in the air at the same time.

I have two brand new sats with cables and I will be looking for the best possible place to locate them,

The entire antenna of the sat must be in free air. If you place it in front of the frame it will affect its performance. It is not enough for the antennas to see each other. When you place a conductive item (frame) next to the antenna it detunes it.

[trillian]

The entire antenna of the sat must be in free air. If you place it in front of the frame it will affect its performance. It is not enough for the antennas to see each other. When you place a conductive item (frame) next to the antenna it detunes it.

So how far away from a conductive item should the antenna be?

[trillian]

Ok, let me rephrase what I said. I don't actually want to read it; I want to look at it. The HTML has icons which are colour coded based on severity. Thus you can quickly look for the red ones rather than reading the entire thing. BTW, the icons show in Chrome but not in Edge. Presumably there is some compatibility issue with Edge reading the base64 embedded icon data.

Interesting. I was not seeing any colour coding, that would indeed be helpful.

[Sao]

You may have seen this before but there is a great post on 2.4ghz antenna installation over here 2.4GHz Rx Installation Primer scroll down past the technical stuff for some simple tips on where to put antennas for best perfromance.

[George J]

If I was getting that many logs on a single flight I'd be pretty concerned personally, can't be right can it?

[trillian]

If I was getting that many logs on a single flight I'd be pretty concerned personally, can't be right can it?

Yeah if you only saw the logs it looks worrying but the actual flight looked totally fine, I never experienced any lapse in control or strange behaviour. In 6 years of flying Spektrum radios I only ever had one actual radio glitch (which turned out to be a faulty AR6200 RX on a 450 many years ago). Never once a lockout, failsafe etc. in flight.

Nonetheless I will be working to make the connection as secure and continuous as possible and see how much the logs can be improved.

[myxiplx]

That's very true, you can often get away with these issues and it will fly fine. However I've looked over similar logs a few times, usually when people are on the Vortex forum on Helifreak looking for help to diagnose what caused a crash.

Spotting them in advance like this is definitely a good thing :-D

The usual thing is for logs like this typically point to a hidden or intermittent problem, and often it won't cause issues in the air for many, many flights. I've seen it before when one of the two satellites had bad placement or a bad cable. Every time the model orientation was such that it had to use that particular satellite, errors started to appear. And if left unchecked it's the kind of problem that can become worse over time, and can eventually lead to signal loss in flight and a crash.

[trillian]

That's very true, you can often get away with these issues and it will fly fine. However I've looked over similar logs a few times, usually when people are on the Vortex forum on Helifreak looking for help to diagnose what caused a crash.

Spotting them in advance like this is definitely a good thing :-D

The usual thing is for logs like this typically point to a hidden or intermittent problem, and often it won't cause issues in the air for many, many flights. I've seen it before when one of the two satellites had bad placement or a bad cable. Every time the model orientation was such that it had to use that particular satellite, errors started to appear. And if left unchecked it's the kind of problem that can become worse over time, and can eventually lead to signal loss in flight and a crash.

Yeah the challenge with a gasser in particular is the potential large obstruction created by the engine and pipe, it's easily double the size of a nitro engine and a bit awkward, so it's more critical that both sats are receiving at maximum level and I suspect the one in front was being attenuated to some degree by the frame as well. When I re-think the mounting of both sats I'll post a pic.

[trillian]

OK, the new sats are now mounted. I don't know how I could do any more to insure a good continuous signal. Originally I had the rear sat mounted on the boom and the front sat mounted facing forward and attached to a brace that holds the battery tray in front. Now they are both in as much clear air and free from obstruction as humanly possible. I made a platform for the one over the boom out of a plastic Robbe part so that it is well away from the boom or any CF.

[10x]

At the moment both sats antenna's are in a horizontal plane, you would be better to have a piece of plastic on the front leg pointing forwards with your sat mounted on that with the antenna vertical....

[trillian]

At the moment both sats antenna's are in a horizontal plane, you would be better to have a piece of plastic on the front leg pointing forwards with your sat mounted on that with the antenna vertical....

The one on the skid strut is about at a 45 degree angle relative to vertical. One points E/W and the other points N/S relative to the boom. The heli is going to be constantly moving in flight.

[10x]

"Polarization Diversity is another method in defeating multipath issues.

Fading characteristics are dependent on polarization.

A signal can be transmitted and received separately on horizontal and vertical antennas to create two diversity receive paths.
Reflections can cause changes in the direction of polarization of a radio wave, so this characteristic of a signal can be used to create two separate receive paths.

Polarization diversity can be particularly advantageous in our models, since the orientation of our receiver antennas will not be rigidly defined."

This is a section taken from the link that SAO pasted

[10x]

The one on the skid strut is about at a 45 degree angle relative to vertical. One points E/W and the other points N/S relative to the boom. The heli is going to be constantly moving in flight.

The sat may be 45 degree's to the vertical but the antenna's are still horizontal....

[10x]

Thinking about this a bit more there is no way to mount the sats to get opposite polarization of the antenna's in every orientation of the heli, so try it as they are and check logs..... lol