DSMX Not Binding?

[waveydavey]

surely this is an advert for futaba?? As much as I used to love my DX7 im going off them very quick! I can see a 8fg coming my way soon!

Why, I have had no issue whatsoever with my DX7, ever. Until now that is, there will be an explanation and it didn't cause any issues it was a little disconcerting as I haven't seen any problems previously

[Mark_T]

surely this is an advert for futaba??

To be fair, we know that Spektrum satellite solutions have been working just fine with the Vortex for some time now in testing, we just don't know why there seems to be an issue with consistent binding and use of a DSM2 TX with DSMX satellites.

I'll switch to Futaba if I need to temporarily, just because I have it here on the bench already, but I'm not actually seeing a problem with a DX8 in DSMX mode binding to the DSMX satellites.

[KevDavies]

Im not saying there bad dave. Just there seems to be a load of little nuances popping up now. id just lose my temper and launch the bloody thing if it was me tbf

[waveydavey]

It got close today, I hate things stopping me from flying

[WildWake]

I've just done a few more tests, not sure how much this helps, but I set the DX8 to force DSM2 mode.

Using 2 DSMX satellites I repeated the bind process several times.

Several times I was able to get a situation where 1 satellite was bound properly and the other one was either showing no light at all or was blinking slowly.

After about 10 binds with mixed results it then started binding reliably every time. Not sure why that would be as I kept the radio in the same position for all tests, about 30cm away from the satellites.

During the bind process the general behavior was always the same though in that one satellite would go solid almost immediately, the other one would go out then as the bind process terminated on the DX8, the 2nd satellite would turn on the solid light.

For those having problems, is the Datapod confirming that the bind has been successful even when it hasn't, or is it giving you the 'Do not fly' warning?

Thats what we were seeing today Mark, either one would connect and go solid the other would either blink or do nothing. When rebinding sometimes it would bind no problem other times it would take ages and either sat would go solid first with the other one following. Sometimes it would link immediately sometimes a minute or so would pass with only one binding, it would then hop from one to the other with every time it done it the VX1 would flash red as if the link had been lost. I had the failsafe on the throttle set to 0 so I would constantly get the throttle jumping as the bind was lost. It flew fine though

Dave that is the same behaviour that I had today at the field, I'm not putting it down to the cold OR the Vortex at the moment I'm leaning more to it being a problem with the Spektrum sats after getting the results from a few test that have been run at home in the nice & warm..

I started off with the 2 new DSMX sats that I bought new on Thursday at the same time as the Vortex,
I labelled them "A" & "B",
1st off I had "A" in SRX1 & "B" in SRX2,
I ran the following bind process,
Tx Off, Vortex on, setup, receiver, dsmx, 2 sats, both sats flashing (looking for bind signal), Held bind button in on tx & turned on, Both sats lights off, "B" solid light, "A" slow flashing light, vortex "Bind complete" code 12 (top right of vortex screen), released bind button. I repeated this 3 times with the same results.
I then swopped "A" & "B", so "A" was in SRX2 & "B" in SRX1
Tx Off, Vortex on, setup, receiver, dsmx, 2 sats, both sats flashing (looking for bind signal), Held bind button in on tx & turned on, Both sats lights off, "B" solid light, "A" slow flashing light, vortex "Bind complete" code 12 (top right of vortex screen), released bind button. I repeated this 3 times with the same results.
the 6 tests show that it did not matter what port the sats were plugged into "B" always lit up solid & "A" just flashed slowly, making me think there could be a problem with sat "A".
I then removed the dsmx sat from my trex500 which is connected to an AR7200BX, I've not notice a problem with this heli set up in the past, I called this sat "C".
I ran the previous test 6 times with "B" & "C" ( 3 test with the sats in each of the 2 ports), the result was, "B" had a solid light in all 6 test, while "C" was left just flashing slowly.
So Sat "B" has always bond to the tx in both combinations, where sats "A" & "C" have never bound to the tx, so I thought I'd try a test with these 2 sats,
This was very Interesting as out of 10 tests, "A" bound 1st shortly followed by "C" 6 times, they bound at the same time 3 times and "C" bound 1st followed by "A",
So out of the 10 tests both sats bound every time, yet these 2 sats would not give a solid light when bound with "B".

I did note that the Spartan Vortex was reporting "Binding complete" even when I only had 1 sat with a solid light & the other had a slow inconsistent flashing light.
How it works,,,
1, you select the receiver type you are using (std - sbus - ppm - dsm2 - dsmx), this tells the vortex what kind of signal to look for.
2, then the number of sats (no bind - 1sat - 2sats) this tells the vortex how many sats to register.

If you select "2 sats", once the vortex has found 1 sat it will register that sat and move on to looking for the next one,
The vortex only gets info from the sats when the orange light on the sat is on, so what seems to be happening with some of the dsmx sats is during the bind process the 1st sat will light up solid (which is Right) the vortex registers this sat and looks for the 2nd sat. now all this sat has to do is light up for a split second and the vortex will register it. Now as far as the vortex is concerned both sat have bound and all is good, so it displays the message & code on the data pod "Bind Complete"12.
I have also had the data pod display "Bind Complete"12 when I have had 2 slow flashing sats & no solid light, this due to the sats flashing at the same time there for sending info to the vortex at the same time.

Hmm... I'm sure Angelos will get to the bottom of this quickly enough, but I may be tempted to switch to my 8FG until it is sorted though

Also, in fairness, I've not noticed the same problem when using the DX8 in DSMX mode so perhaps I'll go do a few more bins and see what happens ...

Angelos did call me twice last night when I was running the tests for him, He explained to me that as soon as we click on "1 sat" or "2 sats" in the receiver menu "bind sat rx's now?" all the vortex can do is wait for the signal from the sats & that the vortex has no control over the time aspect of this it just has to wait for a signal from the sats.

I hope this is all correct & helps other understand
(Angelos if I have got any of the above wrong let me know and I'll edit it)

[WildWake]

surely this is an advert for futaba?? As much as I used to love my DX7 im going off them very quick! I can see a 8fg coming my way soon!

Can we keep the Spektrum V Fataba out of this,
I fly Speccy end off,
If you want to start a debate like so many have time after time before please take it to the debates section and start a new post,
Please don't ruin this thread we need to get this worked out.

[WildWake]

It got close today, I hate things stopping me from flying

Dave, Angelos said he was going to speak to you today, he's working on it mate,
The thing that is bugging him is the fact that during testing they used virtual every radio on the market with no problem until this week.
It could be that the DSMX sats might not all have the same firmware (which HH can update).

Angelos has asked me to try this.. might be worth you trying it so we can compare results

Just thought of something... can you try the two new DSMX sats again... but take the TX further away when you are binding. Start at 1-2m away and if it does not improve move another 1-2m away and repeat... up to 6m or so.

Cheers,
Angelos

[Mark_T]

Distance is a common answer to Spektrum binding problems so it worth a try.

I'll do a few more tests this morning.

[WildWake]

Im not saying there bad dave. Just there seems to be a load of little nuances popping up now. id just lose my temper and launch the bloody thing if it was me tbf

Kev,
I replied to you previous post as I was reading the posts, no offence meant mate..

[waveydavey]

Excellent job Tye, don't know how much more I can add apart from repeating the tests. The question however is why did DSM2 sats work okay. Both my DSMX were bought from Als at the same time, how do I check the firmware?

[WildWake]

Excellent job Tye, don't know how much more I can add apart from repeating the tests. The question however is why did DSM2 sats work okay. Both my DSMX were bought from Als at the same time, how do I check the firmware?

I'm not sure of the science behind it but the DMS2 sats work in a different way to the DSMX sats,
I'll have a look on the Spektum website later to see what the difference is.

I bought both my sats at the same time when I ordered the Vortex,
As for checking the firmware, I think this can only be done by Horizon Hobbys unless someone has the software to read what is on the sats.
There is a white sticker on the sats, my 2 new ones read "HA211B" and the one off my trex500 reads "HA112B"
This might just be a batch number?

[waveydavey]

It is a batch number, Laurence Gough questioned this with Horizon early last year. Might just send mine back anyway see if they are different, got 2 DSM2 sats so may just use these

[WildWake]

Just a little note,,
I have both the DSMX sats bound at the moment, slight flickering on both sats,
The light on the Vortex (not the sensor) is flashing Red/Blue intermittent and randomly,
It should be blue to show good connection to the sats,
If the Vortex loses signal from the sat it is using it will turn red, this means the vortex is changing over to the other sat,
As soon as it pick up info from the other sat it goes blue, until it loses signal then it will go red again repeating the above process.

So if you have solid lights on both sats look at the Vortex light to see if it is solid Blue, just to confirm it is a good constant connection.

[WildWake]

It is a batch number, Laurence Gough questioned this with Horizon early last year. Might just send mine back anyway see if they are different, got 2 DSM2 sats so may just use these

Untill this is sorted I will be using DSM2 sats.
I was going to say about sending them back to Horizon, but I want to keep them to carry out more test and comparisons with them,
Angelos did mention to me about sending his sats to me that they used with no problems during Vortex pre release testing.

[Andy from Sandy]

This looks very similar to people reporting signal errors of one kind or another with the v-bar, so it is not limited to just with the Vortex.