RC Model Reviews

Anyone have issues with the AR6250?

I know many Discus launch glider pilots will not go near it. Many say it is a question of not if you will have a lockout but when?

I find it hard to believe and am asking the RC Model Reviews and their readers for testing and their oppinion.

This Reciever is, from what I have read, is extremely dsimilar to the AR500 which has been also questions on reliability.

Anyone can help?

Frank

It is interesting that Spektrum are having problems with what should (by now) be a very mature product.

Are these DLGs carbon I wonder?

The DLG's (Discuss Launch Glider 1.5m wing span) are a mix of carbon fiber or Kevlar (aka 2.4 friendly) fuselages. There is a huge thread on rcgroups (sorry had to say it). What's weird is that there is no rhyme or reason for the AR6250's going stupid. Also they are not failing in their normal fashion (aka brownouts, holds, failsafe, etc).

What's even weirder, is that more and more people are now standing up and saying "This (insert JR/Spektrum Rx) has killed my plane/heli/etc. I've followed all the instructions, proper power, antenna orientation, satellite receivers, data logger and my stuff is still going down." To top it off, they send the receivers, and such, back to have it checked out, only to be told that they couldn't find anything wrong, but they get new replacement stuff.

If you look in the for sale section, there are quite a bit of JR/Spektrum stuff being put up for sale lately.

Now I could speculate (and I must emphasize that this *is* simply speculation) that what could be happening is related to the weakness I discovered in the DSM2 system (see: JR/Spectrum's DSM2 not always so good).

Because I'm not active on the other forum sites around, I don't too many Spektrum users are aware of this potentially fatal flaw in the current implementation of the DSM2 system and perhaps now that we're seeing a huge increase in 2.4GHz activity, the effects of it are starting to surface more often than before.

If/when this kind of "single frequency" operation occurs with the DSM2 system, it becomes far more vulnerable to interfering signals, such that, at a busy flying field or one where there is strong external interference, the results could be otherwise unexplained lockouts and loss of control.

I note that I've had no feedback at all from Horizon, although they have contacted me in the past when I described the FASST system as a hybrid DSSS/FHSS system. They claimed it was purely FHSS, not DSSS (they were wrong BTW).

No doubt Horizon has seen the article, I wonder why they refuse to acknowledge the presence of this problem?

Oh, others know about the two channels sometimes being to close sometimes.

But the one failure of a 6250 that sparked the recent exodus from Spketrum (aka - Wreck'm) in a $1,200 USD DLG, "The AR6250 orange light was flashing rapidly like they do when you are trying to bind it but faster. No red hold light. No response from repeatedly turning off the Tx and turning it back on. But, get this, power down the receiver and power it back up and it is fine." This was roughly after 5-10 minutes of flight time.

Personally I feel it's a software/firmware bug.

I'm happy that I waited, and waited, for all the major players to finally offer their 2.4GHz products, and I avoided the Wreck'm nightmare. Being in IT I've learned long ago, avoid version 1.0 and wait for 1.1 or 2.0.

In my experience, any carbon near a 2.4Ghz receiver is not a good idea on any system...!

Not true. Converting problem carbon fiber aircraft to Futaba, Hitec, or Airtronics 2.4 resolved all the issues. Weird

Ive had an AR6250 lockout before, with an EPP Foam wing pointed straight down! Luckily control came back feet from the deck. Its not a CF issue as far as I can tell, the wing had very little carbon in it, a very reliable 5A SBEC powering too microservos which kinda rules out it being a voltage reset. The plane was maybe 100m from me at the time, so range shouldnt have been an issue. I read a post somewhere about them being effected by heat and due to the size of the wing everything was in very close quarters. The AR6250 is a very expensive Rx's that I wouldnt touch again with a barge poll on anything other than a cheap 3D foamy.