Hi I’m having intermittent drop outs of the radio receiver regardless of range. Sometimes regular, sometimes not so regular. This is occurring on 2 copters with the same hardware.
Transmitter is an FrSky X9D Plus 2019 and receivers are both XSR all running ACCST firmware (non LBT).
The receiver and its aerials are located within an avionics pod. I have 2x ESP8266 chips on telemetry in the pod with external aerials on the outside of the pod. I’m thinking it might be interference?
That can be caused by many things:
- ESC’s causing interference - Some manufacturers warn about this when using optional higher update rate which some ESC’s have,
- Various antennas to close together. I.e. Telemetry and RC receiver together is not a good idea
- Power distribution boards can be a source of interference. Whilst it may be convenient for easy wiring, many are designed in a way which unfortunately can create interference due to the way the tracks are done on the PCB.
- Power wires not twisted, - This is a simple yet effective way of reducing interference. That’s why some ESC’s come already with wires twisted.
- Is your antenna on the receiver facing up or down? - Not a good idea having it flat
- …The list goes on…
Here is a very basic test I’ve done some time ago to show the difference between twisted and straight wiring. The twisted version clearly shows less amplitude (strength) and hence less interference than the neat, non-twisted wiring.
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Do you have the same problem with any other models controlled by your X9D+2019?
I had a similar problem with mine, resulting in the crashes of two fixed-wing models, and it turned out it was a problem with the RF board in the transmitter. Replaced under warranty by the vendor, but the replacement board had a faulty charging circuit on it, so had to be replaced again. All has been well for over 18 months now.
@abenn1 interesting. Was the issue you had related to reliable connection? Fortunately, the worst thing that happens on mine is the quad returns to launch
tboyle, IIRC the vendor first thought it was a bad ground connection of the antenna outer braid to the board, so he re-soldered that (it was under warranty, so I didn’t want to touch it myself). Then I was still getting low signal messages so, after checking again, he replaced the RF board. That cured the low/intermittent signal issue, but I then found that one cell of the Tx Li-Ion pack wasn’t charging, and he had to replace the board again to cure that problem.
The vendor told me in a phone call that he’d heard on the dealer ‘grapevine’ of similar problems with the RF boards in other X9D+2019 transmitters.