More flights today with R8 Pro and RCG 20 in a Wott 4, out of three flights I got one VFR warning which is set to 80%, checked logs to see how low it actually got and it dipped to 76%. There was several other places in the day where it was breifly in the low 80's.

This VFR warning has happened on another day as well and both times it seems to be as I turn the model towards me on my left side with plane not particularly far out. No rssi warnings and flew much further out with no VFR warnings but rssi on logs dipped to 35 db a couple of times over the three flights so was close to getting a call. I wonder if this is possibly is a angle where my rx antenna (using internal only) is getting shadowed from the radio by the engine. Interesting that the rssi goes as low as 35DB then drasically improves again, swapping antenna?

If the warning levels of VFR at 80% and rssi low call out at 35 db is the recommended it is going to be quite hard to get a full days flying in without a warning now and again with this plane. There is another guy on faceb__k complaining that occasional call outs are happening with his small 20cc ignition plane as well on ACCESS, it is a difficult enviroment for a rx and the question arrises as to what is acceptable. I know I can get rssi low warnings on D16 on small edf with big batterys if care is not taken with antenna placement.

Was going to compare my X8R on d16 v2 in a 35cc that flew a couple times today to see how close that was to rssi warnings (I know it is hard to compare due to different scalings etc) but that plane strangely today has not logged RSSI at all so what I have done to acheive that needs to be investigated (had to rediscover sensors). Will sort that and get a log to compare and then perhaps swap rx over in these two planes and see how the two rx fair in a different plane.

Was there a recommendation to set a VFR warning at 80%? If so, I must have missed it. Quite possible.

In your case, I might be more concerned about the RSSI dropping to 35 at close or moderate range.

More generally, it seems that we don't yet have a firm understanding of how to interpret VFR. At least, that's my impression.

For whatever it's worth, my experience is of flying to much lower link quality than 80%, mostly with ACCST. In fact, not long ago I discovered that I was regularly flying gliders to a distance of very low or even momentary zero LQ while RSSI remained acceptable. The only indication of possible trouble was the odd telemetry lost or sensor lost warning.

I certainly don't advocate the above, merely note that it happened, and happened often apparently. My tentative conclusions are that RF noise in the flying environment and antenna placement played significant roles.

Your idea to make a comparison with an X8R running ACCST seems good. I'm curious to see the results.

Quote "In your case, I might be more concerned about the RSSI dropping to 35 at close or moderate range."

Yes, this does concern me, I am LOS and not flying far out so what's going on with this. Need to try different planes and setups and maybe a non ignition plane and see if it improves.

Swapping my current Rx’s over to the new Archer series and just got my first GR6 yesterday.

Awesome little rx, whilst I don’t use a vario in my sailplanes I do use the altitude function for launch practice. The biggest thing that jumps out at me with the new GR6 is how stable the altitude/vario is. Absolutely zero drift on mine when the rx is powered directly by either a 1s or 2s lipo (I used to have more drift on 2s with the G-RX6) yet testing the vario and altitude it’s still really sensitive.

Still small and light even in the new plastic case.

I was on the fence for a while about switching to Frsky but I’m glad I did. Brilliant gear and £100+ radios that match or do more than ones costing £1000+

Shout out to T9 Hobbysport here in the UK for top notch service as always ( no connection to T9 whatsoever)

Here is a file of the only flight I done on my Wott 4 xl with dle 20, flying with a x8r and d16v2 to see how I faired compared to ACCESS. Telemetry lost warning right at the point of landing with plane on my left as usual and more worrying when I was 250m out on my left again a RSSI warning was heard which on logs shows a RSSI dip down to 21 DB at 13.47.24 you can not miss it... Rssi was actually far more stable with D16v2 than ACCESS up to that point.

I have never trusted Frsky receivers to small petrol planes, I have always flown my old Futaba Fasst in them without a problem, but then if you dont have telemetry or rssi you would never have call outs to worry about, this plane has had over 100 flights on fasst without issue.

More testing required, need to figure out whether it's the plane/setup or radio, GR8 OTA next and perhaps try the X8R with my Taranis on the same plane. Also need to try all this equipment in another bigger plane to see if I have similar problems.

Here is the same plane with ACCESS R8 pro, rssi seems to be very low when not flying that far out, touching 35 db several times in a normal LOS flight.

Unfortunately not getting much flying just now so this is painfully slow, a full day with several receivers and planes would help me reach a conclusion far quicker but def not happy with this plane on Frsky at the moment.

What do you get with the R8 Pro free standing in a ground range test? My R8 Pro was tested at about 3.5 feet off the ground. Tested in a residential neighborhood.

My test info below.

Here is how I do my testing.

I have a 300' test LOS area marked out in my neighborhood. I built the receiver test fixture with a PVC pipe that holds the reciver at 3.5 feet off the ground and the pipe is supported with a X wood base.

I locate the receiver in its test spot. Walk out to the 300' foot test spot. Holding the radio with its antenna vertical and to get the best RSSI I let the RSSI stabilize and turn on data logging. I let it run for a few seconds and then turn off data logging. Switch to range test mode and repeat with data logging on. Then the outside testing is done.

Using Excel I take the data log from the radio and color code all the test normal lines one color and the range test lines another color. Then sort all the RSSI lines that gives me the high and low RSSI for each test type. Do the same or VFR.

This process creates a benchmark that I can use to compare other receivers or radios. Depending on the WiFi levels in a given neighborhood the results could be different, but the goal is to create your own benchmark.

Mike

The rx range tested in model one foot off ground 220 feet rssi high 30's . Having a bench mark test like your's seems a good idea, might just copy your test. This is only one model and may be a dirty ignition for all I know so more testing required.

Originally Posted by bitzerj

Are you sure about this? I've been lead to believe that dual receivers are for redundancy, not diversity. The question I've been asking is if the redundancy is at a Link level, or a Packet level. If at a Packet level, then you do have "Diversity" What I mean is if RX1 is behind carbon, and packets are lost, and...RX2 has a clear signal, the data feed is from RX2. When RX1 has a clear line and RX2 is blocked, it would switch back.

My understanding was that it only switched in a "failsafe" situation.

The matter was first covered in the first RXR thread here. From my own testing the switch is certainly on a packet level - although there's been some discussion about whether one faulty packet received by the "master" receiver will trigger the switch and whether or not the exact lost packet could be retrieved from the secondary receiver through the SBUS link (assuming that the packet was correctly received by the secondary in the first place). While the exact mechanism at the packet level is unclear to me, switching is not just FS based.

Originally Posted by Barry_Cole

Now I just have to get you sorted with There and They're (Sorry)



BC

Try not to loose the will to live or to set lose the hounds of hell.

With the Archer R4 once again FrSky soldered the pin header on one side and the picoblade socket on the other side like with the first batch of RX4Rs only this time it's worse because the bind button and LEDs are on the opposite side of the board to the socket. Why would they even do that? Is there one guy at FrSky who likes this configuration for some reason and they keep having to come back and fix it when the public tells them it's terrible?

Six flights today on three different Archer receivers installed on a simple glow trainer (no ignition or esc noise).

All three receivers range tested to 300 feet and were 3 foot 6 inch off ground.

My troublesome R8 Pro was at 35 db with external antenna, 33 internal.

The GR8 OTA struggled at 300 feet and had to walk in 50 feet to get similar readings to the R8 Pro

The R10 Pro performed the strongest at 300 feet with 40db external, 35 internal.

The R8 Pro even with the better performing external antenna selected cannot give me a solid rssi or VFR that is usable in my opinion with normal LOS flying without warnings and fear of failsafe.

The R10 Pro faired better but still has messy VFR and at least the lows on RSSI were above the min 35 db limit if only by a few db at times, but still at least usable.

The GR8 although the weakest performer in range test absolutely blew the two R**Pro away in full range performance in the air, check the VFR and RSSI on that, now we are talking!!!. Check that vfr and rssi compared to the R*POO receivers.

The GR8 performance is what I expected from the other Archer receivers but instead they have VFR and rssi that is so random that the info is virtually useless, range is questionable with the R8 Pro and bear in mind the R**pro's flight data is for external antenna use, internal was WORSE!!!!!!!!!!!.


I did fly a X8R on d16v2, it sailed through the same range test with rssi of 46 external and 43 internal at 300 feet, unfortunately for unknown reasons the flight did not log at all. Will try that another day and also a second R8 Pro just to see if I have one that is particularly crap.


Logs attached for anyone who cares to look, be interested to see others logs. The possiblity that my ISRM setup is not good has came to mind but then the GR8 works so well.

I am new to ACCESS, and only have one Archer Rx to play with. Seems good so far.

The question is, If I set up a system with 3 receivers, can I receive telemetry from all 3, or just one as before?



BC

Originally Posted by Barry_Cole

I am new to ACCESS, and only have one Archer Rx to play with. Seems good so far.

The question is, If I set up a system with 3 receivers, can I receive telemetry from all 3, or just one as before?



BC

Up to three receivers one at a time and it switches automatically. Explained in this doc https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/show...postcount=1670

Mike

Originally Posted by raydar

Six flights today on three different Archer receivers installed on a simple glow trainer (no ignition or esc noise).

All three receivers range tested to 300 feet and were 3 foot 6 inch off ground.

My troublesome R8 Pro was at 35 db with external antenna, 33 internal.

The GR8 OTA struggled at 300 feet and had to walk in 50 feet to get similar readings to the R8 Pro

The R10 Pro performed the strongest at 300 feet with 40db external, 35 internal.

The R8 Pro even with the better performing external antenna selected cannot give me a solid rssi or VFR that is usable in my opinion with normal LOS flying without warnings and fear of failsafe.

The R10 Pro faired better but still has messy VFR and at least the lows on RSSI were above the min 35 db limit if only by a few db at times, but still at least usable.

The GR8 although the weakest performer in range test absolutely blew the two R**Pro away in full range performance in the air, check the VFR and RSSI on that, now we are talking!!!. Check that vfr and rssi compared to the R*POO receivers.

The GR8 performance is what I expected from the other Archer receivers but instead they have VFR and rssi that is so random that the info is virtually useless, range is questionable with the R8 Pro and bear in mind the R**pro's flight data is for external antenna use, internal was WORSE!!!!!!!!!!!.


I did fly a X8R on d16v2, it sailed through the same range test with rssi of 46 external and 43 internal at 300 feet, unfortunately for unknown reasons the flight did not log at all. Will try that another day and also a second R8 Pro just to see if I have one that is particularly crap.


Logs attached for anyone who cares to look, be interested to see others logs. The possiblity that my ISRM setup is not good has came to mind but then the GR8 works so well.

That is a very good and interesting comparisons that you did here... Very useful.
Any chance that you can add a comparison to the RX series? Especially the difference between ACCESS and ACCST.
I'm mire interested about the range performance ratherthan latency, some say that ACCESS has better range compared to ACCST, but I haven't seen anything that supports or contradicts this statement.

Eitan.

Tried twice to fly back to back X8R ACCST verus ACCESS R8 Pro and twice failed to get a log from the ACCST flights lol.. Today I fitted four receivers in the same plane and range tested and flew them all with the X8R last and even though the throttle arm switch is the log activation switch cruelly my radio took the micky and recorded nothing for the last range test and flight of the day.

Tomorrow is another day, maybe take a G-RX8 and fly it in the same model both on ACCESS and ACCST d16v2. I am more keen to see how that on ACCESS compares to my R**Pro's.