Replies to This Discussion

ModeratorPermalink Reply by Nathaniel Caner on December 30, 2012 at 2:29pm

John,

Have you seen any receivers other than Futaba receivers with 8 or more channels being susceptible to this problem? Also do you see any reason not to update to this PPM encoder firmware revision if your not sure if your receiver is affected?

Regards,

Nathaniel ~KD2DEY

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DeveloperPermalink Reply by John Arne Birkeland on December 30, 2012 at 2:51pm

Latest generation Futaba receivers like the R6208SB is the only confirmed one with problem.

If you bench test for an hour or so and see no spikes in the GCS, it should be fine.

If you want to be absolutely sure, I recommend using a receiver with PPM output. Using PPM-passthrough there should not be a spike problem regardless of receiver brand or ArduPPM firmware revision. For this I would recommend this Futaba FASST compatible receiver. http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__19626__FrSky_TFR4_4ch_2_...

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Permalink Reply by Crasher on December 30, 2012 at 3:00pm

I've also experienced problems with th R6008 receiver (in normal speed mode, not high speed) and the 3DR PPM encoder.

ModeratorPermalink Reply by Nathaniel Caner on December 30, 2012 at 3:06pm

John,

Yeah that's the standard receiver that ships with the Futaba T8FG Super 14 channel system. Personally I haven't noticed a problem yet, but I don't expect it would be as obvious in a fixed wing system. I'll be updating the encoder just to be sure.

Thanks,

Regards,

Nathaniel ~KD2DEY

DeveloperPermalink Reply by Marco Robustini on January 1, 2013 at 5:19am

In my opinion unfortunately there is not a rule, may depend on the rx firmware, Orange Futaba and FR-Sky TFR8 (is the same rx) cause these problems here, tested with APM2/2.5 in different setup.
For this reason owners of Futaba update you encoder whatever, with the new one the problem is completely gone here.

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ModeratorPermalink Reply by Nathaniel Caner on January 1, 2013 at 8:38am

Marco,

I agree that the list shown in this post isn't complete, and may not be considered accurate until people add confirmed receivers to the list. I disagree however that there isn't a 'rule'. In my opinion this problem seems to affect any Futaba compatible receiver working in either MULT or MLT2 mode which makes the capable of reading a signal containing more than 7 channels. I thinks that all S-Bus compatible receivers and any native 8 channel Futaba compatible receiver. However until we start to see a list of confirmed receivers and the Transmission mode they are being used with it's only an opinion.

Regards,

Nathaniel ~KD2DEY

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Permalink Reply by Crasher on January 1, 2013 at 11:13am

Nathaniel,

I agree. I first experienced this issue with the standalone 3DR PPM encoder more than 18 months ago, so the myth that it's only recent/newer receivers is also flawed. If it's FASST and 8 channels or more (thus being MULT or MULT2) then multiple servo outputs will be updated at identical times. The degree to which the issue manifests will of course vary depending on numerous factors.

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DeveloperPermalink Reply by John Arne Birkeland on January 4, 2013 at 10:05pm

A glitch does not automatically make it a problem with the PPM encoder. It might just as well be a bad connector or electronic interference related problems. It might even be a bug in the radio system. Certain OrangeRX/FrSKy FASST receivers for example has a problem with throttle glitches because of compatibility problems with the Futaba radio fail-safe system.

So I what I am trying to say is that "I had a glitch using receiver xxx, fix it" does not really help. If we are not able to reproduce the problem, it can be close to impossible to fix at times. Simply because we might not even know what we are trying to fix.

At current the MULT channel grouping is the only thing that makes sense technically. And confirmed reports of fixing the glitch problem by improving the interrupt system response time, further validates that view.

ModeratorPermalink Reply by Dean Wynton on January 6, 2013 at 2:48am

I used to get twitches on my Tricopter firmware 2.6 using a Futaba 10c fitted with Frsky module

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Permalink Reply by John Mulligan on December 30, 2012 at 4:42pm

With the Usb connector on my APM2  trashed  I will have to pull the board and solder the isp header to update the PPM encoder. 

Are all Futaba radios  seeing the glitches?  The discussion had reference to some receivers  not displaying the problem. My FS617 receiver   in 7Ch mode  did not  have  motor  log spikes last  time I looked at the logs.  Does it just happen when CH 6 or 7 are used ?

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Permalink Reply by Crasher on December 30, 2012 at 4:48pm

In my experience it occurs on Futaba receivers with 8 or more channels. Maybe not all, but I've only tested a couple. I've never seen it on a 7 channel or less receiver.

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Permalink Reply by Drone Savant on December 30, 2012 at 7:07pm

What are the exact symptoms of this issue? Just looking to see if there are other known side effects or obvious implied effects that may make it more urgent to apply the update. Can this trigger odd failsafe related issues on certain ArduPPM /Ardupilot Software combos or does it simply cause "glitchy motors"? I tried to catch up via the forums obviously but it was unclear.

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