Freewing Mosquito

[T.J]

I just purchased Mosquito from MRC. Like the plane a lot. Have a problem with losing signal to AR8000 receiver. Any suggestions. New receiver. I suspect one of the ESC.

[OV10]

RE: Freewing Mosquito

Hello TJ,
Welcome to this forum. Not much info given to go on so am gonna ask a couple questions to maybe help get to the problem.
If you suspect one of the ESC's, is your system voltage being provided by that suspect controller and if so have you swapped over to the other one to verify? Note: only one ESC should provide system voltage(unless your using a separate Rx Vss "voltage source supply"). If the case be that they both are connected, they are fighting each other for control and that would most likely be your issue.
Not sure why you would be using an 8 channel Rx on a 6 channel bird(sort of expensive overkill) but that AR8000 requires a satellite Rx to work properly and the satellite requires at least 4 inches of separation from the main Rx so as not to have crosstalk interference which could cause signal loss. Also the antenna wires on each Rx should be at a 90 degrees axis to the other - one on a horizontal axis and the other on a vertical.
Hopefully I have with these suggestions pointed you into the probable cause of your signal loss.
Best regards,

[T.J]

RE: Freewing Mosquito

Hello OV10,
Received AR8000 with purchase of DX7 G2. I did remove red lead from one of the ESC. I did not switch power. I will try that. Receiver and satellite are at 90 degrees both are horizontal. I will try to get satellite vertical. Thanks much for your quick response.
I will let you know what I find after changes
Thanks,
T.J.

[fhhuber]

RE: Freewing Mosquito

Everything working fine for a while then shutdown for a few seconds, then it works again briefly?

Its possible the BEC of one ESC is not enough to handle the RX load. This results in ESC overheating and thermal shutdown.

different brands of ESC deal with this differently. Overheating the BEC section can shut down the BEC of some... others will shut down just the motor, but try to keep the BEC operating until destruction.

To test: Disable the second BEC and use an alternative RX power supply such as a 10 amp UBEC or separate 500 to 1000 mah 2 cell LiFe battery to power the RX. If that cures your issue its BEC overload.

Not sure how the ESCs in that model would handle running both BECs tot he RX at once... A couple of brands are known to work fine that way. Some are known to have issues if you don't add diodes or something to prevent the BECs "backfeeding" each other, overheating both (even with no servo load) The Dynam twin motor planes I have came with little extensions for each ESC to prevent the backfeed issue.

Or you can actually measure the current demand of the RX system. https://www.commonsenserc.com/product_info.php?products_id=1464

DSMX doesn't give the same indications for "brownout" as DSM2... so you can't just look for the flashing RX light to confirm a "brownout" issue.
Remember that "brownout" is a lack of supplying adequate power to the RX system... Supply adequate power and it never happens.

[Konrad]

RE: Freewing Mosquito

Thank you for that link to the servo sense (gauge).

I've been looking for a source since Dimension Engineering stopped selling theirs.
http://www.dimensionengineering.com/legacy

[fhhuber]

RE: Freewing Mosquito

Thank you for that link to the servo sense (gauge).

I've been looking for a source since Dimension Engineering stopped selling theirs.
http://www.dimensionengineering.com/legacy

That is the Dimension Engineering product.

CommonsenseRC bought the rights to be the exclusive distributor.

I was one of the prototype testers for the ServoSense Plus.

[OV10]

RE: Freewing Mosquito

The sad part to this exclusive distribution acquisition is the 35% price increase from the OEM $15 direct buy to the no value add $23 distributor. As a retired contracts/purchasing manager, that stuff just irritates me.

[Konrad]

RE: Freewing Mosquito

Usually the OEM fails to understand the costs (problems) dealing with the public and as a result under prices their product based on manufacturing costs only. With this product, as good as it is, the user interface is tricky. So I'm sure D.E. was happy to find a distributor that would handle the retail marketing of the Servo Sense. And I'm sure Common Sense is earning that premium when dealing with the public at large. Who was it that said you can't underestimate the public?

Distribution, marketing and customer support all are costs that need to be rolled into the final sale price. As an engineer I rarely need them, so I agree it is of little value to me. But it is still a cost.

All the best,
Konrad

[rliniger]

Hi T.J and all,
I am glad I found this thread just now. I just completed the build of my Mozzy and have started doing some testing with it. I found to have exactly the same problem with my model. I happen to also use an AR8000 Rx hence looks like the same configuration I am using. I still have the original ESCs built in and have also disabled one of the red wires.
Have you found any resolutions to this problem yet?
Cheers,
Rene

[xviper]

I have gone through 3 X AR8000 RXs. 2 of them "browned out", resulting in the loss of both those planes. The third one was also in a crash and is currently being tested in a cheapo plane. I do not trust AR8000s anymore and will not buy them again. Instead, I've been using the Lemon 8-ch and 10-ch RXs and so far, none of them have failed me. Oh, and they cost around 30 bucks. Heck, I've even got a HobbyKing Orange RX in one of my favorite planes and it's been working flawlessly for a couple of years.
It's my personal belief that the AR8000 and the original AR6200 were problematic. Spektrum very quickly replaced the 6200 with 6210, etc. I guess they are much slower in thinking that their expensive 8000 could be junk. The resolution would be to ditch it and get something else, almost anything else.

[T.J]

xviper2,
What year were your 8000. I have 3 flights on mine and 6 static bench runs with no brown outs. I hope I have one of the good ones. I have also switch to Lemon for all my new receivers, hey work great.
T.J

[xviper]

xviper2,
What year were your 8000. I have 3 flights on mine and 6 static bench runs with no brown outs. I hope I have one of the good ones. I have also switch to Lemon for all my new receivers, hey work great.
T.J

It was December of 2011 that I found online shops that were selling DX8s with a free AR8000. In fact, I found a place here in western Canada who sold it with 2 free 8's. Both of those gave me problems in 2 planes, then again when I transferred them into 2 other planes. This was over a period of 2 to 3 years. I usually kept them on the bench for a while until I had the nerve to try them in another plane. I later bought a 3rd about a year later and so far, there's been one "glitch" but that may have been going into a known dead zone at our flying field (high tension line), so can't say for sure if it was the RX. I've got it in the parts bin to be used in a test plane first before further use. I have a MAKO that is a cheap home built that I use to test RXs and gyros. I purposely fly the test plane as far away as I can see it and also criss-cross along and in and out of the "dead zone". Unfortunately, the dead zone isn't always active but several flyers have lost planes in the same area. It depends on the power usage on that part of the grid at the time. We try to avoid it as much as possible but it's very close to the landing approach when a north wind is blowing.

[rliniger]

I got my problem fixed by using a separate 10 Amp Castle BEC. All working very well now.