RX8R RSSI Signal Low Warning

[ajliebel]

Hello,

During the maiden flight of my Hangar-9 Ultrastick powered by RCGF 35CC. I got an "RSSI signal low" message from my Taranis X9D. Fortunately I was able to land immediately. I'm using an RX8R receiver, Not Pro (It has only 2 antennae). 2 Life Batteries 1 for Radio, 1 for Ignition. I also have XM+ Satellite connected to SBUS In. Antennae are sticking out the sides of the fuselage at approximately 90-degree angle, I'm running OpenTX 2.3.7 on my X9D and get great signal range on all my other aircraft which are electrics.

Any thoughts out there?

Thanks,

Adrian

 

[Nigel]

It could be a lot of things.

Firstly, make sure your redundant receiver is connected and working properly, as well as your batteries are fully charged.

You said you don't have any issues with this radio on other receivers, so it's entirely possible it could be a weak receiver. Also, check and make sure that your antennas don't get in the shadow of something inside the plane (ie one antenna is pointing its null to you and the other is covered by the battery).

Besides that, do a couple range checks without the redundant receiver and see if you get comparable range to other receivers you've had success with. The RX8R is a great receiver, but every so often there is a dud, as with any electronic product.

 

[ajliebel]

Thanks,

I swapped out the RX8R Pro with another. Also I moved it and the satellite receiver back another 6 inches. Its now about 9 inches back from the nearest battery and almost a foot back from the Ignition box. I then did a range test by walking a circle around the airplane with the engine running at about 30 paces and the X9D range test feature active. A spotter standing near the plane gave me hand signals (bank, pitch, roll, throttle) while I was walking and verified the correct movements. There were a few "Low RSSI" warnings with the range test mode active but no warnings in normal mode. After several aerobatic flights at normal range for our field, everything seems to be fine and there haven't been any warnings. I may put the old receiver in a less valuable airplane just to test it out.

 

[Nigel]

Sounds like a weak receiver. Glad it's sorted!

 

[Fireflite88]

Had the same issues with the first X8R Pro that I bought, apparently they had a bad run on a batch of these things. I sent it back to Aloft they ran it through some testing and sent me a new one. Just two cents,

 

[HENNY]

I guess you bound the second receiver with Telemetry off. If the receivers have not synchronized its possible the second receiver is swamping the first primary receiver. Keep them apart as far as possible. What version of receiver firmware is the XM+ running.