S6R Has Very Poor Range - Worth Repairing?

[davemcddd]

I have two S6R receivers. One works perfectly with UNI firmware. The other with UNI firmware has very poor range, with RSSI warnings. Range check is only about 10 feet. The other S6R range checks at well over 200 feet.

Is this defective S6R worth sending in to get repaired?
Or is it only good for bench duty?

 

[HENNY]

I have two S6R receivers. One works perfectly with UNI firmware. The other with UNI firmware has very poor range, with RSSI warnings. Range check is only about 10 feet. The other S6R range checks at well over 200 feet.

Is this defective S6R worth sending in to get repaired?
Or is it only good for bench duty?

Poor range is nearly always an Antenna issue. There are available for replacement.

 

[davemcddd]

Changed both antennas. No change in the RSSI or range check distance.

 

[Wayne]

If antenas didn't help, then yeah, mark it with some tape and throw it in the back of a box. I have not found it worthwhile to dig into these at a chip replacement level. It is best just to replace.

 

[davemcddd]

Wayne, thank you for the advice! This particular S6R will be only be used for experiments on the bench.

 

[chuckstarck]

Same happened to mine with regular firmware. 10-15' range. They're great during a build to throw into the plane for test.. Or, they're great to put on a shelf with a piece of balsa saying RIP.

 

[Wayne]

If you are going to keep them sitting around. PLEASE mark them clearly so you do not forget and try to fly with them. Ask me how I know...

 

[rupert80]

I know this thread is a bit old, but I have recently experienced a similar problem with one of my 3 S6R receivers.

I did a lot of testing and reached a point where I have apparently fixed the issue, but can't point to cause or location - Rx or iRangeX 4-in-1 module.

The problem first showed up when binding the Rx to the iRangeX using Frsky X D16 protocol. RSSI values of around 20 were the result. I had the same result with a second iRangeX module. I then bound using my old Taranis X9D using XJT D16 protocol and it produced RSSI values of above 90.

I then brought in a second S6R and both iRangeX modules bound to it with RSSI values above 90.

So on these results, the finger of blame was beginning to swing towards the receiver. But then I tried binding the iRangeX using Frsky D16 LBT and of course, it could not bind. Then, upon binding the same iRangeX to the same S6R using Frsky X D16 (FCC), RSSI values were above 90. In the words of Prof Julius Sumner-Miller - "Why is it so?"

Unless it was total coincidence, or I just got lucky with the final bind, it seems that something in the LBT bind attempt kicked something in the receiver or the iRangeX, causing the problem to go away.

Perhaps I need to do some more testing, or perhaps I should try flashing the Rx with Uni-rx. I'm leaning towards Uni-rx.

This may not be the same issue as the thread-starter Rx had, but it appears to show that there are some grey areas with the S6R which are worth exploring.

 

[Wayne]

I'm not sure if the firmware on the IRangeX has a receiver matching method. If it does have the autotune then it may have made an error on the first bind, or perhaps you had some RF trash going on at the time and this forced a odd autotune. Just a wild guess here.

Tuning of the multi protocol modules is a thing as these units usually have very low quality electronics, and the tuning allows the user to get them to broadcast a little more closely to what they should have been doing from the factory.

 

[alm_nl]

The MPM does not autotune, even with UNI on the receiver you'll have to tune it. See here for the process of tuning the MPM: https://www.multi-module.org/using-the-module/frequency-tuning