FrSky TD-SR10 Flight Test
FrSky's stabilized receiver line has been out for the past 8 years if not a bit longer. It wasn't until 2019 that the line started to pickup speed. In 2023 the line went into hyperdrive. as the entire Archer Plus line was rolled out which included the Arche Plus SR10+ and the Arche Plus SR8. Toward the end of the year the Archer Plus SR6 rolled out for micro builds, and one option included a 5 amp ESC. Of interest to the majority of fixed-wing pilots is the Tandem TD SR line of receivers. This started off with the TD SR18 and TD SR10. Both have XT30 connectors. Thus, this was ideally suited for people flying fuel powered planes.
Now as we kick off 2024, two new Tandem stabilized receivers emerge. The TD SR10 and TD SR6. These are offered without XT30 connectors. At an MSRP of $90 and $60 respectively, this is a receiver that is
A) Dual Band 2.4ghz and 900mhz
B) Hast stabilization
C) Has telemetry
D) Runs both bands simultaneously, prefers 2.4ghz and fills in dropped packets with 900mhz packets.
E) Both receivers fit in one receiver case
F) Has 24 channels
G) Has Black Box
H) Has Over The Air (OTA) updates.
and one more for fun
I) Has an encrypted signal
Two Planes/ One major difference
I am making two platform planes to test out FrSky products, firmwares and updates. Though I don't plan on crashing, this is a no crying allowed venture. Both planes are decked out with FrSky
FrSky Xact 5611 and 5652 servos, six per plane
FrSky Neuron 40A (the old one, with S.Port)
GPS Adv
The two platform planes? Hobby King Bixler 2 and Bixler 3. I am familiar with these planes, they sell spare parts, and when they crash its around a 2 to 3 McDonalds lunch penalty to pay for the new foam.
The major difference aside from the planes is the receivers
Bixler 2- FrSky Tandem TD SR10
Bixler 3-FrSky Archer Plus SR10- and ACCESS R9-MM (900mhz receiver)
The basic setup (see chart below)
These are two planes that are essentially identical in function. Both have 2.4ghz & 900mhz. Both are stabilized. Both have 10 channel receivers. Yet, one setup uses 9 channels and the other uses all 10 channels. Both have Channel 6 which should have been Elevator 2 changed to Aux 2 on Bank 1. This means that stabilization is turned off for Channel 6, and the port is free be a non-stabilized channel. Yet, in both cases it was still set to FBUS.
Also notice that pin 3 is throttle (as you would expect) and pin 10 is S.Port telemetry. The ESC has Smartport out that feeds the telemetry of the ESC to the receiver. This was the old way of doing telemetry, two sets of wires. The first set from the ESC had on Pin 3 Black/Red/.White Ground/Variable voltage/ Signal. Pin 10 had Black/Red/White Ground/NO VOLTAGE/S.Port telemetry signal. The ESC has variable voltage, in this case since the servos run at 8.4volts they were turned up to that power level. In the Tandem transmitter, you can adjust the power level for the servos at Model/Device Config/ESC
FBUS combines the two sets of wires into one wire set. The telemetry from SmartPort is sent along with the signal from the ESC. The receiver sends a command to be at a certain power setting around 30 times a second to the ESC. If the ESC had FBUS the receiver would send back information about the ESC's telemetry such as power consumption back through the same signal wire in a bi-directional manner.
To be a bit more direct, FBUS is both SBUS and Smartport combined. An FBUS device such as a servo or GPS in this example has a small microcontroller in it. In setting up the servos and GPS, one at a time, I setup the channel for each item. The first servo was channel 1, and went into my left aileron on my planes. This information is stored in the servo. When the port was changed to FBUS on the receiver, it essentially gets instruction from the servo or GPS as to what channel it's using. This means that I could plug any servo or GPS into any FBUS port on the receiver. No more color coding servo extension wires when plugging in the wings.
The servos and GPS were also setup in the device config menu. The servos can be set to 90/120/180 degrees. The direction can be reversed. I also get telemetry of the servo such as voltage it's set on, current and amp draw and temperature. Of course, this is a lot of information. Which was part of the experiment. I wanted to see how much information could be handled at one time.
Since the Bixler 3 was using an Archer 2.4ghz receiver as it's primary, I added a 900mhz receiver. Both receivers were using ACCESS protocol. The R9MM is an older receiver that sends out SBUS to SBUS in on the SR10+. Here's the thing, there is only one spot to plug in the SBUS on the SR10+, pin 1. Channel 1 was moved to pin 9. As you can see the stabilization went along with it. The SR10+ was bound to RX1 in the internal RF section. The R9MM was set to RX2. Both receivers sent telemetry constantly. There is no ability for the R9MM to send telemetry to the first receiver. And, if there was, I'm out of ports!
The Setup
Everything about the TD SR10 was easier in the Bixler 2. The Bixler 3 had it challenges but went together well.
Bixler 3
This was the work around to get the stabilization and 900mhz to work on the same plane. The Archer SR10+ went into the fuselage. Pin 1 was set to SBUS in and the R9MM receiver was set on the horizontal stabilizer. Yes, you read that right. It's a small, light receiver. Soldering is required which is fine because this is perhaps the 30th one I've soldered in the past few years. Playing the shuffle game with the pins wasn't a lot of fun but I did learn a bit more about the stabilization system in the process. In the end the setup wasn't impossible. It's just not a Tandem receiver and it became noticeable.
Bixler 2
Once I had the latest version of Ethos the setup was a walk in the park. By this point I've had enough experience with the stabilized receivers to know how to set them up rather quickly And, this receiver just didn't disappoint. I'd say it's on par with the Archer Plus SR10+ for the ease of installation. If you can figure out how to setup an SR10+ this is identical. No long wires to string to the back of the plane. So ,for simplicity sake, I really liked the TD SR10.
The flights
Bixler 3
It took a bit of refining but after a while the Bixler 3 was just a baby in the air. The only thing bad about it was that after certain turns I would get a "Low VFR" warning. The issue at hand is that the the 2.4ghz receiver will call out a failsafe when the packets drop below a threshold. On the Tandem receivers it knows to not do this until the 900mhz frame rates drop below a certain threshold. Though there is nothing to worry about, the warning comes along every so often.
The Bixler 3 is a bit large and clumsy at times, but once it's dialed in this plane is rock solid. I've owned enough Bixler 2s to know that that it flies like a foam plane. The Bixler 3 flies a bit more like wood than foam. One of my friends describes the plane as "lumbering" and I find it to be simply "not agile." Still, it's a brilliant flier, easy to trim and flies on rails.
The other thing I did like about this setup was that the 900mhz receiver when put out on the tail did get a noticeable improvement in VFR or 900mhz receiver reception. Nothing night and day better, just better.
Bixler 2
No warnings for low VFR, but I was getting sensor conflict messages. I believe that the next update for the receiver will fix this. The setup was easy and tuning was very fast. No low VFR warnings and I did fly it way further than I normally would and there wasn't a single issue.
The Bixler 2 is a bit less rigid and certainly more agile than the Bixler 3. It has many flaws that make it less than ideal, and yet it's still lovable. When it's tuned, its a very nice slow flier that explores the sky in a manner that never really gets old.
Normally the Bixler 2 is a plane that I fly on calm mornings. But I found myself taking it out on a day just before a storm came in. I had a battery to kill off and it was certainly 'now or never.' The stabilized gyro was certainly keeping the plane tracking and flyable. I turned to manual for around 15 seconds and it was like riding a bull at the rodeo. The stabilization made a huge difference. Even the self level had some merit though I rarely flew in this mode.
And the winner is. . .
The TD SR10. Setup aside, the thing won me over is the lack of telemetry callouts during low 2.4ghz periods of flight.
What about the sensor conflicts?
I am mixing S.Port, and have a ton of FBUS setups on each plane. This was part of the reason I set this up, to find if there were issues. Our engineering department will have a fix for this in a firmware update somewhere down the line. I doubt many people mix s.port with FBUS these days.
Comments
Post a Comment