Setting up RTH

Kilby

Kilby

Active Member
Hey gang,

I was wondering if anyone could shed some light on something for me. I'm trying to set up my RTH function when my radio is turned off or I lose connection. I've never set up a fail safe before, so I'm not sure I understand what is supposed to happen. I turned on the option in the software assistant to for Go Home & Landing under enhanced failed safe methods, but it seems like there should be something else. If I turn the radio off while it's connected to the assistant, I don't see a blue led nor do I see the Control Mode Switch move to the fail-safe slot. This makes me think it's not working right. Any help would be most appreciated, I really don't want to just go out in the field and give it a go unless I know it's not going to just fall out of the sky.

Thanks!

-Terry
 

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Tahoe Ed

Active Member
Kilby:

I can only comment on how my JR 9503 radio is set up with an AR8000 Rx. To set up failsafe in the Rx, I did the following. If you have a switch set up to trigger failsafe then you can turn that switch on, if not move the travel of the mode switch so you get failsafe indicated in the Assistant. Now set the travel for low throttle to 0% vs 100%. This should move the throttle indicator in the Assistant to mid throttle. Once you have that done, shut down the WKM and the transmitter. Insert a bind plug in your receiver, again mine is an AR8000, and power up so that the receiver is in bind mode. Remove the bind plug, the receiver should continue to flash. Now turn on the transmitter with the bind button pressed and wait for the receiver to bind with the transmitter. You have now bound with the settings in the transmitter bound to the receiver if you loose signal. Again, power everything down. Restart your transmitter and reset the travel on your throttle and make sure that you are no longer in failsafe. Power the WKM back up and connect it to the Assistant. Now when you turn your transmitter off, the throttle should go to mid point and the mode should go to failsafe. I hope this helps you. I had to go through this several times to get it right.
 




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robvree

Member
Tahoe Ed - I followed your directions to setup failsafe on my new quad (with AR8000 Rx) and it seems to have worked. I already had one of AUX switches setup to manually enter failsafe but I had yet to set it up so the WKM would enter failsafe when the Tx was turned off. Following your directions I did the failsafe binding with throttle at 50% and the AUX switch set to failsafe. A quick test with the WKM software running shows that I do indeed enter failsafe when I switch off the Tx.

However, here is a small issue. I have my WKM gains set to be controlled via the knob on my Tx and that seems to get set in the failsafe binding as well (I did the binding with the gains at 100%). This could possibly cause an issue as the gains will always be set to 100% when failsafe is activated. Do you know if it is possible to skip a specific switch (the gains knob) when failsafe is activated?
 


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Tahoe Ed

Active Member
Robvree, I understand that you use the knob to adjust the gains from your transmitter. When you bind the transmitter to the receiver to set failsafe it takes all the settings in the transmitter and stores them in the receiver. Those are the settings the receiver defaults to when signal is lost. Set your knob to where you want your gains to be, reset the throttle and switches to the failsafe position and rebind. I think that you will be ok. I tried to use the levers on my JR9503 to set the gains and found that it was easy to get lost in the process. I have since reverted back to bringing my netbook with me to the field to make adjustments that way. Once it is set, other in extreme conditions, you should not have to reset it.
 

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robvree

Member
Thanks Ed, that's what I figured I'd have to do. I'll be heading out to the park in a little while for my first RTH test. Wish me luck!
 

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robvree

Member
Just got back from the park and flew down 4 full batteries. I noticed on my first flight I was getting oscillations when I turned on GPS mode. Before the second battery I tweaked the GPS just slightly (pointed it just a tad more to the left) and then the oscillations went away. I flew the bird away a bit, hit my failsafe switch and crossed my fingers. Everything went perfect! A nice soft landing about a foot from where I took off.

I'm a happy camper. Now to charge up those batteries again.
 

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