A2 + Futaba 14SG Signal Loss Failsafe setup

[Old Man]

I'm a bit new at this stuff but I found that the A2 with a Futaba T14SG will not trigger a failsafe mode in the A2 Assistant in any flight mode when turning off the transmitter unless additional failsafe end points are set outside of the flight mode set points. There's nothing intuitive about this type of a set up, and like some others here would not even think about switching off the transmitter in actual flight unless there was first some visual confirmation of failsafe entry in the Assistant.

 

[Tahoe Ed]

I'm a bit new at this stuff but I found that the A2 with a Futaba T14SG will not trigger a failsafe mode in the A2 Assistant in any flight mode when turning off the transmitter unless additional failsafe end points are set outside of the flight mode set points. There's nothing intuitive about this type of a set up, and like some others here would not even think about switching off the transmitter in actual flight unless there was first some visual confirmation of failsafe entry in the Assistant.

If you turn off the Tx you will note in the lower left hand corner of Assistant you will see that it has entered into failsafe. With the props off, you can do the same and the led will flash failsafe. It works but not like the other controllers. If you feel more comfortable please do set up failsafe in the Futaba since it is very easy.

 

[Old Man]

After two days trying to figure out why it would not go into fail safe I became very intimate with the bottom left corner "button" and the vertical mode position bar. It did not go into fail safe in the bottom left corner until I finally set the fail safe trigger points outside of and in addition to the three flight mode positions. As I said, it was not intuitive. As for setting transmitter fail safes, that's always a smart thing to do, as is doing all your set up work before mounting a propeller.

 

[Flylite]

So, I was puzzled about this last night after setting up my a2 on a test quad with 2.3.

I have not followed or even read the links posted thus far, mainly as I wanted to go by the book to see the outcome.

Firstly, turning off the Tx showed no 'rc lost' or other indicators.
Could not find anything in the manual to point to a solution so just set up the Futaba FS in the FS menu (8FG) like most of us have to do if using a branded Futaba Rx.
This seemed to work but I had a few issues - first one was that after testing FS a few times the A2 system decided not to see the returning signal, this was after about 5 Tx power of tests in the space of about 20-25 seconds, a power cycle of the A2 was needed to get the connection back.
I decided at this point to take out the FS on the Tx side as the last thing I want is an issue reconnecting. After doing this though the A2 now will always print up ' RC lost' when the Tx is turned off... Go figure, now it works without Tx side FS...

I'll flash the A2 later after I have put a few packs through the quad to see if the A2 initially needs a FS signal to the A2 internal Rx to be able to recognise when the Tx signal is lost, it certainly looks this way.

 

[Droider]

Fail safe should not need to be programmed with the Futaba radio, annoyingly it does not tell you in the assistant it has gone to failsafe. You have tounplg it from the assistant and see if the LED goes to failsafe when you turn off the radio.

IF you are flying a heavy lifter be aware that when fail safe kicks in the A2 goes to 100% immediately if you are not at go home altitude, no slow build up just BANG 100%. Be warned!

 

[Carapau]

Your A2 failure sounds very similar to the failures we had at the shop- I don't think this is a build or setup issue, but an issue with the A2 itself. Do you know what firmware you were using as 2.1 was the version we had these same faults on.

 

[Flylite]

Your A2 failure sounds very similar to the failures we had at the shop- I don't think this is a build or setup issue, but an issue with the A2 itself. Do you know what firmware you were using as 2.1 was the version we had these same faults on.

If your addressing my issues Carapau, this unfortunately was on 2.3.

 

[Old Man]

My experience in flight mode and failsafe programming using a Futaba 14SG indicated that once the proper flight mode limits were established in the transmitter via end point adjustments, that failsafe end point limits had to also be programmed in at the transmitter. In the A2 Assistant the indicator bar would not enter any of the failsafe positions when the transmitter was turned off until those actions were completed.

BTW, it seems using a WKM LED may have resolved my A2 compass calibration issues. Trying a different LED, which required purchasing another FC, provided the correct light codes denoting calibration mode entry. Having to purchase two FC's to make one that's functional is not the way I like to do business.

 

[BamaDave]

I have not seen anywhere on this thread that mentions making sure the landing gear is programmed to come down when setting up the failsafe feature.