Protecting satellite wires

[Bartman]

Some of you may have already thought of this but I put about 3/8" of heat shrink tubing over the wires of one satellite to see if they fared any better after a flight. The pics show a satellite with the tubing in place and one without after an 8 minute flight with the Oktokopter just now. Looks like it helped
Bart

 

[Crash]

Looks like the idea worked Bart.

Do those things use two completely separate antennas or am I looking at two sides of the same dipole?

You may be interested in the video below related to polarization:
http://vimeo.com/8826952

edit: thanks for the video crash. i deleted the embed since it slows down our already slow site.
cheers
bart

 

[Bartman]

crash,
i got halfway through and got sidetracked. i've got my two satellites on opposite sides of the Okto and the wires are parallel to each other. the pics above are of the two satellites. judging from the video it looks like i should probably put them at 90 degrees to each other to really get any benefit from the diversity board i recently added. is that the way you would read it?
thanks again for posting it, sorry about the edit. i should probably post something about not embedding videos. as i understand it when the vids are emebedded they go through this site's servers to be shown within the original post which counts towards the monthly hosting allotment. I've got us on a limited hosting package until things pick up so not embedding is, unfortunately, necessary. if i'm misunderstanding the nature of embedded videos someone please feel free to correct me.
thanks,
bart

 

[zorba]

I heard some people are using the stirring sticks that they have at the bars to stir your drink. I'm not a drinker so I don't go to bars. If someone does can you send a couple of them? LOL


Bill

 

[Bartman]

that's a good idea too Bill. thanks!
bart

 

[Crash]

crash,
i got halfway through and got sidetracked. i've got my two satellites on opposite sides of the Okto and the wires are parallel to each other. the pics above are of the two satellites. judging from the video it looks like i should probably put them at 90 degrees to each other to really get any benefit from the diversity board i recently added. is that the way you would read it?
thanks again for posting it, sorry about the edit. i should probably post something about not embedding videos. as i understand it when the vids are emebedded they go through this site's servers to be shown within the original post which counts towards the monthly hosting allotment. I've got us on a limited hosting package until things pick up so not embedding is, unfortunately, necessary. if i'm misunderstanding the nature of embedded videos someone please feel free to correct me.
thanks,
bart

The bandwidth from an embedded video would come from the video site, it won't go through this one. The vBulletin software may have some sort of a loader/player but I would think that any bandwidth used would be a non-issue. I would confirm with your provider though.

Regarding the antenna, you will have dead spots in TX and RX off the ends of the antenna. If the copter was oriented in such a way that the RX antenna points to the TX, then you could either loose reception or your diversity board would switch to the other satellite. If the second satellite is polarized and aimed the same way, then you could be in trouble.

I could be wrong, but, I thought that each satellite unit used separate antennas that are switched in an effort to have some type of diversity. If that is the case then the two antennas on each satellite would typically be 'aimed' in different directions. You would have to double check that however. (I only own Futabas).

If you have other satellites, then pay attentions to how they are polarized and aimed so that you have the best chance of receiving a signal from at least one of them during any orientation of the copter.

Kirk
PS. I use swizzle sticks. The red/white, and blue kind work best.

 

[Droider]

Is this something I need to look in to... two receivers!? Whats that all about

 

[RTRyder]

Is this something I need to look in to... two receivers!? Whats that all about

Spektrum diversity board, you can have up to 4 receivers online and if the primary fails the board will swap to the next RX with the strongest signal. You can see some info here... https://www.mikrokopter.us/shop/index.php?route=product/product&path=35&product_id=187 and there's a whole thread on the MK DE site but I can't seem to locate the link at the moment.

P.S. there is allegedly an issue with the DX8 satellite RX's needing to communicate with the main RX occasionally and because of that should not be used as the sole receiver on an MK. When that condition occurs, if the satellite does not get a response from the main RX it goes into failsafe mode, and since the main RX is not used in the MK that would result in the MK going into brick mode. The solution is to use the standard Spektrum satellite for the DX7 series.

Ken

 

[Droider]

Great.. that exactly what happened to mine..

If I use the DX7 though I lose a channel!

I really though the DX8 was going to be the dogs jobber.. model sharing, data bases of people sharing ther set ups etc ect.. But na! Even Spektum are only releasing a very few models to upload.. I am waiting for the new Jeti stuff to come out then I am putting the DX8 on ebay!

http://www.jetimodel.com/index.php?page=home

 

[RTRyder]

Great.. that exactly what happened to mine..

If I use the DX7 though I lose a channel!

I really though the DX8 was going to be the dogs jobber.. model sharing, data bases of people sharing ther set ups etc ect.. But na! Even Spektum are only releasing a very few models to upload.. I am waiting for the new Jeti stuff to come out then I am putting the DX8 on ebay!

http://www.jetimodel.com/index.php?page=home

Actually you won't lose a channel. Bind the DX7 satellite to the TX using the DX8 main RX and you'll get the full 8 channels when attached to the MK F/C board. At least it works that way with my JR 11X, I bound the DX7 satellites using the 11X RX and I get all 11 channels on the MK when hooked up through the diversity board.

I was thinking of getting a DX8 but they hadn't yet been released when I ran out of channels on the DX7 and the owner of the LHS cut me a super deal on the 11X (he's also the founder and former president of the RC Heli club I belong to). After all the things I've been reading and hearing about the DX8 I'm glad I went with the 11X. A bit pricier but it's been rock solid through over 15 hours of flight time since I first started using it.

Ken