04-07-2025, 03:04 PM
Erhard,
Please consider the possibility that you experienced some temporary lockouts. These can happen when the line of sight between the transmitter and receiver is blocked by equipment and or other parts in the airplane. The XPS system will hold a servo at the last position for which it saw a good control signal. If the receiver receives a good signal again before the two-second failsafe timer expires, then no failsafe is declared and the system continues on from there. If the receiver does not see a new signal by the time the failsafe timer expires, then it (or the X10) will declare a failsafe condition and put the servos into whatever "User" positions you configured. Or, it will leave them in the last known position if you configured "Hold" as the failsafe output. I determined that in my case my system never went into failsafe while flying - I felt only the short gaps in control.
These equipment and parts that can block the signal includes servos, servo wiring, metal landing gear struts, ESC and wiring, batteries, and carbon fiber parts. I had a plane with which I experienced temporary lockouts and the problem was repeatable with two different radio systems - Futaba and XPS. Turned out it wasn't the radio system, it was the location of the receiver antennas relative to that other stuff.
I could reproduce the problem by setting my transmitter on a chair in low power mode, and then walking the airplane away from the transmitter until the system went into failsafe. Just before reaching that failsafe distance, I tilted the airplane into differing orientations with respect to the transmitter. I found an orientation where failsafe came much closer than the failsafe check distance (about 100 to 150 feet). It was just about the same orientation that the airplane was when in flight and I experienced the lockouts.
I ultimately located the receiver antennas (dual antennas on the RFU) with one element pointing aft, and the other pointing down and out through the bottom of the fuse. The element pointing down below the fuse was "out of the way" of the large aluminum landing gear part. After relocating the antennas out of the way of the other stuff in all orientations I haven't had the problem since. I'll bet the XPS Nano would have also worked fine if I placed it below that big aluminum landing gear.
Paul
Please consider the possibility that you experienced some temporary lockouts. These can happen when the line of sight between the transmitter and receiver is blocked by equipment and or other parts in the airplane. The XPS system will hold a servo at the last position for which it saw a good control signal. If the receiver receives a good signal again before the two-second failsafe timer expires, then no failsafe is declared and the system continues on from there. If the receiver does not see a new signal by the time the failsafe timer expires, then it (or the X10) will declare a failsafe condition and put the servos into whatever "User" positions you configured. Or, it will leave them in the last known position if you configured "Hold" as the failsafe output. I determined that in my case my system never went into failsafe while flying - I felt only the short gaps in control.
These equipment and parts that can block the signal includes servos, servo wiring, metal landing gear struts, ESC and wiring, batteries, and carbon fiber parts. I had a plane with which I experienced temporary lockouts and the problem was repeatable with two different radio systems - Futaba and XPS. Turned out it wasn't the radio system, it was the location of the receiver antennas relative to that other stuff.
I could reproduce the problem by setting my transmitter on a chair in low power mode, and then walking the airplane away from the transmitter until the system went into failsafe. Just before reaching that failsafe distance, I tilted the airplane into differing orientations with respect to the transmitter. I found an orientation where failsafe came much closer than the failsafe check distance (about 100 to 150 feet). It was just about the same orientation that the airplane was when in flight and I experienced the lockouts.
I ultimately located the receiver antennas (dual antennas on the RFU) with one element pointing aft, and the other pointing down and out through the bottom of the fuse. The element pointing down below the fuse was "out of the way" of the large aluminum landing gear part. After relocating the antennas out of the way of the other stuff in all orientations I haven't had the problem since. I'll bet the XPS Nano would have also worked fine if I placed it below that big aluminum landing gear.
Paul