Dxe transmitter help

[redsox#34]

My spectrum Dxe transmitter is acting strange. When I turn it on, the spectrum logo light turns red instead of orange and makes a lower beeping than the normal sound when it turns on. I can fly with it but the red light and beeping sound continue, more and more frequently. Has this happened to anyone else? Does anyone have any idea what is wrong with my transmitter and how I can fix it?
Thanks!

 

[JimCR120]

I've never handled a DXe and would have thought that a lwo battery warning makes sense. Here is a link with some other possibilities that might come in useful.

Let us know.
—Jim

https://www.parallax.com/sites/default/files/downloads/80208-DXe-Manual-Addendum-v1.0.pdf

 

[redsox#34]

The manual posted did not lead to a conclusion, thanks though. A theory: as I am somewhat of a drone noob, I think that I don't know how to handle the batteries kindly. Therefor, I may have slowly degraded them while using my drone with it. This leads to the incorrect voltages. This idea could be possible, but seems unlikely to me. I will try with another drone soon and if problem persists, it may not be that. Also against this theory, It does it even when the drone isn't on.
Any further ideas?

 

[redsox#34]

Another thought that came to me is that this may not be true because that would suggest that the drone is transmitting this info to the controller. I was under the impression that this doesn't happen.

 

[JimCR120]

I'm doubting it has anything to do with the drone batteries but have you tried swapping out the transmitter batteries as mentioned before. That seems like an almost obvious and certainly easy possibility to rule out.

 

[KRAR]

I would suspect the transmitter is not getting the correct voltage reading from the batteries...
If using the LithiumIon try going back to 4 AA's and see if the issue goes away...
Use a voltmeter and check the voltages on the 4 AA's

 

[redsox#34]

Found this on a RC groups forum. One think it suggests is if you plug in a new battery w/ out turning of the transmitter, it will cause this problem. It does say that it was only the light blinking; however since it was posted in 2009, newer firmware could have added the sound. Will still put in new batteries.

There have been far too many posts about this condition, so here is the answer. The blinking LED was put into the latest firmware as a tool to help you diagnose a certain problem. It is there to tell you that the receiver rebooted during operation (flight). The intent was that you would look at the LED before you launch to notice that it was solid, then look at it again when it came back. If it was flashing you knew you had some kind of power supply fault.

The side effect is that the LED will also flash under a few other conditions.

What happens is the receiver remembers the 2 "channels" that it was using when it last had power. If that matches with the two channels that it now finds the transmitter on, it will flash thinking it had a power outage. Under certain conditions this could happen after days of sitting at home waiting for the next flying day because the transmitter may start transmitting on exactly the same channels as the previous day (slim but not impossible). Also if you land and change batteries without turning the TX off, the receiver will power up and find the TX on the channels in memory and think again that it had a power outage (which it did since you just changed the battery).

How do you avoid this when you are just changing the battery? Turn the TX off before putting the new battery in the model. Yes this will power up the receiver first which many have been taught is a very bad thing to do, just turning the TX off and back on while the receiver is powered down may be enough to allow for a channel change (but I found this doesn't always work with the LP5DSM TX). The only sure fire way is to connect the receiver first, then wait more than 2 seconds for it to start scanning for the TX, then power up the TX.

 

[JimCR120]

Found this on a RC groups forum. One think it suggests is if you plug in a new battery w/ out turning of the transmitter, it will cause this problem. It does say that it was only the light blinking; however since it was posted in 2009, newer firmware could have added the sound. Will still put in new batteries.

There have been far too many posts about this condition, so here is the answer. The blinking LED was put into the latest firmware as a tool to help you diagnose a certain problem. It is there to tell you that the receiver rebooted during operation (flight). The intent was that you would look at the LED before you launch to notice that it was solid, then look at it again when it came back. If it was flashing you knew you had some kind of power supply fault.

The side effect is that the LED will also flash under a few other conditions.

What happens is the receiver remembers the 2 "channels" that it was using when it last had power. If that matches with the two channels that it now finds the transmitter on, it will flash thinking it had a power outage. Under certain conditions this could happen after days of sitting at home waiting for the next flying day because the transmitter may start transmitting on exactly the same channels as the previous day (slim but not impossible). Also if you land and change batteries without turning the TX off, the receiver will power up and find the TX on the channels in memory and think again that it had a power outage (which it did since you just changed the battery).

How do you avoid this when you are just changing the battery? Turn the TX off before putting the new battery in the model. Yes this will power up the receiver first which many have been taught is a very bad thing to do, just turning the TX off and back on while the receiver is powered down may be enough to allow for a channel change (but I found this doesn't always work with the LP5DSM TX). The only sure fire way is to connect the receiver first, then wait more than 2 seconds for it to start scanning for the TX, then power up the TX.

Now I'm a bit confused. Your description here seems to be talking about a flashing LED on the receiver, not the transmitter while your initial post specified the transmitter.

Are you saying the transmitter LED blinks to indicate there was a power interruption on the receiver or are you only referring to the receiver LED?

 

[redsox#34]

Sorry i read this incorrectly, thought it was talking about transmitter. Finally had time to put in new batteries and it did the trick. Thank you all very much!

 

[JimCR120]

Glad to see it figured out. Thanks for posting. Now we've all learned.