LemonRx a lemon?

TexMechsRobot

Posted a thousand or more times
I've had several people suggest a LemonRx receiver to me for use in my lightweight plane. On the surface, it looks like a great deal. It has a large operating voltage range, has end-pins for low profile, and has a very good price.

I have had nothing but trouble with it and I want to be sure it isn't me. If it isn't me, I'd like suggestions for alternatives.

So here's what happens (with no regularity).

I have the bind plug on it. I plug in a 1S 500mAh lipo. The bind light flashes fast. I bind it to the transmitter successfully and can operate the servos without any trouble (I removed the bind plug). I turn off the transmitter. The solid light on the rx goes out. I turn on the transmitter. The solid light on the rx turns on and I can operate the servos as expected. I do this cycle again to make sure. I turn off the transmitter. I unplug the battery. I plug in the battery. No light. I do it again. The light flashes slowly with no bind to the tx. I unplug and replug. No light. Again. The light looks like it shorting out as I put the battery on. No light. I unplug and replug. Solid light. No reaction to the servos when I move the sticks. Suddenly the servos all flip to maximum on one side. I think rebinding might help. I plug the bind plug in. I plug the battery in. Solid light. I unplug and replug the battery. No light.

I have absolutely no idea. I bought an OrangeRx about 5 months ago and had similar results. I wound up throwing that one away thinking it was a bad unit and decided not to buy another one since I didn't trust their quality. I'm on that ledge with LemonRx as well but thought I'd ask some questions.

All of the Spektrum brand receivers are either vertical pins which don't fit in my fuselage or $60 for 6 ch when I only need 2. I'd love the AR6110e or the AR6115e but those are both discontinued and the ones I find online are from retailers that are likely selling knockoffs.

Help :-(
 
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Bricks

Master member
I am thinking your 1S is setting up a low voltage in your receiver have you tried a 2S or 3S battery.
 

BridgeInspector

Flite Test Groupie
I have never had an issue with lemon or orange Dsmx rxs. It may be your procedure as it doesn't seem right.
I would try it with a Ubec or esc/bec unless it specifically specifies 1s will work.

This is the steps I use.

Connect bind plug.
Connect esc or ubec
Plug servos as need
Turn on Tx and get to bind screen
Power Rx ( plug in battery)
Start bind on Tx and watch light on Rx to turn solid and get Tx confirmed bind
Power off (unplug battery) on Rx
Remove bind plug
Turn off Tx


Then check

Turn on Tx ( confirm model selection)
Power Rx
Check controls.
Unpower Rx
Turn off Tx
 

JimCR120

Got Lobstah?
Site Moderator
Same as all the above, but I only have two. I've never used them on 1S though. Have you tried a 2S or 3S to see if it makes a difference? Are you powering it through an ESC? You might try changing that. I domremember having a certain ESC/rcvr combination that gave me problems.

Also, which LemonRx rcvr ar you using?
 

TexMechsRobot

Posted a thousand or more times
I gave up :-/

I had tried 2S and 1S but both had the same results. I'll stick with name brands since they seem to work for me.
 

CustomRCMods

Elite member
@TexMechsRobot

I am in the same boat as you. I have had 5 lemon RXes and have had nothing but trouble from all of them. I must say that one or two of them may have been poorly made, with loose solder joints on the antennas that couldn’t handle my flying :). The other 3 I have had nothing but straight brown outs from. I was flying my FT Arrow the other day with a fresh lemon in it and it browned out and drove the plane straight into the ground... That’s annoying. In total I have had 4 planes destroyed by these receivers. I love the idea behind them, simple, affordable, and according to most on this site, perfectly reliable. That is why I continually give them second chances... but now I am done with them. Super frustrating after building a beautiful plane just to stand there and watch it destroy itself, out of your control.

Either way, there are other very affordable DSMX RXes out there. I have 4 of these “XBERSTAR” knock off Spektrum AR6210s and have had zero issues with any of them. They go for around 22$ a pop and come with a satellite as an added bonus. Highly Reccomend!

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0747QJS94/?tag=lstir-20
 
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Bricks

Master member
Just a question how do you know it was a brownout do you have telemetry to see how many holds you have? My nephew has the lemon Micro in a 120 size Nitro running 6 full size servos in the plane I cringe every time he flies it but he has never had a problem.
 

CustomRCMods

Elite member
Just a question how do you know it was a brownout do you have telemetry to see how many holds you have? My nephew has the lemon Micro in a 120 size Nitro running 6 full size servos in the plane I cringe every time he flies it but he has never had a problem.

I know it was a brown out because I lost control of the airplane :). It had a few seconds of dive before it hit the ground, and I definitely was not able to regain control. I have used plenty of other rxes including some genuine spektrum units and Have never had such issues. Just me it seems, though. Either way I would advise to stay away from these rxes unless you don’t mind you beautiful bird getting hit by the ground :). Better safe than sorry.
 
Sorry to hear you have had some issues. Sounds like quite the odd happening. I am wondering if you are losing signal, not necessarily having a brown out. A brown out would usually indicate a failure in the power supplier i.e. the bec. I know that the micro receiver (of which I have several) is dsm2 and can have smaller ranges. Were you far away or pulling a hard maneuver when they would brown out?
 

Bricks

Master member
Good bad or indifferent I believe some thing else was going on, theres no way should one person have that many problems and others having zero.
What are you using for a transmitter?

Not saying anything bad about you but just so curious what is going on here. Do you still have all 5 receivers?
 

CustomRCMods

Elite member
Sorry to hear you have had some issues. Sounds like quite the odd happening. I am wondering if you are losing signal, not necessarily having a brown out. A brown out would usually indicate a failure in the power supplier i.e. the bec. I know that the micro receiver (of which I have several) is dsm2 and can have smaller ranges. Were you far away or pulling a hard maneuver when they would brown out?

Neither! It was so odd. I just took off and flew about 50 ft out before total signal loss :(
 

CustomRCMods

Elite member
Good bad or indifferent I believe some thing else was going on, theres no way should one person have that many problems and others having zero.
What are you using for a transmitter?

Not saying anything bad about you but just so curious what is going on here. Do you still have all 5 receivers?

Unfortunately no. I have 2, One that still works kinda and another that I pulled apart trying to fix it up. One of the others shorted out for some reason and was trashed, and the other 2 I gave to a friend for one of his CNC projects or something.

And I am using a DX6e BTW. and these 6 channel RXes were all the 1st generation, not the new version with the plastic case around the main board.
 
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