Futaba 6ex FASST

**kronic** · 7th February 2008, 08:48

Morning,

Has anyone had any experience with the Futaba 6ex FASST 2.4GHz system? I was wondering what it was like compared to the Spektrum.

Cheers, Dave

**beast** · 7th February 2008, 09:02

i belive they dont fail safe on all chans only 1 chan so spektrum may be better unless theres been an update

(Message edited by jct on February 07, 200

**leorcc** · 7th February 2008, 10:21

Having compared field results with other 2.4GHz systems with people from the club i fly with, Ive come to this conclusion.

Failsafing as John already pointed out is only on the first channel (aka throttle cut). De rest of the channels stay in position until the signal comes back.

That is not acceptable to us because that means if the robot goes into failsafe during a right turn for instance, it keeps turning to the right instead of stopping.

The Futaba use a different way of avoiding clashes of the radios then Spektrums do. Spektrum uses something called DSSS (direct-sequence spread spectrum), and Futaba something call FHSS (Frequency-hopping spread spectrum). Futaba has dubbed this system FASST (Futaba Advanced Spread Spectrum Technology). Hows that for marketing.

Both are perfectly good methods of avoiding collisions, by most of the experts it is the general consensus the FHSS way is better because you never stay on a channel long enough to interfere with other.

Overall, if the Futaba receivers were to be made like the BR6000, with a programmable failsafe on all channels, the FASST would be the better choice. However, since this is not yet the case, and trust me, I always keep an eye out for these developments, we are down to 2 choices:

Graupner/IFS (Also know as Extreme power systems), or Spektrum DSM.

Both have receivers with programmable failsafes, unfortunately Spektrum does not have a DSM2 RX with programmable failsafe settings on all channels yet.

In the near future, Spektrum is going to release the DX6i, a new 6 channel transmitter that is DSM2 and DSM (like the BR6000) compatible, but way cheaper than the DX6 or 7.

XPS or Graupner/IFS is also an option, but very recently a problem was found that the modules do not hop to a different channel if interference kicks in. That means it will failsafe and wont return to work until the interference is sorted.

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=814276http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=814276

For robotics, Spektrum atm is the best choice. For aircraft/helicopters, FASST would be my choice.

**leorcc** · 7th February 2008, 10:47

btw, there are more 2.4GHz players in the field like ASSAN and Nomadio.

The one I am watching with great interest although I dont like the companies boss that much is ACT Europe.

http://www.acteurope.de/html/_s3d-system_2_4ghz_.htmlhttp://www.acteurope.de/html/_s3d-system_2_4ghz_.html

The main advantage to their system is you can use your old frequency equipment alongside the new. so if you want to send with 40MHz you still can.

**typhoon_driver** · 7th February 2008, 17:08

Technically you could use the futaba system if you had the throttle channel linked to a a large relay (solid state or otherwise) which cut out all electrical power on signal loss. Not an ideal solution though.

I hope futaba do sort out a system that failsafes on all channels. The annoying thing is that it probably isnt that difficult for them to do.

**m2xt** · 7th February 2008, 19:59

Gary - Not an ideal solution though I would disagree, M2 has always had a dedicated failsafe channel linked to power relays which removed power to all drives and weapon circuits. Thus the Futaba set is ideal and offers greater security in my opinion especially when you have popped FETs on a speedo sending a bot out of control. Also great for doing a power down reset to your speedo when it locks up i.e. Vantec and Roboteq.

Also whilst I agree it would be nice to have the failsafe feature on all channels, you could ask why should they give it consideration for a market that represents such a small percentage of their customer base. Implementing failsafe properly to all channels takes a lot of processing time when compared to a single channel so I would guess (no idea if Im right though) its not practical for this particular receiver.

**maddox** · 8th February 2008, 07:20

Paul, not that many relais can shut down a robot on full pelt. Not without suffering any damage.

Combine that fact with the fail safe function, and you have a recepy for another power on led discusion.

Project One and II had the same failsafe setup, but used the 1 kg heavy Albright SW8024V b for main cut off.
The pricetag and the weight are prohibitive for a thoroughbread heavy.

**leorcc** · 8th February 2008, 09:26

Robbe Futaba has started a mass recall of ALL their Robbe T6EXP/FF7/TM7 and FASST modules. So far Ive only found the text in German, but The English version will follow suit.