Dx6i timer programming glitches?

[xmech2k]

I always program my timer on my Dx6i to count down from however minutes for my planes. Lately, I've had occasions where I'm pretty sure I checked the timer was counting down when I started, but I'll be flying along and wonder how much time I've got left, and find it's counting up... (And there's no way it already went to 0 and started back up. On an 8 minute countdown, I've looked down and it's at 12 minutes counting up. My batterries would never have lasted that long, and I'm not that far 'out there'! )) So far I haven't had an incident from this.

So after I land, I cycle my radio power and check, and the timer will be in count up mode instead of down, and I even think the minutes will be different from what I programmed.

Anyone else experience this? Is it something I'm doing with the timer button, which I set as the throttle cut button?

[Heli Jim]

Mine does that sometimes, too. Remember---It's a COMPUTER.....nothing's perfect.

Actually, I have no idea why it happens. Maybe it has something with the voltage
of the TX batteries getting low?? That is the ONLY problem I have ever had with
this transmitter so I'm just used to checking the timer when I start flying.

FWIW........I use the trainer switch rather than the throttle cut button now, and
I don't seem to have the troubles now.

[xmech2k]

Thx for the response Jim. I was going to say I'm glad I'm not the only one with this problem, but maybe that's not such a good thing? The thought had crossed my mind to try another switch. I'll give it a try. I think I'll shoot an e-mail to Spektrum, too, and hope they don't want me to send in my xmitter!

[dumo01]

I noticed that also when i was using my DX6i as my primary. I think it happens when you have a flight that reaches the end of your set "count down time" and it switches to count up to let you know how long you have been flying past your expected time. All well and good, but when you land and stop the timer you expect that it will go back to the count down setting for the next flight. Not so, once it goes into the count up mode, it retains that setting for the next flight, unless you go back and reset it. It shows the programmed time start point in minutes and seconds, but counts up instead of down. Drove me crazy, I knew I could count on the behavior, but aboout half the time I would forget to fix it between flights.
Bought a JR 9503 last year and the DX6i is now my backup Tx, so for the most part the issue is fixed
Never tried using a different switch, but I think it is a logic error and would not expect a differetn switch to make any difference. Wish I had a better solution but I never found one. Maybe Spektrum as a fix available by now.

[xmech2k]

Thanks for the input, dumo01. I also thought about what your saying, and let the timer do that count down to 0 then start back up, then I switched off the xmttr, turned it back on, and it was behaving normally, well at least that one time I had enough presence of mind to check it! Maybe it's not every time for some reason.

I sent the question to Spektrum on their web-site, but got an e-mail reply saying that avenue is no longer used and have to post it on a Horizon Hobby forum. (?!) I was too tired to put it all in there again so I'll try again tonight after work.

[baz49exe]

Funny you should post this today as the same thing happened to me while flying yesterday. I've used my DX6i for at least two years now with the timer set to countdown and always on the trainer switch. Never had a problem until the first flight yesterday when it decided to re set to count up. Luckily my own built in timer told me it was time to land.
The start time ( 6 minutes) hadn't altered but the up/down option had reset to up with it now reading just over 11 minutes.
Thing is, I'm not sure about the timer overrun as a cause as I've overrun many times in two years but never had a reset like this until yesterday.

[xmech2k]

Well, strangely enough, I got another e-mail from Spektrum that said they got my inquiry and assigned it a case # or something. I'll let you guys know what I hear back.

In the meanwhile, I'm just going to have to make sure I start the timer and make sure I check it's the right time and counting the right way before each takeoff. LOL the 'internal timer', baz49exe! I guess that's what saved me too.

[dumo01]

Amazing how well the internal timer works. My 9503 timer has never let me down(Yet) but the internal is usually on within a minute or so.
It will be interesting to see what Spektrum says. My Dx6i is at least 4 years old, I bought it used about 3 1/2 years ago, and I just got used to dealing with the behavior. Not sure how old your units are, but it is clearly not a new problem.
FWIW I always used trainer switch to start the timer, at least when I remembered to start it before take off. It nice to have the timer tied to the throttle switch now.

[xmech2k]

Well, got a reply from Spektrum. they say it's probably a firmware issue with the timer which is, of course, a service center-only fix. And they gave me a link for info on how to send my radio in.

I think I'll live with it for now. But I will try other switches, and maybe monitor the situations more closely and keep a log. Maybe With another switch or something, I can work around it. Funny thing is, this didn't start until a few months ago.

[baz49exe]

Thanks for the updates. I wonder if they'll send the info to the service centre on this side of the pond???

[xmech2k]

I just thought of something else. This entire weekend of flying, I did not experience this issue. I changed one of my plane programs (out of 4 planes) over to the Trainer switch, but that's all.

The one thing I did different, is I did not try to cancel the 'alarm' on the timer. I just let it keep beeping until it was done or I was ready to turn off the radio. Wonder if this could have been the cause.

Has anyone else who experienced this been messing with the timer button during/after the timer countdown?

[Heli Jim]

The other question would be: Do you turn your transmitter off between flights?
If not, then do you have this problem?

[Monterey10]

Mine counts down. It beeps once for every minute that goes by. It beeps multiple times when I hit zero, then, it starts counting up. I just thought that was the way it worked. Makes sense to me anyway.

[xmech2k]

@HeliJim, Yep, I don't think I've ever had a turnaround so fast that I didn't turn off my transmitter.

@Monterey10, That's not the problem. The problem is when, for example, you have it programmed to count down from 8 minutes, you press the button, start flying, and in a little while (Not 20 minutes later) you check and see it's counting up and at 12 minutes, or something like that.

At this point, I suspect when I was trying to cancel the multiple beeps when it hits zero, I did something to mess up the programming, making it switch to counting up on the next flight. Sounds wierd. But again, this weekend I deliberately didn't try to cancel the zero alert, just let it beep to it's heart content, let it go into counting up at that point, and just turned off the xmttr after the plane was powered down, and did not experience the problem.

[philipa_240sx]

My DX6i used to have the same wierd timer behaviour. I couldn't reproduce it all the time so I just lived with it. When it messed up, I would go back in and change the timer settings.

I don't have the DX6i anymore, I now fly with a DX8 and the timer on that radio has more features (I can activate it on throttle position) and is fairly reliable.

[mclarkson]

I am with you guys. I have never managed to do it repeatably, but my DX6i timers LOVE to switch themselves from DOWN to UP.

I've tried turning it off when it's counting UP after the timer expires. I've tried stopping and starting and re-setting it with the trainer switch. It never messes up when I'm watching it.

But relatively often my 'internal timer' goes off and I look down at the radio only to discover it's magically counting UP.

The worst part is it counts UP from whatever my timer is set to. So If I have a plane with a DOWN timer of, say, 4:30 and I look down to see that it's at UP 7:46 I now have to do math in my head (Let's see ... 4:30 from 7:46 would be ... 3:16? So I have ... about 1 minute 15 let to fly, and should land it at ... 9 minutes? Is that right?) while trying to fly the plane.

[Fentonflyers]

The timer needs to be reset at the end of each cycle by holding the trainer switch for 3 seconds before you change models or turn off the radio. I found this info in the manual. I do this after I land and am retrieving the plane.

Jay

[Heli Jim]

Wow. Great information. I must have missed that.
Where in the manual did you find this?

Thanks for the info........I'm sure that a lot of us
learned something today!

[xmech2k]

Originally Posted by Fentonflyers

The timer needs to be reset at the end of each cycle by holding the trainer switch for 3 seconds before you change models or turn off the radio. I found this info in the manual. I do this after I land and am retrieving the plane.

Jay

Hi Fentonflyers. I saw the part about resetting the timer, but I don't see any actual need to reset it, at least before switching off the radio. I've never flown so much to have the opportunity to switch models right after a flight without turning off the radio.

For 2 weekends of flying now, I've just been starting the timer at the beginning of my flight, then I don't touch the timer control again. So far, I haven't had a repeat of this glitch. I really think this glitch was caused by messing with the timer after it's already running.