New Mini VBar won't bind with Spektrum DSM2 Sat

[mstenbo]

Hi all.

I have searched here and read many threads and watched Mr Mel's videos related to binding but can't seem to sort it out.

I am fairly new to VBar. Just got my first one about a month ago for my 550 and decided with the price drop to pick up a new Mini VBar for my 450.

I need to get another DSMX sat but in the mean-time I have an old DSM2 sat in my toolbox that I thought I'd use, but I can't get it to enter bind mode. It was working fine last time I used it (about a year ago).

I have a DX7s.

I power up the VBar, connect it to the computer and then launch the software. No problems there. Then I click on setup and then create new setup.

I have tried using Spektrum Satellites digital centre, spektrum satellites (1 or 2), even tried hires and dsmx sat settings.

The Sat does not enter bind mode.

It does get power as the orange light flashes when I power up the VBar.
What am I doing wrong?
Or is my sat buggered?

[Larry227]

Once you click the Bind button in the software you have to interrupt power to the Vbar very quickly to get it to enter bind mode.
Which means unplug and plug it back in really fast.

[mstenbo]

Originally Posted by Larry227

Once you click the Bind button in the software you have to interrupt power to the Vbar very quickly to get it to enter bind mode.
Which means unplug and plug it back in really fast.

Yep did that many many times.
I got my full size VBar to bind to 2 DSMX sats when I got it, but it did take me a few tries.

[mstenbo]

Well I don't know what I did but I came home from work today, plugged it in and it armed for binding first time up.

I spent 2 hours trying to get this to work yesterday and tonight it works no problems. Go figure...

[wab223]

Originally Posted by Larry227

Once you click the Bind button in the software you have to interrupt power to the Vbar very quickly to get it to enter bind mode.
Which means unplug and plug it back in really fast.

I'm giving this a bump because it needs to be said.
You click bind in the software first, then disconnect and reconnect the power, then try binding your transmitter. There are a lot of combinations that can be tried. Larry this helped a lot, the vbar directions are vague in this regard.

thank you Larry.

[dannylightning]

maybe you were to close to the satellites. some times if the radio is close when trying to bind i have found i could not bind. so i would move a good 10 or 15 feet from the receiver or sats and i could get them to bind no problem.. i have had this happen quie a few times over the years.

[wab223]

Yes, I may have been too close (2 feet away). It was 3.30 am this morning when I started figuring out setting up the vbar (could'nt sleep). But I think clicking bind on the software and then disconnect/reconnecting the power kicked the vbar off and it bound. Then my young lad woke up so I'm starting over again.

But your point about distance is well taken and I should have thought of that also.

[RedOctobyr]

This is my first time using just-sats, with no actual RX. Is clicking the Bind button truly part of the process? I'm not being argumentative, I'm really asking.

Because during some bench testing later in the process, I was power-cycling the heli to check different things. And a few times I got 1 sat or the other (usually not both, I think) fast-blinking after plugging the battery back in.

That had me scratching my head. Out of curiosity, I tried unplugging the blinking sat, did something else, plugged it back in, and it was fine. It finally hit me that I was just unplugging the battery and immediately plugging it back in. So perhaps the sats/VBar saw that a request to bind again? I don't know which device is making Bind decisions based on briefly-being-unplugged. I assume it's the VBar, not the sats. But, again, this is my first time using sats by themselves, so I have nothing else to compare to (I don't know how you trigger Bind on an iKon, Skookum, etc).

Since then, when I power cycle, I wait at least 10 seconds, and I've never gotten the fast-blinking again. So I assume I was accidentally triggering bind mode?

[wab223]

Well thats interesting. It may be down to the time you take to power cycle.
The vbar instructions said wait one second. So I was making sure I waited more than one second. Larry's post said "really fast" so I did it really fast, maybe it was the timing that got it to bind and not clicking bind in the software.

I hope this stuff helps others out in the future. Or me when I forget how I got it to bind.

[Lu523]

The fast blinking is power lose or brownout.

[RedOctobyr]

Well, during my bench testing, I caused an awful lot of brownouts. Confirmed by the logs showing 2.5 or 3.3V warnings. And those always blinked fairly slowly.

This blinking was a lot faster. The same speed as when you deliberately make it bind (which I did again, to check, and also to be sure it was bound & failsafed properly).

[Bee_random]

Originally Posted by dannylightning

maybe you were to close to the satellites. some times if the radio is close when trying to bind i have found i could not bind. so i would move a good 10 or 15 feet from the receiver or sats and i could get them to bind no problem.. i have had this happen quie a few times over the years.

Thought this was worth a bump, I just had the same experience. Couldn't get a bind... Until I walked to the end of the room and tried it

[Rob43]

Late to the discussion guys, but I've most often found sat cables/terminals to be the most frequent cause of bind failure. I now always try an alternate cable from the Vbar to the sat if I get at first a bind failure. It can behave intermittently if this is the cause.

[eltreato]

Hi Guys,

I am resurrecting an old thread to ask a question. I am setting up a Protos 500 that I've converted to flybarless and this is my first time running satellites on a vbar. When the reboot of my vbar is taking place should my transmitter already be in bind mode, or do I power it up into bind mode after the vbar is back up? I've been scouring this site and others and opinions different people say different things, though most people's description of the bind process are incomplete.

Also I've got an old DX6i I'm trying to bind to my alleged DSMX satellites and am have tried all Spektrum Satellites, Spektrum Satellites Digital Center, Spektrum Satellites DSM-X 11ms as well as 22ms, but none seem to work nor am I sure which satellite type I should be using. Can anyone please confirm this?

Thanks.

[Lu523]

Tx should be off when putting the Vbar into bind mode. Once the sats are blinking the power on the Tx while holding the bind button.

[eltreato]

Originally Posted by Lu523

Tx should be off when putting the Vbar into bind mode. Once the sats are blinking the power on the Tx while holding the bind button.

Thanks for confirming this Lu, it sounds like the trick will be getting them to that flashing state, before the binding begins. I'm relieved to hear that the transmitter doesn't need to be in bind mode at the same time as the gyro is being rebooted, as that's a bit of a handful. Currently the satellites flash once when I plug in the battery to the esc, but that's it. I posted in another thread and it was also suggested to me by another well respected user on this forum that I try binding in the high-resolution "hires" mode given that I have DSMX orange satellites and an old DSM2 transmitter. It's still not clear to me why Mikado did such a poor job describing the various satellite bind modes and when to use them. Then again it wouldn't be the first time I've had to struggle with a poorly documented gyro.

I'll post up on this thread if/when I can get this system bound tonight. This a new to me heli and I know I could have it ready for its maiden on Saturday if I could just overcome this tiny detail.

All the best!

[ToddMcF2002]

One thing I noticed last night binding a DSM2 Orange Sat: After you click the bind button and go to recycle power, if you don't get a "clean" reconnect, meaning you cause the slightest fumble reconnecting the leads it will act as if you've cycled power twice and cancel the bind process for the Sat.

Also I had to bind about 10 feet away using my DX9. It floods badly up close.

[eltreato]

I ended up giving up and going with a dsm2 receiver. I have ordered a dsm2 satellite to go with it. I literally spent hours trying to get my dsm2 tx to bind to the dsmx sats.

[sp00f]

It would be interesting to see if the backcompat of dsmx satellite to dsm2 is done in the sat or in the rx. If rx, then the various would have to support it as well. Do you have a dsm2 sat you could try?

[ToddMcF2002]

Another alternative is to simply bind the sat elsewhere. Once you hit the bind button on a fresh setup the VBar will accept the Sat. Just select DSMX and hit the bind button with a pre-bound sat attached and then power cycle the VBar. The VBar can't tell the difference nor should it. It's just looking for channel signals.

I did this the other night with a DSMX sat I had bound with my IKON the day before. Then I switched to DSM2 and did a "normal" bind with an Orange Sat. They both worked fine.

Its a good idea to have a cheapo RX with a sat port handy for this kind of workaround. These FBL controllers can be a major headache. I was in IKON hell the other night so I know how frustrating the connectivity steps can be.