9x FrSky LED flickering.

[Sid Sideslip]

I changed over to the battery mod yesterday and have since noticed that the LED power-on button behaves a little oddly.

When I switch on the Tx the power on LED glows brightly and evenly for three or four seconds, then it starts to flicker slightly. I never noticed it doing this before. The voltage reads 7.9 on the display. If I switch it on with the FrSky 3 position switch set to firmware upgrade position the LED only glows dimly (I think this is normal) but does not flicker .

Here's where it gets stranger. If the switches or throttle position cause the alert screen to show, the LED glows steadily...as soon as I disable the alert and the TX becomes active, the LED starts to flicker slightly...it's pretty fast, maybe 60Hz and still bright, just not steady.

I tested the Tx with a Rx and four servos and it seems to work OK on the bench. It bound OK and all the servos worked fine, though I haven't done a range test yet.

Anyone else have this phenomenon?

Is it something to worry about and what could be causing the LED to flicker slightly? It seems to only occur when the FrSky board is actually transmitting. For all I know it could be completely normal, but I'd like to confirm that.

[BillGriffiths100]

Hi Sid,
The green Led flickers continuously while the Tx module is transmitting it seems a bit odd but that's the way they made it.
The red led stays on solidly (this is the telemetry version I'm talking about).
Look on the Frsky website to find the instructions for the variants, the leds do different things during range check and binding on the different Tx modules but flickering is definitely a normal while transmitting.
Hope this helps.
Bill

[Sid Sideslip]

Hi Sid,
The green Led flickers continuously while the Tx module is transmitting it seems a bit odd but that's the way they made it.
The red led stays on solidly (this is the telemetry version I'm talking about).
Look on the Frsky website to find the instructions for the variants, the leds do different things during range check and binding on the different Tx modules but flickering is definitely a normal while transmitting.
Hope this helps.
Bill

It's not a green light that flickers, rather the normal FrSky red power-on LED next to the bind button (as in pic below). I have the telemetry DIY kit installed btw.

The flickering is very slight, you only really notice it when looking at it from side on...front on it's almost unnoticeable.

I tried filming it but it doesn't show up on video.

I'm probably just being a fusspot, but I thought it was worth asking about, as I hadn't noticed it when using the original AA battery pack.

[Oops]

Mine flickers as well, Sid. The red LED gets replaced by the green LED when I switch to FW (top position in mine).

[Sid Sideslip]

Mine flickers as well, Sid. The red LED gets replaced by the green LED when I switch to FW (top position in mine).

Good oh and thanks. Nice to get confirmation that all is well.

As for the FW position, my red light goes dim rather than switching to green. Though I think there is a new FM update that I need to flash onto the Tx board, judging from what I saw on the FrSky website this evening, which may change that.

[funtana]

The led flickering is normal, what a lot of people don't know is it's the ppm signal that makes the led flicker, if you just wire the module to power and don't connect the ppm wire the led is then static, people using plug in modules would not realise this and most people using hack modules solder all three connections before they switch on so they would not realise this either,
I have converted a lot of transmitters to frsky more than forty to date so im'e probably more familiar than most with certain aspects of how the led works, on the early modules the led was a lot dimmer so it was much easier to se the flickering, on the present modules the led is very bright so it's not easy to see the flickering unless you go to range check mode the led then changes to green and it's then very easy to see the led flickering,
With sids tx on the original battery the led was so bright you would not realise it was flickering, with the new battery the voltage is lower so the led is a little dimmer the flickering can now be seen, the reason the led doesn't flicker for a few seconds after switching on the tx is in common with a lot of modern sets the transmitter is booting up, while booting up the ppm signal is inhibited hence no flicker, it's the same with certain transmitters with throttle lock and certain alarm functions again the ppm signal is inhibited, hope this helps.

[Sid Sideslip]

hope this helps.

Helps?

A perfect reply.

1,000 internets to you my friend.

[BillGriffiths100]

The led flickering is normal, what a lot of people don't know is it's the ppm signal that makes the led flicker, if you just wire the module to power and don't connect the ppm wire the led is then static, people using plug in modules would not realise this and most people using hack modules solder all three connections before they switch on so they would not realise this either,
I have converted a lot of transmitters to frsky more than forty to date so im'e probably more familiar than most with certain aspects of how the led works, on the early modules the led was a lot dimmer so it was much easier to se the flickering, on the present modules the led is very bright so it's not easy to see the flickering unless you go to range check mode the led then changes to green and it's then very easy to see the led flickering,
With sids tx on the original battery the led was so bright you would not realise it was flickering, with the new battery the voltage is lower so the led is a little dimmer the flickering can now be seen, the reason the led doesn't flicker for a few seconds after switching on the tx is in common with a lot of modern sets the transmitter is booting up, while booting up the ppm signal is inhibited hence no flicker, it's the same with certain transmitters with throttle lock and certain alarm functions again the ppm signal is inhibited, hope this helps.

Just a tip, if you turn off the splash screen in the er9x software the boot up is almost instantaneous , it's in one of the sub-menus, otherwise there is a considerable delay as the graphic is displayed, which could be detrimental to regaining control if the TX power supply was interrupted.

[Oops]

Very good thinking, Bill. The beeps and splash screens are the first to go on all my (and my wifes) gadgets.