Spektrum receivers

Hi Johnny J or any of you Spektrum users. I’ve got to buy a couple of receivers for my DX6I. Do any of you use the cheaper AR500 or spend extra for the 6200? I’ve got a AR6200 with satellite receiver in my trainer, but I was wondering if it would be just as good using AR500 in 40 size plane. 500 is $60 and 6200 is $80. I’m not going to trash a plane to save $20. But I can’t see just throwing money away if there is no benefit.

Never used the ar500 but I would think it would be OK!
I've never had any issues with the spektrum equipment.
The only advantage would be the extra antennae but I think that's why the 500 has an extra long one.
Where can you get the ar6200 for $80?
Last I priced them they were $120.

Hi Johnny,
I just tried to log on to Rob's site, but they changed it last night and can't log on or get a price, but when I bought my 6200 from HT, it was $80. That is the normal price for everyone I think.

That's a good price for dual reciever set up. I think it will handle the amperage pull from the larger digital servos too. If it will fit good in your project then I would go with it.

Tha's an interesting comment. I've got the manual for the 500 & 6200 and neither mention any limitation on the amount of servo amperage draw other than making sure the flight battery doersn't drop below 3.5 volt threshold. I didn't realize there was an amp limit on receivers unless you were using a ESC/BEC. Thanks for the reply!

According to Spektrums website the ar500 receiver was designed for parkflyers, it is however a full range rec, but for the small difference in price I personally would go with a 6200 or a 7000. I have seen several ar500 equipped planes crash due to receiver issues, I am pretty sure it was a "brown out" due to a low power condition. I own probably 20 or so Spektrum receivers and have never had one min of problems just not too sure of the 500 on anything else but a cheap foamy.

Thanks to both of you for posting. I decided to get some 6200's. Been reading some other groups reviews and there seems to have been some problems with the 500 in nitro's and some not going into failsafe mode. I had a mental image of my 6 lb plane flying full throttle through the back hatch of someones' $60000 SUV. Maybe not the best way to meet club members

It's mostly judged by what nstaller was saying about some of them designed for park flyers.
That really means small planes and small servos with small loads.
If you check with the big plane guys I believe you'll find different types of set ups to handle the really big servos. These relieve the load on the reciever and lessen the chance of the reciever loosing power due to voltage drop, if I'm not mistaken.

The esc supplies the power for the rec and the servos(on electrics) and the number of servos and the type of them does play a factor. The bec on most esc's can only handle a few amps of current thats where external becs come in. On larger electrics running big packs like 6s they are a must since recs and servos cant handle the higher voltage , not only do they supply a steady voltage they step the voltage down to a level the esc and servos can use. When using 2.4 recvrs its a must to have adequate voltage because they take a few secs to reboot and bind with the transmitter which usually ends in a crash

Hi ole greg,
Do I have this correct? I just called HT today and got them holding another AR6200 for me. Your comments were for electric planes with ESC or ESC/BEC, right? Except for my heli, I’m going to nitro planes. I’m using 6 volt (spektrum receivers are supposed to be prone to brownout more with 4 cell packs from what I’ve read), 1800 or 2200 NiMH packs (if I remember right) for my nitros and only standard high torque servos (not even putting standard digital until I can fly better). So reading the 6200 manual, there really isn’t an amperage limit other than making sure when all 5 servos are maxed out on current draw, the battery voltage doesn’t drop below 3.8 volts where the receiver will not lose link. My radio is only 6 channel, so I only have to options of the AR6200 for receiver. I will have only 40 size planes for now, so I guess I’m good to go with whatever servos I put on the planes with the batteries I’m using, even if I go to digital standard when my flying improves?
I'm looking forward to picking your brains at the field instead of typing on a little cell phone keyboard from 600 miles away when I keep droping my signal.
Thanks...

Keep in mind that Voltage in inversley proportional to amperage.
That's what they say in schools anyways!

What I'm getting at is that when the voltage is higher it keeps the amperage draw down to a minimum. It's the amperage draw that causes things to burn up but there are also operational voltages that different systems will handle also.

For instance if you have a bad battery connection the voltage will drop at the connection and the amperage will go up making the connection point fail due to heat.
It's the same with the servos. If the motor windings in the servo motor goes bad or a part of the circuitry goes bad it will do the same to the servo.
Also when a load that is put on a motor or electronic device is more than it is designed for, gets too high, it will cause the device to fail due to too much current draw.
All you are trying to do is keep these failures to none, if possible!

ole greg is saying that electrics have a BEC built into the speed controls but they use seperate ones on the big planes. It's a device that supplies voltage to the reciever when using higher voltage batteries than the reciever will handle.(Voltage regulator)
On your 40 size, gas planes, the reciever will work fine without one, as long as the pack has the right voltage for the reciever rating.

Got it. Thanks...