FrSky FAS-100 Telemetry Amperage Sensor

[Kilrah]

Hah! Interesting...

You should open a support ticket with HK, and it will be interesting to get the word from Eva about FAS-40s labelled and sold as FAS-100s...

[RightRudder]

Well That was it! WATCH OUT GUYS HOBBYKING IS SELLING FAS-40 MASQUERADING AS FAS-100!

Thanks very much to those who spent time trying to help me with this frustrating and weird problem.

Joe

[RightRudder]

Yes I have opened dialog with both HK and Frsky. I will let you know what transpires.

[jhsa]

What the &%&(/?? Is frsky doing that?? or is HK doing that?

[rainer]

Lol.. great story.. good detective work! Shall i move this to a the FAS100 topic in order for others with the same problem to find it easier?

[RightRudder]

SOLVED! It turns out the BATT and ESC positions are reversed between the FAS-40 and FAS-100. Hobbyking sold me FAS-40 with FAS-100 labels! I followed the labels of course, so it meant I was sending current through the device the wrong way. So I reversed my connectors and now everything works perfect. Only problem is I ordered two 100 amp sensors and now I have two 40A sensors What a frustrating ride!

Joe

[RightRudder]

What the &%&(/?? Is frsky doing that?? or is HK doing that?

Yes. I don't know who is responsible but at 100 amps something's gonna get hot and HK and Frsky might want to send an advisory out to anyone affected. I hope they send me my two 100 amp sensors for free as a thank you for figuring out this mess for them. ;^>

[jhsa]

I hope they do.

[RightRudder]

So the official response from Hobbyking was; Glad you figured it out. Ticket resolved! No sorry for our mistake here's a refund, no here's the proper part, not even a promise to warn recent customers they could have a fire if they try to run 100 amps. Shocking. There's already at least two others I found with the same problem.

I can just see the scenario:

Buddy who isn't totally technically savvy puts the newly ordered FAS-100 in his monster, sees it shows the onboard 48v pack voltage correctly but doesn't want to setup to do a full power test of the beast in his basement, takes it to the field and 10 seconds after he opens the tap as the model is at the most distant point he sees the smoke but then the power is lost as the plane dives in flames and sets the farmer's crop on fire or worse yet the house down yonder. The company who sold him the misleading part absolves themselves of responsibility because they reside in far off Hong Kong and are therefore untouchable and it is up to buddy's insurance to pay the damages. Nice.

[Kilrah]

That's HK for you

[RightRudder]

Even more surprising, Frsky has not responded at all. It's only a few days though. Perhaps they are looking into it?

[rainer]

let's see how long it takes till the reviews get deleted and Michael2 get banned
i liked all those reviews

[RightRudder]

There is also a guy here on the 9x forums who reported a FAS-100 not showing amps properly.

[MikeB]

I must test the FAS-100 I bought recently (from within the UK).

Mike.

[RightRudder]

You might be able to tell by looking at it. One hint is the 100 is larger than the 40 and if it is a 40 with a 100 label then the label is too big and is bent a little around the corners but if it is on an actual 100 it will lie totally on the flat. Look at the pictures.

[MikeB]

Looks like I'm OK, I can see the outline of the Allegro hall effect sensor on the heatshrink.

Mike.

[rainer]

I bought mine a couple of weeks ago from microtechnics and it´s a real FAS100.
The easiest way to tell without opening it is probably to see if you can measure a current going through without having to connect the battery to the esc side.

[RightRudder]

So here is the official response from Eva at FrSky:

Dear Joe,
Thanks for your e-mail and support.

There is one batch of 120pcs FAS-100 provided to HobbyKing that with the same PCB size as FAS-40 but they are true FAS-100 and could measure 100A without problem. They have been well tested, but were put on the wrong label - the BAT and ESC positions should be opposite.

Sorry for the trouble and thank you again for your report and support.
Best regards!
FrSky Team

[Kilrah]

Good news, means FAS100s can now be smaller

[RightRudder]

No it is not an FAS-100. I get a significant voltage drop across the shunt when I run high current. The FAS has a hall sensor so there is no loss. For example using current meter (not a small one for in the plane) which has hall sensor I can get 55 amps with a fresh battery but when I put the funky 100 amp FAS-40 in the line I can only get 40 amps because 1/2 a volt never gets to the ESC

Edit:
looks like Frsky found a way to unload some old stock of FAS-40 that were going to be hard to sell by this trick. Well I guess I'm not alone, now I can proudly join the ranks of them that got burned by hobbyking.

[Kilrah]

Ah, too bad... yeah these Hall effect sensors are really great.

[Jimmckeown]

Is there a way to have osd sensors that currently run through the hub work in conjunction with the FAS-40. The ampere sensor connects to the digital port and unless I missed something in the documents it takes over the hub.

[Kilrah]

Not sure I understand what you mean, but the FAS-40 can be connected either directly to the RX, or to the hub. If you want other sensors you'd use the hub.

[Jimmckeown]

I now have the FAS-40, without taking the shrink wrap off it looks identical to the FAS-100. I have the telemetry displaying on the FLD-02 and not to the TGy 9x. There isn't provision to have FAS-40 to work with the osd, (shortage of sockets on the RX and V2 Hub). Can one simply make up a couple of v cables. Will the FAS-40 share the RX and Hub with the OSD.

[RightRudder]

There are two data outputs from the FAS sensor. If you don't have the hub you use the middle one to pug in the Rx. If you have the hub then you use the data out at the side of the FAS and connect that wire to the current input on the hub. You can connect all the available inputs on ther hub to various sensors. Then there is only one wire going from the hub data out to the Rx. Clear?

[Kilrah]

But what osd do you have? I don't know of any that works with the frsky protocol as input...

Sent via mobile

[truthseekers]

Im a bit confused by all of this. I have just got myself a FAS-100 and wired it all in - I have connected it directly to my receiver which is a Turnigy 9x with OPENTX firware on it... and I can get my voltage sensor reading fine. The A2 ive plugged in the FAS100 just reads fluctuating numbers. The OpenTX transmitter has be modified to take the voltage signals and display on the screen and I am using the firmware with the telemetry option included.

The TX is set on the telemetry screen to A2 is amps... and I am on HUB as the protocol... and it doesnt seem to make any difference.

Does this mean I need sensor hub or this is never going to work?

Many thanks

[Kilrah]

The FAS-100 connects to the DATA port (labelled RX), not to the A1/A2 analog ones.

[truthseekers]

The FAS-100 connects to the DATA port (labelled RX), not to the A1/A2 analog ones.

You sir are a god. I plugged it in then found that through the menu on the TX I had to set PROTO: Hub and CURRENt: FAS
Then the screens data to be displayed had to be set tio A1 for volts and "Curr" for current and Vfas picks up the FAs100 voltage which means I can get rid of my seperate voltage sensor... Yay... and then I was away. Im so excited im going to test at the park now.

[janekx]

Hi,
My FAS-40 reads about 0.25V lower value then battery have, but cant found any offset setting in Taranis any idea? thanks