Hi All, I had quite a few follow-up questions from the my post yesterday regarding computer radio memory. Most of the questions were radio specific, so I thought that it would be easier to just "drop the answers" here. First, I didn't mean to neglect coverage of the JR radios (8103, 783, 388, 347) it was just an oversight. Eventhough I am a huge Stylus fan, all of my HLG flying is done with a JR 8103 and a 388 before that. I have an old 347 that is relegated to "slimers". All of the JR models listed use battery backed static ram. There is a PCB mounted lithium cell that keeps the static memory powered regardless of the charge state of the main nicad battery pack. The JR radio is quite orderly during shutdown due to low battery so the likelyhood of corrupted model setup information is thankfully rare. The battery life of the PCB mounted lithium cell should be around 5 years, although I just replaced the lithium in my JR347 after 8+ years of service. Since the lithium battery is PCB mounted, it can't be easily changed by the average hobbyist. Further, if the battery is allowed to go completely dead or is physically removed, critical potentiometer calibration information will be lost requiring you to send the radio into a JR repair center, as they WON'T divulge the re-calibration process. On the other hand, I used a second lithium cell with attached leads to temporarily power the static memory while replacing the PCB mounted cell, thus avoiding a trip to the repair center. Regarding the Vision setup corruption. The Vision 3.01 software will automatically reformat and initialize the EEPROM for model setup information if is detects a major error or an uninitialized part. This can easily be seen if one were to replace the EEPROM due to failure or upgrading from older software. Simply re-enter the model setup information and you should be good to go. You can also run the memory test if it makes you feel better. This test is accessed by scrolling down the first column to the second from the bottom screen. It will read EEP (ENT) 0,86 (or something like that). Press both left AND right cursor keys simultaneously. A bunch of numbers will scroll rapidly for about 10 seconds. Let it run to completion. Finally, several questions were asked about the Stylus internal battery. The internal lithium battery is mounted to the PCB behind the LCD display. This battery should last 5+ years. What happens when this battery "goes south"? The display will present a message "Memory Backup Error - Continue 'Y'". You have no choice but to continue. At this point, the radio has reverted to the Sanwa mode, which can be verified by scrolling to the MOD menu to see PCM, PPM8, PPM6 instead of PCM, PPM, PPM-INV. Of course any of the 4 model setups inside the radio are more than likely corrupted, but if you have kept current copies of the setups in the 50 model memory card, then you will be able to restore the setup AFTER you send the radio into Airtronics to have the battery replaced. As I mentioned in my earlier post, this unwelcomed message can pop up even when the lithium battery is still good. I have two Styluses. One has never had the error while the second Stylus has done it twice. I believe a poorly seated memory or glider card caused the error, but the end result is the same. Either you run through the re-initialization by yourself (I can supply the instructions) or you send the radio into Airtronics. The software engineer that wrote this portion of the code deserves a sound flogging. Again, there is NO battery inside EEPROM chips. They DON'T get "charged up" when the radio is on, I don't care what you mother heard from her neighbor's aunt's ugly stepchild. Tom Hoopes ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) RCSE-List facilities provided by Model Airplane News. Send "subscribe" and "unsubscribe" requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
