Anyone using a Taranis radio can hook up a High precision vario for about $22 and have a working hard deck with the Spirits rescue.

Here is a video of it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1hVswcU7H8

and more details here:

http://www.helifreak.com/showthread.php?t=686583

Great!

Will there be any low cost solution for futaba users? any suggestion?

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"Flying makes me happy" -- Markus Chelios

You need telemetry for this to work.
Futaba only gives you this on their (very) expensive transmitters.
Spektrum does a better job at this, also their lower priced transmitters have telemetry.

Next to that the TX must be capable to "press" a logical switch with the Atmospheric Pressure Sensor value as input.
Not sure if that is even possible with Futaba or Spektrum.

Open source (Taranis) TX is lightyears ahead with functionality like this.
And for a very good price.

Only way it could work is when you hook a sensor to the Spirit FBL unit and configure it's behaviour with the FBL software.
Not possible with the current firmware and probably never will.

Just my 2ct.

There is nothing impossible for Spirit. Maybe we will see this feature integrated quite soon.

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Spirit System developer

This should be quite simple for Tomas to integrate. If I can do it externally through the Tx, doing it internally through the Spirit would be simpler and probably more reliable.

Barometers are not perfect, different pressure created due to air passing over it and air pressure changes under the rotor can mess with it, you also get Baro drift. However, with a 5 min 3D flight, you don't have to worry about Baro drift and when I tested this back in March it worked flawless even with 3D Flight.

I just did a workaround hack and it worked well. If Tomas specifically develops a baro and software for this it will most likely work even better.

So how does this feature compare to the Rescue feature that's now built into the Spirit unit? Was it this feature that inspired Spirit to implement the Rescue feature?

No, the Rescue feature has always been a part of the Spirit. I simply linked it with a Barometer to trigger at a specific altitude so the user does not have to do anything manually. A beginner just learning to fly may not have the subconscious reaction to hit the rescue switch. This eliminates the need for that by having it automatically rescued if it gets too close to the ground.

I'm confused! (What else is new?) I thought a vario only measured increase or decrease in altitude, but not actual altitude. If this is correct, how can you use a vario to set a hard deck? Unless you were to have the TX trigger rescue when the vario sees a decrease in altitude for a set amount of time, which doesn't seem like it would do what we want it to. Maybe there are varios that also measure actual altitude (Barometric pressure translated to altitude) and I am just too new to have heard of them. Anyhow, I very much want to know how this works. Your advice would be very much appreciated.

I have a Skookum 720BE with GPS coming because until my Jeti dc24 finally comes in I won't be able to do what you're doing anyhow and I don't want to buy another TX just for temporary purposes. I've been waiting a couple of months on the Jeti and really want the automated rescue NOW! Besides, I'm going to set-up a 700 size heli pretty much now and I needed another FBL controller for it. O.K. I'll tell the truth. ( I'm currently limping by with a wounded DX6 )

Thanks in advance. Kirk.

The term Vario is used kinda interchangeably... the Alt. Sensor for Taranis is a Barometric Pressure sensor so that is how it determines the altitude. Not terribly accurate but pretty good.