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Electric Stunt => Gettin all AMP'ed up! => Topic started by: Steve Fitton on December 23, 2010, 09:20:26 PM

Title: bit flip
Post by: Steve Fitton on December 23, 2010, 09:20:26 PM
Do you e power guys ever worry about bit flip from a stray cosmic ray or alpha particle disturbing your timer or esc while flying?
Title: Re: bit flip
Post by: Mark Scarborough on December 23, 2010, 10:35:06 PM
No more than I used to worry about a stray bee getting sucked into the venturi
Title: Re: bit flip
Post by: Tim Wescott on December 23, 2010, 10:38:07 PM
A bird strike or broken line is more likely.  With me, a fatal (to the plane) pilot error is more likely!
Title: Re: bit flip
Post by: Dennis Adamisin on December 24, 2010, 06:32:15 AM
THANKS now I have something ELSE to obsess about.. :o  ???  ;)  LL~  LL~  LL~
Title: Re: bit flip
Post by: Steve Fitton on December 24, 2010, 08:26:55 AM
THANKS now I have something ELSE to obsess about.. :o  ???  ;)  LL~  LL~  LL~

Well, maybe not, most memory has built in error correction for just such a contingency.  I just wondered about the escs and controllers where they are so minimal and stripped down...
Title: Re: bit flip
Post by: Bill Little on December 24, 2010, 12:52:23 PM
Do you e power guys ever worry about bit flip from a stray cosmic ray or alpha particle disturbing your timer or esc while flying?

Don't have a clue (yet), but I did have a "COSMIC RAY GUN" when I was a kid...........

Merry Christmas
Title: Re: bit flip
Post by: Tim Wescott on December 24, 2010, 01:37:28 PM
Don't have a clue (yet), but I did have a "COSMIC RAY GUN" when I was a kid...........
Don't point that thing at my plane when I'm flying !!!

Seriously, the chances of a "bit flip" problem are small -- microprocessors and other integrated circuits are designed to be generally reliable; if they were susceptible to radiation they wouldn't make it out of the prototype stage, at least at a responsible manufacturer.  This means that even a "stripped down" bit of kit like an ESC or a timer is going to inherit that general reliability from the parts its made of*.  While radiation may be a source of the occasional random error it's not a huge one unless you're flying someplace that's not healthy for you.  I think there's enough people flying electric now that if this were a huge problem with reliability in these things we'd know, and we'd still be flying nitro planes exclusively.

* Assuming that the engineers that design the circuits don't screw things up.  That's always possible, but that's what product testing is for.