We’ve read a previous article about the frsky XM receiver and how small it is compared to other full-size receivers from frsky, and then see how to connect it to your flight controller.

In this frsky XM + review, we’ll do the same – wire guide & review, and look at its specifications and features.

Spoiler Alert: in terms of function, frsky XM + is exactly the same as XM, except for adding diversity antenna settings;)

FrSky XM +

The frsky XM + is an upgraded version of the ever popular XM receiver from frsky. Its full range of XM + receivers can compete with other formers as well.

There are two significant differences between XM + and XM receivers. One is that it’s a little longer than XM & and the other is the addition of diversity antennas.

The image above describes the location of the measured XM + receiver along with pinouts and antenna & bind buttons.

XM + receiver wiring

Without talking about the specifications of the frsky XM + receiver, let’s get into the wiring, setup, calibration and other parameters of the XM + receiver step by step to get a better grasp of something and connect it to the flight controller on your UAV.

Step 1: check your XM receiver

Even if frsky provides a first-class quality control line for every product it produces, it is still a good idea to properly inspect any damage that may be caused by the receiving party in the factory or during transportation.

After confirming that there is no physical failure or damage to the receiver, we can proceed to the next step of the process to solder the receiver.

Step 2: solder the wire to your XM + receiver

This is the interesting part – welding! To connect the XM + receiver to the flight controller, you only need 3 wires (4 wires if you plan to use analog RSSI, but I prefer ch16 as the RSSI channel).

With silicon wire connection, wiring can be easily made and welding joint pressure caused by UAV vibration can be reduced during flight.

Using three different colors of wire for each pad will help you distinguish them, making wiring easier (and possibly debugging): –

Red power (VCC: 3.5v-10v)

Black – ground

Yellow – s.bus

Step 3: connect the frsky XM + receiver to your flight controller

The wiring section is usually a tricky part of the whole process, due to the fact that each manufacturer’s flight controller maintains a different layout and pinouts for their specific flight controller. The same applies to UART pins and SBUs pins.

The F4 flight controller will have only one hardware inverter (normally), while the F7 series flight controller will have more than one. In our case, we are using the frsky XM + receiver, so we only need one SBUs pin (or UART RX pin) & all manufacturers keep at least one pin reserved for inverted SBUs, which we will use.

Check your manufacturer’s manual or your flight controller pinout to locate the SBUs pin and the receiver power pin (5V and GND). Once you find the tehm, solder three wires to each corresponding pin on the FC.

Step 4: bind XM + receiver to your frsky transmitter

Once the cabling is complete, we will continue to bind the XM + receiver to your frsky transmitter.

In your transmitter setup, create a new model for your receiver

In the receiver settings, select D16 mode (you can choose to choose the Tel off option) and select the Bnd option to start the binding process.

-Turn on your XM + receiver while keeping the bind button pressed.

-The receiver should now be bundled with a solid green LED.

-You can now turn off the Bnd option on your transmitter.

-Go to your transmitter “input” tab and select the same input and configuration “mixer” tab you want to add as well.

For a more in-depth explanation of the binding process, check out the blog section of the horusrc website.

Step 4: configure betaflight

By selecting the appropriate UART port for the serial Rx, you can configure betaflight for the reference

Now in the configurator tab, you can select “serial RX based”, which will allow you to select the SBUs receiver.

After all this, if you have a work rod moving on the receiver tag, you’re good to go!

In this article, we examined and did a small frsky XM + review and its connection to the flight controller.