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Author Topic: 2.4 Ghz controls and electric power  (Read 1425 times)

Offline Fred Cronenwett

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2.4 Ghz controls and electric power
« on: August 02, 2014, 04:51:05 PM »
I have posted these videos on You Tube showing how I set up the electric powered systems I use on the B-29 and my other models. Since most of us are not familiar with RC systems I put these together to hopefully explain some of the features of these computer RC systems that we can take advantage of.

Fred



Video on the how the B-29 is rigged....

Fred Cronenwett
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Offline Chris McMillin

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Re: 2.4 Ghz controls and electric power
« Reply #1 on: August 02, 2014, 06:02:24 PM »
Thanks Fred, you're always cutting edge.
Chris...

Offline John Rist

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Re: 2.4 Ghz controls and electric power
« Reply #2 on: August 02, 2014, 06:34:46 PM »
Fred,
All good information.  You are right, not everyone is up to speed on electric power and 2.4 radios.  One comment, in your first videos you mentioned that the two motors didn't start at the same time.  Most all speed controllers have a setup procedure that matches them to the transmitter.  I suspect that if you run through this setup procedure with all motors connected, from then on they will start at once.  However there could be tolerances differences between speed controllers that will still give you a staggered start.  In some respects this is cool because real airplanes start engines one at a time.  Because we are flying scale under rules that were developed for gas models it is important that we can start the engines at the start of the flight.  That no engine ever stops during the flight, and we can stop all engines at the end of the flight.

I had a thought (and it hurt), would a motor malfunction requiring an air start be a legal function?  With electric it is quit possible.
John Rist
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Offline Fred Cronenwett

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Re: 2.4 Ghz controls and electric power
« Reply #3 on: August 02, 2014, 06:51:44 PM »
The B-29 uses the same speed controls and they start at the same time, I have tried getting these two to sync with no luck, one speed control always has a delay that I can't explain.

But you are right having one start first is more realistic...these two speed controls may end up in a twin!

I plan on doing some videos talking about electric retracts, model memory and end point adjustment. These computer radios take some learning but worth the effort.

Fred
Fred Cronenwett
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Model Aviation CL Scale columnist

Offline Will Hinton

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Re: 2.4 Ghz controls and electric power
« Reply #4 on: August 03, 2014, 03:39:06 PM »
Fred, I commend you for your love of sharing and teaching about scale!  You and Grant started doing that a very long time ago and you "ain't quittin' yet"!  I think I still have your VCR tape about converting radio to pulses down the lines around here somewhere.
John 5:24   www.fcmodelers.com

Offline Tim Wescott

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Re: 2.4 Ghz controls and electric power
« Reply #5 on: August 03, 2014, 06:59:13 PM »
Some comments from an RC flyer:

First, this all looks very informative.  I didn't catch any technical errors in your presentation at all.

Second, you can buy aileron 'Y' cables at the hobby shop that will work just fine as an ESC 'Y' cable -- you just need to snip the red wire to one ESC.  I think that for a 4-engine setup you're better off soldering something up, though.

Third, you mention the throttle cut on the transmitter in passing.  If you can set up your transmitter to control the throttle cut with a toggle switch then you shouldn't need to dink around with the trim each time.  It may be worth a look in the instructions.  Every computer radio is different, so even if a Tactic won't, some other brand might (I can't speak to any computer radios -- I get by just fine with a 72MHz 4-channel, no-computer radio!)
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The problem with electric is that once you get the smoke generator and sound system installed, the plane is too heavy.

Offline Fred Cronenwett

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Re: 2.4 Ghz controls and electric power
« Reply #6 on: August 04, 2014, 05:34:08 AM »
Tim,

the Computer radios are all different so the programming is all different. I haven't used the throttle cut too much but it could be used to start and shut down the motors. I need to try that feature some more.

I have just started to use all of the features this radio has and some radios even have more complex programming. but the features I use most are the model memory and end point adjustment

For the B-29 I did solder up my own quad harness.

I'll get that stuff in to mail to you next week...I had some things get in the way!

Fred
Fred Cronenwett
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Offline Tim Wescott

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Re: 2.4 Ghz controls and electric power
« Reply #7 on: August 04, 2014, 09:00:27 AM »
Tim,

the Computer radios are all different so the programming is all different. I haven't used the throttle cut too much but it could be used to start and shut down the motors. I need to try that feature some more.

One thing that I find quite bizarre, even after over 20 years in industry writing software for these things, is that the gap between what you can get the computer to do and what you want to let the user do is huge, and the reason for that is because if you did just toss in everything including the kitchen sink, then the average user would just be lost.

So remember, when you're using a computer radio (or VCR, or whatever) that can do a lot of stuff and has an easy user interface -- at least one really capable person on the product development team sweated blood to make it happen.
AMA 64232

The problem with electric is that once you get the smoke generator and sound system installed, the plane is too heavy.


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