some conversions using the F3A module

[stuart mackay]

Have just completed a pair of Txs for a Norwegian friend, one which I had never handled before, an MRC 776, a beautiful set made by Futaba for, I believe, the American market? Maybe someone can shed some light on its history as the build quality and open gimbal sticks are quite superb and easily match my Pro-Lines and Kraft Sig for "feel". I dont recall seeing these open gimbals on other Futaba products, that is, unless you guys know something I dont?

The Kraft is also a late 70s unit with open gimbal sticks with a lot of plastic in them compared to the Bi-centennial and Sig Series.

Only issues I faced was a faulty switch on what is known as my "Mike Meter" causing some incorrect pulse signal output measurement from the DM boards!

[stuart mackay]

[stuart mackay]

[Phil_G]

Very nice Stu, though I was quite tense when you started poking a metal screwdriver around with it still switched on
The aileron servos - normally they are mounted mirror image in the wing, so wouldnt they move in unison, not in opposition?
(ie the second aileron channel wouldnt normally be reversed, power-on with left or right aileron to fix!))
Cheers
Phil
PS the throttle soft-lock isnt a new development - its been there for years! Mike has disabled the audible warning chirp though (?)
...and to cancel the minute-minder, its a quick dab - if it pips then you held it too long and its set for another minute
Hold to set, dab to clear.

[jmendoza]

I noticed most everyone removes the old wiring harness and then completely re-wires using servo plugs.

I always re-wire the battery plug, on/off switch, charge jack and power wires on every transmitter.

That done, I found it much easier and neater to retain the original wiring harness and land the connections to the Arduino holes and solder them in place. In may cases it reduces the amount of wiring compared with using servo plugs because many radios like Pro-Lines have one wire daisy chained to all the pots for the +5 Volts. The down side is if you have a failure of the Arduino, it has to be unsoldered and re-wired, but that is very rare. Also, in some cases, you are limited by the existing wire harness length as to where you can mount the Arduino.

Jay

[stuart mackay]

The aileron servos - normally they are mounted mirror image in the wing, so would move in unison, not in opposition?
(ie the second aileron channel wouldnt normally be reversed)
Cheers
Phil

Thanks Phil, one ail servo now reversed!
Cheers
Stuart



Edit- moved Stuart's mp4 video to YouTube

[Mike_K]

PS the throttle soft-lock isnt a new development - its been there for years! Mike has disabled the audible warning chirp though (?)

I didn't deliberately disable it, I just didn't adapt it very well for the 22mS frame rate - in fact, I didn't adapt it at all!! That's the problem working on somebody else's encoder code, I've never used the original to know what throttle lock should sound like, so when testing, no bleeps was not unusual... I'll have a go at fixing it and run it past Phil before posting the update.

Mike

ps You can reverse each aileron servo individually, to reverse say the right-hand aileron servo, just hold the joystick to the right when powering up.