Ace SilverSeven Single Stick & sketch for FSOne simulator

[GardenGate]

Inspired by the build examples and thankful for the code from Phil_G and Mike_K, thought I'd share the project I just finished.

I have always been intrigued by single stick transmitters ever since I got interested in RC as a kid back in the late 1970's, but have never gotten one to try. A few weeks ago, I saw and got this old Ace Silver Seven Single Stick without batteries and a RF deck off of eBay - advertised as "tested working but not guaranteed":

It was pretty clean though not pristine.

My thought was to try and see if the original Silver Seven encoder worked and just add a FrSky XHT 2.4 Ghz module, but upon attaching power, it seems the PostIt note that I found inside the unit was correct - stick axes driving servos OK but throttle not providing full range of motion (e.g. "not guaranteed" ). I couldn't figure out either what the original owner was trying to accomplish with the throttle pot wired up to a push button mix switch (the black button on the front). Plan B was to transplant the electronics of a dual-stick Micropro 8000 I have over to make a single-stick MP8K, but I found the Silver Seven box is a little too small for the MP8K board which is probably why the Ace upgrade kit for Silver Sevens to MP8Ks included a new case. OK - no worries, onto Plan C - use the DIYMore Pro Strong Mini Arduino board for an encoder.

Upon taking everything apart and cleaning, I found that the pot for the throttle had a dirty and bent wiper which is probably the reason throttle didn't work with the Silver Seven encoder - oh well. Wired everything up, replaced and relocated some of the switches to places where I thought it made sense (for example, the throttle lock went to the front face to the left of the power switch where a throttle stick would be on a 2 stick transmitter, and I'm not sure what the original owner was doing using a push button switch for the Ch. 5 gear?). It all seemed to work nicely with Mike Kitchen's F3A sketch:

Inside:

Not having ever used a single stick transmitter before, I want to get some good stick time before trying it on a real plane. My current sim of choice is Michael Selig's FSOne https://www.fsone.com/, but the transmitter control assignments for FSOne are a bit non-standard, so I revised Mike's F3A sketch to suit. DIP Switch 5 on the Arduino encoder now selects between Futaba and the required channel order which is AERT, with Rudder and Throttle reversed. Selecting FSOne with Switch 5 also removes the second aileron channel, and instead have enabled the position of the throttle-hold switch (unneeded in the sim.) as another switched channel "Reset." Some of channels 4-8 are reversed as well for FSOne to fit the directions I think make more sense on where the controls are located on my single stick transmitter. The Reset channel (worked by the Throttle-lock switch) is currently not usable without remapping on the PC with something like Joystick Gremlin and vJoy (see the FSOne documentation) as the sim. really wants a 3-position switch for that function, but you can just ignore the Reset switches when calibrating the transmitter and just use the keyboard to Reset.

Net, to use FSOne with the revised sketch, set DIP Switch 5 to "on" to set the channel order to AERT, and set DIP Switch 6 to "on" to set channels 5-8 to Gear.Aux1.Reset.Aux2 (). Aux1 will be the "Flaps" function on FSOne, and Aux2 will be the "3-position Flight Modes" selector.

Let me know if you have any comments or questions on the revised sketch!

[Pchristy]

I first flew my MicroPro 8000 single stick about 11 years ago now. I'd always been intrigued by them, but until I got my hands on the MicroPro, I'd never had the chance to try one. (I love the unconventional! I've even got a car with a column shift manual gearbox - and its brilliant! )

I just took the plunge with a low wing sport model (an ARTF whose name escapes me at present!), and found it uncannily natural!

Whilst I wouldn't recommend test flying an unknown and untrimmed model with a strange transmitter layout, if you have something that is already well sorted, just switch it over and go for it. For fixed wing flying and old-school aerobatics, it is hard to beat!

I had no problem with the rudder for take off or landing - in fact its more natural than a stick, as left and right have no real meaning. They are replaced by rotate clockwise or anti-clock - you just twist the knob the way you want the model to rotate, and it works equally well when the model is flying towards you!

I can imagine that knife edge flight might be a bit challenging, but I find slow rolls much easier as your hand is resting on the face of the transmitter. This makes it much easier to hold in a precise amount of aileron that is less than full deflection.

I wouldn't want to fly a helicopter with my MicroPro 8000. Nothing to do with the single stick, but to do with the throttle/collective control. On fixed wing, throttle precision is of little relevance - you only need three settings, idle, full and cruise, and the cruise setting isn't critical. On a heli, the "power" control (throttle / collective) needs to be very precise, and having a short throw lever under an unfamiliar finger is not conducive to accurate control!

So don't worry about it! Once airborne it will feel very natural, and you'll soon get used to steering on the ground with the knob!

Enjoy!

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Pete

[GardenGate]

Hi Pete:
Yes, at least on the sim., I'm finding the twisting of the rudder knob for control is quite natural too, particular since I has a fair bit of time running RC cars with my son years ago with pistol grip/steering wheel transmitters, but have also found so far I'm overcontrolling with my hand motion on the single stick radio (v. the thumb motion I've been doing for decades on dual sticks and the occasional video game), so recalibrating myself a bit and then I think I may be ready to try it "for real."

With your experience trying lots of different control configurations, you'd probably be interested in my Ace MicroPro 8000 which I found tucked into the end of a flight box for sale at a swap meet earlier this year - a hybrid dual/single stick with the rudder pot disconnected on the left stick (in fact, the x-axis on the left stick is wired up so that it is constricted from moving much left and right), and with rudder connected up to the knob on the right stick. I have no idea who the previous owner was and why it was put in this configuration, although before I erased the model memories to upgrade the EPROM, I saw no signs (names) of any helicopter models. I put a FrSky XHT 2.4 Ghz module in this as well and it works fine on the sim. - I don't have any helis anymore but at some point I may put a LemonRX module in and try it with a BNF quad.

[Pchristy]

Yes, I have a couple of twin-stick MicroPro 8000s. One is on 459 MHz, and the other on 35 MHz. My single stick one has a FrSky hack module for 2.4 GHz. I love 'em!

Back at the dawn of the helicopter era - and before I could afford one - a small group down in Plymouth ordered half a dozen Schluter Cobra kits when they first came out, getting themselves a nice discount in the process!

I used to go and watch them learning in the summer evenings! One of the group was the local Sprengbrook agent, and he made himself a special single stick transmitter just for helis. Like your MicroPro, it had a triple axis stick on the right, but a longish single axis lever on the left for the throttle control (The Cobra was fixed pitch).

His reasoning was two fold. 1) Helicopters are very different from aeroplanes, and he didn't want to carry any inappropriate instinctive reactions over, and 2) using the knob for the tail-rotor control removed the "left / right" issue if he lost it due to watching the tail rather than the nose, and suddenly found it nose in to him!

It clearly worked for him, as he was the first member of the group to successfully fly a circuit!

The throttle lever was longer than a typical auxiliary lever, but a little bit shorter than a standard stick, giving him enough finesse on the throttle to enable accurate control.

Happy days!



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Pete