Mode Zero

Just found yet another one complete with RX and servos!

stormer254 wrote: 25 Feb 2021, 20:25 Just found yet another one complete with RX and servos!

The servos look like D&R Bantams - were they standard with Royal sets?

You will need some one more knowledgeable than me I'm afraid.

just listed on the Bay
Sampey 404 transmitter. https://www.ebay.com/itm/324505582702

Yes, those are D&R Bantams. Nice little servos, got four myself! They were in my original Lark helicopter until five or six years ago, when I replaced them with more modern JRs. Still work well...

--
Pete

Just working on a conversion of a Hesthkit Single Stick 8Ch Radio.
I am using only 7 channels, 6 propo and one switch channel.
It is working nicely now with a 35MHz HF unit and I will add an Orange 2.4G modul as well.
The TX had the option to switch between two sets of crystals using a switch in the front. I will use this switch to change between 2.4G and 35Mhz.
The heart is a DIY Strong Board with mixing option and single channel emulation (trainer button) using a modified 7Ch sketch from Phil .
To replace the wiring for the rudder knob was the most difficult part of the conversion.
Works well on 35MHz on the workbench and it sure will on 2.4G as well. Flighttest in the near future. Frank

May seem a silly question to some but just what was a single stick radio, how did they differ from a dual stick that one sees all over these days.
What is /was the attraction.....?
I went from control line to an old pixie single channel back in the 60's and these single stick were something one would see in English magazines back then.
First modern proportional radio was a Sanwa 2 channel and my brother and I came to the conclusion that a little 600mm wingspan aircraft with a cox engine up front would be just the ducks guts to learn how to fly. (rudder and elevator)
The thing flew off into the wind climbing and climbing until my brother said, probably bring it back this way now.
The climb out was a slow 10-15mph........the return was somewhere around 80mph, upside down and engine screaming like we had never heard.
A great sigh of relief when the rear-engine tank went dry....never forget it.
Went home with it in one piece though which many still to this day, consider that a good days' flying.

The rudder is on the knob of the stick i.e. the knob rotates and controls rudder, the knob has normally a centering sprin. In the old day quite many flew single sticks but for whatever reason they have disappeared but there are a few out there stil flying single stick as myself and Pete C.
I have modified several transmitter to single stick particularly for those that might have a reduced function of the left hand/arm.

All of the original proportional radios manufactured in the USA were single stick designs. The very first that is recorded was Al Doig's "Ulti-Multi", an analogue 4-channel proportional system with feedback servos, in 1959! This was a home made system, and never entered production. The first commercially produced proportional, that I know of, was the Space Control system, which started selling in late 1960. The Space Control later morphed into the Orbit Analogue proportional, and both were single stick systems (Orbit did release a twin stick analogue system, later). The main competitors to the Space Control were the Sampey 404 and DeeBee Quadruplex systems, again single stick transmitters.

These early analogue systems suffered from a number of issues, neutral drift, slow servo response and poor torque on small corrections, but they had excellent interference rejection properties, and "fail-safe" was inherent in the design.

The first twin stick design I can find is the Mathes/Spreng "Digicon" - also the first digital system! Early Digicons suffered from a fundamental design weakness that nearly finished digital systems for good. However, Frank Hoover of F&M found a simple and elegant solution to the problem, which rescued "digital" from the brink.

For a full history of these early systems, have a look here: http://www.rchalloffame.org/index.html and search for the brand names mentioned.

Single-stick remained popular in the USA, and both Futaba and JR produced single stick radios specifically for the Americans for many years. I think the last JR single stick was the PCM-9, not to be confused with the later DSX-9, though as the name suggests, the PCM-9 was a PCM system.

In the UK, the first "full house" proportional was the RCS Tetraplex - essentially a transistorised Space Control. The first "full house" FlightLink also used a single-stick system.

I got my single-stick transmitter about 12 years ago. I was a bit apprehensive before the first flight, but I needn't have worried. As soon as the model started to move, I felt completely at home with it. I now prefer it to twin sticks, with a possible exception for helicopters.

Back in the early 70s, a flying buddy got hold of an early Schluter Huey Cobra helicopter. He built himself a single-stick transmitter for it as he "didn't want to carry any aeroplane habits over"! It worked for him, as he was the first person I saw successfully fly a circuit with a heli!

The big advantage from a heli perspective is that it removes the concept of "left " and "right", which often confuses learners on the tail-rotor (rudder). All you have to do is twist the knob the way you want the heli to rotate, rather than worry about left or right.

The left and right issue on a heli is that novice pilots tend to watch the tail rather than the nose, because it is longer, and easier to see when it tries to get out of line! But it moves in the opposite direction to the nose, leading to the left/right confusion!

The downside of single-stick for helis is that nearly all single-stick transmitters are of the "cuddle-box" design, where the transmitter is cradled in the left arm, and the throttle is on an auxiliary lever on the RHS of the transmitter, under the left forefinger. This is a short throw lever, and whilst it may be fine for an aeroplane, where a precise throttle setting is not necessary, it is NOT ok for a heli, where the throttle/collective control is sensitive and flight critical!

My buddy built his single stick transmitter to have a normal length throttle lever on the left, where any mode-2 pilot would expect it, and under his thumb. The downside of this is that the transmitter required the use of a neck-strap, unlike a cuddle-box, which doesn't need one at all.

So there you have it! All these layouts have their pros and cons, but for me, when flying an aeroplane, the single stick layout feels much more natural than twin-stick. I still don't use it for helis, though!

Maybe I should try the Lark with it.....!

--
Pete

Curtis Youngblood became the world champion aerobatic model helicopter pilot using a JR transmitter modified for single-stick operation. The transmitter he used looked terrible - with exposed wiring, and bits of plywood epoxied to the case. In the full-page JR adverts featuring Curtis in the modelling magazines, he was, unsurprisingly, given a pristine unmodified JR twin stick transmitter to hold instead.
I saw him fly helicopters belonging to other competitors using their twin-stick transmitters: to me he seemed just as good using those; but he obviously preferred the single stick for his own competition flights.