Mode Zero

I have recently bought a single stick Teleradio Apollo6 from eBay, a set I'd seen in adverts as a kid, but never seen or held in person. It's as new, unused condition, complete with Rx, servos, charger and assembly/operating instructions. The adverts say it was sold ready-built or as a kit, I think this one was ready-built as it was boxed and the soldering and wire loom look professionally assembled.

The set is a bit unorthodox, the single stick is on the left, throttle right, but the right-hand stick still has two axis, there's an auxiliary channel and a gear switch making 7 channels, but it's advertised as a six-channel set, the Rx is six-channels, but all the joysticks and auxiliaries are all wired, so unless I get it working, I've no idea which function "doesn't" work. And even though it's got a single stick, it isn't a "cuddle box", but intended to be held like a normal transmitter, a configuration I've never tried flying with. You can't grip the single stick easily while holding it, it could do with a neck strap but the auxiliary is just where a neck strap would go. A tray to hold it maybe? Strange!

Does anybody know anything about Teleradio? Except for the adverts, I know nothing about them, I never saw one being used at any of the clubs I flew with in the 70s or 80s, no reviews in magazines and nobody I've talked to had ever seen one.

Like you, I remember seeing the ads, but never saw one in the flesh.

That certainly is a strange layout! My first thought was that it was for a left-handed pilot, but I wonder if we're making a mistake in assuming it was used in an aircraft? Perhaps it was for a boat of some kind, or even a crane or bulldozer?

Many years ago, I got commissioned to design and build a very special radio - two of them, actually - for a film special effects unit. Mick Wilshere and I built two transmitter boxes, containing only the RF sections, along with several different control boxes which could be plugged in as required. One control box had three triple axis sticks! Another had a load of individual sliders.

We also supplied several receivers.

I gather it was for animatronics in some sci-fi movie, but I never found out which one.

A couple of years later, we were asked to renovate it for a sequel. All it needed was new batteries and some frayed umbilicals repairing. Never heard of it again, after that.

Maybe this was for something similar?

--
Pete

...must have been for special use!

Thanks Pete, I love your stories from World Engine days, it's a side of the R/C story most of us never get to hear about. If I remember, I'll bring it along to Ponty so you can see one in person.

Thanks Tobe, for the RM article, the Apollo 6 set I've got is a little different with Orbit joysticks?, not the Sprengbrook. And I don't think the set was so special, their advert from 1974 shows a single stick (albeit on the more normal right-hand side):


And the mystery of all the joysticks pots being wired up has been solved, the right-hand (normally aileron) joystick was wired, but the wires went nowhere, they were heat shrunk together and left unconnected in the loom, so the main controls were all on the left-hand single stick joystick, presumably for a left-handed person. I think the only other company that'd customise a set with a single stick on the left was probably World Engines (designed by Pete).