POLL: What transmitter/ Receiver do you use

Covering Transmitters/ receivers, wiring schematics, requests for new options, etc
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Richard Goodwin
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Re: POLL: What transmitter/ Receiver do you use

Post by Richard Goodwin »

Evening All,

Just wondered if anybody is using the FrSKy Taranis X9D Plus yet? If so, any problems?

Thanks

PS This is my first post so apologies if in the wrong thread!

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Re: POLL: What transmitter/ Receiver do you use

Post by Stephen White »

Richard, Liam Mahoney is the man for the X9D. He's developed some very interesting new ways of using all the new capability a software defined radio offers. Software defined radios are definitely the radios of the future, I'm just not sure they're the radios of the present. I bought one for my Cent a few months ago, to allow me to programme simulated gear changes but I guess I'm either too thick or too idle to master the programming. Actually, like learning any new software, it may seem a bit daunting but there is a quite excellent commercial guide available and it just takes a bit of time to master. Then good things happen. It has far more capability than the current generation of digitally encoded radios.

I've hit one problem. You have to programme the radio to recognise the Benedini rotary encoder, if you use one. I've very easily done the physical installation but haven't so far been able to get the Tx to recognise a nine position encoder, although people have very easily fitted four position encoders. There are a lot of very useful YouTube videos to help and when I get time, I'll return to it and crack it.

So - if you want bog standard and simple, Spektrum does a perfectly capable job. But for a new, exciting and maybe frustrating experience with lots of new capability, the X9D has a lot to offer - if someone can crack the encoder issue.

Stephen

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Gerhard Michel
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Re: POLL: What transmitter/ Receiver do you use

Post by Gerhard Michel »

In my opinion software defined radios are the future for modellers who need rather complex solutions for steering high sophisticated airplanes.

Thomas Benedinis rotary encoder however seems for me a little old fashioned. When using modern sound option modules like the Beier USM-RC2 one has up to 5 gears (forward and reverse) and direct control for many effects using simple RC-equipment of present days which operates out of the box and doesn't need a scientific degree in programming openTX :)
kind regards
Gerhard
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Richard Goodwin
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Re: POLL: What transmitter/ Receiver do you use

Post by Richard Goodwin »

Hi Stephen

Many thanks for your quick response.

Gone are the days of dedicated Line Replaceable Units eg UHF and VHF radios; now it's a comms rack that generates the waveform you require ie VHF, UHF, L16 etc :D

I came across this site quite by accident; OpenRCForums. You may find this link useful in relation to your gear changes -

https://openrcforums.com/forum/viewtopi ... KS#p135829

There is also a lot of posts in relation to rotary encoders as well which you may also find useful. Will have to wait until I take delivery of my Mk5 before i can look into this so if you crack it soon, grateful if you could let me know and vice versa of course :D

Lastly, if I wanted easy, I wouldn't have purchased an Armortek kit; I'd have got a ready assembled one but where's the fun in that :lol: This is my first venture into this world and I have so many questions :roll: The electronics probably won't phase me, neither will a little programming, it's the mechanical side that might be problematic and cause a few scratchings of the head :wink

Richard

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Re: POLL: What transmitter/ Receiver do you use

Post by Stephen White »

Richard, thanks for the link. It's great to have another set of eyes on the case. Looks interesting. Gerhard has a point about the Beier sound card. It's much more capable than the Benedini, although Thomas has recently increased the memory, which allows more custom sounds to be stored. His memory though is still insufficient. I'd like to explore the integration of the Beier card into the Armortek electronics. I do think the radios based on OpenRC are the future, as the motion capabilities of our models have reached something of a plateau. The trick will be to make progress whilst keeping it very simple for the new user. There's no doubt in the military field that the advent of software defined radios has produced a sea-change in capability. I don't know why I'm a bit daunted by the Taranis as I used to run a software company specialising in command and control applications which run on the latest generation of radios. Thanks.

Stephen

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Re: POLL: What transmitter/ Receiver do you use

Post by Pete Nash »

Was using a Planet T7 for my Mk.Iv, an Exmitter EX6 for my P III but swapping to a Exmitter EX7 for them.
EX7 (from Howes Models) is less expensive than Futaba etc. Sticks are as usual, Channel 5 is a three position switch, Ch6 two position and Ch7 is a 240 degree rotary, and it has a 6 Model memory with LCD screen.
Sticks can be programmed for a Fail safe position.Plus I will be adding a spring to the left stick so When it is released it will go to neutral (£1.99 + postage)

My RR armoured Car is controlled by a Radio Link T8FB. Left stick is Spring Loaded controlling Turret and Gun, right throttle and steering. CH5 three position for sounds, ^ is a rotary controlling the shutters, Channel 8 another rotary for the lights.

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Richard Goodwin
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Re: POLL: What transmitter/ Receiver do you use

Post by Richard Goodwin »

Stephen White wrote:
Wed Apr 03, 2019 9:05 am
Richard, thanks for the link. It's great to have another set of eyes on the case. Looks interesting. Gerhard has a point about the Beier sound card. It's much more capable than the Benedini, although Thomas has recently increased the memory, which allows more custom sounds to be stored. His memory though is still insufficient. I'd like to explore the integration of the Beier card into the Armortek electronics. I do think the radios based on OpenRC are the future, as the motion capabilities of our models have reached something of a plateau. The trick will be to make progress whilst keeping it very simple for the new user. There's no doubt in the military field that the advent of software defined radios has produced a sea-change in capability. I don't know why I'm a bit daunted by the Taranis as I used to run a software company specialising in command and control applications which run on the latest generation of radios. Thanks.

Stephen
Hi Stephen,

I'm looking at the audio side of things as well and note the recent discussion between yourself and Phil. Think I'll raise another thread on that to see what others have done in relation to deviating from the stock Armortek audio setup. I must admit, I do like my base and I think the mk5 will be crying out for a big subwoofer :twisted: I hope the use of LiPos instead of SLAs will provide additional space to assist :lol:

With regard to the encoder, are you sure it was 4 positions that have been successfully fitted and not 6? The reason I ask is that FrSky have their own 6 position encoder which incidentally, is less than a tenner and there are lots of videos on that on youtube. One such video identifies issues when calibrating the new switch in that if you turn it too fast or to slow, it defaults the switch from multi-position to a potentiometer with detent; could be worth a check? Also, I assume you are keeping the button pressed when stepping through the positions when calibrating? Apologies if you're already aware of this!

Regards

Richard

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Re: POLL: What transmitter/ Receiver do you use

Post by Stephen White »

Thanks Richard. The new thread is a great idea. For my Cent, I've used the standard Benedini Mini but have completely replaced all the sounds with custom files which I edited from some original tapes made in Vietnam during the war. The limitation I hit was a maximum of 91 secs of custom sounds, which is nowhere near enough. Thomas has recently increased the memory but it still doesn't compare with the Beier card. There are quite a few of our colleagues in German who use it but I don't know if anyone has integrated it with the rest of the Armortek motion modules. There are also some spectacular sub-woofers in use in some builds here on the Forum.

You're quite right about the Taranis encoder, it's a few months since I had a go and the videos I looked at were all for the six position encoders. I'll have to refresh my memory but I think the issue was that I couldn't get the Tx to recognise the extra positions on the Benedini encoder. I must have another go soon, as I'm keen to simulate gear changes. I've got a good tape of the Cent acceleration through the gears and down again and can edit it into separate files, to be triggered by the speed controllers when a new gear "selected" ie a new curve.

I've made a note of your two suggestions and will have a go again.

You\re quite right about the extra space which comes from replacing SLA but might I just clarify that it's Lithium Iron Phosphate (LiFePO4) which is recommended, never Liithium Polymer (LiPo), which are certainly not recommended for our models.

Thanks.

Stephen

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Richard Goodwin
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Re: POLL: What transmitter/ Receiver do you use

Post by Richard Goodwin »

Hi Stephen,

Would you be a happy bunny if you had 205 seconds at 22kHz or 390 secs at 11kHz with up to 64 sounds and 2 channels?

Try this: https://www.bauer-modelle.com/epages/Ba ... s%2F4.4230

Scroll down the page for the manual in english!

Wrt the encoder, if the calibration doesn't work and you can't configure the number of switch positions then I would suggest that its either a firmware or circuit limitation since they provide a dedicated encoder. A swift email to FrSky could clear that up if that was the case.

Looks like another thread on batteries :lol: :lol: I did say I had lots of questions :? :|

Regards
Richard

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Gerhard Michel
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Re: POLL: What transmitter/ Receiver do you use

Post by Gerhard Michel »

Hi guys,

please remember that the German Beier sound module can store several hours of sounds at 44 kHz / 16 bit at its mikro SDHC-card. E.g. I use it for background music in "pauses in the fighting". You have 30 sounds which are individually controllable, 30 more sounds in a "WAV-player" with forward / back function and 8 occasional sounds. It controls all sound and sound based features necessary for a tank like driving noise up to 5 gears (different to forward and back, if needed), shooting sounds combined with muzzle flash and barrel recoil with a servo (controllable for 2 different speeds for back and forward), flashing of machine guns (synchronized to sound!), several lighting functions and so on and so on and so on! All sounds are user definable. Its loudness is steplessly controllable by the transmitter, and you can use a seperate amplifier to increase the noise, when 2 x 20 watts of the module are not enough (in 1/4 scale we use car hifi power amps up to 1,000 watts!) :twisted:

It is combinable with nearly every RC equipment, every ESC and other equipments, for all its functions base on the reciever's channels. I never saw a sound module which is more versatile!
kind regards
Gerhard
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Richard Goodwin
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Re: POLL: What transmitter/ Receiver do you use

Post by Richard Goodwin »

Hi Gerhard,

Many thanks for the info.

I’m going to start another thread specifically for audio so if you could contribute to that, I’d be very grateful. I’m really interested in what you guys and others have done!

Regards

Richard

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Re: POLL: What transmitter/ Receiver do you use

Post by Richard Goodwin »

Stephen White wrote:
Sat Apr 06, 2019 7:53 pm
Thanks Richard. The new thread is a great idea. For my Cent, I've used the standard Benedini Mini but have completely replaced all the sounds with custom files which I edited from some original tapes made in Vietnam during the war. The limitation I hit was a maximum of 91 secs of custom sounds, which is nowhere near enough. Thomas has recently increased the memory but it still doesn't compare with the Beier card. There are quite a few of our colleagues in German who use it but I don't know if anyone has integrated it with the rest of the Armortek motion modules. There are also some spectacular sub-woofers in use in some builds here on the Forum.

You're quite right about the Taranis encoder, it's a few months since I had a go and the videos I looked at were all for the six position encoders. I'll have to refresh my memory but I think the issue was that I couldn't get the Tx to recognise the extra positions on the Benedini encoder. I must have another go soon, as I'm keen to simulate gear changes. I've got a good tape of the Cent acceleration through the gears and down again and can edit it into separate files, to be triggered by the speed controllers when a new gear "selected" ie a new curve.

I've made a note of your two suggestions and will have a go again.

You\re quite right about the extra space which comes from replacing SLA but might I just clarify that it's Lithium Iron Phosphate (LiFePO4) which is recommended, never Liithium Polymer (LiPo), which are certainly not recommended for our models.

Thanks.

Stephen
Evening Stephen,

Thank you for the warning re LiPos; whilst I believe I can mitigate most of the issues they have, I can not mitigate against a charger failing and since I intend to leave the batteries in the tank whilst charging, its not a risk that I am prepared to take.
Thanks again.
Best regards

Richard

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Re: POLL: What transmitter/ Receiver do you use

Post by Stephen White »

Richard, if you're interested in following up on batteries, there are some relevant threads grouped under a Knowledge Base Topic here:

http://www.armortek.co.uk/Forum3b/viewt ... 29feb4ef54

I haven't brought them together as a single thread but this discussion on the relative merits of lead acid AGM v LiFePO4 should give you some ideas to consider:

http://www.armortek.co.uk/Forum3b/viewt ... f=2&t=5029

Interested to hear any feedback you or anyone else may have. There is an increasing number of us using LiFePO4, so the level of experience is now quite good. I'd say that the level of satisfaction with them is high but so is the cost. Their benefits are obvious but the issue is the high acquisition cost. It's only when you take into account the much shorter life of lead acid that the whole life cost balances out the two types and makes LiFePO4 look like a cost-effective solution.

Stephen

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Re: POLL: What transmitter/ Receiver do you use

Post by Gerhard Michel »

Hi all,

in the last few days I bought 8 cells of LiFe(PO4) with 20 Ah. They are the 3rd pack of LiFes I use in a tank, and I think that the acquisition costs now become tolerable. Previously I had 2 lead acid (AGM) batteries with 12 V and 24 Ah, and I had paid 144 €. Now I replaced it after only 2 years (one of them had a shipping damage, I suppose) with the mentioned 8 cells and paid about 270 €. I earned some more average voltage, much more operating time due to the DoD of 100 % (AGMs have only 50 % DoD), and I saved some weight because LiFe batteries are some lighter than lead acids.

In my Jagdtiger I replaced two lead acids with 12 V and 43 Ah by a set of 8 LiFes with 36 Ah, and I saved the unbelievable weight of 18 kg! :shock:
kind regards
Gerhard
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