Slightly odd question about transmitter channel order

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joey_picus
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Slightly odd question about transmitter channel order

Post by joey_picus »

Hiya all,

As some of you will have been made aware of at length (sorry!), I recently bought an old Futaba Challenger transmitter and one of these Orange Rx modules as part of my ongoing quest to find a transmitter that won't break and isn't too Fisher-Price-y. I finally got around to modding the two together over the last week and after a few hiccups (I managed to wire the LED to the bind switch and the bind switch to the LED) I've got it working pretty much perfectly, as far as binding and transmitting goes.

Unfortunately, for some reason using the normal reciever channels (aileron and elevator, with the aim being right stick control) doesn't work brilliantly, as the module seems to have a different channel order to the transmitter itself - with the aforementioned channels it seems to work on elevator and throttle respectively, which isn't a drivable combination! After some experimentation it seems that in order to get the desired result, I have to plug the aileron and elevator leads into throttle and aileron, respectively, on the reciever, which gives me 'normal' right stick control. I can't do this with DT reciever/controller modules though (I have one of Peter Waller's combo boards in SDF), and it's hardly an ideal solution, so...:S

What I think I need is some sort of way of changing the channel order in the transmitter, either in the module - there is a programming kit available from Hobbyking but as far as I can see it's only for the 'ready made' modules, not the DIY ones (can this be fixed? there's no obvious place on the module for a programmer to attach) - or in the transmitter itself, possibly by rerouting some of the pot wires (although this would mess with the servo reverser and dual rate controls).

Sorry for the infodump - does anyone have any advice/pointers to other people having similar issues? I've reached the absolute limits of my own technical knowledge here, I think I might be destined to keep using the Blade transmitter forever...
Joey McConnell-Farber - Team Picus Telerobotics - http://picus.org.uk/ - @joey_picus
"These dreams go on when I close my eyes...every second of the night, I live another life"
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BeligerAnt
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Re: Slightly odd question about transmitter channel order

Post by BeligerAnt »

This sounds like some confusion over Mode 1/2/3/4...
Can you change the "mode" of the original transmitter or the tx module?
Changing it at the tx module would be much easier as changing the transmitter usually gets a bit complicated.

You could just juggle with the pot' wiring but as you say it may complicate the dual rates etc
Gary, Team BeligerAnt
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joey_picus
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Re: Slightly odd question about transmitter channel order

Post by joey_picus »

That does sound possible; when I bought the modules they weren't being sold in the UK so it could be Mode 1 by default. Unfortunately the wonderfully gibberish manual makes no mention of modes for the module, and the transmitter is I suspect hardwired as Mode 2...

What the manual reccommends is (and I shall transcribe verbatim here):
If your ORX 2.4GHz Transmitter Module plug in some other brand radio, not JR/Spektrum style's, please overlooks your DSM2/DSMX receiver's surface channels label, you need redefine the receiver's channels based on your radio. Or, you remapping the radio's channels if your radio have such features, and the third way is download a remapping firmware (after it's launched) to update your ORX 2.4GHz Transmitter module.
I think the third thing is what I need to do - as the programmer (here) is only about £5 I might grab it and have a play around with it after the AWS (the comments section gives at least twenty or thirty different ways of doing it, so one of them's bound to work!).
Joey McConnell-Farber - Team Picus Telerobotics - http://picus.org.uk/ - @joey_picus
"These dreams go on when I close my eyes...every second of the night, I live another life"
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joey_picus
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Re: Slightly odd question about transmitter channel order

Post by joey_picus »

Postscript: I did grab the programmer, and after a further few months' delay while I tried to persuade a succession of small switches to go in a hole, I managed to finish the transmitter hack, and wrote it all up here for the two or three people in the world who might be interested.

As an adjunct, SamM on the SPARC forums has apparently found that - in DSMX mode at least - there is the possibility of module ID clashes, which should be noted for anyone else using one of these. (I've had no problems, although I use DSM2 recievers and I think I might be the only person in the UK - certainly the only one in antweights - who has one...)
Joey McConnell-Farber - Team Picus Telerobotics - http://picus.org.uk/ - @joey_picus
"These dreams go on when I close my eyes...every second of the night, I live another life"
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earthwormjim
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Re: Slightly odd question about transmitter channel order

Post by earthwormjim »

Thats Great Joey.
I have been drooling over the now "vintage" Tx's on ebay, with the thought of updating one.
Looks very cool. Good job.
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peterwaller
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Re: Slightly odd question about transmitter channel order

Post by peterwaller »

Do you call that vintage my first transmitter was a galloping ghost system and had valves in it. :wink:
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Re: Slightly odd question about transmitter channel order

Post by earthwormjim »

peterwaller wrote:Do you call that vintage my first transmitter was a galloping ghost system and had valves in it. :wink:
LOL! Was it steam powered too!!!
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Re: Slightly odd question about transmitter channel order

Post by joey_picus »

earthwormjim wrote:Thats Great Joey.
I have been drooling over the now "vintage" Tx's on ebay, with the thought of updating one.
Looks very cool. Good job.
Thanks! That's more or less what I did for about two or three years before something reasonably priced and doable came up XD interestingly, the actual RF board out of a Blade/MLP4DSM Tx is about the size of a literal thumbnail and takes a (I think) PPM input - you'd have to do some interesting electrical jiggery-pokery to get the bind procedure to work since that's in the main transmitter but it'd save you £25 for the ORX module!

(if you do get said electrical jiggery-pokery to fizz-buzz into the correct ting-tang-walla-walla-bing-bang, or whatever the technical term is, let me know as I've got a broken Blade and I still have that Skysport 6...)
Joey McConnell-Farber - Team Picus Telerobotics - http://picus.org.uk/ - @joey_picus
"These dreams go on when I close my eyes...every second of the night, I live another life"
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