About transmitters...

[andrea.taras]

Hello guys, long time no see
I was wondering if anyone is actually using a surface TXs instread of stick TXs to control their antweights.
I have a few MLP4DSM radios, binded to some ORX R610V2 and they're working flawlessly at the moment. However, I'm mainly an RC car basher and I have been one for years, as I have a couple other RC cars, for which I only use surface radios and I can't get myself to master how to drive my antweights properly with a stick radio... considering that the ESC I'm using doesn't have braking either, well, let's just say it's not for me. It would be much easier for me to use a surface radio, however, after doing some research I have yet to find one that comes with a micro receiver or that can bind to one, as they all come/are compatible with heavy, bulky receivers. Is it even possible to achieve such a thing?
Feel free to chime in!
Thanks in advance

[Oasis]

Hi! I'm not entirely sure if this will quite help you but as of current I am using a Flysky pistol grip style in my build. While it isn't common its certainly no less viable. You **will** need an ESC which has "mixing" built into afaik - heres what im using but please note i haven't tested it yet but it is quite a common cheap ESC - https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1-8A-Brushed ... Sw4SJdtouw.

On the subject of bulky recivers, you could remove the casing off a normally sized reciever - it will still be bulky but should just about squeeze into your build.

Hope this helps!

Here is a link to the remote I bought - https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/FLYSKY-FS-GT ... SwxkpdoYfo . Once again please not I havent tested using such a remote but my parts are coming soon and when that happens I can get back to you to say if it controls well

EDIT: Forgot to mention! If your ESC doesn't have mixing built in you can buy a mixer separately, but it may weigh up to 10g so thats up to you - something perhaps like this but I have not tested this at all so I advise you to do your own research - https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HOBBYWING-V- ... SwNsNcu3lh

[andrea.taras]

Thank you for your fast reply! I'm really looking forward to see what you can come up with
I only use DasMikro's ESCs so far, and that one you linked looks just exactly like one. I have no idea if the DasMikro includes mixing, but I do have some mixers in my spare box, so I'm covered EDIT: Yes, apparently the DasMikro option A that you get from China has built-in mixing.
I have tried binding my 3-channel Spektrum DX3E (from a Losi SCTE) to the ORX receivers (both are DSM2 compatible) and nothing happened, so that's why I was wondering if it was viable at all. I thought the micro RXs were engineered to work with stick transmitters only, as they're mainly used in planes and you just don't use surface radios in planes. But then again, I'm still kind of a noob when it comes to electronics lol

It would be nice (and it would help me save some space) to have one radio to control all my vehicles, both robots and cars. And the added bonus is that I would finally suck less at driving my antweights

[LimaHotel]

A quick note on DasMikro mixing - Dasmikro has a reputation for being unreliable and some excs just straight up don't work. In my personal experince, it's ALWAYS the ones with mixing that fail. That might be pure luck from my end, but I've yet to have an un-mixed dasmikro not work. Oh, I've broken some (They're crazy delicate for a combat robot part) and I've had some be a little temperamental, but I haven't had an unmixed never work. Meanwhile I've been fully refunded for 6 mixed ones, as none of those worked.

[MarkR]

I broke a non-mixing Dasmikro. Not sure how, maybe a shorted wire. Either way, the magic smoke escaped.

They are too fiddly to solder and there is too much mechanical stress on the tracks. Pin-through-hole is the way to go, my ESCs all use pin-through-hole.

[andrea.taras]

A quick note on DasMikro mixing - Dasmikro has a reputation for being unreliable and some excs just straight up don't work. In my personal experince, it's ALWAYS the ones with mixing that fail. That might be pure luck from my end, but I've yet to have an un-mixed dasmikro not work. Oh, I've broken some (They're crazy delicate for a combat robot part) and I've had some be a little temperamental, but I haven't had an unmixed never work. Meanwhile I've been fully refunded for 6 mixed ones, as none of those worked.

How do you see if your DasMikro has mixing? I always bought the "letter A" on Banggood, so I think it should have it. I've bought 4 in total, always in pairs. The first two are still working, the other two were DOA, so I contacted Banggood and they were kind enough to send me 2 new ones, which work and I keep for spares.
I've never put them through a battle, so I do not know how well they'd fare in that environment, but they're good enough for my (very low) standards so far.

They are too fiddly to solder and there is too much mechanical stress on the tracks.

Yep, they can be a pain to solder. I'm amazed I haven't shorted one out yet.

[andrea.taras]

For the sake of knowledge, I managed to find a tx/rx pairing that works! I had ordered a FlySky GT5 surface transmitter to use on my RC cars and a FlySky FS2A 4ch micro receiver. They both use the AHFDS 2A protocol, but I had no hopes of binding them successfully, since I have read quite a few forum posts on the web about how that TX can be very picky when it comes to receivers it's paired with (even if they use the same protocol) and apparently it only binds well with the receiver it comes with out of the box. Someone tried to bind it to the FS2A receiver but had no luck. But hey, that FS2A receiver only cost €5, so I thought "what the heck, let's do it anyway!". After a couple weeks of waiting, I guess I just learnt that you shouldn't trust the internet too much, because they work wonders! Also, that RX is even lighter than the ORX receivers. All in all it's a win-win. Now if only I could design a proper bot, perhaps you guys will see me at an event someday

[Kyro]

i have not had any trouble binding the fs2a...
but yes, dont believe everything you read on the net... i heard you can't set up a failsafe with the fs2a... but the failsafe is the easiest thing to set up ever... have both rx/tx on and in the position you want it to failsafe to then press and hold the little button on the rx for about 5-10 seconds and now, if it ever loses signal, it will automatically return to whatever you had it set at...

easy

[andrea.taras]

Now that's a great trick, thanks! I didn't know you could do that. I thought I could just set it on the radio and be done with it.

Apparently I've stumbled upon some fake news.

[MarkR]

I think in AFHDS2A, the transmitter sends a "failsafe" packet sometimes which tells the receiver what stick position it should adopt after losing signal. Some receivers ignore this, others honour it.

The "cleverer" receivers, for example, the ones with telemetry, seem to take the failsafe stick positions. The tiny ones that I use (FSA8S) seem to ignore it, but for my purposes it's ok, the rx stops sending data packets to the speed controller shortly after losing signal anyway. So as long as the ESC doesn't keep working without new data, then things will shut down. My ESCs do turn off after losing signal (after e.g. 250ms)

I don't think the receiver stores the failsafe positions in nvram, but the ones I've got, don't send any output data until they first get a signal after power-on anyway.