Weatronics Dual RX for Dummies

[Kiwi]

I have used the small antenna's on a lot of my other planes, The instructions with them say to cut the antenna wire no less than 4 inches long and not longer than 10 inches.

Yet I know others who leave the antenna full length and hook it tio the fixed external one.

Sorry I know thats not an answer but the Deans antenna (I think thats the name) is base loaded and crystal clear about the wire length.

Benny, when you say the two antennas at 90 degrees to each other I take it he had one (assume it was the principal antenna) out the top of the turtle deck and the second running down the length of the fuselage?

Kiwi

[notorious_benny]

No they were mounted parallell to each other, but 90 degrees to the fuse, ie both were mounted out the top of the turtle deck with approx 30cm separation.

[TheTank]

Love that matching feature. Definetly going to have one of these in my next bird.

[Howie]

Let me pre-empt my comments by saying that I am not bagging the product. I think it has great potential. I have a fair amount of this product on the shelf but I wont sell it to my customers yet.

The main reason I am saying anything publicly at the moment is to hopefully stop some others from burning out expensive servos. It only takes a matter of seconds with a stalled 8611 to burn it up.

I think the auto sync function could work in a situation with say two or three servos spread out along an aileron. Rather than concentrating on getting the geometry right, you would need to set them up so they are matched at centre. Then you could let the auto sync do its stuff.

I can’t see it working (with its current software) in a tray with alloy arms. (Yes I have tried.) I’m guessing that the alloy arms are all going to be made the same so mix and match isn’t going to help. Beside which, how many guys are going to have a bunch of them lying around to try.

If you use the manual servo adjustment within the Rx to set the centre points, the auto function promptly ignores this when you tell it to start the sync process.

The auto sync function works by driving the servos to the predetermined points and then it adjusts each servo to find what I assume is the minimum current draw. (By default there are only two points, which is full left and full right. You can add more points up to 16.)

If you set up a tray with a matchbox or p/box champion you have to do it one servo at a time. If you have two servos fighting each other, no amount of adjusting of a third or forth servo is going to find the “right” point. The Weatronic Rx tries to do it with all the servos enabled. The end result is unhappy servos. I have four 9152 servos ganged for the rudder of my 3.3m yak and by adjusting them manually in the Weatronic Rx I can get the total current draw well under 1A for the four servos. If I use the auto sync function they draw over 3 amps and they get hot.

For Futaba and JR digitals it’s easy to disable them. Stop sending pulses and they will go limp. It would make sense to me if the Weatronic did this during the auto sync process. Hitec is a different story as they have a failsafe function that would make this process harder.

Howie

[henk]

Hi Kiwi & Alwin

Sorry for the late reply. I am using the net at the office as our home tellefone lines are extermely slow. I`l do as you guys suggest but I even recycled the batteries before using them and tested them with a load tester- they tested fine. Will install the firmware upgrade today. Just a shame that a new system already has to get upgrades before it is even installed. In the manuel I got, it nowhere stated that the Net should be checked for upgrades, but will do.

I am using the JR 9X II radio - think it is called the JR9303 in the States. Must say I had much better results with the JR "matchboxes" but as this is a new system I am prepared to follow your guidance for dummies to the letter and lets see what happens. Running JR8411 servos.

Will try and get a log to you as soon as I have cleared old the old info from it. It currently also contains all the info where we tried to obtain better results by manually setting the servo connections as precise as possible.

Thanks
Henk

[adrian]

what has the weatronic guys gotta say about all these issues dudes???

[KrisW]

	Quote: Originally Posted by Howie
	I think the auto sync function could work in a situation with say two or three servos spread out along an aileron. Rather than concentrating on getting the geometry right, you would need to set them up so they are matched at centre. Then you could let the auto sync do its stuff. I can’t see it working (with its current software) in a tray with alloy arms. (Yes I have tried.) I’m guessing that the alloy arms are all going to be made the same so mix and match isn’t going to help. Beside which, how many guys are going to have a bunch of them lying around to try. If you use the manual servo adjustment within the Rx to set the centre points, the auto function promptly ignores this when you tell it to start the sync process. Howie

Howie, I believe you can electronically program center position for each servo in each group, which would enable you to match all the arms in a servo tray to begin with, then allow the unit to match your endpoints for you along with doing it's own load matching to get the centers to the position of least current draw.. As well, according to Weatronics tech, you can dictate several "Curve" points throughout the Master servo's sweep, and the unit will match all the other servos to each of these points. This would allow a much closer match among all the servos in a rudder tray.

[Kiwi]

Guys,

I'm away until Thursday night on business and wont likely get too many shots at being on the site. Howie your idea on doing the servos in sequence is the obvious way to go if it can be done ion the software.

As I said using the glued servo arms were the normal center was easily set on eaxh servo made it a breeze to do. My servos are due nexr week 8611a's so I will try from there.

Kiwi

[Howie]

	Quote: Originally Posted by KrisW
	Howie, I believe you can electronically program center position for each servo in each group, which would enable you to match all the arms in a servo tray to begin with,

No you cannot. (I said in my previous post that the manual settings are ignored during the auto set-up.) As soon as you mark a servo as a slave in a group you cannot adjust it. The "konfigurieren" is disabled. Download the software and have a look!

	Quote: Originally Posted by KrisW
	As well, according to Weatronics tech, you can dictate several "Curve" points throughout the Master servo's sweep, and the unit will match all the other servos to each of these points. This would allow a much closer match among all the servos in a rudder tray.

Yes you can but with good geometry you don't need any more than three points. (Centre and end points.) Armed with an ammeter I have proven this time after time with matchbox or P/box champ set-ups. Weatronics suggested to me (via a third party) that a max of five points would be needed. As I said in my post earlier, you can put up to 16 points.

[adrian]

Howie, i am sensing some negativity towards the unit - i mean in the right context - is there some problems which you would like to adress as we would certainly like to know - thanks

[Howie]

Hi Adrian

I'm not interested in publicly talking about any issues I am having yet. I have been happy so far with Weatronics response to the issues we have. (We had a compatibility issue with our 36Mhz synthesized JR modules and Weatronics fixed it promptly with a software update.) It could be the issues I am having are unique to my set-up or it could be I have a faulty Rx. The next test for me is to fit a whole new unit to my Yak to try.

[Kiwi]

Guys GOOD NEWS FROM THE FACTORY

I just got a message from the Weatronics boys who are reading this thread with eyes of an eagle. Axel has just told me they have identified an anomaly that seems to be related only to the top end JR servos.
The guy with the keys to write the new software to fix it is away until next week but the problem has been identified, it has been fixed and the new firmware will put everything straight.

I have a bunch of 8611a's on the way and will personally confirm this for you all.

Something else guys so as not to think theres a hidden motive here. Howie and I had discussed this privately and the wheels were in motion with Weatronics last week to sort the problem out. Like any new product there is always a possibilty something hits a kink and thats why the Weatronic guys have us trying to break these things for them. If you ever look at the top end radio guys then you will see them with funny radios that you and I never see on the street. They are prototypes and you better beleive they burn em up, crash things and have all sorts of rotten luck before Bart Simpson gets a hold of one.

In this case the problem has been found, a fix is on the way and best of all you dont need to send your pride and joy away in a box. God bless downloadable software for radios and receivers.

So hang in guys, were back on track and the bug has been found and fixed.

Kiwi