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I have been in the process of converting my Giant Scale Sailplanes from a JR12x over to a second DX18 that I bought. I like the voice prompts and available telemetry that the DX18 offers. The JR12x works great and is easy to program. But I hate to look away from a glider, that is a speck in the sky, to try to read/verify which flight mode I'm in.
This has been especially prevalent with my 1/3 scale LET Ventus 2cx, which I bought from Dennis Brandt a few years ago. Dennis kindly transferred his flight program from his JR12x to mine. The set-up has many mixing features, five flight modes and is a very complicated setup. The whole process took my an entire day and part of the next. But I can now switch from one flight mode to the other without having to look at the radio to verify. It would not be a problem if I flew the model everyday and could work those switches in my sleep, but I sometimes go six months in between flights.
Besides the five flight modes that Dennis programmed into the model, he also added flaperon mixing, aileron to rudder mixing, spoiler to flap mixing, elevator to flap mixing as well as spoiler to flap and wheel break mixing. Luckily many of the same values that are displayed in the JR12x screens for servo centering, traveI and reversing could be manually transferred into the DX18 with very few changes. The same goes for all the different mixing options, differential percentages and camber settings for each of the five flight modes. All servo channel assignments matched except for one aileron, there are four, that was originally on AUX3 on the 12x, which changed to AUX5 on the DX18.
I also added telemetry to the Ventus to include onboard battery voltage, altitude and variometer. While I was at it I added voice prompts for altitude and flight timer. I have the vario set to silent until I hit the tow release, which also automatically starts the flight timer. The TM1000 telemetry binds with the JR1221 Rx, but when I tried the Altimeter/vario, I got nothing. At first I thought it may have been a compatibility issue, but when I noticed that I was getting RX voltage telemetry I correctly deduced that it may be a faulty Alti/vario sensor problem. As I was in the process of converting two models over to the DX18 I ordered two TM1000's and two of the Alti/vario sensors. I plugged the second Alti/vario in and it worked fine. The defective one will be returned and a replacement has already arrived!
The next model I decided to convert was the 1/2 scale Hempel KA6cr. I new it would be an easy job after all that went into the Ventus. The KA6 has only two ailerons, no flights modes, no retract, no wheel brake and no flaps. After my experience with changing over the Ventus, I spent about an hours in my easy chair creating a new program in the DX18 and manually transferring all of the servo settings from the JR12x screens into the DX18. I then headed to the garage to bind the DX18 and TM1000 to the the KA6. After I opened the canopy, removed the pilot and pilots seat to get at the RX, I noticed a few bits of wiring sitting on the floor of the cockpit under the seat. My first thought was that I didn't remember doing any wire stripping over the open cockpit of the model, then I noticed that three servo leads had been chewed on or completely through by a mouse!!! Also three of the four satellite receiver leads were completely chewed through.
Because I store my models in the garage I had been very diligent in keeping mice out of the garage and the models with several mouse traps. I caught three of the buggers in the fall and keep the traps bated continuously to prevent more from taking up residence. I have found that traps work better than repellent and have found those electronic sound repellent devices do not work at all!! When I saw a few mouse turds on a shelf near where I store my models I added a couple more traps to that area and caught another....that was about two months ago......unfortunately he had already done the damage. After four winters in the garage this was the first time a mouse actually got into one of the models!!
Luckily, the servo leads he chewed through were a little long to begin with, so all I had to do was cut the damaged end off and crimp on three new servo plugs....that took less than a half hour. I had no way to repair the satellite RX leads and cannibalized three leads from an unopened Spectrum Powersafe RX that I have for another project. HH sells those as replacement parts and I will order them for that future project. Routing the servo leads and replacing the three damaged RX extensions should take less than an hour....then I can finish what I thought would be an easy job......binding the KA6 to the new DX18
Trapper Pete
This has been especially prevalent with my 1/3 scale LET Ventus 2cx, which I bought from Dennis Brandt a few years ago. Dennis kindly transferred his flight program from his JR12x to mine. The set-up has many mixing features, five flight modes and is a very complicated setup. The whole process took my an entire day and part of the next. But I can now switch from one flight mode to the other without having to look at the radio to verify. It would not be a problem if I flew the model everyday and could work those switches in my sleep, but I sometimes go six months in between flights.
Besides the five flight modes that Dennis programmed into the model, he also added flaperon mixing, aileron to rudder mixing, spoiler to flap mixing, elevator to flap mixing as well as spoiler to flap and wheel break mixing. Luckily many of the same values that are displayed in the JR12x screens for servo centering, traveI and reversing could be manually transferred into the DX18 with very few changes. The same goes for all the different mixing options, differential percentages and camber settings for each of the five flight modes. All servo channel assignments matched except for one aileron, there are four, that was originally on AUX3 on the 12x, which changed to AUX5 on the DX18.
I also added telemetry to the Ventus to include onboard battery voltage, altitude and variometer. While I was at it I added voice prompts for altitude and flight timer. I have the vario set to silent until I hit the tow release, which also automatically starts the flight timer. The TM1000 telemetry binds with the JR1221 Rx, but when I tried the Altimeter/vario, I got nothing. At first I thought it may have been a compatibility issue, but when I noticed that I was getting RX voltage telemetry I correctly deduced that it may be a faulty Alti/vario sensor problem. As I was in the process of converting two models over to the DX18 I ordered two TM1000's and two of the Alti/vario sensors. I plugged the second Alti/vario in and it worked fine. The defective one will be returned and a replacement has already arrived!
The next model I decided to convert was the 1/2 scale Hempel KA6cr. I new it would be an easy job after all that went into the Ventus. The KA6 has only two ailerons, no flights modes, no retract, no wheel brake and no flaps. After my experience with changing over the Ventus, I spent about an hours in my easy chair creating a new program in the DX18 and manually transferring all of the servo settings from the JR12x screens into the DX18. I then headed to the garage to bind the DX18 and TM1000 to the the KA6. After I opened the canopy, removed the pilot and pilots seat to get at the RX, I noticed a few bits of wiring sitting on the floor of the cockpit under the seat. My first thought was that I didn't remember doing any wire stripping over the open cockpit of the model, then I noticed that three servo leads had been chewed on or completely through by a mouse!!! Also three of the four satellite receiver leads were completely chewed through.
Because I store my models in the garage I had been very diligent in keeping mice out of the garage and the models with several mouse traps. I caught three of the buggers in the fall and keep the traps bated continuously to prevent more from taking up residence. I have found that traps work better than repellent and have found those electronic sound repellent devices do not work at all!! When I saw a few mouse turds on a shelf near where I store my models I added a couple more traps to that area and caught another....that was about two months ago......unfortunately he had already done the damage. After four winters in the garage this was the first time a mouse actually got into one of the models!!
Luckily, the servo leads he chewed through were a little long to begin with, so all I had to do was cut the damaged end off and crimp on three new servo plugs....that took less than a half hour. I had no way to repair the satellite RX leads and cannibalized three leads from an unopened Spectrum Powersafe RX that I have for another project. HH sells those as replacement parts and I will order them for that future project. Routing the servo leads and replacing the three damaged RX extensions should take less than an hour....then I can finish what I thought would be an easy job......binding the KA6 to the new DX18
Trapper Pete
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