Frsky on a JR Max 66 ( XP 662)

If you've been building electronic bits or modifying stuff you've bought then tell us all about it here. A good place to discuss the installation of 2.4GHz DIY modules too.

Frsky on a JR Max 66 ( XP 662)

Postby TMKits » Thu Jun 24, 2010 2:55 pm

I have a Frsky 2.4 hack module to install in my transmitter.
The yellow board on the back has a plug with 3 wires. Black, yellow and red. Can I use these three?
The trainer plug at bottom right in the pic, has 3 green and one red. I'm guessing the red is ppm ?
As the yellow board holds the old antenna and crystal, can it be removed?
Any help would be appreciated.
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Re: Frsky on a JR Max 66 ( XP 662)

Postby RCModelReviews » Thu Jun 24, 2010 10:10 pm

TMKits wrote:I have a Frsky 2.4 hack module to install in my transmitter.
The yellow board on the back has a plug with 3 wires. Black, yellow and red. Can I use these three?

From memory, when I converted a similar JR radio I found that those three wires were the ones to use.

Check out this video for clues

The trainer plug at bottom right in the pic, has 3 green and one red. I'm guessing the red is ppm ?

I can't confirm that because I never bothered with the trainer-port signal

As the yellow board holds the old antenna and crystal, can it be removed?

Yes, you can remove it completely -- it's no longer required and will do nothing except drain a little more power from your battery.
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Re: Frsky on a JR Max 66 ( XP 662)

Postby funtana » Thu Jun 24, 2010 11:00 pm

Let's know how you get on, i also have a 662 im'e thinking of converting to frsky, the 3 pin plug at the top is almost certainly the feed but check the polarity carefully as on the futaba 7c iv'e just converted the same three wires didn't conform to the usual format, but then again j/r are proper transmitters. ;)
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Re: Frsky on a JR Max 66 ( XP 662)

Postby RCModelReviews » Thu Jun 24, 2010 11:20 pm

funtana wrote:but then again j/r are proper transmitters. ;)

Actually, I was really disappointed with the design of the lower-end JR radios when I got inside one.

They use single-sided circuit boards (cheap) and lots of wiring (not thought out properly). I can't say that Futaba are any better but they really are built to a price -- and a price that should be quite a lot lower than the price asked for them in the shops.

It's clear to see that a huge percentage of the retail price you pay for both Futaba and JR radios ends up in the pockets of the distributors, dealers and retailers through which they pass on the way to your hands.

Watch out for the Chinese... I think the Turnigy 9X is just the start of what will become a major shift in radio pricing and performance that will leave the "brand names" on the back foot. It's clear now why the brand-names are so keen to get as many people "locked in" to their products as they can, while they can.
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Re: Frsky on a JR Max 66 ( XP 662)

Postby TMKits » Fri Jun 25, 2010 10:31 pm

I found a link on the "frSky fan stuck with a DX7.. what to do?" thread.... http://wiki.parkflyers.org.nz/wiki/inde ... FrSky_hack
and the Black, yellow, red wiring/plug looks the same as mine, so I'll go from there and remove the redundant board.
Thankyou everyone.
Will post the results.
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Re: Frsky on a JR Max 66 ( XP 662)

Postby TMKits » Sun Jun 27, 2010 12:31 pm

Well, completed the job and it bench tests fine.
The instructions talk about the orange and red TX LED but its just red to me. (And green when range testing). Anyone get orange?
When binding, it says "holding the receivers button". The only receiver button is the failsafe and it is marked as such.
"The LED on the receiver will indicate the receiver is receiving comands from the transmitter". It doesn't actually say what this indication is?
The instructions also call the TX button different names, "programming button" and "F/S range button". Quite confusing.
Maybe it's just because I'm more mechanically minded rather than electronically skilled.
Had to make some small standoffs to mount the LED/button board and, as the LED was higher than the button, glue on an extention to the button switch.
I also made an adapter to mount the antenna in the original position.
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Re: Frsky on a JR Max 66 ( XP 662)

Postby funtana » Sun Jun 27, 2010 10:48 pm

Nice job, on my two conversions so far i have mounted the led board on the back of the tx, this is personal preferance as i have an aversion to bright red lights on the front of my tx, to my eyes the led is red not orange, the instructions as you have found out are c--p, i left the bind range check button recessed and access it with a small screw driver as i though there would be less chance of accidently pressing it, the weak point is and one flyer here in the uk has allready fell foul of it and written off a model is the fact that you have to re press the button to come out of the range check mode, but then again with your led on the front you would probably notice it was green before take off.
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Re: Frsky on a JR Max 66 ( XP 662)

Postby TMKits » Mon Jun 28, 2010 12:09 am

I wanted the LED visible to make sure it is red like you say. I thought it would be a pain to need a screw driver everytime I wanted to range check, so I added an extention. If it doesn't work, I can always cut it off again. The button needs to be held for 4 seconds to initate "Range Check" mode, so just bumping it won'y do any harm. However, it does look a little exposed and I may fit some sort of surrounding protection (wings).
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Re: Frsky on a JR Max 66 ( XP 662)

Postby tommy » Mon Jun 28, 2010 3:05 pm

I have also converted my xp662 with the frsky DIY hack. I installed a two way switch so I can switch between 35MHz and 2.4GHz.
I have the Led board mounted on the top part of the transmitter so that I can see it and do a range check very easily.
As already mentioned the Led is higher than the range check button. I just drilled a bigger hole so than the led was able to come up high
enough through the transmitter case to allow the button to come through as well. Then I just added some black tape around the
bottom of the lead to make it more neater so that you couldn’t see that the hole for the led was a bit bigger.

I bought the 7ch 2.4ghz Frsky receiver. It looks a bit flimsy but nice and small which is good for a heli where size is important.
I was wondering if anyone has used this receiver as I haven't flown with it yet.
Also is there any way you can only use fail safe just on the throttle channel. I don’t think there is and it seems like you either
set fail safe for all the channels or none at all. But you never know, maybe someone here may know something different.
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Re: Frsky on a JR Max 66 ( XP 662)

Postby TMKits » Mon Jun 28, 2010 3:25 pm

It seems to me, the failsafe memorises the position of all servo's when set and resorts to these when the signal is lost.
Not being a heli flyer myself, what would you set the throttle to (for failsafe) and the other servos? A possible solution, but not very practical, would be to use a separate receiver for the throttle?
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