FrSky....Christmas in July

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FrSky....Christmas in July

Postby Whiteprop » Tue Jul 20, 2010 12:46 am

Just received my new FrSky module/HV 8 channel receiver and DIY module from Smart-Fly today. Spoke to Bob at Smart-Fly and he included the HV receiver for a couple bucks more. Quick shipment, good guy to deal with....will do business with him again.

Couldn't wait to get home to try out the new Module/Receiver. Plugged in the Transmitter module, binded to receiver, stuck it in my 2 meter electric pattern plane & hooked up an elevator servo. Took it out to do a range check. put the plane "on the ground" (instructions call for the receiver to be at least 2 feet off the ground) and hit the reduced power on the transmitter module (Green LED). The documentation claims range should reduce to to a little over 60 meters. I paced out 60 yards and still had solid control. Went out to 85, 100, 125, and at 175 yards I still had solid control, but was having trouble seeing the elevator half moving. This was in a complete wide open area, free of any obstructions that may produce "image" reflections. WOW!!!....needless to say, with this kind of reduced power "GROUND" range, full power "AIR" should be literally out of sight and more!!

At this point I'm pretty much sold. I will be ordering another dozen receivers. Try doing that with JR and Futaba. An 8 channel Futaba receiver is approx $140.00 x 12 = $1680.00. 8 channel FrSky receiver is approx. $28.00 x 12 = $336.00.....no brainer. I'll be doing some more gound testing and will wring it out in a "beater" plane before installing it in a good airframe.

Project #2 - I'll be installing the DIY module in an old Proline single stick radio...yea...the ones with the nice stick assemblies. Hoping to pick up +9.6vdc, Common, and modulation right at the RF module. Will poke around on the input of the RF module with the scope. Don't have any schematics....hopefully worst case is perhaps adding a driver stage on the modulation to feed the DIY module. They don't include any specs. on what they need to see on the PPM input.

All in all so far this is too good to be true. Time will tell as to how well it holds up in actual everyday use. Will keep you posted on the Proline thing.
Whiteprop
 
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Re: FrSky....Christmas in July

Postby JMP_blackfoot » Tue Jul 20, 2010 2:56 am

Would these help?
http://db.tt/dTit18
http://db.tt/3j436S
Looks like ground on J1 (5-pin connector) is by the edge of the board, signal next and 9.6V at the other end.
I don't think you'll need an extra driver.
JMP_blackfoot
 
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Re: FrSky....Christmas in July

Postby Whiteprop » Tue Jul 20, 2010 5:00 am

Wow!...Schematic, Component Layout,....who could ask for more! I'll try it first with just the signal coming from the encoder bd. Thanks very much for taking the time to post this information. If you need any old stuff, I have some old Kraft schematics. Thanks again!!
Whiteprop
 
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Re: FrSky....Christmas in July

Postby JMP_blackfoot » Tue Jul 20, 2010 3:01 pm

If you could check the coils on the RF board of your Proline Tx (L1, L2 & L3) and let me know, it would be appreciated.
I'd need:
- Tx frequency band (27, 53 or 72 MHz)
- coil former diameter
- number of turns (position of tap on L2)
- coil length or wire diameter
Thanks in advance.
Let us know how your conversion goes.
JMP_blackfoot
 
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Re: FrSky....Christmas in July

Postby Whiteprop » Tue Jul 20, 2010 5:26 pm

JMP_blackfoot wrote:If you could check the coils on the RF board of your Proline Tx (L1, L2 & L3) and let me know, it would be appreciated.
I'd need:
- Tx frequency band (27, 53 or 72 MHz)
- coil former diameter
- number of turns (position of tap on L2)
- coil length or wire diameter
Thanks in advance.
Let us know how your conversion goes.


72mHz.
Coil form diameter .212" or 5.4mm
Really having a hard time determining turns, tap, etc.....had it highly magnified and it was still tough to tell.

You were dead right with the pinouts on the RF deck. Not 100% satisfied with the Proline conversion yet. Otherwise you could have the old deck. Looks like at some point they added a module between the encoded and the RF deck....possibly converting it over to narrow band?
Whiteprop
 
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Re: FrSky....Christmas in July

Postby JMP_blackfoot » Tue Jul 20, 2010 5:49 pm

Indeed, you'll want to remove the Miller integrator which was put in to make it narrow-band.
See here for details:
http://db.tt/7bmttl
Better to have the coder directly to the FrSky module with square pulses.
JMP_blackfoot
 
Posts: 51
Joined: Wed May 05, 2010 9:17 pm

Re: FrSky....Christmas in July

Postby Whiteprop » Tue Jul 20, 2010 6:13 pm

Whiteprop wrote:Just received my new FrSky module/HV 8 channel receiver and DIY module from Smart-Fly today. Spoke to Bob at Smart-Fly and he included the HV receiver for a couple bucks more. Quick shipment, good guy to deal with....will do business with him again.

Couldn't wait to get home to try out the new Module/Receiver. Plugged in the Transmitter module, binded to receiver, stuck it in my 2 meter electric pattern plane & hooked up an elevator servo. Took it out to do a range check. put the plane "on the ground" (instructions call for the receiver to be at least 2 feet off the ground) and hit the reduced power on the transmitter module (Green LED). The documentation claims range should reduce to to a little over 60 meters. I paced out 60 yards and still had solid control. Went out to 85, 100, 125, and at 175 yards I still had solid control, but was having trouble seeing the elevator half moving. This was in a complete wide open area, free of any obstructions that may produce "image" reflections. WOW!!!....needless to say, with this kind of reduced power "GROUND" range, full power "AIR" should be literally out of sight and more!!

At this point I'm pretty much sold. I will be ordering another dozen receivers. Try doing that with JR and Futaba. An 8 channel Futaba receiver is approx $140.00 x 12 = $1680.00. 8 channel FrSky receiver is approx. $28.00 x 12 = $336.00.....no brainer. I'll be doing some more gound testing and will wring it out in a "beater" plane before installing it in a good airframe.

Project #2 - I'll be installing the DIY module in an old Proline single stick radio...yea...the ones with the nice stick assemblies. Hoping to pick up +9.6vdc, Common, and modulation right at the RF module. Will poke around on the input of the RF module with the scope. Don't have any schematics....hopefully worst case is perhaps adding a driver stage on the modulation to feed the DIY module. They don't include any specs. on what they need to see on the PPM input.

All in all so far this is too good to be true. Time will tell as to how well it holds up in actual everyday use. Will keep you posted on the Proline thing.


Converted the old Proline over to the DIY Module today. Hookup couldn't be simpler and it worked on the first try. Binded it to the same receiver I used yesterday and did a range check. Same extreme range I had yesterday. There is one problem though. there is a constant buzzing from the servos(same servos I used yesterday with the JR 10X ModuleReceiver combo with no problems). I did notice that the buzzing went away when I went into range check (Power Reduction Mode). This was still in "Checkout" mode with the back of the transmitter open and the DIY module not dressed in. I also noticed a slight improvement when I secured the DIY module and closed up the transmitter. I've read some complaints on here about servos not moving smoothly....it seems this may be similar. The one key factor is that the buzzing stops in the range reduction mode....maybe a form of swamping the receiver?......Any Ideas?
Whiteprop
 
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Joined: Thu Jul 15, 2010 12:59 pm

Re: FrSky....Christmas in July

Postby Whiteprop » Tue Jul 20, 2010 6:35 pm

JMP_blackfoot wrote:Indeed, you'll want to remove the Miller integrator which was put in to make it narrow-band.
See here for details:
http://db.tt/7bmttl
Better to have the coder directly to the FrSky module with square pulses.


You really seem to have an abundance of information on ProLine equipment.

I bypassed the Miller Integrator, but the servo buzzing still remains....again, when going to range check mode (Signal Reduction) the buzzing stops completely.

I did also find that the main stick elevator and aileron pots are sloppy and jump all over the place. Pots are Spectrol 5K, Model # 157-5. Pretty sure they probably don't make them anymore...will try to get a possible cross reference.
Whiteprop
 
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Re: FrSky....Christmas in July

Postby JMP_blackfoot » Tue Jul 20, 2010 9:22 pm

You now have all I've got, really.
It sounds as if the 2.4 GHz RF is getting into the coder...
You could try small capacitors on the pots, between the wiper lug and the extremes
JMP_blackfoot
 
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Re: FrSky....Christmas in July

Postby JMP_blackfoot » Tue Jul 20, 2010 9:22 pm

Is the antenna connector making good contact to the case metal?
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