Meatball Racing

Radio Control Blog

Flite Fest East 2017

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I was finally able to get to Flite Fest in Ohio near Canton. It’s a 12-hour drive from home in Minnesota. To split up the time on the way out, we took the SS Badger across Lake Michigan. They have an eastbound red-eye option that leaves at 1:30AM (Central) and arrives 4 hours later at 6:30AM (Eastern). Even though it makes the trip technically longer, the downtime is much appreciated.

In hindsight, I wish I had arrived at the departure dock earlier. They encourage you to arrive an hour before departure. Ideally I would have arrived before midnight so I could be asleep by then. We got there around 12:45AM – but I was just glad to have the opportunity to rest. Getting a stateroom for the red-eye is a must:

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Multiprotocol Transmitter Module

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I can’t say enough about pascallanger and others who have worked to put together the open source 4-in-1 multiprotocol module. It’s a collection of all of the transmitter protocols that are open source, or have been reverse engineered, compiled into one. Combined with the 4-in-1 module hardware, you can control a huge variety of models with different receivers and protocols with the same transmitter. And now you can get it as a ready to use module for $40.

With the 4-in-1 I’ve been able to fly:

  1. Inductrix (Tiny Whoop) bind-and-fly (DSM Protocol)
  2. Assault 100 (HiSky HT-8 Protocol)
  3. FT Flyer with FlySky receiver
  4. FT Snowball with FlySky receiver
  5. FT Tiny Trainer with HobbyKing HK-T6A-V2 receiver (FlySky protocol)
  6. XK K110 bind-and-fly micro-heli (Futaba SFHSS Protocol)

It will work with several other protocols including SLT for AnyLink models and RealFlight simulator.
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HiSky HT8 Module for Turnigy 9x

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My Assault 100 helicopter came with a transmitter module that allows you to use it with any transmitter. This module is also used with HobbyKing’s Q-BOT Micro quad and FBL100 helicopter. It’s actually just a rebranded HiSky HT8 module which is used for many HiSky helicopters. Rather than have to charge this module separately and hang it off of my Turnigy 9x, I decided to build a module specifically for my 9x which would power it up and keep it safely in place.

IMG_2490

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Assault 100 / HiSky HCP100S settings for OpenTX 2.1 / Turnigy 9x

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I’m new to helicopters, so the radio setup for the Assault 100 was a little daunting – especially given the fact that my transmitter has an alternate firmware (OpenTX) installed, and the Assault 100 printed manual settings for the Turnigy 9x assume you have stock firmware.

One other important detail I didn’t understand is that flybarless helicopters don’t use the helicopter functions built into the transmitter. Instead they have something similar to a quadcopter flight controller with gyro sensors to perform the stabilization function of the flybar. Rather than setting up the swash type and assigning the cyclic channels on the radio, the cyclic inputs can be sent as normal aileron and elevator controls – similar to a multi-rotor.

What still needs to be set up on the transmitter is the channel assignment, throttle and pitch curves, and reversing. That last part is extremely important and is how I broke my helicopter before it ever left the ground 🙁

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Sponsor Yourself

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I’m not sponsored by HobbyKing or any of their brands (Turnigy, TrackStar, Quanum, etc.), but I’ve found that they’ve been a boon for someone getting back into any radio control hobby on a budget.

Truth-be-told, I feel like more of a product tester than anything. That is sort of what sponsored drivers/pilots do anyway: they get access to the newest stuff for testing and feedback.

I just do testing and feedback on the stuff I buy, and since it’s so darn cheap I don’t really mind.

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Hobby Stores getting left behind

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Dear hobby shop owners and employees,

This is a plea, asking you to get to know your competition. If you don’t know what a Turnigy 9x or an XT60 is, you’ve become a slave to your distributors, and your customers are likely going to leave you behind. There is an enterprising young man named Anthony Hand who moved to China and started a company called HobbyKing. You should pay attention to what they (and others) are doing as they’re rewriting the rules of radio control hobbies.

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