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[Jack D]

Hi all,
I'm fairly new to the model boating hobby, having only been heavily involved in the last few years. But today I've taken the (foolhardy) step of ordering a 212 from Engel (I did do a fair bit of research and I've played with one before).

Problem is, I don't have a transmitter capable of handling the trim and ballast tank unless I want my journey underwater to be very short indeed (2.4ghz).

Ideally I'd need something at 40MHz with two proportional sliders and some extra switches for lights etc or multi tank trim if I ever decide to get a larger sub. I'm already aware of the F-14/16 and I'm impressed with them having used one before, but I'm wondering if there are any alternatives or recommendations out there.
It will be a couple of months before the sub is ready to hit the water in anger anyway so there's no great hurry.

Thanks for taking a look if you've got this far 

[TomHugill]

Jack I'm looking forward to seeing how you get on with your 212a. I'm very tempted to get one for myself. Function wise if I get one I'll be using a robbe f14 with the piston tank on a linear slider. For my other subs I have the hydro planes on the right stick up and down, rudder on the right stick left and right, front planes on a knob for trimming and ballast tank control on the left stick left and right.

[Subculture]

Some people are using the 433mhz modules with modern radios in the States. The modules can be configured to 459mhz which is the legal frequency for use here in the UK.

However this is fairly experimental.

An alternative to this is to look for good secondhand 40mhz sets.

[Jack D]

Thanks for the input so far!

The stick setup suggested was a layout I could adopt with my current 5 channel 40mhz transmitter, but the dual slider arrangement would be ideal because it would require less fiddling on setting the ballast tank and it would also enable use of the new trim unit they've bought out to fit into the 212a.

That said it would work well to test basic functions in action.

[Mankster]

What's the trim unit?
I use a Multiplex Cockpit Sx with my 212a, with a slider for the ballast control.

[Jack D]

The Trim is provided by the Hall sensor upgrade for the 212a which Engel have just released. Given that it literally appeared on the site yesterday, I can only assume that it's fairly unproven. But for 13 Euros I guess you can't go too far wrong.

[Mankster]

Ahh ok, that's been out out for awhile since they moved from CTS to CTS2. Basically the same as the Unipro in different packaging. You only still need the one slider to control it.

[Jack D]

Ah so it's not a case of ballast tank on one switch, trim on another?

[Mankster]

No, single channel. First 20% or so of slider movements controls around 80% of the ballast tank and the last 80% of slider movement is for the fine trimming with the remainder of the volume.

[Jack D]

I see. That's still a useful feature to have, given I'm guessing if ballasted properly that last 20% of volume will be the difference between decks awash and negatively bouyant in most kinds of water. Though that is a guess, I don't have a great deal of experience with submarines.

[Subculture]

Water density tends to vary by about 1%. The 212 is specced at displacing 5400grams, so that means the trim will vary by about 54 grams, that represents a bit over 10% of your ballast tank, and a bit extra is there for you to go negative if you choose.