Model Boat Mayhem

Technical, Techniques, Hints, and Tips => Radio Equipment => Topic started by: Lash151 on April 02, 2012, 09:35:31 pm

Title: Fleet or Macgregor transmitter... 2.4ghz Conversion
Post by: Lash151 on April 02, 2012, 09:35:31 pm

Hi...
I used to have a Fleet radio some years ago and I still prefer the look of the old square metal box style Tx's like the Fleet, Macgregor and old Futabas. They come up on ebay quite regularly so I was wondering if it would be possible to convert one of these old transmitters to 2.4ghz?  Or another thought I had was to buy a Planet T5 and transplant the innards into the fleet case.... or is this just plain stupid and pointless...lol

Lee

Title: Re: Fleet or Macgregor transmitter... 2.4ghz Conversion
Post by: HS93 (RIP) on April 03, 2012, 01:25:52 am

 I have converted a Macgregor TX an old 2 + 2 tx they where designed for boats and had a nice option to get rid of talk steer. easy to convert and you get a nice tX that feels nice to hold and really nice sticks Oh and cheap I did one with a cheap TX-RX corona kit and also with a Jeti TX unit, Jeti gives you feed back and allows you to program the receiver, also converted two FF9s and they make a nice conversion and are cheap these days, I got one for the equivalent of £50 and it was like new .

Peter

Title: Re: Fleet or Macgregor transmitter... 2.4ghz Conversion
Post by: roycv on April 03, 2012, 09:58:59 am

Hi Lash you have a PM.
Roy

Title: Re: Fleet or Macgregor transmitter... 2.4ghz Conversion
Post by: Lash151 on April 03, 2012, 10:13:45 am

Hi Roy,
I replied to your PM
Lee

Title: Re: Fleet or Macgregor transmitter... 2.4ghz Conversion
Post by: Subculture on April 03, 2012, 10:29:12 am

Pretty much any set can be converted, but some are easier than others. Fleet kit tended to come with buddy-box jacks, so that makes it nice and easy to find the PPM pulse to tap off to the 2.4ghz tuning board.

I converted a 1980's Futaba Challenger set to 2.4ghz (used a Corona conversion kit), which had no buddy-box connector, it was fairly easy to find the PPM pulse on that set. Access to a basic oscilloscope is very handy for this sort of work.

Title: Re: Fleet or Macgregor transmitter... 2.4ghz Conversion
Post by: Lash151 on April 03, 2012, 10:52:16 am

Hi...
I am good with a soldering iron and a meter but I don't have an oscilloscope, nor do I know how to use one... is it still feasible without one ?
Lee

Title: Re: Fleet or Macgregor transmitter... 2.4ghz Conversion
Post by: Subculture on April 03, 2012, 11:03:29 am

Yes you can get by without an oscilloscope. You can trace the pinouts on the board, unless the set is a very old design, it's likely to be using IC's and you can find datasheets for those online.

Also a lot of sets had separate tuning boards, the Challenger was like that, so that made things quite straightforward. On the two sets I have converted, I have maintained backwards compatibility, leaving in the old tuners, and using a toggle switch to select between the two. If retaining the old frequency band isn't important to you, I would just remove the board altogether.

Title: Re: Fleet or Macgregor transmitter... 2.4ghz Conversion
Post by: Lash151 on April 03, 2012, 12:03:29 pm

Thanks for the information. I shall undoubtedly annoy you all with relentless questioning when I do come to do the conversion.  :-)
Lee