Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length.

[Charlie]

Years ago, i had a Fleet 40 Mhz RC system, a lovely bit of kit, but i ended up selling it. This had one really useful feature; i was running 2 ESC's, with Tank steering, so left stick = left motor, and right stick = right motor. There was a switch so that you could change to controlling both ESC's from the left stick. Do any 2.4 Ghz transmitters have this feature?

[C-3PO]

Reckon you might be able to do that with the Taranis...

Mr A (aka Taranis) would be able to answer I am sure as he has done some complicated mapping with his Taranis for his Shannon

This video shows one control stick  mapped to 2 RX channels

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRfZbz4zsdk

C-3PO

[Taranis]

Yes my Taranis does this for my Shannon
Normal operation has both motors on one stick
Flick of a switch puts each motor on separate sticks for manouevering
It’s not something I can readily explain how to do as I spent many hours using google and U tube along with trial and error

[Colin Bishop]

If your TX has a toggle switch channel (sometimes referred to as retract for aircraft models) then you can use a latching swiitch on that channel in the boat using the diagram below (sorry it's a bit rough). It simply switches the left stick signal output to both ESCs.

I use it on my Fishery cruiser.

However, there is a potential problem with modern ESCs that you can't always just switch them on and off with an instant response as doing so causes them to reset/recalibrate so you won't get an instant response. My Escs are older ones and don't mind this and it all works very well on my boat.

Colin

[Taranis]

This was a major resource I used
https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?1914834-FRSKY-Taranis-How-to-Thread

[JimG]

Most computerised transmitters give you the option of programmable mixing. In this case you would mix throttle with 'elevator' (most controls are named fore their use in aircraft even when sold for boats) . The mix will have a switch option to switch it on or off so with it off both controls work seperatly with each stick controlling one motor. When switched on then the throttle stick controls both, one disadvantage with the simple mix is that the right hand stick will still alter one motor. You can add another mix to the right stick to stop it having any effect.  (Mix it to itself in reverse)

Jim

[Colin Bishop]

The current March 2019 issue of Model Boats has an article on the subject of programmable mixing by Glynn Guest although this is not actually what the OP was looking for as such.

Colin

[Charlie]

I forgot to add, i want to do this with a Brushless setup - i wonder if this makes any difference?

[Colin Bishop]

There are others more expert than I am but I think you will need to look at going down the TX inbuilt mixing route as described by Glynn Guest. I would have a read of that if I were you to get the principles clear.Colin

[C-3PO]

I forgot to add, i want to do this with a Brushless setup - i wonder if this makes any difference?

No difference from the radio side of things brushed or brushless. However Colin raised a good point regarding power on calibration which may/maynot be an issue - never used a mixer in this context so my post could be a red herring.

Lets assume you are on tank steering - (each ESC has it's own control stick) - when you power on the ESC it is likely to 'calibrate' read the receiver outputs for each channel to find the neutral central point - these could be different values. e.g. CH1 neutral=1490ms  Ch2 neutral = 1510ms

So if you switch to "mixed" you may find one motor spins in either forward or reverse as it thinks it's not in neutral - this could be adjusted so that as far as possible each channel was outputting from the RX the same value signal

Read my text a few times - hope it's clear...

C-3PO

[Charlie]

How did you ever find what you needed - there are a staggering 2142 pages in this thread!

This was a major resource I used
https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?1914834-FRSKY-Taranis-How-to-Thread

[tsenecal]

i wish to add that a taranis would allow you to do this or something similar (perhaps better use of sticks) almost as easily as setting up standard throttle and steering.  (2 additional steps)

in this setup the addition of brushless motors vs brushed motors is not an issue.  to get the steering you speak of both types of motors will need to be controlled by separate speed controls.