Print

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

[alan p]

Hello, thanks for having me here.
I  scratch built what started as an MTB about 40 yrs ago, but I couldnt get the superstructure right.  So I  "made up" something and painted it as a US Coastguard vessel, on the theory that not many people in North Shields would know, when sailing on Tynemouth lake ??
After a very long pause, I'm trying again, this time with a Deans Marine kit of "Christiaan Brunning".    I chose it as it looks vaguely like a tug "Velmar" that my grandfather was engineer aboard, between the wars.   I have had to butcher (modify) the superstructure quite a lot, but I think it looks ok, from a distance. I subscribe to the Glyn Guest school of model making, IE keep it simple.
I managed to get all the "stuff" inside,   motor, prop.shaft, esc  rudder servo, batteries, Tamco FHSS receiver  etc etc     to use with a Planet T5 hand control, all gathered from various sources.    Nothing happened.       I am a complete novice with electrics so it was all way over my head.   After months of head scratching, a Tamco hand control came to hand and,  hey presto, it worked.    Foolishly I assumed any hand controller would work with any receiver. Lesson learned.
I wish I had joined Mayhem earlier, and saved myself much puzzlement as I'm sure someone would have kept me right.
Hoping to gain much knowledge in future.

[Geoff]

Virtually all of the modern stuff is on 2.4 which provides about 1m combinations so you just go down to the pond and switch on and it selects a free channel. No more changing crystals as in the past.


The modern stuff is essentially computer controlled which has its advantages and disadvantages.


Invariably the first step is to bind the receiver to the transmitter - the process varies from make to make and as you found out different makes of receiver/transmitter are not necessarily compatible!


Computer control lets manufacturers produce multiple channels for marginal extra cost and provides far more functionality


Same set for planes, trains and automobiles and of course model boats!


The throw of the channel can be adjusted - normal say 50/50 but can be amended to say 1/99 or anything you want.


The speed can be adjusted so a channel creeps rather than goes at normal speed


Change of direction


On some you can link one channel with any other. I had a situation once where if the rudder went left the aft guns fired!! Going right was fine!!!


On some you can even set a time delay as well


Any channel can be set to perform any function you want


If you are lucky you have a return to factory settings option otherwise any change you make stays until its changed which can be very confusing. As above the general ease of use is far better but it can also get very complicated as some functionality is designed to fly helicopters and is fundamentally not compatible for us model boat users!


In many respects I personally find it too complicated at times.


Good luck


Cheers


Geoff

[Circlip]

We 'ad it tuff, XFY34s and bang bang escapements and one at a time please Gents. 


  Regards  Ian.

[Fastfaz]

Hi,
    Quick question, are using a Planet receiver with the T5 transmitter? as it will need to be bound (matched to the Transmitter) to the T5. Most TX/RX combinations need to use a compatible receiver to work otherwise, if you are trying two different makes, they mat well not be compatible and you will end up throwing something in frustration. There's lots of info on this site just look up the dark world of electrics on the home page. Good luck.
             Cheers, Pete. 

[JimG]

From the sound of it the original poster is coming from the world of 27MHz sets where any receiver could be used with any transmitter as they all sent their signals in the same way. The only incompatability was I think MacGregor who used a slightly different frequency for some of their crystals. This compatability began to change when they started to bring out FM sets, first in 27 but especially in 40MHz. Here the crystals used began to be specific to the brand name so they couldn't bhe interchanged. Once fully digital sets became available with the rise of 2.4GHz each manufacturer used their own digital coding protocol making sure that you had to buy their equipment and not a rivals. It was only when third party manufacturers  decoded the protocols that allowed them to make their own version without being a straight copy that alternatives were sold.
There is also the further complication that a manufacturer may have a number of different protocols which don't work together, in many cases brought about by changes in the rules to reduce the risk of interference with WiFi which also uses 2.4GHz. e.g. new Spectrum sets must use the DSMX protocol which is incompatable with the older (and less capable) DSM and DSM2 protocols.Generally modern transmitters and receivers have the coding protocol marked on them to allow you to check if they are compatible. If they don't show the protocol and are different makes then you need to always assume they won't work together.

Jim

[alan p]

My thanks to everyone who has commented.
I came from the world of complete ignorance  so all comments are relevant and absorbed like a sponge.
Thanks again,    next time I'll not wait so long to ask a question.
Alan