SD Card Extension Mod, Turnigy 9X

I love the new sound mod that I did for my TG9X transmitter!  One big problem that I have with it is that it's such a pain to update the sounds!  Because of how I opted to do this mod (the way almost everyone has done it) I have to open my transmitter every time I want to update any files.  What a pain.  Then I noticed one day that it's possible to get SD card extensions.  This is a cable where one end plugs into the existing SD card slot and the other end has another card slot for you to locate somewhere.  So I hunted down the best deal (because, you know, I'm cheep) and ordered one.  So now the rest of this is a review of what and how I did my mod.

This is just the back view of my transmitter getting ready to take the screws out and crack it open.

Here is the view of the micro SD card extender that I bought.  I wanted the flat ribbon cable but should have paid closer attention to the length.  You'll see later how the length affected the install.

 Here is a closer image of the insertion end.  Looks good.  You can also see from this view how wide the flat ribbon cable is.  I might have also paid closer attention to this and found a narrower one.  What was not obvious from this view is that the circuit board material that it is made from is thicker than the micro SD cards.  While it still fit in, it was very snug and did not "click" in.  It just stays in by friction.

Here is the socket end that will have to be mounted somewhere.  It too was larger and thicker than anticipated.  I tested inserting a micro SD card and it works just fine.

Here is my radio open with the first look at where everything is and what I have to deal with.  Lots of wires from the programming cable to the jumble of wires for the MegaSound board.

This is another closer look.

And yet another closer look.  We can easily see now the micro SD slot that we will be working with.  It sure has been a pain to open my radio every time I wanted to update a sound for a new plane or option.

This view is just holding the radio programming cable out of the way to see what kind of space I have to work with.  After looking things over, I decided this would be the best location for the SD slot end to mount.  I really wanted to mount it on the side, but with all of the socket connectors (all the white ones) and the MegaSound board on the other side, it would be too confining.  So, I reluctantly went with a bottom mount.

This view is of the mating side showing how the battery box from the other half might interfere with mounting in this location.  Since it is just under flush with the rim, it should not be an issue if I stay below the rim of the mating side.

Here I have outlined the area that I need to cut out to accommodate the socket end.  I made sure that it would be clear of the stand and above the curvature and still well below the rim.

I started by drilling small holes inside the lines.  I just used whatever suitable small drill bit that I had.  I could have just as well used a larger size and just drilled them down the middle.

Here is the end result ready for cutting in-between the holes.

I just used my utility knife and worked at cutting the ribs.  It took some time but finally the center was cut free.

Fortunatly this plastic, while tough, carves nicely.  It took some effort, but was nice to work with.  As soon as I could, I broke out the files and cleaned it up and to the lines.

Here is the final test fit of the socket end.  Nice and snug without pushing in on the sides of the socket end.

Here is how it looks from the other side.  You can already see that I will have to do some folding and manipulating of the ribbon cable to get it to the SD socket on the MegaSound card.

here you can see how I started to layout the ribbon cable.  It was so long that it had to make a few runs back and forth across the radio.  I also put a ruler along the bottom stands to make sure the socket end would not extend below and interfere with sitting level.

Here it is hot glued from the back side.  You can also see how I folded the ribbon cable.  I creased it to help fit better as well.

Here I started to add some hot glue from the outside to ensure as secure mount.

Here it is all done and put back together.  I didn't think that I would be happy with the bottom mount but I have changed my mind.  I realized that if it were on the sides, my hands might inadvertently cause problem, but on the bottom, it is out of the way but easily accessible when needed.

I have already used this about twenty times as it is so easy to add and mod sound files now.  I am really happy that I did this upgrade.

Thanks for stopping by my blog.  Please feel free to post comments, good or bad, and be sure to come back and check for future posts.

Adding Voice to my TG9X

I finally decided to install the MegaSound mod board that I purchased over 2 years ago.  I'm really happy that I completed this mod as it makes a bigger difference than you think to have your transmitter tell you something without having to look down.

Unfortunately I do not have good photos of this mod, so I will do my best with words and what pictures are available.

From the instructions on Open RC forums and the instructions that came with it, I came up with my plan.  I decided to place the board in the lower right of the inside as you see in the pictures.  This placement helped with wiring but was not optimal for the SD card.  It took a while to solder up, but was not to bad.  I decided to use wires from some ribbon cable that I had available and it worked just fine.  I did use some heavier wire for the power connections that you can see in red and black in the picture below.

When it came time to mount the board, I needed something to keep it from shorting with the main board.  I use a lot of Dollar Tree foam board and decided that would make for a good space.  I cut a piece just smaller that the board and hot glued it to the backside. Then test fit it and used some more  hot glue to secure it to the main board.  Worked well and I'm happy with it.

It was also necessary to install a new speaker (supplied with the kit).  There was a perfect place to install it behind the grill,  A little hot glue and it was in just fine.  The instructions required the removal of the mini speaker and drive transistor.  I have the needed solder iron and solder sucker so this was easy to accomplish.  The picture below shows the installed speaker and the board with the mini speaker and drive transistor removed.  There is a wire connected to the signal to the drive transistor so that the MegaSound board knows when the main board is sending tones to the speaker.

These photos show everything completed and ready to go back together.

I followed instructions that I found on Open RC forums to record computer generated voice sayings.  I saved these to the micro SD card with the appropriate files names.

I never realized how nice it would be to have audio and now I love it.

Thanks for stopping by my blog.  Please feel free to post comments, good or bad, and be sure to come back and check for future posts.

Using A Servo Tester

OK, so now admit it, how many times have you installed a servo and hooked up linkage, assuming that it was centered, only to find out it was not.  Come on, admit it, all of you have done this at one time.  Why have we done this?  Because we are all too lazy to hook everything up to a receiver and battery and to power on a transmitter.  That's why you need a servo tester.

This is the Turnigy servo tester that I found and purchased.











You can connect up to 3 servos and test them all at the same time.  There are three settings that are cycled through by the press of a button.  The default when powered up is the manual dial.  Press the button and it goes to center.  Another press of the button and now it cycles from one end to the other and will continue until you change the setting or run out of battery.  To power this little guy I purchased a 4x AA battery holder from Radio Shack and added a servo connector.  I have also used this device to test speed controllers and retractable landing gear.  For testing an ESC, no battery is needed if it has an included BEC.

The only draw back is that the LED is way too bright and blinding if you're not careful.

Here is a video showing this device in action.

For about $6 you just cannot go wrong with one of these and it's a must for any toolbox.

Thanks for stopping by my blog.  Please feel free to post comments, good or bad, and be sure to come back and check for future posts.

Old Plane New Life

Hello all,

I've got an old plane that is in need of a new life.  I received this really cool RC airplane several years ago as a gift.  It was cool because it looked like a jet with a motor mounted on the rudder, and it came with a mini digital camera that was activated from the transmitter!

The biggest problem with this plane was that the control system was not proportional.  This meant that the elevator and rudder were at neutral or full up or down.  No where in between.  The motor did have three speeds, but if it's too hard to fly, the throttle speeds do not matter.  After many attempts to fly and very little success, I packed it away (I'm way too cheep to through out something like this).

Original plane and transmitter

Now I'm back into RC flying and it's time to see what can be done with this thing.  I hauled it out and started to take it apart and see what was worth keeping.  I had high hopes for some micro servos, if not a small receiver or speed controller.  As it turns out the servos were just a motor with gears so they were out.  The receiver was this awkward and large conglomeration that incorporated the speed controller.  So, nothing but foam was salvageable.

Receiver

I started by gutting the whole thing to see for sure what I had to work with and where things might go and how I might put it all back together.

Gutted plane showing compartments

All the pieces

Before I had plans for the rest of the plane, I knew that I wanted to put ailerons on it.  So that is what I started with.  I decided to do this because I will be using the old 3 channel transmitter and receiver from my Wild Hawk.  I had great success using just elevator and aileron controls on that plane and thought it would be a good idea for this one as well.

Ailerons installed and servo locations marked out

Servo location cut out

Servo dry fitting

For this build I decided that I could just cut right through the wing and install the servos there.  The close tolerance of the cut out will hold the servo from moving and then tape on either side will secure it even more.  Taping it like this will allow for easy access when needed.

View from the back side

Servo cable routing

So far so good.  Now I need to look at how to control the elevator.  The plane is too small and light to mount a servo in or even near the tail.  Plus with this plane having the motor mounted so far back, I don't want to add any more tail weight.  I decided on a location under the wing and made a cut out for the servo.  This time instead of actually cutting the foam out, I melted the foam with a solder iron until I had the shape I wanted.  Doing it this way gave me a rigid compartment for the servo.

Original servo in place

New servo.  Fits perfect

At this time I also ran two bamboo skewers down the middle of the fuselage to give it more rigidity.  I used my solder iron to channel out any places that needed it to make room for the skewers.  I used hot glue to hold the skewers in and they made a big difference.

Both aileron servos in place

After getting the servos and re-enforcement in place, I think I'm ready for assembly.

All pieces ready to put together

I think it looks good!  You can see that I soldered the speed controller connection along the outside of the fuselage to the motor.  I was going to try to route them inside, but that was going to be too much trouble and this will work fine.

All together from the top side

This is the underside where you can see that after I inserted the speed controller and receiver, I just taped over the opening to hold it all in.  The battery is installed in the compartment under the front wheel.  There is also an on/off switch located there that I re-used.  It's really small but works fine.

From the bottom side

Now its time to align the servo arms, control linkage, and control horns.  I don't have my servo tester yet and did not use the radio to center the servos.  I just assumed that they were centered and installed the servo arms where they needed to be.  Then hooked up the push rods and connected to the aileron horns.  Once this was done I fired up the radio.  Wow!  I almost ripped of the left aileron!  That will teach me to assume and not check everything before I just put it together.

Miss aligned servo almost rips aileron off

Now everything is together the way I intended and everything has been tested.

Ailerons aligned properly

Everything is ready for a test flight and as usual, I'll have to wait for an the alignment of the stars, well, good weather and free time.

Thanks for stopping by my blog.  Please feel free to post comments, good or bad, and be sure to come back and check for future posts.

Flapperons

Hello all,

Since I now have a programmable transmitter and an airplane with ailerons in need of flaps, I decided to see what it would take to setup flapperons.  My initial installation of ailerons consisted of flaps cut into each wing with servo to operate each one and a "Y" cable to connect both servos to channel one on the receiver.  One servo was installed apposed to the first one so that they in effect move opposite of each other.  This proved to be a perfectly usable way to run ailerons and is easy to trim.  As there is no room to add flaps with another set of servos, it seemed reasonable to try setting up mixing to accomplish this.

Cutting out the Y adapter

Both connectors cut out

New aileron extensions installed

The first thing I needed to do was to cut out the "Y" cable that I had glued in.  Each of the split connectors were glued, one into a cutout in each side of the fuselage.  Once these were removed I replaced them with regular extensions.  One of these would go into channel 1 and the other would go into channel 6.  Channel 1 would then be mixed with channel 6 and channel 6 set for reverse direction.  Then switch B would be mixed with channel 1 and then again with channel 6.  Since channel 6 had been reversed for aileron control the mixing of switch B would also need to be reversed.

HK T6A V2 6 channel transmitter

As I have a Hobby King T6A V2 2.4GHz 6 Channel transmitter, this required the use of the T6Config software.  Now I have to say that this isn't the greatest software but it is functional.  The first time I used it, it worked just fine and I was able to reverse my elevator servo and play with a few other settings.  Well, that was some time ago and I have not needed it since.  This time when I started up the software I was unable to get the software to work with the programming cable.  Each time I selected the com port (4 in this case, oh, and even though this is a USB cable, it appears as a serial connection) the software would freeze up.  I suspect this is due to software updates that have broken the old driver.  It took a while but I was finally able to find the link to the USB cable site and download the latest driver.  With this new driver all was working fine again.

On to the software settings.  The following show the actual settings used to accomplish the mixing that I  mentioned above.

Mix 1 causing channel 6 to follow channel 1

Mix 2 adding channel 1 to switch B

Mix 3 adding channel 6 to switch B 

There are others who have rate settings for mix 2 and 3 set as low as 10 and as high as 75.  I thought I would use 50% so as  to give more room for experimenting.  In this case, 50% gives 50% down when applied and still leaves another 50% of down for ailerons.  Note also that mix 3 is -50% as this servo is reversed for aileron control.  Also note that with this particular transmitter, as the dials are associated with the switches, VR B will also affect the amount of flaps (adjust how much of the 50% is applied).  Just as a side note, my channel 5 is switch A, and I left that setup as a throttle cut off.  This is a whole other story as to how well that works with a stick programmable brushless speed controller.

In testing, all of this worked as planned!  Unbelievable that it worked on the first try.  This seems to never happen for me.  I am a happy camper.

Flapperon testing

So, now it's off to see how it flies!

Thanks for stopping by my blog.  Please feel free to post comments, good or bad, and be sure to come back and check for future posts.