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DeveloperPermalink Reply by Adam Rivera on July 4, 2011 at 10:15am

I have been reading lots of posts over at rcgroups, and it looks like this is going to have to be a custom job. I just ordered the Arduino Nano v3 board and I am going to try to hijack the PPM stream with the right stick as the 5/6 channel. Should be simple enough *fingers crossed*

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Permalink Reply by bmarshall5253 on July 13, 2011 at 8:12pm

A Futaba training cord transmits PPM or PCM from the student transmitter to the master transmitter.

Both transmitters have to be in the same modulation mode PPM or PCM. With the autopilot you would be using PPM.

The master transmitter powers up the student box which is not switched on.

The student box only works while the master transmitter trainer switch is held forward against the spring loaded return. Your problem would be that the Master transmitter would not have control when you held that switch to let the student box control channels 5 and 6 and the student box would be sending all the channels of the PPM data.

Perhaps you could retask the trainer jacks to connect the right stick pots of the student box to channel 6 and 7 of the master. On my 7UAP channel 5 is a toggle switch for gear and channel 6 is a flap trim knob, channel 7 is also connected to a pot so channel 6 and 7 might be the best choice..

On my transmitter you would have to remove the daughter boards that hold the dual rate switches and channels 6 and 7 plus the boards that hold the snap roll, p mix, trainer and gear switches to get at the wiring.

Looking at the layout of your transmitter I would be looking at using VR(a) Flaps and VR(c) spoiler/CH 7 to splice into.

Alternately is there any way to send servo commands through the telemetry link to the APM for the camera control and your camera joystick would be hooked to the computer.

 

What about just using a second receiver in the plane with just the camera controls on that receiver and using a second transmitter?

 

 

 

 

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DeveloperPermalink Reply by Adam Rivera on July 14, 2011 at 7:05am

Thanks for the information. I will have to take a look at my radios. I did find an interesting post online of someone who was able to accomplish something very similar to what I am trying to do.

http://www.ianjohnston.com/content/index.php?option=com_content&...

 

To answer your question about two receivers, I think that would be a last resort for me. I want to save on weight and battery consumption as much as possible. Ounces are pounds, pounds are pain.

 

 

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Permalink Reply by bmarshall5253 on July 14, 2011 at 7:20am

Adam, That's a neat project and he includes the arduino code which does all the work. I may try that one myself.

My concern for your application is that you only want to transfer 2 or 3 channels to the joystick, not all functions, what I've read about the trainer port it's all channels or nothing on the trainer port since it's ppm. I did see a reference in a FrSky doc that mentions the Futaba 9 series allows the trainer to give the student only certain channel's control, can your radio do that?

Good luck and keep us updated on your progess

Burt

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DeveloperPermalink Reply by Adam Rivera on July 14, 2011 at 7:25am

I have the Futaba 10CAG radio and it does indeed appear to support selective channel assignment, but it does not support assigning different channels to the joysticks. I will definitely post my progress. Right now I am just waiting on my Arduino Nano board. Thanks!

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