Blogs

Getting 6 Modes out of Channel 5 on a Spektrum DX7s

Posted by Bruce Jones on June 13, 2012 at 10:35pm

I know there are instructions for setting up a DX7 and a DX8 to get 6 modes out of channel 5, but the DX7s is a bit different from each of those other transmitters. Here are screen shots of the 3 sets of changes you need to make to use the 2-way Gear and 3-way Flap switches to send 6 different modes down channel 5.

I hope those are legible, My screen is pretty scratched, and of course for the millionth time I wish the display was backlit.

dx7s

E-mail me when people leave their comments –

You need to be a member of diydrones to add comments!

Join diydrones

Comments

Brian P Gibler June 10, 2013 at 6:08pm

Hey guys sounds like a lot of trial and error has anyone got a fool proof way to get 5 or 6 flight modes? I tried the settings first given in this blog and nothing seems to be changing in mission planner when I calibrate or set up flight modes, what am I not seeing. thanks for any help.
Mitch April 22, 2013 at 5:38pm

Actually what would be SUPER helpful is for someone who has this working to upload the configuration file. So if you could save the working model to the SD card, then upload that file to the source code server. Then we could download it ourselves and copy it our SD cards and insert that into our DX7s and we should be all set.

If its too hard to get permission to post the file on the server, I would appreciate it greatly if someone could email it to me directly at mcorriel@yahoo.com Many thanks in advance.
RPF April 5, 2013 at 9:54pm

@Fabian -- I've replicated your settings on my DX7s, but it's not working quite right.

Before changing anything, the flap switch would flip between flight modes 1, 3 & 6.

After the changes, the flap switch goes between modes 4, 5 & 6. The Gear switch doesn't really have any affect. If I flip the gear switch to #1, I can only switch between flight modes 5 & 6 using the flap switch. I'm never able to access flight modes 1, 2 & 3.

All the offset values are a bit confusing and I haven't seen any information indicating as to why when I change the vales to 90%, 32% and -90%, the toggle switch will act as an alternating toggle.

Any advise?
Fabian March 31, 2013 at 3:51am

After a lot of try and error I managed to get 6 flight modes out of my DX7s with the following settings:
Servo Setup -> Gear Servo Setup -> Aux1

Mixing -> Mix1 Mixing -> Mix2

Hope this will help some of you.
Fabian March 31, 2013 at 2:34am

Chuck, your CH5 values look nice. That's what I want to get too. I have checked the SW Select which are the same as your's. The problem is that I don't really understand the concept of Servo Setup and Mixing in detail. Unfortunately the manual of the DX7s is no help.
I'm still helpless on that topic. Would be nice if you could help me finding the problem.

@Scott: Nice to hear you are happy with the settings I posted. If you could manage to get 6 modes I would be very interested on how you managed to get these.
Scott Tiller March 30, 2013 at 11:28pm

Fabian I set my DX7s just as you have and it works a treat. Switch the GER and AUX1 in the mix setup and changed to you numbers. I only really get 5 but all I wanted was RTL, Stab and Loiter, which I now have thx to you and Bruce. Cheers guys.
Chuck O March 30, 2013 at 3:12pm

Mine is I am mixed with channel 6

Gear 0: Flap 0 -> CH5 1610/ CH6 1912
             Flap 1 -> CH5 1702 / CH6 1516
             Flap 2 -> CH5 1793 / CH6 1120l
Gear 1: Flap 0 -> CH5 1199 / CH6 1912
             Flap 1 -> CH5 1358 / CH6 1516
             Flap 2 -> CH5 1437 / CH6 1120

Try looking at SETYUP-->SW Select

I have

Trainer:Inh

Flap:Aux1

F Mode:INH

MIX:Inh

Gear:Gear

Knob:Aux2
Fabian March 30, 2013 at 11:24am

I restored the suggested settings of Bruce. The result is the following according Mission Planner:
Gear 0: Flap 0 -> CH5 1128 / CH7 1467
             Flap 1 -> CH5 1527 / CH7 1417
             Flap 2 -> CH5 1927 / CH7 1368
Gear 1: Flap 0 -> CH5 1128 / CH7 2086
             Flap 1 -> CH5 1527 / CH7 1807
             Flap 2 -> CH5 1927 / CH7 1569

I did the same but with the Mix1 setting GER->AX1 instead of AX1->GER and Mix2 setting GER->AX1 instead of AX1->GER with the following result:

Gear 0: Flap 0 -> CH5 1376 / CH7 1368
             Flap 1 -> CH5 1775 / CH7 1368
             Flap 2 -> CH5 1775 / CH7 1368
Gear 1: Flap 0 -> CH5   929 / CH7 1807
             Flap 1 -> CH5 1189 / CH7 1807
             Flap 2 -> CH5 1587 / CH7 1807

I don't really understand this behavior.
Chuck O March 30, 2013 at 8:02am

The movement of AX1 is not nearly enough. I might suggest that you go back to the settings outlined from Bruce and go to the flight planner radio calibration and see what the pwm values are when changing the Gear 2 position switch and the flaps 3 position switch. Mine were very close to working with his settings only one was borderline.
Fabian March 30, 2013 at 6:23am

To answer your questions, I see some movement of GER and AX1 if I switch the GEAR switch (see the following pictures).

With the settings of Bruce it did not work. After some try and error I switched the GER and AX1 in the MIX settings and modified the values. Now I'm getting different PWM values on CH5 but I only get 4 flight modes. So my actual settings are as following:

Furthermore the connections of the APM and the AR8000 are looking correct for me.

Would be nice to get that working correctly. Thans a lot for your help.

Fabian