JWilliams

My Feedback: (6)

Hope this is the right place to do this, but it seems with the release of the SD10G and 10CH RX (92104) there may be some of you needing to see how others setup a giant scale aerobatic plane. In no way is this the only way, but just a way of setting up a large plane with the SD10G. I plan to cover the RX with Smart Fly EQ6 Plus system, 2 lipos, fail safe switch, then how I program my radio. I will openly admit, this is the first time I have dealt with a Smart Fly EQ6 system, so I have a learing curve there, but I have been flying IMAC/3D since 2001 and setup many giant scale (25% to 40%) planes in my time. If anyone else has input to further all of our knowledge feel free to jump in.
Jeff Williams

gsmith6879

My Feedback: (37)

Great idea! I want to use the Smart Fly EQ6 with my SD10G on a scale airplane this winter. Your experiences will help us all.

JWilliams

My Feedback: (6)

Yes, it does not matter really what type of plane, pretty much the same stuff. I thought I was going to get back to working on it yesterday after my initial post, butttttttttttttt you know how that goes sometimes.
Jeff Williams

JWilliams

My Feedback: (6)

OK, got a little time to start this whole thing. It is tough to cover some things, for instance, mounting your EQ6. Each model will be different so I will just say, get the thing mounted on something solid. I used two 3/8" sq. hardwood sticks and epoxied them to the fuse framing. Onward, the first thing I do is take my SD10 and decide in the system menu the TYPE funtion of it, this decides your type wing, aileron, flap, tail and throttle functions you will have. I used normal wing, aileron 2, flap 1, tail 2XEL, and throttle 1. On this plane I am using 2 aileron servos per wing panel, but with the EQ6 I am treating as if it had one. Yes, the SD10 will do 2 servo wing panels, but I am gonna use the EQ6 for this particular setup. Now enter your settings and the TX will write to itself, now I name my model in the system menu, then I turn off my flight mode alarm (because of the way I use my FM and SW designation). Now while in the system menu you will want to decide what mixes you will use, then assign them a switch. I know that I will use TH-EL, RU-AI and RU-EL so I go ahead and put the TH-EL on a switch but the other two I want them on all the time so no need to assign a switch number but you have to run the setting all the way thru the numbers to get to the ON assignment. Now is a good time to set your timer and fail safe if you know what you want. OK, that gets me thru the system setup. I will get to the F-Mode and EQ6 stuff next time.
Jeff Williams

cap10b

JW,
Ive been running the EQ-10, Expander Pro and Sport with my Stylus, RDS8K and my SD-10G all with great results. I'm sold on the ATX radios, their FHSS3 and 1 receivers and the Smart-Fly system. I can fly thru the Van Allen Belt with narry a problem.
Yeah I have all of Jack Albrechts programming sequences from the Vision thru to the SD-10G.

Good Stuff.

JDS

JWilliams

My Feedback: (6)

Cap10B, glad you could join our conversation. Jack Albrecht, now there is a name I have not heard in some time, I talked with him many times when I flew Stylus, now I am SD10 and trying to figure it out. Hope you can stayed in on this and offer some more EQ6/SD10 knowledge, I got some done on the EQ5 Friday, but this weekend is both daughters volleyball tournament so a busy weekend. Hope to get back on it this week and post more info.
Jeff

MikeGreenshields

So far it all sounds good. The TYPE menu is a big deal (edited from 1st post. sorry for the mistake 1st time around) and a lot of people miss that. This is really where the magic happens. You get this set up right and everything else goes WAY easier.

Also, you touched on something important which is that mixes must be turned on and/or assigned to a switch in the switch menu. I've talked to many people at the field who missed that part.

Something else to consider... You can assign multiple functions to the same switch and you can have multiple conditions. For example I am building a scale Panther Jet. It has sub-body-flaps that only work when the main flaps are not deployed and only when the airbrakes are on. So the body flaps and the airbrakes are simply assigned to the same switch. So now if I move the air-brake switch, the subflaps work at the same time. BUT, the subflaps only work if the flap switch is in position 1 (up)! So, if I move the flap switch the sub-flaps go away. It's a great way to get multiple functions without using mixes.

Not exactly applicable to IMAC or pattern aircraft, but I'm hoping to make people think about the way the radio works, thus with some creativity they can make the radio do everything they want in the easiest ways possible. Fun stuff...

cap10b

I love this guys radio !!

JWilliams

My Feedback: (6)

Sorry for not getting back to this guys. Right now in the midwest we are experiencing California type weather and I am getting some outdoor projects done before old man winter gets going. Be posting on this again just as soon as I can get back to it.
THX,
Jeff Williams

MikeRuth

I haven't got to looking around yet, but I think a SET UP sheet would be in order for the SD-10G.

this would allow one to first list servo connections, direction of travel(norm/rev) epa values etc. then Switch assignments before actually going ino the radio and settin things up.

Anyone know of something like this?

Mike R

P.S. Realy getting a handle on this TX and liking it more and more everytime I play with it.

Lastly, Mike G is there a link to the parts list for this radio?
Considering changing my momnetary three posiion switch out to a fixed three posistin switch.

ToddNicholson

Hi Mike,

Here is a link to the parts list for the 10G. If you need help finding something in particular that you don't see, let us know.

http://globalservices.globalhobby.com/part/751750.asp

Regards,

Todd
Team Airtronics

JWilliams

My Feedback: (6)

Mike R., not sure what you mean by a setup sheet. Elaborate because where I am at right now would be a good time to develop such an item. In my above post I wrote pretty much what I did and Mike G. seemed to overall agree with my approach. I am interested in your idea here, because it seems I get this question a lot no matter where I go so it may save some folks a bunch of headaches.
THX,
Jeff Williams

JWilliams

My Feedback: (6)

OK, sorry it has taken so long to get back to this, but like I said in an above post the weather this fall here in Southern Indiana has been Southern California like. Well, it is now gone and we are back inside, glad to have gotten some outdoor projects completed. I left off at the initial programming of the radio in its' "system" menu. Truly I have covered the entire items I would do to run a competition IMAC plane. I now move to the "F-Mode" or flight mode menu and begin to arrange things to my liking. I go right into the D/R function and switch positions 10/11/12 as my dual rate (in actuallity it is triple rates) and I give my highest rates to position 10 and run Ail/Elev/Rud to the % for high 3D throws. Do the same for switch pos 11 and 12, with 12 being my low rates and typically what I fly IMAC sequences. Now, you could set these to other switches. However, my first radio with triple rate ability was the Stylus and I have used this same switch for years and it just feels comfortable. If you want to proceed my way, you will want to go back into your system menu, switch assign function and set Fmode 3 to "on" and Fmode 1 to 11, Fmode 2 to 12, then your EL-D/R2 will be 11 and EL-D/R3 is 12 then set your ailerons and rudder R2's to 11 and R3's to 12 on those. Now check your plane and see if when the 10/11/12 switch is performing correctly.
Jeff

JWilliams

My Feedback: (6)

Next thing I program is my exponential. It is right after the D/R so it is a nice logical step in the flow of the SD10 menu. You will notice as you cycle the 10/11/12 (I will now call it the rate switch) switch it shows its' mode position on the display as 1, 2 or 3. You can set each rate 1, 2 or 3 with desired expo, a nice thing to have. I like to set my low rates with 20 to 30%, my middle or #2 rates with 25 - 35% and my high or 1 rates with 35 to 45% expo. If you want the center movement of your stick to be the softer portion, you will use positive value numbers. If you want to the stick to be more sensitive around center then use negative values.
Jeff

JWilliams

My Feedback: (6)

Next thing I program is my exponential. It is right after the D/R so it is a nice logical step in the flow of the SD10 menu. You will notice as you cycle the 10/11/12 (I will now call it the rate switch) switch it shows its' mode position on the display as 1, 2 or 3. You can set each rate 1, 2 or 3 with desired expo, a nice thing to have. I like to set my low rates with 20 to 30%, my middle or #2 rates with 25 - 35% and my high or 1 rates with 35 to 45% expo. If you want the center movement of your stick to be the softer portion, you will use positive value numbers. If you want to the stick to be more sensitive around center then use negative values.
Jeff

JWilliams

My Feedback: (6)

Next step is throttle curve, the SD10 has a 9 point throttle curve. Fortunately my DA is very linear on ES Composite pipes so I do not need a curve. However, if you do bring the cursor to "point X" and use the yes/no buttons to get the right number point and then "rate" with a positive or negative value to get the desired curve.
Jeff

JWilliams

My Feedback: (6)

The next feature I use on this sort of airplane is "Idle Down". This is useful when you want to run a higher or lower idle in flight then on landing. I like to run a slightly higher idle when flying and idle down when landing. First go back to the "sw assign" in the system menu and scroll till you see the idle down feature and assign a switch to it. At this point I am going to seemingly jump ahead by saying place the TH - EL mix on this same switch. I use switch 13 as it is by my throttle finger and seemingly to me a good place. The way I use this is right after takeoff I switch to the higher idle and run it till landing final. The reason for the TH - EL mix is that I am going to double up this switch as I do not want high idle or the plane nosing down slightly during landing. We will program the TH - EL mix later, so for now just make your "idle down" work the desired way you wish by leaving it in common, so it works during all flight modes, and then feed the desired value for idle up or down.
Jeff

JWilliams

My Feedback: (6)

Next on the FMode menu is AI Differential, frankly most every airplane needs a little for cleaner rolls while being judged. This is a menu item you will have to fly your airplane and then go into the menu and figure which way to move your ailerons for axial rolls.
The next menu item I use is trim step, this allows you to control how much you want the servo to move with each click of the respective trim switch. First do you want to use it on all flt modes or separate??? I use COM so my trim is common to all flight modes. I like to have my rudder more sensitive than my ailerons/elevator/throttle so I use default on my rudder of 6 and 3 on the ail/elev/TH.
Jeff