jaymen

Hi to all'
I have not posted in the last three years because it was then I became the father of 2 sons,
Ben and Bud. Now they are hand chucking balsa gliders, much to my great enjoyment. I got biusy this past winter and revived all my GG stuff with new batteries, wires, switches, and Deans plugs. After carefully plugging everything in and flipping on the switches I proceeded to tune the Transmitters and Receivers up for max smoke!

Actually, most of my time was spent on the bench with power supplies, FSM, scope, and DVM, along with a stack of yellowed dog-eared schematics and my own hand drawn chicken scratches on note paper. Hey, if you aint got a drawing, you make one, right?

Anyway, we found both Controlaires have about 80/20 to 20/80 pulse width ratio change, whereas the Rand like about a 70/30 to 30/70 ratio to avoid cycling through on full left, right, or up commands. This was on 3.6 volts with a switcher. We eliminated the relay in the SH100 Rx to make it lighter and more reliable, plus the relay is tricky to adjust for perfectly even pulsing, and requires the use of a 4.8 volt center tapped battery pack.

Rather than put an unsightly plywood stick travel limiter on the Controlaire and hide that cool Bonner joystick, I found adding pulse width ratio range, and pulse rate range pots to the circuit worked perfectly....shades of Bonitron, I got inspired. The end result is solid pulsing with no unwanted cycling of the LR-3 when signalling full commands. The cycling is undesirable when you have throttle hooked up as it changes when you are turning full left, or right, and it goes high one way, and low the other!

The Controlaire SH100 is a fair receiver, but lacks good range and noise rejection, especially with the Rand LR-3 and switcher(Rand Pak) setup. This can be overcome partially by adjusting the agc bias resistor. A transistor can be aded to the output of the SH100 to drive the LR-3 switcher more efficiently by squaring up the waveform, and adds good noise isolation as well. A couple RFCs and some .1uf caps in the power input to the SH100 did wonders too.
In the old days, we ran a seperate pack for the receiver, and another pack for the actuator.

Next, I found that the Hallco system was about the best, in terms of opperation, range, and ease of installation. It has over 150 feet of range with the antenna collapsed, lowest battery drain, the transmitter throw is already matched to the 30/70 pulse width ratio for perfect cycle free opperation of the LR-3, and it is easy to hold onto. It only lacks an output meter, but hey Simple Proportional=cheap.

So, here it is now in an Ace Wizard. Note the urethane coated board, a Hallco exclusive! I plan to fly it first no throttle, as I can always add it later. 3 minute flights should be enough for starters, and shaking thumbs.

airasj

Cool stuff. My father also flew GG. I still have the Rand actuator somewhere.
Would love to hear about your comments on flying it.
The radios looks to be in a very nice condition.

Looking forward to hear more.

Regards
Attie

grotto2

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This is really cool. Maybe you can make some videos of this flying, as many have never seen GG.

I'd also be interested in schematics of your circuit mods if possible.

Jaymen Forever!!

HighPlains

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oops!

aerowoof

I'v heard of gg but never seen a setup or got into how it worked as the proportional radios were out and gg was old school.maybe you could enlighten us as to how it works .

boberos

Good info jaymen,

I have both versions of Controlaire GG Tx as you show in your pic .
Flights have been spotty due to poor range even though they run well on the bench.
I am open to suggestions for improving range.

My most reliable set up is the Kraft TX with a Marks versapulser.

Bob

BobHH

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I too have both of your transmitters in systems. I also have poor range issues. I would be interested in your mods on the SH100. I have gotten the best results with a Citizen-ship GG transmitter and Ace receiver with switcher.

Aerowolf, here is a picture of my demo unit used for show display and function.

Bob Harris

ajcoholic

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Nice Cox RR-1 in the Whizard..

AJC

Live Wire

aerowoof
The electro magnetic pulse action of the actuator to control an air craft
The plane al[]ways looks like it is waveing good by at you

jaymen

More GG tech notes:



Bob: Yes the later GG-2 Controlaire Tx you show in your picture has no adjustable output tuning, and therefore high VSWR(reflected power). I found the GG-1 has a tuneable output stage, and therfore more power, which eqautes to more range. I switched antenneas on the two different Txs with no range inprovements. I am gioing use an Arco 427 cap in the output network to tune my Controlaire GG-2. As a consolation, the Controlaire GG-2 Tx also has the rate and width adjustment pots inside, and a switch for tone single channel opperation. I have the high/low rate mod kit bolted to the tone/pulse switch.

RR-1! Some one noticed. That was just for you vintage 1/2A freaks.... I worked at Cox and built that engine from spare parts we had in customer service back in 1980. I have two, and this one can open a can of whoop-ass on any Black Widow. The other has never been run.

Range problemos? Easy money fix: Use a 9 cell nicad Tx pack, and use a 6V regulator(1N756A) on the power supply to your Tx pulser. This two fold mod gives more power to the Tx RF output, and makes the pulser drift free above 7 volts.

Tune your Tx with a FSM(field strength meter), a passive measuring device that detects the RF output of you Transmitter without any interaction, so you can tune it for a peak power.

Next, tune your Receiver with the tone on from the Transmitter, and use a metal can to shield the transmitter and thus make it's signal output weak ,for peak tuning of the receiver with full AGC. You basically need a scope to do this correctly, I have had poor luck "range" tuning pulse systems.

Tune Rx without the Rand LR-3 servo connected.
Use Nicads, not metal hydride batteries.
The Controlaire/World Engines NND-2 switcher works well, but use a seperate pack pack with actuator, you need to keep the relay in the Controlaire SH-100 Rx.

Be sure your collapsing Tx antenna is making good connections, especially at the center loaded coil... here the FSM comes in really handy for spotting weak antenna sections. Chrome cleaner, elbow grease, and WD-40 can work miracles!

Use a heat sink on the Tx RF output transistor, I stole one from an Ace Commander RF module that was laying around.

Any scope will work for receiver tuning, it's just low frequencies below 5 kilohertz. Use a 1x-10X probe as required.

Use a 10X loupe to inspect all solder joints, as single side boards that are this old often have stress cracks that cause intermittant, or reduced circuit performance.

Repalce all electrolytic capacitors!!!!! I cannot stress this enough, they go bad with age and moreover: lack of use. Lesson learned the hard way, 'nuf said.

packet

I never flew a GG when they were new. Now Im giving away my age. I did fly one about 15 years ago when a friend of mine brought out some vintage radio equipment installed in a .40 size Cub. I was suprised that it was not that difficult to fly. Anyway, I learned to fly RC with a Kraft reed radio and upgraded to an Orbit 714 proportional a year later. I still have both radios and they still work.[img][/img]

HighPlains

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I thought the RR-1 had a blue tank, at least mine did.

mocgp

In response to aerowoof's request as to "...how it works," I recently read an article in a mid 50's Model Airplane News that explained the basics of pulse proportional, so I'll take a stab at it. Unlike our digital proportional sets, which transmit a constant carrier signal, the pulse system quite literally turned the carrier on and off at a rate determined by the position of the control stick pot. This pulsing action had a range of something like 2 pps to about 10 or 12 pps. If I am not mistaken, the low pulse rate was left rudder and the high pulse rate was right rudder. If there was no carrier, the magnetic actuator would be "off" and this translated to full left rudder. Turning on the transmitter would cause the actuator to turn on and off at about 5 or 6 pps and maintain a generally neutral rudder position. The "galloping" moniker was the result of the aircraft's ability to react to to the back-and-forth motion of the rudder as the actuator was in the process of returning to it's off (or full left) position during the absence of the carrier signal.

I'm depending on my memory for most of this so I may not be precise as regards the pulse rates or directions but I think that the basic concept is near the mark. If anyone has more precise details, please correct my description accordingly, especially in regards to the later GG units that had elevator and throttle control.

jaymen

Pulse rate on the LR-3 system(Hallco) is about 6 pulses per second (PPS) and the the pulses are 50/50 width at neutral, being on 50% of the time, and off 50%. The LR-3 reacts to both pulse width, and rate changes, decoding them mechanically to give independant control of elevator, rudder, and throtlle.

The pulser in the Tx pulses a 1200 Hz tone oscillator, which then modulates the RF carrier(27 mHz). If you hooked up a small speaker or earphone to the reciever output you hear a "beep-beep-beep.." which is the detected 1200 Hz tone.

When the rudder stick is moved, the pulse width changes from 50/50. The rudder then wags more to one side than the other causing the plane to react and turn. The ratio of Width is typically 20/80 at full left, to 80/20 at full right, 50/50 being neutral. Some systems used a 30/70 shift(Hallco) and others had Tx adjustments to adjust the ratio of the pulse width shift(Bonitron).

When you move the elevator stick down, the pulse rate speeds up from 6 pps to almost 12pps, causing the elevator to flap more down than up. Full up slows the pulse rate to around 2pps.

Pulse rate changes do not change the pulse width, so the rudder does not change, and pulse width changes do not affect the pulse rate or elevator. The LR-3 has some interaction, it tends to give a little up with full right or left, which is tolerable. When you push high or low motor control, you get either full tone on, or tone off, which causes the servo to quit pulsing and run in one direction. The throttle arm moves to one extreem and stops at either high, or low depending on which command you signal. The LR-3 tends to move the elevator(kite shaped plate) more up when cycling to full up or down, causing the plane to nose up when signalling throttle commands. To counteract this, most guys just used to blip the throttle putton several times rather than hold it down.

More advanced systems used two actuators, a rate decoder, and a higher pulse rate (10-12pps neutral) for interaction free control, but at the cost of extra wieght and higher battery drain. An example of those were the Hallco 123SS, the Rand Dual Pak, Steady-Ghost and the Marks Versa-Pulse systems. I have converted several Ace Pulse Commanders to Galloping Ghost with adjustable rate and width pots inside, they work really well and have more output power than most earlier Ghost systems. The Ace Commander receiver works well for pulse too, but needs to be modified to drive a motorized actuator like the Go-Ac, Controlaire, Rand HR-1, HR-2, or LR-3.

Galloping Ghost was around in the early days, it started with Walt Good's TTPW(twin tone pulse width), and later was called Kicking Duck. Most systems used a micro-mo geared motor and a bale/hoop linkage system on the rudder and elevator to decode the movement of the torque rod.

Galloping Ghost had a re-emergence around 1966 when companies like Min-x, Controlaire, F&M, Ace, Hallco, Bonitron, Logictrol, Citizen-ship, Airtrol, and others jumped in to offer a low cost single channel proportional alternative to the full house radios of the era, which cost about $500. "Simple Proportional" as Hallco called GG, was cheap by comparison, and was offered as a complete system for around $125.

Below is LR-3 with a prototype switcher, and a new reproduction switcher I made recently.

boberos

Jaymen,
In your previous post, you made this comment.

More advanced systems used two actuators, a rate decoder, and a higher pulse rate (10-12pps neutral) for interaction free control, but at the cost of extra wieght and higher battery drain. An example of those were the Hallco 123SS, the Rand Dual Pak, Steady-Ghost and the Marks Versa-Pulse systems. I have converted several Ace Pulse Commanders to Galloping Ghost with adjustable rate and width pots inside, they work really well and have more output power than most earlier Ghost systems. The Ace Commander receiver works well for pulse too, but needs to be modified to drive a motorized actuator like the Go-Ac, Controlaire, Rand HR-1, HR-2, or LR-3.

Can you provide details of you Ace Pulse Commander Tx & Rx mods?
Perhaps a schematic.

Thanks,
The 2 Bob's

jaymen

I have hand drawings, but no copier of scanner here at home.

JWQ500RC

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Jaymen

My first Radio was a Halco 103. Boy that was a long time ago. Brings back lots of memories. Good Luck and keep us infromed on how it goes.

8178

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Learned to fly with GG and flew it for years!

cjet

Here is my Galloping Ghost. A Min-X from about 1966-67. The plane is a scratch built Lit’Esquire. I did some of the building in my dorm room at college. Note I used blue foam in the fuse. Yes, blue foam in 1967! It was covered with a big paper blotter from the bookstore that all of us had over our dorm desks. I used HobbyPoxy Formula II to seal it and HobbyPoxy paint. It is a little rough, since I did little sanding. Amazingly it is not all that heavy. The pictured wing is from a much newer version that was crashed maybe 8 years ago. It had a Futaba and OS .15 (too much power).

I flew the original with an OS Max .10 and had a blast, since I learned to fly on an earlier Lit’ Esquire with a single channel escapement. This was a big step up.

I wonder if it would work again? Maybe someday …..

049flyer

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Anyone no where one could have an old antique radio repaired or refurbished? I have an old Controlaire Mule Tone radio and a Min-X GG rig. I would really like to get them going!

jaymen

2Fast, I can do repairs, I e-mailed you contact information, or you can PM me if you like. Jay