Controlaire Mule II
07-12-2014, 05:29 PM
#26
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Jaymen is the "go to " guy for antique radios. He is enthusiastic about restoring old radio systems for folks. He has the knowledge, motivation, desire but most importantly the parts to get this old stuff working even better than new. He recently restored an Ace Pulse radio for me and it works fantastic. His rates are reasonable and he is a very interesting fellow, give him a call and be prepared for an entertaining and educational conversation!
07-12-2014, 09:08 PM
#27
I had Jay convert a Controlaire Mule transmitter to 2.4 ghz for me. The 2.4 ghz module is connected to a custom single channel encoder built by PhilG in the UK. The encoder can be programmed to simulate several different types of single channel radios. Currently mine is set to simulate a simple escapement. I have a 2.4 ghz receiver and one Hitec Hs55 servo in my Cox .020 powered plane. The button on the transmitter works as it did before and the rudder moves as before. The difference is the entire set up is much more reliable. Works great!
07-13-2014, 09:11 AM
#28
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I had Jay convert a Controlaire Mule transmitter to 2.4 ghz for me. The 2.4 ghz module is connected to a custom single channel encoder built by PhilG in the UK. The encoder can be programmed to simulate several different types of single channel radios. Currently mine is set to simulate a simple escapement. I have a 2.4 ghz receiver and one Hitec Hs55 servo in my Cox .020 powered plane. The button on the transmitter works as it did before and the rudder moves as before. The difference is the entire set up is much more reliable. Works great!
10-09-2014, 12:09 PM
#29
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Alternatively, convert the Mule to 2.4ghz and fly S/C without any reliability or frequency problems!
See http://www.singlechannel.co.uk
Cheers
Phil
See http://www.singlechannel.co.uk
Cheers
Phil
10-09-2014, 12:59 PM
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Phil; I am now using your emulator and an Orange RF module in a mule, and it works great on the bench. Just do not have a plane to put it in yet, but getting anxious. Best regards Roy
02-05-2015, 10:17 PM
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I have restored a number of 1960's Tx and Rx from my collection and have found that the most common failure is with capacitiors. The electrolytic capacitors in particular are well past their design life and are the most likely to fail. Failure modes include open circuit, short circuit and low capacity. These electrolytics are used for supply line decoupling and audio stage coupling. Depending on the age of the gear it may use germanium transistors and I have also seen failures here. Without the right test equipment and know how it is not easy to track down the problem areas. I would not advise retuning at this stage (Tx or Rx), wait until other problems are cleared and it might then not be necessary anyway. The best thing would be to find a local electronics engineer/technician experienced with sorting out old equipment.
Alan
Alan
I hope you are able to come back to this old post to answer a couple of questions possibly. I have two systems with no batteries or battery boxes. One transmitter is a Controlaire 10 channel reed system, What is the operating voltage for it? The receiver looks like 4.5 V. right? The other system is the Remcon 12 channel reed from the UK. No idea of the transmitter voltage nor the receiver voltage. Any ideas?...Be much appreciated, as I would love to get these up and running,..Thanks...Joe
02-06-2015, 05:07 PM
#33
http://vintagercfiles.com/Files/Cont...%20UTT-10A.pdf
Receiver (2+2+1) 1.2V Nicad or NimH cells:
http://vintagercfiles.com/Files/Cont...d%20wiring.jpg
Lots more on the vintagercfiles.com site.
Last edited by JMP_blackfoot; 02-06-2015 at 06:04 PM.
02-07-2015, 06:14 AM
#34
The later Controlaire 10 chan reed transmitters (model MTT-10A / UTT-10A) with the silver brushed aluminum case are 9 volt. An earlier model with a gold anodized case and a blue label uses 18 volts. On both, a -9 or -18 is etched in the circuit board where the negative battery lead is soldered (near the center area of the board). Likewise, a few inches to the lower right of this area a +9 or +18 will be found. You may need to use fine steel wool to clean the areas in order to read the numbers. Note that the positive battery goes to ground.
I believe most or all of the Controlaire transistor reed receivers (the SH-20 for sure) use four cells (4.8 volts) of the five cell pack.
Tom
I believe most or all of the Controlaire transistor reed receivers (the SH-20 for sure) use four cells (4.8 volts) of the five cell pack.
Tom
02-07-2015, 03:31 PM
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Tomav. thank you for your reply and info. My Controlaire 10 is the brushed case model on the left in your pic. So, I take it that my tx would be 9 volt battery with + to the red wire, neg to the black wire? when you say pos ground would not matter as long as wired + to red, neg to black, Right???
So the receiver has a 5 cell pack but only wired to four cells in series to get 4.8 volts, correct?...thanks again...Joe
So the receiver has a 5 cell pack but only wired to four cells in series to get 4.8 volts, correct?...thanks again...Joe
02-07-2015, 08:21 PM
#38
Joe,
Yes, the red wire is positive 9 volts and the black is negative. I only mentioned the positive ground because most radios ground the negative side.
The most popular and majority of the old relayless reed servos (such as the Bonner Transmite, Controlaire, and Annco) used the five cell pack. The one exception that quickly comes to mind is Citizen-Ship servos that only needed four cells. For those that used five cells, two were to drive the servo in one direction, two to drive it in the opposite direction (similar to the late 60's & 70's 4 wire proportional servos), and the fifth cell provided a reference voltage to the servo's amplifier. Citizen-Ship electronics didn't need the reference voltage. For the same simplicity and weight reasons as used today, the receiver is powered by the same battery pack (where possible). Some of the old reed receivers were 6 volts so they used all five cells. The Controlaire only needs 4.8 volts. I used "where possible" in the previous sentence because a few reed receivers used more than 6 volts. Again the Citizen-Ship WR series comes to mind. They use 15 volts. I know there is one that used 9 volts, but can't recall the make / model right now. Didn't want to make this too long an answer, but just to make sure you understand your Controlaire receiver doesn't need a five cell pack. However, the servos you use probably do.
Tom
Yes, the red wire is positive 9 volts and the black is negative. I only mentioned the positive ground because most radios ground the negative side.
The most popular and majority of the old relayless reed servos (such as the Bonner Transmite, Controlaire, and Annco) used the five cell pack. The one exception that quickly comes to mind is Citizen-Ship servos that only needed four cells. For those that used five cells, two were to drive the servo in one direction, two to drive it in the opposite direction (similar to the late 60's & 70's 4 wire proportional servos), and the fifth cell provided a reference voltage to the servo's amplifier. Citizen-Ship electronics didn't need the reference voltage. For the same simplicity and weight reasons as used today, the receiver is powered by the same battery pack (where possible). Some of the old reed receivers were 6 volts so they used all five cells. The Controlaire only needs 4.8 volts. I used "where possible" in the previous sentence because a few reed receivers used more than 6 volts. Again the Citizen-Ship WR series comes to mind. They use 15 volts. I know there is one that used 9 volts, but can't recall the make / model right now. Didn't want to make this too long an answer, but just to make sure you understand your Controlaire receiver doesn't need a five cell pack. However, the servos you use probably do.
Tom
02-09-2015, 10:53 PM
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Thanks to you and all here I got the Controlaire working on 9 volts power . All tones occur normally, the RF meter goes to near max at 9 whatever that is. So, now to power up the RX and that will come with new batteries. Also, have a 12 channel Remcon reed system, I need info for that as well to fire it up. I meed instructions and schematics if somebody knows of a source. Let me know, thanks again.....Joe
