RE: TrackerIII mini-review  
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All Forums >> Radios, Batteries, Clubhouse and more >> RC Radios, Transmitters, Receivers, Servos, gyros >> Radio Manufacturer Direct Support >> Polks Hobby >> RE: TrackerIII mini-review
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RE: TrackerIII mini-review - 12/12/2005 3:16:22 AM   
keniley


 

Posts: 15
Joined: 10/21/2005
From: BOISE, ID, USA
Status: offline 		yea, i get alot of jitters with the antenna out right next to the plane also, goes away when i move away from the plane a little. seems to be quite a few bugs that need to be worked out. sure hope they do, i really like this radio, but, i'm kinda scared to fly anything exspensive with it so far.

(in reply to lbarnes)
       Post #: 201

RE: TrackerIII mini-review - 12/12/2005 2:45:20 PM   
Montague



Posts: 4632
Joined: 4/19/2002
From: Laurel, MD,
Status: offline 		Are you sure the rudder vibraion isn't just normal vibration from the engine at low RPM? Lots of "3D" style sport planes do that kind of thing, since the rudder is big and heavy and at the end of the fuse, so low rpm vibrations from the engine really move the surface around. It might be that you have a bit of slop or flex in the linkage, and putting in a stiffer pushrod system and making sure there is 0 movement in the linkage would fix it. Also, many servos have a bit of backlash in the gear train, and that can show up in the same way.

---

About the trainer box thing, why are you turing on the power for the buddy box? Is it necessary for the radio in question? Most buddy boxes should have their power switch left off. All the Futaba and JR buddy boxes I've used work that way. This includes using normal transmitters in a buddy box role. I've not used the Hitec transmitters you mention as a buddy box, but I wonder if that's part of your problem.


_____________________________

Kirk Montague Adams
RCCA 560

(in reply to keniley)
       Post #: 202

RE: TrackerIII mini-review - 12/12/2005 4:04:03 PM   
swede-RCU


 

Posts: 129
Joined: 1/27/2002
From: grinnell, IA,
Status: offline 		The club I belong to has it's buddy boxes for Airtronics, Futaba and JR. The particular JR we have has batteries in it and a charger to go with it, and it needs to be ON for training. The cord is a simple 3.5 mm connector much different from the Air and Fut trainer cords. Maybe JR has changed their trainer system lately and the club's JR buddy box is several years old, but I know it definitely needs to be ON while training.

Swede

(in reply to Montague)
       Post #: 203

RE: TrackerIII mini-review - 12/12/2005 6:01:23 PM   
Montague



Posts: 4632
Joined: 4/19/2002
From: Laurel, MD,
Status: offline 		On the JR's I have, and have used, you leave the power switch "off". They power themselves up enough to do buddy box functions when you plug in the trainer cord, but it's not transmitting even if it has the crystal or module installed. But if you flip the power swtich on, they actually try to transmit, and I thought they actually stopped working through the buddy box.

Btw, for JR systems, you can get a direct servo control cable that basically adds a signal wire through the charge port. If you plug in to the trainer port, but leave the power off, it can actually drive the RX directly and allow you to set controls and such even with the TX off.


_____________________________

Kirk Montague Adams
RCCA 560

(in reply to swede-RCU)
       Post #: 204

RE: TrackerIII mini-review - 12/12/2005 6:13:07 PM   
swede-RCU


 

Posts: 129
Joined: 1/27/2002
From: grinnell, IA,
Status: offline 		That's right-sorry. I was thinking the JR's had to be turned on. But it's that they power up when pluged into the other buddy box. It needs a battery in it while the AIR and FUT don't.

My bad.

Swede

(in reply to Montague)
       Post #: 205

RE: TrackerIII mini-review - 12/12/2005 11:10:27 PM   
lbarnes


 

Posts: 163
Joined: 9/6/2003
From: de forest, WI, USA
Status: offline 		No it is not slop in the controls. I t was definetly servo action about 25% throw in both directions.

As one person responded it may have been too close to the transmitter causing the rudder to move, but I found it weird that only the rudder was effected.


As for the buddy box issue, it didnt matter if the box was on or off, and it didnt explain why it showed up differently with 2 different boxes.

In fact I notied that the display on the Hitec eclipse 7, would come on when the cord was attached, indicating that it was getting power from the Tracker III to turn itself on.

Polk hobbies state that the trainer cord for Hitec will work. I disagree with them.

Larry Barnes

(in reply to Montague)
       Post #: 206

RE: TrackerIII mini-review - 12/13/2005 12:59:02 AM   
lbarnes


 

Posts: 163
Joined: 9/6/2003
From: de forest, WI, USA
Status: offline 		Buddy box issues:

I checked the pinouts in the Hitec trainer cord, they are the same as for Futaba:

slave.......................master
pin 1-------------------pin 1 (+V)
pin 3-------------------pin 2 (data in)
pin 2-------------------pin 3 (data out)
case-------------------case (gnd)
pin 4/5 (shorted)-----pin 4/5 open

What I dont know is how this cable will react to the Tracker III. In all cases it didn"t work right .

Tracker III to Hitec Focus 4 (non computer radio):
* Got channel busy and 4 bars of signal strength on the Tracker III with power on/off on Focus 4 (transmit crystal removed from transmitter)
* All control surfaces twitching with trainer switch off on Tracker.
* With trainer switch on, control surfaces centered but slight twitch on elevator surface (pulsed at constant rate)

Tracker III to Hitec Eclipse 7 (computer radio):
* Did not get channel busy on Tracker scan.
* Control surfaces centered with Tracker trainer switch off (master mode).
* Eratic control surfaces twitching when Tracker training switch on.
* Also noted that Hitec display came on (switch in off position), The control surfaces matched the model memory that was in the Hitec memory (servo reverse, trims etc).

At this time I am assuming that Tracker and Hitec will not work together due to the difficulties mentioned above. I am going to get a Futaba transmitter and hook up to see if I get same results.

Hey Polk Hobby, did you do any compatability testing?

Larry

< Message edited by lbarnes -- 12/13/2005 1:01:24 AM >

(in reply to lbarnes)
       Post #: 207

RE: TrackerIII mini-review - 12/13/2005 10:18:28 PM   
lbarnes


 

Posts: 163
Joined: 9/6/2003
From: de forest, WI, USA
Status: offline 		Buddy box issues:

Today I tried a Futaba Skyport 6A with the Hitec trainer cord and Tracker III. Worked flawless.
One thing I noticed with the Futaba transmitter, The voltage indicate meter did not move, it stayed a 0 v. On both of the Hitec's the lcd and meter powered up showing the voltage being supplied by the Master radio.

I know the transmitter was being powered by the master because the dual rate switches on the Futaba were working on the control surfaces when switched from high to low rates.

Now I am really stumped. The two Hitec's worked great together without a problem. I am wonderiing if the Tracker or has any by-pass caps on the data lines going to the output plug.

Since I cant get a pinout or schematic from Polk, I guess I will try some.

I am going to modify the cord to see if I can get it to work with the Tracker/hitec radios.

I know you will be holding your breaths waiting for the next post

Has anyone tried buddying a Hitec with there Tracker????

Larry

(in reply to keniley)
       Post #: 208

RE: TrackerIII mini-review - 12/13/2005 11:53:34 PM   
skypilit



Posts: 76
Joined: 10/10/2003
From: Thornton, CO, USA
Status: offline 		Larry, I kow some Hitec cords are "one way" cords while the Futaba cords are not. Just make sure the right end is in the right radio. I wonder if you mixed and matched the two with the different radio brands what the result would be. I have used Futaba cords with Hitec radios (Prizm 7) but I had to remove the crystal to make it work. Next time I am at my field, I will experiment with the Fut buddy system and I will also take my Hitec.

Dave
my hanger: skypilit.rcuniverse.com

(in reply to lbarnes)
       Post #: 209

RE: TrackerIII mini-review - 12/14/2005 12:55:29 AM   
lbarnes


 

Posts: 163
Joined: 9/6/2003
From: de forest, WI, USA
Status: offline 		This trainer cord is what they call a 2 way, it has both receive and transmit data connected to both radios. I know there is a one way data which will only allow data from the slave to the master only .

Since the slave end has pins 4/5 shorted together to stop the slave transmitter from transmitting a signal (no rf energy), you can only connect it one way to tell which transmitter will send out the rf signal.

My experience with rf interference is kinda tellling me that there may not be a bypass capacitor on the data lines in the Tracker III. I am going to experiment with the cable to see if I can get rid of the interference that seems to be generated by the 2 radio's when connected together.

The trainer cord was purchased from hitec and not futaba. It does work with 2 Hitec radios tied together without problems and also Futaba/Hitec works fine no problems.

It seems that when the Tracker III is connected to both my Hitec transmitters alot of unhappy things occur. Which really concerns me, as I purchased the Tracker to replace my Hitec stuff.

O'well I will figure this out, "I always win"

Thanks for the response, I was hoping that maybe someone from Polk could answer my questions regarding this issue.

Larry

(in reply to skypilit)
       Post #: 210

RE: TrackerIII mini-review - 12/16/2005 3:05:25 AM   
lbarnes


 

Posts: 163
Joined: 9/6/2003
From: de forest, WI, USA
Status: offline 		Tracker / Hitec buddy box issues.

Last night I added 3 caps to the trainer cord. 2, .001mfd caps from pins 2 and 3 (data lines) to ground and a decoupling cap .047 on pin 1 (+V) to ground.

This grealtly reduced the Hitec boddy box interference. My Ecplise 7 now will work flawlessly.
However the Focus 4 still has slight control twitching. I inspected the pcb of the Focus 4 for bypass and de-coupling caps, they were present on the connector output.

Looking at the Tracker trainer conector PCB there is only series resistors and no filtering caps of any kind present.

At this time, I will not be able to use my Focus 4 for a buddy box, so I looks I must get a cheap 4 channel Futaba for this operation.

If Polk Hobbies is folloiwng this thread, they may wish to add the caps in the transmitter for filtering unwanted interference on the trainer cord.

Also, upon looking at the trainer connector output, I noticed that pins 4 and 5 were not used. This mean that the shut down feature of the trainer cords (shorting pins 4 and 5 together) will not make the RF section of the Tracker III shutdown if the Tracker is used for buddy box.

I wonder if anyone has a concern for this issue.

Just my $.02 worth.

Everyone have a Merry Christmas and for the others, happy holidays

Larry
www.spudgun.com

(in reply to lbarnes)
       Post #: 211

RE: TrackerIII mini-review - 12/17/2005 12:30:09 AM   
skypilit



Posts: 76
Joined: 10/10/2003
From: Thornton, CO, USA
Status: offline 		I don't think the T3 transmits while in TRAINER MODE so it should not transmit while beeing used as a buddy box. I believe it has to be on and in TRAINER MODE to be used as a buddy box. Personally, I am not a trainer and I don't like beeing on the master end of a buddy cord, so usually, someone else is flying my trainer with a student, so I don't know a lot about master-student set ups.

Dave
my hanger:skypilit.rcuniverse.com

(in reply to lbarnes)
       Post #: 212

RE: TrackerIII mini-review - 12/17/2005 12:38:43 AM