Jonriley56

I have a question about using a buddy box. I assume that I need to program the “buddy box” radio to have appropriate exponentials etc along with having the trim match the primary radio. Is that correct? It seems like a good idea to have the controls be less “touchy” to start with.

Any help would be appreciated.

jon

oldvet70

My Feedback: (10)

Assuming it is possible with your TX and Buddy Box, you are correct that the Buddy Box should have the exact same settings as your instructer TX.

bigedmustafa

My Feedback: (2)

If you are using two computer radios cabled together for a buddy box setup, it may or may not be necessary to program both. How two radios are buddy boxed together and how they function seems to vary significantly depending upon the models of specific equipment used and from manufacturer to manufacturer.

There are no absolutes, your best bet will be to sit down with the two radios you intend to use and see for yourself exactly how they behave.

I have a Futaba 7C 72Mhz transmitter and a Futaba 4YF buddy box setup with square-to-square trainer chord. The 7C takes care of any mixing or programming needs when in trainer mode, the 4YF buddy box only provides basic stick input. The buddy box needs to be unpowered and in the "off" position when pairing it with the 7C 72Mhz transmitter.

I also have two Airtronics RDS8000 radios with an Airtronics 477100 trainer chord. With this setup, the two transmitters can be set up with different control throw rates and trimmed independently. The advantage to this setup is that the instructor's radio can have more "throw" or control authority to aid in quicker recovery while the student radio can be set up with more gentle control settings to prevent oversteering the plane. In this setup, the student radio must also be powered off to work as a buddy box.

JR and Spektrum equipment often requires both radios or boxes to be powered up and in the "on" position. Some radios, like the Spektrum DX6i, won't work if you try to buddy box them with a standard trainer box or sport radio; instead they require a second computerized transmitter that must be programmed identically to the first to work as a trainer box.

Hitec radios come with trainer ports that look like older Futaba trainer ports, but Hitec uses a special "one way" trainer chord. Mixing Futaba and Hitec radios for buddy box setups is possible, but I honestly don't know what the purpose of Hitec's one-way trainer chord is nor do I know the problems with mixing Futaba and Hitec equipment incorrectly.

The new 2.4Ghz radio systems don't always behave like their 72Mhz counterparts did. New 2.4Ghz radios like the Airtronics SD-10G or the Hitec Aurora 9 don't operate using the same kinds of trainer chords like previous models did. I've also been told that the 2.4Ghz version of the Futaba 7C requires a computer radio to buddy box with and that it won't work with my Futaba 4YF trainer box the same way the 72Mhz version of the 7C does. I also don't know if this is true.

Anybody who tells you that buddy boxing two radios is easy probably hasn't had to work with much of the new radio equipment that's out there. It's all very tricky and requires specific testing to figure out exactly how it all works.

Good luck, and let us all know what you learn!

RCKen

My Feedback: (9)

On most buddy boxes the expo and other of the computer functions will not be available for the buddy box. The only feature that most buddy boxes will have is dual rates. The exception to this will be some of the JR radios, and some of the higher end computer radios such as the new Airtronics SD-10g radio. But at $500 I doubt that few students will have one.

This brings up a point that I feel needs to be mentioned in the realm of beginners in the hobby. I feel that students learning to fly need to stay away from things such as expo settings, mixes, or other higher functions of today's computer radios. I feel that they distract from the student learning to properly fly. For instance, let's talk about expo settings. EVERY new flyer will over-control as they learn to fly. However, with instruction and practice students learn the proper controls and the "feel" for flying the plane and get over this problem. However, if they try to take a shortcut and apply exponential in their radio they are actually cheating themselves. They will never learn the proper feel of how a plane should be flown. I'm not saying that expo shouldn't be used later on as the student advances to more advanced planes. But when learning to fly a student needs to learn the basics of flying. This is one reason why I have recommended for years that students get a bare-bones non-computer 4 or 6 channel radio such as the Futaba Skysport radios. With these radios there is no temptation to take shortcuts because the radios don't have these functions. However, I have pretty much stopped saying this because these basic radios are quickly becoming a thing of the past and lower end computer radios are now becoming the norm. However, with these low end computer radios I recommend that students leave the bells and whistles alone until after they have soloed and are moving up to more advanced planes.

Ok, I'll get off my soapbox now!!!!

Ken

bassmanh

My Feedback: (5)

Ken,


here,here. well said i agree whole heartedly to many people want to use expo right away and they never learn as you said to feel the way the plane REALLY FLIES.

people ask at the field and i tell them the same thing learn to fly first THEN start using the extras on the radio



bassman

goirish

Hi RCKen

Hows the hand and BTW what kind of soapbox were you on. Here is a picture of my finished NFS powered by a 91 Magnum 4 stroke.

RCKen

My Feedback: (9)

Gene,
 The hand is pretty much healed up now. I took my own stitches out last friday!!! Hopefully I'll actually get some flying in this weekend.

Ken

speedy72vega

I have a DX6i TX and am teaching a buddy how to fly with a buddy cable. He has the PZ Corsair RTF that came with the DX5e. His TX must be OFF, not on when the cable is hooked up. No computerized controls on the DX5e, just High/Low rates. It works just fine. What I did was to flip the trainer switch on my radio and watch the control surfaces while he held the plane. Adjust trims on the ground until you see no movements from any control surfaces when the trainer switch is flipped. It works great, and he's actually starting to learn to fly!!!

Mikecam

I hate to say I don't agree with RCKen as he is one of the few posters here that I trust in what he says 100 %. But I taught myself to fly last year on a 2.4 7C. No crashes yet and I'm getting pretty good with the sticks. That said I believe that the people that have learned with older non computer radios all believe that you should do so without the expo. Anyone who has learned with the newer radios and used expo say to use it. My first flight was with out expo as that is what I read to be the best by the experienced fliers. The experienced fliers are also the ones that learned on non computer radios. I found the sticks very sensitive, before my next flight I dialed in 30% expo. That flight was much much easier and fun to fly. As I learned to fly better I dialed down the expo in 5% increments. If you learned to fly a certain way then it is natural to suggest to others to learn that way too. Does it make it the right way or the better way? I learned to fly last year, with a computer radio and with expo and it worked out very well for me. I learned to fly in an age with computer radios and in a way might have a better perspective on using expo for beginners to someone who learned to fly 20 years ago without expo. Not out to make an expo war, just giving my opinions as a beginner who learned to fly only last year.

TedMo

Speedy 72 tells the story. That's the only way to set a buddy box up properly. No need for expo, dual rates may be helpful but there again probably not at first. In regard to expo perhaps I'm wrong here but uaeing only 30%or less is like not useing expo.

speedy72vega

I must add to my original post, I did take his Corsair up with my DX6i first, and trim it out. THEN did I hook up the buddy cable to his radio and set his trims on the ground. Almost forgot that important bit of info .

bigedmustafa

My Feedback: (2)

I'm glad you guys got that to work! The DX6i's own manual states, "The transmitter can be used as a master but the slave transmitter must have the same programming (i.e. reverse, travel adjust, dual rates, mixes, sub trims, etc.) as the master."

We've been unable to get the DX6i to work with our club's two SX400 buddy boxes. I'm certain we've tried using DX6i transmitters as master boxes with DX5e transmitters as slaves before, too. I can't imagine why it works for you but we couldn't get it to work for us. It's funny that the DX5e works with no power, it shouldn't be creating a signal to send to the DX6i if it's not powered up.

One of these days, I'll have to sit down with the other instructors and a whole pile of radios and cables and sort out exactly how everything works.

Jonriley56

Thanks to everyone for the feedback !!!! I am very grateful.

jon

speedy72vega

Ed, there's a switch built into the cord jack that powers up the slave TX. You can plug the cord into the jack, without it being connected to the master TX, and the radio will power up, even with the switch off. If you try to buddy with the slave TX on, there's no communication with the master for some reason. It took me awhile to figure that one out, there's nothing at all in my DX6i manual about buddy box instructions.
I just leave the DX5e in low rate mode, and it works perfect. I've been training my friend like this for 3 or 4 weekends now. If you decide to use the timer function on the DX6i, you will need to go to settings and change the trigger switch, the default is the trainer switch. I set mine to the engine cut switch for the timer.

One thing to note: I'm not sure if it's true or not, but I was told by the LHS that only the Spektrum buddy cord will work. My friend went and bought the Spektrum cable, we never tried a different brand cable.