stevekott

Fender,

I use it on my K-180G which can really drink the fuel if I'm on it full. I ran out on the ground once on Taxi back with a full 30 seconds left on my timer.

It really does work quite well. I have it measure the milliamps that the fuel pump consumes. It alarms at 330 ma that gives me enough to make three oval passes (gear check .. landing .. one additional balked landing). Saved me over the weekend. I was on my second landing pass ALMOST did another go around. Just landed VERY long and ran out of fuel while on the taxi back.

One thing though, the milliamp counter is cumulative. It hangs on to the count until the reset button is pushed regardless of power on or power off. Meaning that you need to be able to push the little reset button the unit when you pull the taxi tank or what I did was install one of these http://www.dimensionengineering.com/products/picoswitch in parallel with the push putton. I have it on a separate channel activated by push down of the center dial of the 18mz.

I have one of the little Xicoy units that looks like it will do a nice job. It needs to be calibrated with a fuel factor to match your particular setup. The only drawback I could see is that you need to set your radio to Metric and the listen to your speed in kph if you have a speed sensor. The Xicoy unit wasn't available when I set up the Robbe Current sensor.

Mick, thanks for the Futaba Info .. we should all bomb them with these suggestions

Steve

SushiHunter

I wish there was some way that the sensor data could be recorded and then viewed at a later time.

4ptroll

My Feedback: (35)

If I may chime in on this thread I'd like to add my 2 cents. I'm an 18MZ owner and enjoy the radio. I understand that Telemetry is know a huge part of what guys are looking for in a system. But at 199MPH I really don't have time to take my eyes of the airplane to look at a telemetry screen. As far a some audible alarms they are handy to have. In the Futaba system I use my voice for things like Gear Down, flaps down etc.....

Futaba programming has always been an exercise in patience and I'm not sure I will ever know or kneed all the things the 18 mz can do.

With that I'm going to throw out a bombshell to you guys about a system that has put a pleasant smile on my face.

It's the FrSky Taranus. It's 16 channels with full telemetry and SBus capable. and a smidgeon of the cost of any other system out there. Now I know you guys are going to frown but check it out and I think you'll be stunned by it's capabilities. I picked one up out of curiosity and flew it for the first time on a test airplane on Saturday. This system actually allows you to monitor your signal strength while flying. It has the countdown voice on the timers and many more functions. In fact it does crap the 18MZ can't and it's way easier to program.

I will be putting this system into a jet this week and I'll provide feedback when the test flying is done.

I don't know about you but I'm tired of paying Futaba and JR prices.

OK...know the critics can chime in.

SushiHunter

Exactly why I wish the telemetry data could be recorded and viewed at a later time.

stevekott

Your wish is their command. Update to the latest 18mz software update and then set up logging.

All the sensors in use, along with stick positions of all 18 channels, rx battery voltage AND RSSI will all be recorded to the SD card in the slot on the radio. I have mine start recording with throttle trim up and stop with throttle trim down.

It's a great tool, especially on a new setup to check you antennas, you want 3's and 2's on the RSSI any 1's or 0's and you want to re-orient your antennas even if you are not getting any fail-safes.

On Carsten's ASSI system you can actually get back via telemetry and voice real time RSSI along with a host of other information and auto-throttle.


4ptroll no bashing here. You are putting it in your plane. And are willing to do the risk/reward yourself.

I have an 18mz, I bought it the day that my "other technologically advanced" radio took my first turbine into the ground intermittently locked out. $8000 jet lost. I bought the $3000 bullet on the 18mz. 7 planes later and hundreds of flights later and not a SINGLE radio issue.

I hope you have the same good luck with you new radio. The better the Taranus is, the more pressure Futaba will feel to implement these software changes we are requesting.

4ptroll

My Feedback: (35)

I'm taking it slow with taranus. But like many I'm tired of being screwed in tge wallet by the big names. I've lost jets with futaba and Jr.

4ptroll

My Feedback: (35)

PS....Taranus has data logging.

ww2birds

My Feedback: (14)

4PT,

Agree re: looking down, I don't do much of that .. us old guys need to concentrate to see the plane!!

I'll have my spotter look at the TX, or I give them the Robbe/Futaba standalone Tele receiver to hold during the flight.

As you can see from my suggestions at the top of the thread, most of what I am counting on for telemetry is alarms during flight, e.g. how fast can we get an alert that we have a flameout (via pump voltage or exhaust temp .. this is so valuable at a flyin with many planes in the air when it can be hard to know when it happens if there is no vapor trail), watch battery voltage, airspeed on final, retract pressure etc .. they can be set to beep or buzz. They also have a voice synth feature that is interesting with an ear bud if you want, for example, airspeed callouts on final. And as has been noted, the latest release has logging so you can study flight path and data "offline". So lots of value without looking down.

So I think the Futaba guys are doing a good job, and I hope we can encourage them to do more and support the growing number of third party add-ons.

My experience with the 18MZ (and the 14MZ) has been great, and I trust it. I never thought much of the JR/Spek RF designs from an engineering point of view, though to be honest most of my flying buds use various versions of their older RF links and I have not seen any of them lose a plane due to radio issues. And their new 2.4 system looks like a really nice link design.

I agree with Steve that I sincerely hope you have success with your system, and it continues over a long enough time to build trust .. that takes a while and can evaporate fast.

Dave

skywarrior

Hi,
Try this site espceially if you have a jet cat


http://www.cb-elektronics.de/Index%20english.html


David

ww2birds

My Feedback: (14)

Thanks David. I have two of the CB airspeed sensors and they work perfectly! Flew them a lot last season.

As you say, good for JetCat users. Carsten's ASSI does JetCat and Xicoy.

Dave

FenderBean

You can set audio and vibration alarms for that reason, I would not take my eyes off the jet to look at telemetry just wait for the preset alarms.