Stuart Chale

I am trying to use a 14MZ as the teacher in trainer mode. The student is a Futaba 7UHP. Works fine except all of the channels are screwed up. I installed the receiver in the plane with the basic setup as the 14MZ reccomended with one aileron servo in each wing. The rest was standard. So all of the functions from the students radio are controling the wrong surfaces.

Is there any way to fix this without replugging everything into the receiver differently and reassigning functions in the14 MZ?

Thanks
Stuart

Krysta

Hi sc204.

When using the 14MZ in any training aspect, you will need to have the second receiver configured as the 14MZ's receiver, or you will need to switch around the functions in the 14MZ's transmitter.

I hope you find this information helpful. You can also reach our Futaba support technical team at 217-398-8970, or via fax at 217-398-7721.

Sincerely,
Krysta
Lead Futaba Customer Service and Programming Technician

Stuart Chale

Thank you for the reply but, I am sorry you really didn't answer my question. There is only one receiver, two transmitters. The 14 MZ is the main transmitter. The 7UHP is the student transmitter. The 7UHP when operating with the trainer switch activated from the 14MZ controls the wrong channels. Can I change these assignments from the 14 MZ or do I have to change where each servo plugs in on the receiver and match the 14 MZ to the 7UHP's controls? I have the servo's plugged into the default channels as reccomended by the 14 mz with a standard plane setup using 2 aileron servos.
Thank you,
Stuart

Bax

My Feedback: (11)

You have to alter the channel assignment in the 14MZ transmitter, AND move the servo plugs around on the receiver.

The problem is that the channel assignments in the two transmitters don't match....

You have to make sure the channel assignment of the transmitters match. The default on the 14 MZ for PPM mode, with one elevator servo and two aileron servos, for example, is:

Ch.1=elevator
Ch.2=rudder
Ch.3=throttle
Ch.4=Aileron
Ch.5=Aileron2


Your 7U transmitter has this assignment:

Ch.1=aileron
Ch.2=elevator
Ch.3=throttle
Ch.4=rudder

When the 7U sends channel 1 information to the 14MZ, it doesn't tell the 14MZ that's it's "aileron", just that it's "channel 1". The same for other channels.

You'll have to assign a model in the 14MZ so that the channel assignments match those of the student transmitter. Fortunately, that's a very easy task.

Because channels 1-4 on the 7U are the primary controls, you'll have to make the second aileron channel in the 14 5 or higher. Just set it to "aileron2". The 7U doesn't need to have a mixer for dual ailerons running because the 14MZ will automatically take care of the aileron2 channel.

Just make sure you then plug the servos into the correct slots in the receiver to reflect the channel assignments in the transmitter.

Stuart Chale

Thanks for the reply that obviously works although it seems the wrong way to getting there especially with a computerized radio like the 14MZ. Switching servo leads in the receiver seems like a strange way to get a trainer system to work especially when the default servo designation has all but the throttle on different channels. It would seem to make more sense to be able to assign the incoming trainer signals to alternate channels to match the teacher transmitter. It seems as if the software could be able to handle this.
Thanks for your help.
Stuart

Bax

My Feedback: (11)

In a trainer system, the 'master' transmitter has no 'knowledge' of what the channel assignments are. It just takes channel 1 from the student and uses it for channel 1 control input. If the student's transmitter has channel 1 controlled by the elevator stick, but the master transmitter has channel 1 controlling throttle, then you can see what happens.

There isn't enough memory in the 14MZ for it to store all the different types of transmitters that could be used as student transmitters. The best thing to do is create a new model memory and configure it for a specific training mode. You would then rename it "John's trainer" or some such.

That's why we suggested you assign a model in the 14MZ to conform with the student's transimtter. If you teach a lot, you can use a memory card to store all of the different students' transmitter configurations. This would wind up saving trim settings and the like. YOu would name the new model memories as "John's Trainer", "Rick's Trainer", and so on.

Reassigning the incoming signals as you suggest would take about as much time as assigning the channels on the 14MZ to conform with a student's transmitter.

Stuart Chale

My situation is a little different I guess. Using John's trainer or someone elses that works fine and makes the most sense. I am using someone elses transmitter as the trainer on my plane. So in order to let them fly my plane with a buddy box, I had to change the servo plug-ins in the receiver and re-assign channels in the 14MZ. For this situation I would think my suggestion of being able to re-assign the trainer inputs would make the most sense (if this is possibe)
Thanks,
Stuart

gnichola

No it wouldn't. After you assign the channels, you would then have to move plugs on your receiver. I am almost 100% sure that adding the ability to remap the student channels would be a trivial programming task for the Futaba folks working on the software and it would be far more useful. If someone came to the field and wanted to fly my aircraft, I could jump into the trainer function, assign trainer channel numbers to my channel numbers and be off. Then if tomorrow, someone else, with a different transmitter wanted to try it, within 30 seconds I could have them flying it as well.

Please, please, please, add it as a feature request. I am sure it would be simple.

Regards, Guy

RCUOrbiter

The MPX Royal Evo does this very nicely. Enter Teacher mode on the Evo and select channel 1, wiggle the student radio stick corresponding to that function and the Evo learns to use that channel. The other channels are learned the same way. It saves reorganising the student receiver connector channels every time he moves between using his own radio alone and as a student to the 14MZ.
Seems to me other manufacturers could learn from this.
--
Steve

Stuart Chale

You are assuming that Futaba will supply software updates for this transmitter. Do we actually know if this feature has been enabled in our transmittters and that Futaba has plans for it?

Bax

My Feedback: (11)

Ok, I think we have a fundamental misunderstanding somewhere...

If a student comes to the field with their model, and I were to use my 14MZ to to teach, I would create a new model, map the controls to conform to the student's transmitter and be done. I would not have to do anything with the receiver because we'd be training on THE STUDENT'S airplane. I'd presume that the receiver was already set up to match the student's transmitter.

If I were using the club trainer, then I'd already have a model memory configured for the club trainer. In that case, we'd be using a club transmitter/trainer box, or the student would be bringing an already-compatible transmitter, and again there would be no need to re-configure the servo connections at the receiver.

Finally, if I owned a model where it would be likely that I'd be training others, then I'd set it up in the first place so that it would be compatible with other Futaba systems. For other models, I'd not likely let someone fly it who needed to be on the trainer system. Either they'd be good enough to fly the model without my assistance, or they wouldn't fly it at all. Just my two cents.

This discussion is really more like creating a difficulty so that we can create a solution. The actual case where someone would be flying the 14MZ owner's airplane set up to match the 14MZ's programming, and needing to be on a trainer system would be quite rare, in my personal view. If you train regularly, then you should set up the model and the transmitter to conform to the transmitter configuration of the majority of your students...likely the standard channel order in other Futaba R/C systems.

We'll mention it to Futaba, but can't say where it would go in their priority list for features.

Stuart Chale

In my case I am teaching my son to fly on one of my airplanes with the above mentioned transmitters. Having to change the plug assignments on the receiver just seemed like the wrong way to go about it. Everytime I want to safely check him out on a more advanced airplane (safely meaning with a buddy box) I would have to do this.
Sorry, bad design on what should be the most advanced radio out right now.
Don't get me wrong I really like the radio (although I am still concerned about using the G3 receiver) and find it much easier to program than my 9ZAP, but I think this was a feature that should have been implemented.
Thanks
Stuart

RCUOrbiter

Well, I guess Bax is saying that in your case, just change both your model configuration on the 14MZ, and the Rx servo plug configuration to suit the standard, other Futaba Tx arrangement. That way you won't need to make changes each time whether training on that model or flying it alone on the 14MZ.
--
Steve