davey_flyer

My Feedback: (4)

Hi,

I bought a Ch 50 Crystal for my Hitec Rx to work with my Futaba 9Ca Tx, the Crystal is futaba. Can I move the Rx Crystal into a Futaba Rx and will it work ok?


thx guys.

azhar

My Feedback: (19)

In short, no. You want to use hitec crystal for hitec equipment, futaba crystal for futaba equipment, etc.

Azhar

davey_flyer

My Feedback: (4)

yeah but the crystal in the Hitec Rx right now is a futaba Crystal...

MHawker

My Feedback: (16)

If I understand the question, you bought a Futaba RX crystal and were going to put it in a Hitec RX but now want to put it in a Futaba RX?

If the crystal is, indeed, a FUTABA crystal, then you will be fine. If it's a Hitec crystal, I don't think it will work. Even if the Hitec RX is "Futaba Compatible".

Easy enough to check, but I don't think crystals work in different brand RX's.

Mike

LuvBipes

My Feedback: (4)

Well, I actually tried it (Hitec Xtal in Futaba Rx) and it works! At least in the FM receivers, it does. Did a range check that was fine and went flying. It's been in there for 2 years now with no probs.

davey_flyer

My Feedback: (4)

well now I'm not sure. This Crystal was used in a Hitec Rx and the Tx was Futaba. I've just pulled the crystal to see if it said Futaba on it but it has no markings other than the frequency on the little white sticker. So I'm not really sure now if they sold me a Hitec Crystal or a Futaba Crystal...

JohnBuckner

My Feedback: (1)

When mixing Crystal and Rx brand some combinations may not work at all and others may but possibly with degraded performance that just may not be noticable on a quick range check. Generally this is a poor practice.

If you bought the crystal to use at the dealer along with the Hitec Rx its likely Hitec. The little white sticker you refer to if that is a tape like pull tab then it is probably a Hitec.

John

Cajun

This is a subject I have been concerned about for a while. I have a collection of crystals and none of them have a brand name on them. Most have no marking indicating if they are AM or FM. Most of them only have the channel # or Freq indicated.

Question: How is one to know what radios these crystals are compatable with. If these crystals are brand specific and in some cases, model specific, should they not have that info printed plainly on the cases?

What am I to do with these crystals? Throw them all away since I do not remember what radio they came from.

When I go to a contest I carry extra crystals to use my Eclipse Spectra transmitter, but some of my planes have Hitec, and some have Airtronics receivers. How am I to know which crystals work in one and not the other. This kind of negates the advantages of the synthesized transmitter.

flyboone

My Feedback: (3)

Hitec and Futaba Crystals are interchangable. Been doing it for years with no incident. Also JR and Airtronics crystals are interchangable as well.

Jason

Steve Lewin

Careful with that advice, there are people from all over the world reading these forums.

Some Hitec and Futaba crystals may be interchangeable on the frequencies you fly. Howeverthe dual conversion crystals are definitely NOT interchangeable on the 35MHz band used in Europe.

BTW you also can't mix single and dual conversion crystals even of the same brand. They're completely different. Cajun, if you really can't tell even if your crystals are SC or DC I'd throw 'em away, they're dangerous. Most makes that I know have some form of coding on the tags.

Steve

davey_flyer

My Feedback: (4)

Guys thanks for the responses. I've decided I'm going to purchase a new Crystal. I look at it like this: take the chance and lose a $5K plane, or spend $20 and get a new Crystal...


Thanks

Davey_flyer

Cajun

This sure makes the case for a synthesized receiver. Looks like I had better head on over to the Polks Hobby site and take another look at their latest offering.

I really thought Hitec would have been the first to offer this receiver.

JohnBuckner

My Feedback: (1)

HMMM, I use four Prism 7X's and one Eclipse all with the Spectra module and have wide variety of Rx crystals. My Rx count is around twenty five with perhaps 25% of those being of different brands. You know I have no trouble at all marking and storing my crystals.


Mixing Rx and crystal brands is a poor practice!


John

strato911

Hindsight is always 20/20.

Next time, use a fine-tipped permanent marker, and label them with H for Hitec, A for Airtronics, etc... If you can visibly identify 2 distinctly different groups of crystals, you might be able to split your collection up into Hitec & Airtronics. Then, once you know which is which you can label them for the future.

FLYBOY

My Feedback: (11)

I aquired a couple of Hitec recievers and have been waiting for months for crystals on order. I called again to ask about the backorder, and they told me that the futaba crystals will work fine in hitec recievers and they were in stock. I ordered them and canceled the hitec crystals. They work fine and range check fine. I have been told many times they won't work, but the guys that know what they are doing told me that they were fine to use. Check with them on your particular reciever but it shouldn't be a problem. I am far from a radio guy though. Hope I didn't get bad info.

strato911

Please don't come up North to fly at our field.

Who told you it was fine? The hobby store you ordered it from, or Hitec?

With the exception of one manufacturer (FMA I think), they all clearly state that you should never use another manufacturer's crystals in their receivers.

m3rs4

AFAIK, if all reciever are termed as passive devices, there is nothing wrong in swapping the rx crystal. If the range check ok, and its not picking up unwanted signal, swap it. another factor about crystal to be considered-is it a dual or single conversion. A single conversion receiver needs a single conversion compatible crystal and vice versa.
PS: a 75Mhz crystal will Definitely not work on a 72Mhz receiver.

strato911

Every manufacturer has their crystals custom cut for them. Sometimes they will be so similar to the competitor's crystal that it will work. However, the Rx could be out of tune enough that it passes the ground range check, but fails in the air. For the meager price of a crystal ($5-$15), I don't consider it worth the risk.

Remember, you're not just risking the plane, but also any person within flight range of your plane.

FLYBOY

My Feedback: (11)

From all the crystals I have in the shop, futabas seem to have a dark green thick stripe on the label that shows the freq, and hitec crystals seem to have a light blue line on them. Hope that helps a bit to identify them for you.

I have a note in to the rep at futaba to find out for sure, but I am pretty sure I know what they are going to say. I will more than likely sell the hitec recievers with the hitec crystals in them and order Futaba recievers for my new Futaba Crystals so I don't have a problem. They haven't been flown yet, but I never liked switching gear around a lot. I figured I would use these two recievers with my futaba transmitters if they would work, but sounds like it would be easier to stay with the futaba gear. Can't seem to get hitec crystals from anyone. Everyone has the channel I need on back order. Probably be better in the long run anyway. I like Futaba gear better than anything else anyway.

Thanks strato.

strato911

Flyboy - if you're going to sell the Hitec receivers and replace them with new ones, have you considered the $70 synthesized receiver from Polk's Hobbies? They are compatible with both +ve and -ve shift transmitters (they are not compatible with any PCM), and can be changed to another channel without even removing them from the plane.

www.polkshobby.com