New to sailboats and could use a little help
 

I recently acquired an old Cox Tradewinds sailboat that looks to be in good condition. I would like to get it ready to sail but it has a couple of problems. The main one being that I don't have the transmitter. Even if I had it, it would not be usable as it is in the 72 mhz range(72.8 if memory serves me) It has a Sanwa receiver and servos. I will get a new radio for it but I would like to keep the servos or at least the sail winch servo. I need to know how to rewire the servo lead. I can do that if I can find out how the servo is wired. It has 3 black wires in the connector so if someone can tell me which wire is signal, + and minus it would be helpful. Thanks in advance for any help. Mike

RE: New to sailboats and could use a little help
 

At the present price of modern servos, and needing a new TX and R, I would just look for a dead including servos.
Sanwa gear (from memory) was good, but their idea of having a non-standard pin-out was a pain in the butt. If nobody else has the definitive cure, the best way would be to check out the RX pins with a meter. Use the resistance scale. If you know how the battery connection plugs in, you can figure power + and -. These will show as zero resistance when testing between pins. That just leaves the signal wire, i.e. the one that's left over.
Alternatively, with the lid off, there will be an electrolytic capacitor somewhere near the pins. It will have + and - markings on it, relating to its mounting pins. Trace the tracks back to the plug pins, and again, you have the important clue as to which pins are which, and therefore how to re-order the plug wiring to go in the present day standard of -, +, signal from the outside edge inward.

RE: New to sailboats and could use a little help
 

Posting a picture of the servo connector would be a big help in identifying if that is the old airtronics connector or not. If it is the old Airtronics (Sanwa) connector, the easiest thing is just to buy the small adapter cables that you would just plug the servos into and then you have a modern JR style connector that can just plug into modern day receiver. Tower has these adapters.

RE: New to sailboats and could use a little help
 

Here are a couple of pics. After removing some of the parts from the boat and reading what MFR02 had to say I think I have it figured out. I noticed one of the wires on the servo connector and battery connector had a white line (very faint) on it. I think its positve and the center wire is negative leaving the other to be signal. However if adapters are available I'll go with them. Do you by chance have a link to those on Tower? Here are a couple of pics of the parts in question.

RE: New to sailboats and could use a little help
 

http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...?&I=LXLX66&P=7
Would this be the correct plug adapter to adapt the old style plugs into other receivers? JR,Futaba etc.?
Thanks, Mike