Futaba 12 channel?? Rumours?
Steve, I doubt if the average clubman needs a 9Z any more than he needs an Mpx 4000! Still, I and 2 others in my club are just weekenders but have 4000s and there are a few with 3030s.
Another thing I program the 4000 to do is alter the aileron travel to be non-symmetrical depending upon throttle setting. I do this on pattern aerobats to equalise the roll rates left and right, compensating for torque. At low power the travels are equal, through the mid-range the overall travel is slightly reduced to keep the roll response constant and made to travel ever so slightly less left than right, and at the top the overall travel is again slightly reduced to maintain constant response and the difference between left and right travel is widened to maintain equal rate left and right. The 3030 can do this but with only one switching point, the 4000 can have several switching points, and the on and off points can be separated if required. If I really wanted to, I could use one of the 4000's analogue software switches, windowed across some part or all off the throttle travel, to attenuate the overall aileron travel and alter the symmetry smoothly across the entire throttle range rather than have it stepping in 2, 3, 4 or 5 bands.
There is a "schemp-hirth" program you can create to drive airbrakes. These need full travel to positively lock the brakes closed, but to avoid the servo binding a slight time delay is built in so that once the servo has driven the lock to its max it waits a moment and then backs off slightly. If using a propo servo with retracts, the same can be done with that.
I assume that the 9Z can apply a multi-point curve to an individual channel rather than to an overall control? One acquaintance with a 4000, who is a UK scale champ and oft competed in the World Champs, uses this for his twin's power setting. Two channels are used on throttle, a servo at each engine. One engine gets the default 3 point curve and is set up. The other throttle servo gets a 13 point curve and is adjusted using a rev-counter so that it matches the other engines revs all through the throttle range to take out any slight difference between the engines.
The 4000 has logical switches. These have several inputs each and you choose an OR or an AND to be applied to determine the output. Inputs can be the switches, positions of controls, positions of servos (servo position is not the same as control positions since the servo position is the output of its mixer). The output of the logical switch is itself then used as a switch e.g to switch rates, mixers, or virtual controls etc. Yes, the 4000 has virtual controls as well as the real controls whereby a secondary switch (physical switch such as a rate switch etc which is not plugged into any of the control sockets on the main board) or a software switch such as the output from a logical switch can be used to control a servo between 2 or 3 pre-set positions.
Harry