Hello everyone, this is my first post, and i am brand new to rc planes, i have never owned or flown one before, so i am just trying to get started, i posted this question on another site, but all they would tell me was to join a club and get a trainer, which are both good pieces of advice, but I want to stress I am not trying to go fly, I am trying to preflight my plane and make sure it is working before Idrive all the way out somewhere to fly it, so PLEASEdo not reply telling me to join my local club, when Iam ready to fly and have the $200 to do it I will, but for right now Ijust want all of my controls to work. so if anyone can help, I will be very gratefull.

THEPROBLEM.

Igot 3 planes a couple days ago, all 3 are nitro, 2 are high wing trainers, and the third is a supercub.
When Iconnect the wiring to the rx place the battery in line, turn on the tx, and then flip the switch on the plane the control surfaces move a little, and the servos enegize, but that is it, when i move the sticks on the tx nothing happens, none of the servos work, NOTHING> Icannot figure out what Iam doing wrong, Ifigured that since the control surfaces move for a moment any time i flip the tx on or off that would mean it is syched to the rx, but Iguess that is not happening. My qustions are, what could Ibe doing wrong, what parts may Ineed to buy, and there is a little box on the side mounted to the plane that has the on/off switch on it, it has one black male plug, one black female plug, and one red male plug, what I am doing is plugging the battery into the black female plug, and then plugging the red male plug into the rx and leaving the black male plug hanging connected to nothing, is this correct?

EQUPIMENT
airtronics vg6dr vanguard tx, 6 ch FM
tower hobbies system 3000 dual conversion 7 ch FM rx
the rx has a ch48 crystal in it, and the tx has a blue sticker on it with ch 48 so i assume that is correct.
traxxis power pack Ni-MH 1100mah 6v battery.

tx and battery pack are fully charged.


if anyone needs more info or pictures Ican provide them, and also please post sugestions Iwill try them and then reply, please help a TOTALnewbie out here, thanks.</p>

The Airtronics transmitter is not compatible with the Tower receicer.
The transmitter is positive shift and the receiver is negative shift. There are plenty who know what that actually means but it really does not matter since they do not work together.

You'll need an Aitronics receiver and crystal, or another brand that is compatible.
JR 72 mhz receivers are compatible with Airtronics transmitters.
Hitec makes receivers that shift selectable so they can work with either type of transmitter.
Castle Creations Berg receivers are also shift selectable so they can work with either type of transmitter.

The 'extra' male connector on the switch is for connecting the battery charger.

If all your connections are correct, you need to do the fault finding part by part

1) First plug the battery direct into the RX and see if that gets things moving. If so you have a bad or badly installed switch or atleast a broken cable in the switch wiring

2) If that doesnt help, find a buddy who has a working pair of TX & RX. Put that RX in your airplane, connect and see whether whether you get a response with his TX. Then put your RX in his airplane and see whether you get a response with your TX. If you do get a response with his TX and RX in your airplane and not the other way around, there is a TX-RX related problem that you have

3) If that doesnt get a response either way, try to put in your buddy's battery. Sometimes batteries show 100% charge only to drop down to zero when loaded

If all of this doesnt help, the problem is deeper and then you will need a club to look at it.

I dont know of the compatibility between an Airtronics TX and Tower RX though

Ameyam

I see you live in Georgia. If you live near Sandy Springs, I have a channel 48 receiver we can use to test your system If you want.

Bruce

thank you for the offer, but I am a long way from you, I am about 40 miles south of atlanta, Ido believe however that the first responder to the post is correct, I confirmed this with a local hobby shop who told me that the reason the controls moved when I turn the tx on is because it is on the same channel, but the reason I have no control of the planes is because the frequency shift is not right as the first person said, so I just need to either get a positive shift rx, or a negative shift tx and Ishould be good to go, but thank you to all who posted to help...

So somebody sold you that setup as a working unit? That's pretty low. Of course, you can buy 72mhz recievers now so cheaply it's not a big deal, but it does bother me for someone to do that.

I actually traded with the guy for them, but I am lucky in that he is willing to do what he needs to in order to make the trade right, he said he has the correct tx he just thought that because both the tx and rx he gave me are on channel 48 that they would work, apparently he has never tried this combo before, but after all of the great info i got on this site I called him and explained what is going on, and he is going to mail me the tx that will work, so all should be well, Iam just hopefull that once Iget the new tx that the set up will work.

Tower sells rcvrs that are compatible with Futaba and Hitec unless you buy the shift selectable or JR/Airtronics variety. You should be OK if your seller sends the prioper rx.

just wanted to update everyone, I got the new tx's and I now have a working combo!!! you guys were 100% correct the shifts were off, and now that Ihave compatable componants Iam ready to go! next step will be getting my servos to "zero", test firing the engine, and getting in the air, thank you all again for the help you provided to this rookie.

Carrellh was right on the problem.[sm=thumbs_up.gif]

Since you did not assemble those planes, read this article for pre-flight check:

http://masportaviator.com/2004/01/20/58/

Chiliphil1, are you conning us? In your first post, you only wanted to assure yourself that the control surfaces were correct. Now you say that since your transmitter and receiver are playing nice with each other, all you need to do is center your servos, fire your engine, and get it in the air.

chiliphil,
Be sure to take along a trash bag if you try to fly before getting with an instructer.

No, not at all, as I stated in my first post I am trying to pre flight the planes, now that my rx and tx work Ineed to center the servos, and since Idid not build the planes, Ineed to make sure the engine works, and then they will be ready to fly, I did not say I was going to fly, I just said they would be ready, and isn't that the point, to fly the planes?

What field do you guys fly at in sandy springs?

Brian in
Calhoun Ga.

great article, thank you for posting it.

great</br>

I fly at the GMA field up in northwest Forsyth Co. It is a 45 minute drive and 40 miles from my house.

Bruce

My favorite field is about an hour away so Ican relate. Makes an expensive commute.

Hey Bruce iam working in Forsyth co. We moved in last week on a 800 acre track of timber we will be logging. We are working on nicholson road and i saw a great rc field on Old federal road. Is that the field you fly on? Man it is a great field i live about 65 miles away . Its bad to be at work and see all them rc planes fly over all day

kitfox, yes that is the GMA field. It is a great field. You should drop by someday.

Bruce

I would love to drop by. I am going to try and come over one Sat or Sunday do you go on them days? I would like to come by after work but its always dark.</p>