I did a forum search, but didn't really find what I was looking for.

My Futaba radios are all about 5 yrs old or maybe a little more.
I have a friend who just bought a beginner setup, and I was surprised to find that the terminal for the trainer cord has been changed from the 6 pin thing to something resembling a fire-wire terminal.

We have located another friend with a newer radio that we'll use, so we don't actually need an adaptor.
But do they make such an adaptor?

$4.49 at Tower
http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...?&I=LXCGR6&P=0
It's 'application' is to connect a new style transmitter to the Realflight interface box.

$11.99 gets you a trainer cord that's round on one end and micro on the other
http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...?&I=LXBEK8&P=0

I have a Futaba Trainer Cord Micro to Round Plug the 11.99 one mentioned above. Where are you located? If thats the one you need, give me your adress I will ship it to you for free. I just passed the test and no longer need it.

They also make buddy box cords now that will allow just about any brand of radio to be used with just about any other brand or type of radio. As an example, now you can use a Futaba with a JR or Airtronics radio as a buddy box. These cords weren't available a couple of years ago.

Hey campy, would you happen to have a link to where you could buy that futaba to jr trainer cord. I have looked in tower hobbies and didn't find it. (I noticed tower hobbies doesn't carry jr anything.) Thanks.

http://www.horizonhobby.com/

If you're talking about the JR cord, you need to be aware of the limitations of this cord. It is not an "any to any" cord. It is specifically designed to allow a JR radio to be the primary and other brands, such as Futaba to be the slave. It cannot be used to make a Futaba primary with a JR as slave, or to work as an adapter between the old and new style Futaba plugs. I've seen several threads here where people bought the cord expecting it to do something it would not do.

Horizon sells a buddy cord that allows a Futaba TX to be used as a buddy for a JR master TX, but not the other way around. However, the whole setup is a bad arragement, and when I found one at the LHS and read the instructions, it proved that the coversion cord was basically useless.

Since JR buddy boxes use their internal batteries, JR trainer cords do not provide power like the Futaba ones do. So, if you have a Futaba buddy box that doesn't have batteries in it, you can't use it at all.

And it gets worse from there. In a JR box, when you plug in the trainer cord, the TX powers up. It's NOT transmitting, but it's "active", the lights light up, screens come on, and you can do programming on computer radios, etc. (this is because of the DSC feature, btw). Futaba boxes don't do this. So, the Futaba box has to turned on with the power switch. Which means you have to pull the crystal or module to prevent it from transmitting. Very annoying.

Using a Futaba master with a JR buddy is apparently easy. I haven't seen it done in person, but apparently you just need to do a quick and easy cable hack to make a cord that works. I plan on doing it myself, but haven't gotten around to it.

Ok, my plane is set up on jr, my instructor has all futaba, If i was to give him my radio and take his radio would we have to take the crystal out of his radio for it to work[sm=confused.gif]. I also found some on ebay for like 10-12 bucks. all i need to do is call my instructor to find out if his radio is micro, round or smething else, he should know. BTW i think my next radio will be futaba.

One important point here is that with most radio's, the systems must be exact in order to use the computer functions (expo, D/R, End Points, Centering, and so on). That is, my system, for instance, is an Airtronics RD6000. I must have a similar radio, another RD6000 connected via the trainer cord in order to set the plane up for such things as D/R and so on. I would assume the same thing for other manufacturers systems, but I might be wrong. I can, however, use my RD6000 and the Airtronics basic buddy box. The only thing that happens is that the controls and trim work but not the computer functions of the RD6000.

jessekib,
That means that you'll be using a JR box as the master and a Futaba as the buddy box. That means you CAN use the Hanger9 cord that is available. However, that's only if you use a Futaba buddy box that has batteries in it. Check with your instructor to see if he has a transmitter can use this way. And make sure you remove the crystal or module from the Futaba box before you turn it on.

dicksoucy,
Not true. I've used many differnet types of JR boxes together with no problems, everything from a basic Quatro 4 to my 13yr old x-347, to newr 8103's. And I've mixed various Futaba (and Hitec) boxes together as well, with no problems there either.

The only issue is that when you transfer control from the master box to the student, you transfer everything. (*most of the time. more on that in a moment). That means that all rates, end points, subtrims, etc go to the buddy box. If someone "toned down" a plane by using duel rates, expo, or EPA on the master, then tried to fly the plane with a non-computer buddy box, they'd get nothing but linear 100% rates on the buddy box. Not a good thing. This is why students with wiz-bang fancy computer radios should turn everything off and make sure every thing is at 0 (trims, expo, etc) or 100% (rates, etc), unless they have their own programmable buddy box as well.

On the flip side to this, if you have a computer radio to use as a buddy box, you can use it's rates or expo to give the student less throw than the instructor has, a good thing. If you're a student, and you have 1 non-programmable box, and 1 computer radio, set your trainer up on the dumb box as the master. The instructor can handle the lack of programmability, and you can use the programming to help the student.

* some transmitters can transfer only some channels to the buddy box. While I actually own a radio that can do this (the old x-347, much to my surprise), I've never used it, and I have no idea how it works, or how it affects things like rates and trims, never mind mixes. (mixes, though, you don't expect to find in a buddy box much anyway).

Montague.. I guess that's what I meant.. you're right now that I think about it. We did not have d/r set on my RD6000 or anything else for that matter, until after I solo'ed. Then, I went and bought a Tiger 60 and benched the NexSTAR. (took the futaba out of the NexSTAR and put in my RD6000 radio.. already had it from a previous trainer that was broken so I just swapped it out in the NexSTAR.. worked out just fine).