I have a 6XAS, and I got my hands on a Futaba 4VF buddy box off of Ebay.

My plane is trimmed out perfect to the point all trims are at neutral and it flies like a dream. When I put the buddy box on (with all trims at neutral) and switch to buddy box (on the 6XAS), every control surface is way out. It is so far out that the trims on the buddy box (at their max) do not bring the control surfaces back to a neutral position.

Today, my instructor and I had to change settings on the servos and clevises so that when we switched to buddy box, it would go as close as we could get it to neutral.

Anyone know why this would be? Are there any internal settings on the 4VF I can change to alleviate this?

Nova

explain how you are useing the buddy box , ?

does it have batteries in it , ? if it does remove them

does it have a crystal in it ? if it does remove it .

make sure that the channels are correct IE switched to the same direction and same controls on the sticks .

do not even turn the switch on ,on the buddy box it is not needed.

other than that I cannot think of a reason for the surfaces to change when it is in use .

Highlander

There's no mechanical or electronic adjustment that can be done internally to the 4VF to adjust the trim. I use the 4VF buddy box with my 9C and in the training menu, I can set the channels to "function" which automatically changes the trim of the buddy box (electronically) when any trim changes are made to the master (9C). I think you need to make mechanical adjustments to your control surface hook-up until you can find a correlation between your 6XAS and 4VF. The trims on both may not be center though. Make sure you have enough room for in-flight trimming especially on the elevator. Good luck !

Just for kicks and giggles, Try the buddy box on someone else's radio. Then, If you still have a problem, try a different trainer cord.

That eliminates the obvious. If there is still a problem, I would say that there is something wrong with the potentiometers in your buddy box. Give the buddy box a good shake while it is enabled on your master radio to see if there are any loose connections.


CDS

First I'm not a radio expert, but had the same problem with the same setup. What I did was a data reset on the chanel for my trainer and then set the controls to the reset values before setting any menus (dual rates, travel volumes, etc) then connected the buddy box and refined the adjustments. It worked for me, but like I say I'm just not an expert.

Did you have to set your electronic trims on the 6XAS when first setting up the trainer in memory? If so, your servos my not be at neutral. so the buddy box trys to neutralize them.

Did that make sense to anyone but me?
Dennis-

I am not a Futaba user but I think Jim and Dennis are correct. Many radios when using a computer type for the master and a non computer for the student and the computer type has sub trims dialed in it will not allow the student box to match up. Try zeroing out the masters subtrims then mechanically readjust the controls then the student box should be a resonably close match.

John

I think they are risk also. I think I a going to have to zero everything out, and then try to get the nuetrals close mechanically.

I guess I'm just old-fashioned but that's what I would mean if I said "My plane was trimmed out perfect". Basically if it loses the Tx signal altogether it will still be flying straight and level "in trim".

Having the flight controls all over the place and buckets of trim in the Tx memory to get round the mechanical errors just doesn't seem like the same thing . Still if you have computer Tx I suppose you're always tempted to use all the facilities .

Steve

Well, the thing is though, I didn't. When I assembled the plane and turne don the rx so the servos would go to neutral, that is where I set the control surfaces to neutral. I did this so I did not have to rely on the subtrims or trims to get the plane back into straight flight.

So, it blew me away when I hooked up the buddy box and turned on the trainer mode and there go all of my control surfaces...

Nova, could you check if the throttle stick and elevator stick on your 4VF move the same distance up and down. In mine the throttle moved less and I found that I had to remove a small plastic travel limiter from the gimbal assembly behind. If you need more info on this, do a search in the radio section under 4VF.

Sounds like you're doing everything right. The only other thing left is to open up the 4VF and physically move the stick potentiometers until they show the same centering as your other Tx. It makes me wonder if someone has been inside the Skysport fiddling with the sticks etc. While you're at it you may want to check that they are tightened up correctly. Pots slipping round in flight can really ruin your day.

Steve