transmitter HELP!!!!!
 

ok i just bought a XP8103
and don't under stand some stuff like....
what does duel rate mean????
what do curves do?????

RE: transmitter HELP!!!!!
 

Beatty.. Go to Horizon Hobby's site http://www.horizonhobby.com/ and download the manual for the 9303. This manual pretty much explains step by step all the questions you have regarding dual rates, curves and just about anything else you want to know.. Much, much better than the 8103 manual.

RE: transmitter HELP!!!!!
 

Dual Rates- OK, you can assign dual rates to elevator, rudder and ailerons but lets just talk about the elevator for example. Say for taking off and landing you only want the elevator to travel say,,, 10 degrees or about 3/16" up or down maximum. But during flight if you want to do a loop you need more elevator throw say 20% or 3/8" up or down. SO you go to the dual rate function and you assign the elevator to switch x. So when the switch is flipped down you are on the low throw rate but when you flip the switch up you are on the higher rate of throw. Its just something you can assign to the toggle switches on the transmitter so that one of the 3 control surface functions can have 2 differernt max throws, a low "rate" and a high "rate"

In reality you wont really need dual rates on your trainer, but when you advance to aerobatic planes you will use that and more.

Exponential- This is a function that softens what you are doing with the sticks. WHen you add expo the stick movement around the center will do less to move the surface it controls, and more of the control surface movement happens further in the sticks movement. This allows for VERY subtle control but when you really push the stick over you get full deflection.

Say you have 20 degrees of potential throw on high rate. Well with no expo the control surfaces move proportionally the same as you move the stick from neutral to full elevator throw. Add say,,, 50% expo and from neutral on the stick to halfway back on the stick the surface moves VERY little say 5 degrees, but as you continue to pull the stick back the surfaces deflection increases rapidly over the last half to get to 20 degrees at full throw..


There are other sorts of curves but I wouldnt worry about them right now, you dont need to use those functions yet.

RE: transmitter HELP!!!!!
 

Remember if you decide to mess with the "Expo", go the "negative " side like 10degrees neg or 15 or 20.

If you go the negative side, the the control response seems a bit sloppy until you get to a certain point then it happens. Sort of like making a right turn in your car, your turning the corner and its turning slowing until your wheel gets to a certain point then the car turns very sharp.

If you dial in the positive side of expo, your really "asking for trouble." Again you go to turn the corner in your car and the response is so excessive , the car spins around in circles.

RE: transmitter HELP!!!!!
 

Neg. and Pos. expo depends on the radio system you use. JR and Futaba are opposite!

RE: transmitter HELP!!!!!
 

First, do not use negative exponential on a JR. Whoever gave you that advice was giving you Futaba info, which is the opposite for JR. JR uses positive expo.

I have 2 8103s and if you have any questions, give me an e-mail.

Dual rate switches the amount of movement of the 3 primary control surfaces, elevator, aileron and rudder. It changes the amount of maximum movement of the surface. It is used for changing the control sensitivity like, for example, between aerobatic maneuvers and landings. You might set a high rate (more control movement) for acro and low rate for landing.

RE: transmitter HELP!!!!!
 

Btw, when learning to fly, don't set up duel rates if you're going to use a buddy box.

When using a buddy box, the instructor uses your TX, and you hold the buddy box. The duel rates ARE NOT passed to the buddy box, it's always going to be 100% throw. So if the instrutor is on low rates, they wind up with less throw than the student.

Exceptions:
If you set low rates to 100% and high rates to a higher %, then the instrutor can have more control than the student. Or, if your buddy box has duel rates, you can set the rates up on the buddy box instead. (I often use an old JR x-347 as a buddy box, so I can set up lower rates for the student's plane).

RE: transmitter HELP!!!!!
 

Sounds like you are new to RC an got yourself a pretty high end radio, or you moved up from a standard transmitter and are not really familar with comptuer radios. I see you have only made 6 posts, so I am going to assume you are new to all of this.

The dual rate questions were answered, so let me address the "stuff ..." . If this isn't the "stuff" you meant, then just skip the post.

Here is a short discussion on surface/channel mixes. I invite others to
clarify or correct my comments and add where these mixes, or others, are used.

First, there are three primary control surfaces:

Elevator - Pitch or attitude control - nose up and down - usually part of the
tail

Rudder - Yaw control - nose left and right - usually part of the tail

Aileron - Roll Control - usually on the trailing edge of the wing

If you are not familiar with these surfaces, this site might be helpful:
http://www.rcezine.com/cms/article.php?cat=&id=54

There are two secondary control surfaces, usually used in landing but not
always.

Flaps - These are a moveable part of the trailing edge of the wing that you
lower to slow a plane while adding lift to the wing and lowering the stall
speed.

Spoilers - Typically used in landing gliders or sailplanes, these are on the
top of the wing. When these are raised, they reduce, or spoil the lift of the
wing in that area. They can help slow a plane down and raise the stall speed
of the plane causing it to descend from lack of wing lift. These can also be
helpful in getting sailplanes out of strong thermals.

Surface mixes

V-Tail mix - comes from the fact that on a V-tail plane, you do not
have a separate elevator and rudder. The two V surfaces are mixed to perform
these functions.

If you hit up elevator, both move up. If you hit right rudder AT THE SAME
TIME as up elevator, the tail surfaces move some more moving the nose to the
right as it moves up. So you have mixed the rudder in with the elevator
input. V-tail mixing. For this reason, the surfaces on a v-tail plane are
called rudervators; rudder/elevators

Elevon Mixing - Typically used on a flying wing, like my Electrajet or a ZAGI,
they do the same type of thing only this is elevator/aileron mixing; elevon
mixing. The surfaces are referred to as elevons.

Many of the newer non-computer radios include v-tail and elevon mixing now
whereas it used to require a computer radio, or the addition of a special
mixing device in the electronics package.

There are other mixes as well. Using a computer radio or a dedicated mixing
device, you can coordinate all types of combinations for different effects.
These are often controlled with the switches on the top of the radio. Flip a
switch and you will get a different behavior from the control surfaces for the
same stick input.

Coordinated Turn - On power planes and on sailplanes, it is normal to add
rudder to aileron input. This is called a coordinated turn and is common to
do manually on non-computer radios, but computer radios can be set up to do
this automatically.

Coordinated Flaps - You can add the flaps to the ailerons so that the flaps
move with, and coordinate with the ailerons The flaps become extensions of
the ailerons for more control surface movement. This takes 4 servos, usually
in the wings. I think this is called aileron/flap coordination, or
coordinated flaps.

Likewise, the ailerons can be made to follow the flaps to multiply the effect
of lowering flaps. This requires a minimum of three servos, two on the
ailerons and one on the flaps.

Flapperons - Ailerons can act as flaps, if you don't have flaps, for landing
control. These are known as flapperons which is a change in assignment of the
surface from aileron behavior to flap behavior. This requires two servos for
the ailerons.

Flapperons - flaps act like ailerons. Found this idea being used on a R/E
Flap sailplane. If you hit this link and read from post 49, you can see how
this is used. Interesting idea.
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showt...6&page=4&pp=15

Differential Spoilers - You can take spoilers, these reside at the top of the
wings, and tie them to the aileron function. Now you have your spoilers at
different heights causing a roll effect. Not as effective as ailerons, but it
might be useful as a landing aid. To do this your spoilers require two
servos instead of one.

Camber Changing Trailing Edge - On sailplanes they use a mix where the
ailerons follow the flaps to move the whole trailing edge down for a camber
changing effect, since you essentially change the shape of the wing while it
is flying. By lowering the flaps and ailerons together you create a more
under cambered wing. This changes the glide characteristics of the plane.
Again, a minimum of three wing servos is needed to do this. I don't think
this is used on power planes. I don't know if you would ever move the trailing
edge up for a change in top airfoil profile.

Sailplanes also have a set-up called "Crow" where both ailerons go up while
the flaps go down. This really slows the plane down to help with precision
landing.

With the right computer radio you can mix all kinds of combinations. Flaps
tied to ailerons with rudder input would be a flapperon coordinated turn, I
guess.

Imagine the fun you can have changing between different launch modes, or
moving from launch to standard flight mode to several enhanced flight modes, to a camber change to
3 different landing modes.

Think of how long it would take to set this all up for each plane.

Think of all the mistakes you could make with the flip of a switch!

Well, this is what computer radios do. Not all computer radios can do all of
these mixes. However when you read the spec sheets, they will usually list
Fixed Wing Mixes and Sailplane Mixes. Some also do mixes for helicopters.

You will also hear about mode 1 and mode 2. In North America, Mode 2 is the
standard. More on modes can be found here.
http://www.flyingsites.co.uk/newcome.../radiomode.htm

Read this only if you like to dabble in deeper technical stuff. This article
is on advanced set-up of a full house sailplane. Definately not something a
beginner, or even many experienced sailplane pilots need to do. This is more
for competition pilots, but if you like to look at some of the advanced stuff,
this might be fun. It is a translation, so take your time as you read it.
http://www.gliders.dk/triming_and_se...der_wi_eng.htm

Is this a fun hobby, or what?

If all this talk of sailplanes has you interested, you might find this thread
of value:
http://www.rcezine.com/cms/article.php?cat=&id=23