Electronics
 

Just bought a new plane from a guy I know, rtf. Its pretty old and was equiped with an AM reciever which I pulled out right away. I have a Futaba I could put in it but this is where my problem is. The servos are Airtronics and have a different style connector plug then the Futaba receiver. Can I just rewire the servos the correct style connector? Does Airtronics use a different set up? Would I be better of just buying a new Airtronics FM receiver?

RE: Electronics
 

Well, there poses another problem. I believe if you get another Airtronics receiver, you're going to have to get another transmitter. I may be wrong, but I don't think a Futaba transmitter will work with an Airtronics receiver. I would just go ahead and spend the money for a new complete radio. You can get a Skysport 4 for like $130. 90% of the time the radio's going to outlast the plane anyways.

RE: Electronics
 

The old airtronics servos will not even work with a new airtronics rx. The old style had pos and neg reversed...or something like that. You can re-wire them to work with standard equipment of any brand. Just make sure the signal, positive and negative match-up and you will be fine.

People still fly on AM, but it's rare, at least in CA....I have an old AM tx and 2 AM rx's and I will likely never use them.


If those old servos work well and are already set-up and installed, just re-wire the connectors and shave-off any plastic that interferes with plugging them CORRECTLY into your Futaba rx and go fly.

RE: Electronics
 

I belive the pin assignement is differant, but that's a easy fix. U can pop out the pins and rearrange them for the correct polarity. The connectors I believe you can trim to get them to fit, but I could very well be mistaken. Here's a page that migth help on figuring out the pin assignements and the connector fit. http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=392644 Basically, as long as the fit is secure and the correct pin goes in the correct place ur good. You should even be able to buy some new connectors and just scrap the old ones on the servos.
-John

ageexpert posted pretty much same thing. posting at same time:)

RE: Electronics
 

Sweet. So I can just wire in new connectors, just make sure their done properly? I was told that running AM was a very, very bad idea so I just took it out to avoid the very tempting "maiden" flight. I'm dying to get this plane in the air but I don't want to lose it for a stupid reason. Just how bad is it to run AM? I just got the idea of using all these old electronics on a combat flier

RE: Electronics
 

Yes.
You can use a straight pin to release each wire's metal endpiece from the old connector. Be gentle, and you usually have to get all three wires loose before you start to pull any one of them out of the old connector. It's sometimes a bit frustrating. And your new connector won't necessarily take those old metal endpieces very securely. They may not fit exactly. So you may have to replace them. But the old servos will work as good as they used to, and that's pretty good usually.

Servo technology has improved over the years, and the older servos are sometimes heavier and slower than what's available nowadays. But they're free, right. And most Airtronics servos were high quality and worth saving. I've got a bunch of them in use, although I finally bought a crimping tool after having a number of the reworked original connectors give trouble.

RE: Electronics
 

BTW, you can use the original connector but you need to shave off part of it's thickness. It takes a razor blade to do it and it's not easy to do without cutting too much. But when you get the knack of it, all you've then got to do is swap two of the wires.

RE: Electronics
 

If the airtronic servos are not the real old type they may be wired correctly. If the center pin is positive, you can use them as is by just shaving down the thickness of the plug. I've just used sandpaper (or file) to thin down the ridges on the edge so they will go into the Futaba reciever with no problems. If the center pin is not positive, you will have to move (interchange) the positive and negative wires at the connector.

RE: Electronics
 

You can use any brand of servos with any receiver. You just have to make sure the wiring is correct. Also, if you are going to use older Airtronics servos you'll need to snip off the little plastic tabs on the plug. But after that you'll be fine. I've got some 20 year old servos that I still use this day. I use them on my less critical planes and I only use them for the throttle servo, but they do a great job so why replace them if they work???

Take a look at this chart and see if it helps you out.

Ken

RE: Electronics
 

I've started playing around with the wire arrangment and figured out how to pop out the pins. I'll start looking at how much and of what parts on the connectors to shave off. But if I can find some normal Futaba ones somewhere at the hobby shop then I won't have to worry about that. If not, its file time. Thanks for the help!