Can anyone help me with activating the 5th channel knob on the CX2 transmitter? I just added lights but I am unable to actvate them with the transmitter. They remain on all of the time when plugged in to the reciever. Do I need to route thru a micro switch?? is the 5th channel just an ornamate?

Did you just plug it into the power portion of the 5th channel? If so the power would always be on. I was wondering for some time if someone connected the positive cable to the signal pin and the negative to the negative pin if it could be controlled by the fifth channel knob. Just throwing an idea out there.

Nick

Thanks Nick, Not really sure what you are saying, could you elaborate? Yes I have it plugged directly into the aux plug on the reciever. Are you talking soldering directly to the + and - pins on the reciever?

Thanks,
Terry



Did you just plug it into the power portion of the 5th channel? If so the power would always be on. I was wondering for some time if someone connected the positive cable to the signal pin and the negative to the negative pin if it could be controlled by the fifth channel knob. Just throwing an idea out there.

Nick

What kind of connector do you have? I was thinking about using a connector off of a servo then connect the negative wire off the light onto the negative side of the connector. Then hook the positive wire off the light onto the signal side of the connector. The signal pin is one of the outer pins.

Nick

Terry, you need a set of lights specifically designed to switch on and off. Some only take power from the channel connection and don't look at the signal pin to switch on and off.



Nope, won't work.

Do you know what kind of voltages the signal pin has when you turn the 5th channel knob? If it went under 2.5V and above it couldn't you use a transistor as a switch? Would hooking the signal pin to the base of a transistor then have the collector and emmiter inline with the positive pin and light work? I never checked out what was going on with the signal pin before so maybe that idea wouldn't work also. But I didn't know if lizrd56 wanted them to blink or just turn on or off.

The signal pins works completely differently from what you're thinking. It's not varying a voltage level, it's sending a repeating pulse. What changes is the width of the pulse. Do a google search on RC radios and you can find all kinds of info.

You can make a circuit to switch the lights on and off, but it's not quite as straight forward as you think since you need to sense the pulse width and use that to switch the transistor on and off. I've done it with a dual D flip-flop IC, RC filter and BJT. Took me a long time to find the circuit on line (you'd think it would be more common) and I'm not sure if I bookmarked it, but I can explain it to you if you're interested, it's pretty simple once you get it.

Thanks for the info. Like I said I never actually tested on what the signal pin does. I never really took the time to learn about the electronics on RC objects. I only have a basic understanding of electronics and logic circuits.

Nick

You need this:
http://www.hansenhobbies.com/products/onboardacc/ners/
It is a constant voltage coming out of the rx, so this little guy will allow you to do what you want. Enjoy!

Thanks for the info, ordered one today!! looks/sounds like what I need. I will follow up on the hopefull results.

Terry

I was searching all over for something like that a while back and couldn't find anything cheaper than like 45 bucks. Ended up making one myself, well it's a little different because I wanted to use a 9V battery to power the lights instead of the receiver power since it was a lot of lights (it's on my car, not a heli).



I did a quick drawing of the circuit (real quick off the top of my head so I hope it's right [:-]):


This assumes the sig pulse is positive (called positive shift?) If it's a negative pulse you'd use neg edge triggered flops and maybe change some other things around a bit, I'd have to work it out to say for sure.

Thanks a lot, I would rather try to build one, your circuit makes perfect sence, I also have rc cars and trucks can't wait to get to the work bench. Unfortunately on a heli, weight is an issue but your drawing gives me a place to start. If nothing else I'll have my ground toys glowing. Nice car!!!

Terry

You can make it pretty small - one 14 pin dual D flip-flop IC, one transistor, one cap and two resisters. The one I made for my car isn't much bigger than a first class postage stamp and I wasn't really trying push the size either.


this looks interesting also if you're into PIC programming. This will get you small!
http://www.rc-cam.com/bitsw.htm