I bought a Walkera 35 recently and really lost all confidence when it repeatedly went off and did its own thing despite my attempts to tame it. So now I'm in the process of buying a good radio. I've already got the receiver, its a Futaba, a name you can trust, [8D] FPR138DF I think its full title is, 8 channel dual conversion, that should do it eh. Anyway, I digress. My question for the more knowledgeable among you is where abouts will I plug my Walkera ESC into the Futaba receiver? I see from the photos of the receiver that one of the slots is marked 8/B, channel 8 and battery I would think. So does the ESC lead go in there? Or maybe into channel 3 as it did on the original Walkera receiver? Problem there was, the brushless motor was uncontrollable via the Walkera radio. It would not reach anything like what I would consider to be full revs, and on bringing the stick back to the bottom the motor would run on for a second or two after, which I would consider a bit dangerous. If I buy a nice Futaba radio to go with my new receiver will it be able to control the ESC better than the Walkera radio did? And just while I think about it, what are the advantages of a computer radio over a non computer one?

I hope some of you guys can clarify some of the above points for me. You really are life savers for the likes of me. Your help is much appreciated.

[link=http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=5978425732&rd=1&sspage name=STRK%3AMEWA%3AIT&rd=1#ebayphotohosting]Thats the receiver[/link]

And though not exactly like mine, [link=http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=2563&item=59782559 64&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW#ebayphotohosting]thats the esc.[/link]

Hi BudgiesMate....

Strange name... I have a couple of budgies who are mates....

Anyway, does your Walkera TX actually work at all with the Futaba RX? I'm guessing not. If it does however, you would need to unlock the TX and then use channel 5 or 6 for throttle and use the knobs at the top to adjust the throttle. Alternately, mix it in with Channel 3 (Collective).

The Walkera setup has the brains in the receiver. Nobody else does it that way AFAIK.

Otherwise, get a computer controlled TX. The advantage? You can mix channels and program the relationship, eg, set Mode 1 for throttle spools to 80% power at 30% stick then 80%power maintained for flying while mixing in collective above 30% stick, with two channel outputs on the receiver. You can also reverse the cyclic for better servo selection without reversing the throttle

Typical channel selection.

Channel 1 - Cyclic L/R
Channel 2 - Cyclic F/B
Channel 3 - Collective
Channel 4 - Tail Rotor
Channel 5 - Throttle
Channel 6 - Chain gun... (wishful thinking).

Regards
David

Actually for Futaba it would be:

1 Ailerons
2 Elevator
3 Throttle
4 Rudder
5 Gyro Gain
6 Pitch

It is so much better to have your gyro on a gain channel because you can adjust it from your transmitter without the need to land! Turn Gyro off for monster moves (as they say!) then turn it back on for solid flying.

Oh my God what have I got myself into here. You need a degree in rocket science to do this hobby! I think I'll go back to cars, two sticks, no mixing, spooling or throttle reversing to worry about.

I've bought the receiver already. Its the same as the one in the pic up there. I'm going to buy a 6XHs or FF6 transmitter now. I think the 6XHs is a souped up version of the FF6/6XH. I think it has an exponential function which might be useful too, so maybe I need the newer transmitter rather than the older FF6. But I'm not 100% sure on that. Maybe they all have exponential controls. I won't be using the Walkera transmitter, I think thats a toy, a toy for boys. I think if you seriously want to fly a helicopter you have to have a good radio. I think you can fly a crap heli with a good radio but you will never fly a good heli with a crap radio. So in the interests of making life easier a good radio will do just that. Theres so much to learn though, its daunting! I'm scared. Come on fellas, I need input here. Read this and chip in with whatever you feel will be useful info for me. It's all good stuff. Cheers. Oh and the names Paul, I was gonna be budgie, but budgie was already taken, so I had to be his mate instead

Hey Budgiesmate,

My apologies if I'm wrong but in reading between the lines, I've assumed that this is your first heli(?), and made my comments with this viewpoint.

First, I'm wondering what exactly you meant by "...when it repeatedly went off and did its own thing despite my attempts to tame it". Flying a heli requires constant input, so much so that I personally don't feel comfortable taking my fingers off the sticks to even scratch my nose. A micro heli will generally speaking be even less stable. I'm always surprized when I do switchover between the two, the gasser(ie nitro bird) is so much more "relaxing" after a session with my micro.

I'm not sure why you are not getting full revs, perhaps a radio setting problem, or could be a battery that is not fully charged. Also not having the rotor spool down immediately is normal, which can take several minutes on my gasser if left alone, and won't be fixed by going to a Futaba radio.

So, personally, if I've read things right (again, my apologies if I haven't), I feel going with a new radio will not solve anything, and probably make things worse, since you now have to insure somehow that not only the pitch/throttle is mixed correctly, and that the gryo is also working in the right direction with the proper gain. My suggestion is to start slowly, don't even take off. Put in enough throttle for the controls to start working, then master the rudder, then going from side to side, foward and back. Then you might think about hovering. Oh yes, a similator helps also.

Here are a couple of links you might find useful. The latter covers a Piccolo, but the general concepts/problems are similar.

http://pgoelz.com/
http://rchelibase.com/heli/

Good luck!