aeajr

My Feedback: (2)

I have a Futaba 9C. I fly full house sailplanes in the 2-3.6 M range. The size, weight and cost of receivers is always a consideratoin but I don't want to overlook some value that I may be missing.

As I understand it, PCM is brand specific so I would need a Futaba PCM receiver for my 9C. Is there a specific one I would have to use? I don't need the 9th channel at this time, so that is not a driver to move to a PCM receiver.

I have not been able to find enough information about PCM to help me determine if the added expense of a PCM receiver has any real advantages. Some of the "old timers" in our club tell me they used to use PCM all the time, but not no longer feel it is needed.

I searched this forum and found a reference to this Futaba FAQ
http://www.futabarc.com/faq/product-faq.html#q102

The info is useful but I am wondering if there is more. Perhaps there was a time when FM/PPM receivers had problems but it is possible that time has passed. As I have never had a problem with any of my DC receivers I find it hard to justify the extra expense and extra weight for PCM.

Can you enlighten me?

Bax

My Feedback: (11)

It really depends upon your application. Sometimes, a PPM receiver may let in some kinds of interference that a PCM receiver won't. Some flyers with ignition engines find that using PCM gives them more solid control because of the additional level of coding. If you want the failsafe feature, PCM is required. Some large-scale gatherings require that you have failsafe set to cut your engine if you have severe-enough interference. Other large-scale pilots use failsafe to alert them if there's a problem...they set the controls to neutral and engine to low. Even if the interference isn't of long duration, they get a notice. Having the system just go into 'hold' would not alert you, or provide a level of safety if the interference was of longer duration...enough to cause a crash.