I would like to setup the AFR rates and expo to be controlled by the LD and RD knobs. This way I can vary the amount of expo as well as the max throw during flight. There is no way to assign the knobs to the rate/expo fields and I have not found a way to setup a pmix to accomplish this. Any help would be appreciated.

I have figured out how to dynamically change the rates by setting up a mix for each control surface which uses the fine tune VR feature.

The fine tune only works for the rate settings though, so I still have no idea how to dynamically alter the exponential curve.

Bax... Sorry for butting in, but I **REALLY** like bragging how powerful the 12FG is.

Now Spackle, to have the RD dial control the expo, here's what I did.

I made four conditions, but you can use all of the conditions if you don't need them for anything else.

For each condition, set the SWITCH to "RD" in the Hardware Select (assuming you use the LD for programmable endpoints), and in the ON/OFF section, set each RD's dial position to "trip" at higher and higher amounts. In my test, I had CONDIT2 set at the 7 oclock dial position, CONDIT3 at the 9 oclock dial position, and so forth.

If you've configured your directions properly, you should see the Condition on the main screen advance from CONDIT1 through CONDITn as you rotate the RD dial clockwise.

NOW... Go back to your mixes... I'll assume you got the "programmable" endpoints to work by mixing a control surface with itself. But instead of doing the "GROUP" thing for the mix, make it "SINGLE", and replicate your pmixes for each CONDITx you have. Then for each condition-based mix, assign a different expo.

Sorry that it's not more detailed, but if you figured out the first part of your question, you'll get this part.

Ain't the 12FG incredible?

r/s... Roger

The above description doesn't actually give you dynamically-adjustable rates for your dual rates or exponential rates. It's just setting up conditions to be activated by a knob or slider. You can do the same thing with switches...you are just stepping through different fixed settings. To fine-tune the rates, you have to go into the AFR section and then alter the values.

There is no way to dynamically adjust rates or exponential settings. They can only be set in the AFR sections. You can, use conditions on a slider or knob so that different conditions can be turned on as you move the knob or slider, but those values will be fixed, and you're just stepping through them. You cannot set a knob or slider to be a fine-tuning adjustment for rates or exponential and dynamically alter them in flight.

Roger, Bill,

Thank you for your responses!

I had implemented what you have both described, using a switch to select from statically defined rates, but that seems like a very tedious process to get a new plane dialed in. Plus it would be nice to alter rates at different times without having to pre-program them in. What I have set up now is pre-defined expo rates but with dynamically adjustable end rates.

Here is what I did for on-the-fly end point rates:

While the 12FG does not allow assignment of a knob to control the rate or exponential parameters when setting up the AFR, it does allow assigning a knob to the fine tune feature when setting up a programmable mix. With my limited experimentation with mixes it appears that mixes work by scaling the master with the mix function (graph) and adding that to the slave. If the master and slave are the same, then the mix adds a percentage of the control onto itself. Since the knob alters the mix function being applied, the results is dynamic adjustment of the control surface. This appears to work properly by looking at the servo output.

Bill, am I missing something here?

- steve

Steve,

You are correct. The "Fine-tune" adjustment of the mix allows you to adjust the amount of mixing percentage "on the fly". This is usually used to fine-tune the interaction between two different functions that get mixed together. However, you can use it to make an adjusment in the amount of throw...or rate. It doesn't look like it can be used to adjust the curve for exponential, though.

Hi Bill, Thanks for your time on this matter.

Is there any pressure you can put on Futaba to write up some documentation on how the mixes and pre-programmed mixes work, in complete technical detail? Their descriptions in the manual don't even cursorily describe the fields of each mix, don't describe some fields at all, and have no coherent explanation of how a mix works. Their answers in their FAQs just add confusion to already ill-defined behaviors. This is really not satisfactory for a radio that cost $1000. There is no information I could find on the web that explains how mixes work for the 12fg/12z/14mz radios. All that appears to be available are random mixes people have come up with by trial and error. I spent a fair amount of time this past week 'reverse engineering' the 12FG programming interface because it is the only way to figure out how to use it.

I now have a good understanding of the mathematical characteristics of mixes and their interconnections. It took me 3 mixes to get adjustable exponential rates for a single control surface. This could be really easy if Futaba would just allow assigning a knob or slider to the rateA/B and expA/B fields in the AFR of a function and mixes weren't even required. So contrary to what Futaba has told you, it is possible to dynamically adjust both rates, you just have to use a bunch of mixes. I now have a single mix that yields 'on-the-fly' adjustment of end-point rates and a series of 3 mixes that allow 'on-the-fly' adjustment of exponential rates for a total of 4 mixes per control surface. Currently they are mutually exclusive and I am hoping I can get both rate adjustments to work together in 3 mixes per control surface.

At this point I think it's probably easier for me to rip out Futaba's control board and replace it with a new microcontroller and design a whole new interface. Sheesh!