18mz & Brushless RPM Sensor
 

I've got an 18mz which I've had now for roughly two years. I purchased this radio before there was a brushless RPM sensor. The only two sensors for rpm were optical and magnetic. My question is, does any 18mz owners know if I was going to utilize the new Futaba brushless rpm sensor, would I need to do any software upgrades to my 18mz in order for it to work properly? From memory when I was setting up my radio telemetry for other planes I have, I had only two choices when setting up the sensor on the radio for rpm which was optical or magnetic. Does it now require that the radio software be upgrade to indicate brushless rpm sensor? Thanks

You should definately update the software to 2.5.1

Some of the newer sensors weren't even available on the old software. It's pretty painless to upgrade. Just download the update from futaba, put it on an SD card. Flip the little switch over the card slot and power up. Power down when it's done and flip the switch back. Good Luck!

Thanks for the reply. So if/when I do this, will this update impact any of my preset models currently programmed in the radio?

I've used the new brushless telemetry sensor .. works just fine. I don't know if you must upgrade to 2.5.1 (I already had) to use the sensor. Never had any issues with models or features on upgrading...

Dave

All of your model programs will be safe and unchanged.

Good Idea: Take advantage of the powerful backup tools of the 18mz. Save all of your models to the SD card. You can then also transfer them to your computer.

Unbelievable true story. A year ago I got to the field ... oops, dang ... I left my 18mz on the workbench. It was 1 hour back to the house, one way.

I had a buddy at the field with an 18mz. I called my son at home, had him pull the model program for my jet off the SD card. He then emailed it to me on my cellphone. I saved the model program to the microSD card on my phone. By chance I had a microSD card adapter in my glove compartment.

We then put that into my Buddy Gary's 18mz and uploaded the model program.

I was able to get 4 flights in that day using his 18mz without one click of trim!!

Thanks for the suggestion. Last night I pulled out the manual and the last two pages goes into how to do the software upgrades. It does suggest to backup the models programmed into the radio before doing the upgrade. Also to make sure the battery has enough charge in it to complete the process. Very simple thing to do. Thanks for the input. I was curious to know if the upgrade was needed in order to utilize the brushless rpm sensor. From what most are saying, it's something that needs to be done. I love this radio and it's all not that really hard to program. I love the mouse function as well. I'm out at the field and I can modify programing of specific models in no time at all. A lot of guys are surprised to see how fast this can be done on the radio. Anyways, thanks for all the help/advise.

That's an awesome story btw. I've known so many guys forget their radios and had to go back home to get them. So far that's not happened to me.....yet. Or forgetting the key to the hard case.