ChrisAttebery

My Feedback: (15)

Hello,

I'm building an Ultra Stick and I'm looking for a single connector to plug the four wing servos into the receiver. Anyone know who currently makes them or the parts to solder one up?

TIA



Chris

Scar

My Feedback: (3)

You can make your own multiple connector from parts, if you wish. Dymond, Cermark and others sell the wire & ends.

Or, you could buy three "Y" connectors, and plug two into one.

Or, you could use a computer radio and a receiver with more channels, and set up with all the flaperon/spoileron/crow mixes, with plain extensions.

Good luck,
Dave Olson

ChrisAttebery

My Feedback: (15)

OK,

Let me spell this out a little differently. I have a four servo wing, two seperate aileron servos and two flap servos. I'd like to find a suitable connector that I could solder the appropriate extensions to so that I can connect all four servos the the receiver with a single plug. That way I don't have to sort eight different male and female connectors each time I connect the wing to the plane. I'm believe I can get away with a total of 6 pins: power, gnd, and 4 signals.

I'm sure I'm not the first person to think about this. Anyone?


Chris

DMcQuinn

My Feedback: (13)

electrically, you are correct. you can drive all 4 servos with one power and one ground. you need a separate signal wire for each. so six conductors total. you can buy any 6-conductor connector set (male and female) and solder this up yourself. The current for all 4 servos will be flowing through one wire, so you may want to use a larger gauge than typical servo wire.

Hooked-On-RC

My Feedback: (16)

Try radio shack for a connector!

Scar

My Feedback: (3)

Oh, duh! Now I get it. I do a similar thing on an instrumentation gang, at work.

I have the instument people solder my instrument wires to a ribbon wire, and crimp a ribbon cable connector to the ribbon. On the other side, my data acquisition system gets wired to ribbon wire with the mating ribbon connector.

Four servos... twelve wires... you'll need a 20-pin connector & 20 conductor ribbon wire. Ampeg makes them, and the crimpers. There are other suppliers, one of them may make a 12 or 16 conductor setup. If you can find a short ribbon wire extension, you can just cut the ribbon, plug the two ends together, and make your connections, one end wired to the servos, one wired to the receiver.

The instrument people always crab about it, & say I'll get noise. No big problems so far.

Good luck,
Dave Olson

dirtybird

My Feedback: (5)

I don't think it would be a good idea to plug four servos into one receiver plug. I'd use a matchbox.

Scar

My Feedback: (3)

Go back and read post #3, where he explains that he wants all the servos plugged into their respective slots in the receiver. He just wants a gang plug between the wing and the fuselage, so he doesn't have to sort through all the individual connectors each time.

smitymax

Chris: That's a good idea but I could never find a satisfactory connector...all were to big for my tastes. What I ended up doing was to use four 6 inch extensions from the receiver and mounted the male connecter end of the extension on a wood bar epoxied accross the top of the fusulage just under the canopy. Used two pieces of scrap ply and sandwitched the connecers between using small #2 screws to friction hold the connectors...face the connector toward the rear. Then lable them RA (right aierlon) RF (right flap) LF (left flap) and LA (left aierlon) Then also lable the extensions from the servos in the wing the same. It is easier to hold the wing with the left hand and the the wing extensions can be plugged and un plugged with one hand. I find this solution to be quite satisfactory

The idea of a multi (6wire) wire connector is still a good idea and I would use it if I could find the right connector, but remember two of the terminals would have to have four wires connected to them (+ power and - ground) if you used only a 6 wire terminal.

Good luck.
PS: If your interested I probably could get a pictue of my setup so you could see how I did it, if necessary.

hydro_gin

Chris is asking for a wiring harness. Among the sailplane folks I hang out with, we build them ourselves using a 6-pin connector from Multiplex (has a green shell). 4 pins for the servo signals and the two pins are power and ground. I've seen people also use sub-D connectors, and a pair of Deans 3-pin connectors. The cleanest solution is the Multiplex, although if you need to plug/unplug often, its a little difficult because the M and F sides connect tightly, and there isn't much for your fingers to grab onto to separate them.

I buy my Multiplex connectors from soaringusa.com.

Look through this thread and you'll get the picture (I have a wiring diagram posted here):

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showt...7&page=1&pp=15

Here's an example using a D-connector:

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showt...1&page=3&pp=15

And the ultimate would be to buy one of the Hoopes pre-made harnesses!

http://www.hoopesdesigns.com


Lance

ChrisAttebery

My Feedback: (15)

There you go. Hydro_Gin wins the prize!

Last night I bought a 6 pin molex connector from Rat Shack. It would probably work, but that Multiplex connector looks more solid and I would feel more comfortable using it.

Thanks everyone!




Chris

JoeAirPort

My Feedback: (41)

I'd just get a roll of the servo extension cable, 1 male and 4 female connectors and custom make one. Make sure to use 20 or 22 gauge wire (22 gauge is considered heavy duty, 20 gauge is for 40% and bigger planes, extra heavy duty). Then get a 6 inch extension, plug it into your rx and leave it plugged in all the time. You don't want to be plugging/unplgging into the rx more than you have to (could damage it). You would just plug your Y into this 6 inch extension anytime you want to fly.

People don't like doing this because with hi torque, high current draw servos, you start to have high currents going through that one branch in the Y. If you use big enough wire, it will be fine. Also I assume you're using standard servos so the current draw will not to be so high. If it were (4) 5945's then I would use a Matchbox.

Check out this website. It has the cable and connectors you need. Also note that they offer a double connector, not sure if this would connect 4 servos or not. It looks like it only connects 3 but it's hard to tell from the pic and they don't have much info.

http://www.maxxprod.com/mpi/mpi-3.html

hydro_gin

Joe makes a great point about the wire gauge, and MPI has a great selection of connectors and wiring accessories. According to MPI, the 20ga can handle 10A continuously. Not sure what their criteria is (one might think about heat and melting insulation) but I would think IR (voltage) drops along long runs of wire would become an issue first. Haven't done the math though - I use 22ga for my 60" slope ships. Not being a power pilot, I don't know how big a typical 40% ship's span would measure.

Just for the record, here are pics of the 6-pin connector from Multiplex:

http://www.multiplex-rc.de/hp/produk...sp?lfdnr=85213

http://www.multiplex-rc.de/hp/produk...sp?lfdnr=85214

Haven't heard of anyone using Molex connectors (like the kind one finds in a PC?). I suppose if it holds up mechanically to repeated insertion cycles, it would be OK. Good luck Chris.

ps. I don't think there's any need to twist the servo wiring as shown in one of the references in my previous post. The twists help when signalling is differential (like in a "twisted pair" ) but RC servos use single-ended signalling so the twist wouldn't have much benefit. Wouldn't hurt though.


Lance

ChrisAttebery

My Feedback: (15)

Well,

I ordered couple of the Multiplex connectors from soaringusa.com. $5 each and $10(!!!) for shipping. Hopefully they will adjust the shipping costs.

I had a great idea last night. My 7C radio can do flaps and crow mixing, but it can't do flap to aileron mixing. I have been flip flopping about using the flaps or not, but I think I have a solution. I'm going to solder up a harness from the receiver to the connector, and one from the connector to the servos. Then I'm going to make up two intermediate connectors that I can plug inline. The first will basically be a double Y connector to connect the flap and aileron servos on each side of the wing together yeilding a full span aileron. The second will have a normal connection to each aileron servo and a reversing Y the to drive the flaps. That way I can decide when I get to the field which setup I want to use, plug it together and go fly. Sweet!

Thanks again for the help,



Chris

hydro_gin

I found out this weekend that greathobbies.com in Canada also carries the Multiplex 6-pin connectors. Bob Breaux at soaringusa.com is a great guy to do business with. I've never made a small order with him, so not sure what he'll do about shipping. If its the full $10, I hope you get expedited.

Interesting idea to get your full trailing edge. Can a single receiver output drive two servos? I suppose if the two servos on each side have similar neutral positions, them trim wouldn't be an issue. Let us know how it goes.


Lance