Hogan-RCU

After reading about the polarity and mis-matching of electronics, I have a some questions that someone can help me with.
I have a Futaba radio, Hitec receiver (micro 555 with futaba connections), and 2 airtronics servos. My first question is this, will I have any problems with the futaba radio and hitec reciever with hitec servos? As far as the airtronics servos go, I was planning on getting a seperate receiver to go with that, is there a certain transmitter I should get if I cannot get an airtronics Tx?
Thanks for any advice.
hogan

Volfy

My Feedback: (23)

Don't bother to buy a separate Airtronics receiver if you have only two Air servos. You can simply shave off the three ridges on the plug, reverse two of the leads and use it in just about any RX from any manufacturer.

I flew Airtronics for quite a while before recently switching to Hitec and now Futaba. I have done the above described to the large cache of Air servos in my inventory with no problem.

Unless you get a TX like the Airtronics RD6000 super or the Hitec Eclipse, you'd be better off staying in either camp: Futaba/Hitec or JR/Air so you don't have to worry about TX/RX compatibility.

Hogan-RCU

Thanks Volfy, what I was planning on doing was getting a GWS Rx with the airtronics connection and another Tx. I could do what you said and get one that took the Futaba connection that would work just as well. No problems with shaving the three ridges, but which leads are you talking about. First time I heard that one.

Volfy

My Feedback: (23)

Hogan, here's the wiring chart for the servo brands in questio:

Manufacturer ==== Positive ==== Negative ===== Signal
Airtronics(old) ==== black/red === black(center) == black
Hitec ========= red(center) ==== black ====== yellow
Futaba ======== red(center) ==== black ====== white

Notice that Hitec and Futaba are pin-compatible right out of the box, only varying in color for the signal wire. You can simply snip off the Futaba side tab and insert into a Hitec RX. The old Airtronics leads have the +ve and -ve wires crossed from what everybody else does, but all you have to do is take a smmall jeweler's flat blade screwdriver and depress the little metal spring tab on the exposed lead an pull the leads out. Then simply reinsert in the opposite slot. All RC servos work off of the same supply voltage and 1-2ms PPM signal, so as long as you get the pinout correct, they should all work in any RX.

Note that Airtronics finally wised up and went along with everybody else's pin assignment. The new ones are called Airtronics-Z. These won't have the three little ridges like the old ones, and they will plug&play in others' RX as is.

Hogan-RCU

Thank you dearly! What a world of information. IF you were around here, I would buy you a beer or 12!
Hogan

slam

Here is a good site. More graphic illustration!

http://www.fatlion.com/sailplanes/servos.html

Volfy

My Feedback: (23)

Hogan, you're very welcome. Slam's URLs explains it better and has pictures that are worth a thousand words. I've bookmarked it so I don't have to type it again.

Hogan-RCU

yeah that pretty much hit the nail on the head with that webpage, I bookmarked it as well!