[Kraft Series 71 refit using Frsky and Arduino]

Hi Phil,

I have the Quantum SS designed for the Turnigy 9XR transmitter, trim would be electronic, have to get an encoder together first. Maybe I can use small trimmers on either side of hall sensor, but that would not be very practical.

Or get an 9XR an use the guts to build a SS radio.

Cheers

Pat

[Kraft Series 71 refit using Frsky and Arduino]

Hi Phil,

Any possibility to use magnetic hall sensor for the stick? What would be needed to that? I have a nice SS stick waiting for a home.

[Kraft Series 71 refit using Frsky and Arduino]

Thanks Phil.

Almost can't wait to get back home.

Cheers

[Kraft Series 71 refit using Frsky and Arduino]

Hi Phil,

Please count me in for one 12 ch reeds encoder board.

Cheers

Pat

Edited By Patrick Thieleman on 09/11/2014 00:13:25

Edited By Patrick Thieleman on 09/11/2014 03:51:25

[Kraft Series 71 refit using Frsky and Arduino]

Posted by Phil Green on 30/10/2014 00:08:00:

Ok lets try for some numbers.
Who would be up for a commercially made, drilled & tinned PCB for the 7 channel encoder with S/C mix? It would be very much like the one above, and probably cost round about £6 (guesstimate)
A good break-even number is 25 boards. I'm not asking for an actual commitment, just looking for likely numbers. If it looks favourable, I'll do it

Cheers
Phil

Hi Phil,

As said count me in for 2 at least.

Cheers

Pat

[Kraft Series 71 refit using Frsky and Arduino]

That looks awesome Phil.

You can book me for at least 2 of them, together with the Pro-mini's, of course the 12ch reeds also, but you knew that already.

Cheers

Pat

[Futaba M6 Fr Sky 2.4 ghz DIY Conversion]

Thanks to Phil and Paul, here is my conversion. Kraft Series Seventy-Two.  Works great, still needs some cleanup inside. I love the single stick and S/C.

Edited By Patrick Thieleman on 21/10/2014 06:14:06

[Kraft Series 71 refit using Frsky and Arduino]

Bit off-topic, this may become the donor case for my old DX7 electronics, I know its a Futaba. got it for $1.25 + shipping, say less than $20, looks like Paul Luby's Futaba.

Cheers

Pat

[Kraft Series 71 refit using Frsky and Arduino]

Thx Phil, you made me do it.

[Kraft Series 71 refit using Frsky and Arduino]

All the little things were fixed before that flight and it works seamless now. Nice little radio I have, feels so much better than the plastic Spectrum sets. I usually build my models mechanically right, and I never use the electronics to correct mistakes in pushrods or whatever. Just like long time ago, when we did not have servo-reverse and so many other things. Next on my list is the reeds, but need to finish some planes. And then a S/C set somewhere during the winter.

[Kraft Series 71 refit using Frsky and Arduino]

Did my first flight with the Kraft, took me a few moment to get accustomed with the single stick set. But all worked

fine, and the S/C was great fun. Going to be one of my most used sets in the future.

Cheers

Pat

[Kraft Series 71 refit using Frsky and Arduino]

Thanks Phil,

Thinking about it today let me come to the same conclusion, I remember now that You said somewhere the switches were not needed for rates and expo. So I am changing that too. Reason I have the elevator wrong is that all the pots have a similar wiring code, for example aileron: neg = orange, wiper= green-orange, pos= red.

elevator was neg=yellow, wiper=green-yellow, pos= red, ect.

I know my wiring inside looks far from neat, but I know all the colors in my head now.

I also have to switch my throttle wires,because low trim is on the top.

Anyway beside these issues caused by myself, the Kraft is working great, I was hoping to do a flight with it today, but it started raining, Some guys at work where exited about an +40 years old radio having a new life.

I will try to clean the wiring up a bit over the winter without removing the original, and make a nicer collector for the pot wiring.

Anyway your help is very much appreciated. I believe You made another single channel addict.

Cheers

Pat

[Kraft Series 71 refit using Frsky and Arduino]

Hi Phil,

A few questions, My S/C emulation works fine, but my elevator goes down instead of up.

And it looks like I made a mistake with the expo/rates pots, where do you connect the switch function to?

neg feed, wiper or 5v feed?

Cheers,

Pat

[Kraft Series 71 refit using Frsky and Arduino]

Phil,

That C&S Hawk will be an awesome project and set to have, how do get the original color? I guess some automotive body repair shop can get very close to it.

I am looking for those reed cases, do they ship them to Canada?

Thx

[Kraft Series 71 refit using Frsky and Arduino]

Funny thing about this set is, it has serial # 19999, it was ch 46.

Is there a way to find year of production, it is a Series Seventy-Two, is that saying anything about the year or only

a type indication? Just like to know that.

I might want to build my own vintage looking set with bits ripped from other TX's.

I am going to sell my DX-18 with all telemetry stuff pretty soon. Although a nice radio to have, I never liked the chrome design and the telemetry is not what it should be, Spectrum changed that with their DX-18 V2, having a lot of guys buying another Spectrum set. Anyway my Jeti is doing a way better job in the telemetry and programming area.

But I like vintage aircraft and gliders, and that brings me back to enjoying old fashion good working vintage radio's.

Cheers

[Kraft Series 71 refit using Frsky and Arduino]

Thanks Phil, big part of the credits go to you guys. As promised some inside pics. In a way, I liked to keep as much of the original wiring as possible to stay with the vintage design. So it does not look as fancy inside, compared to what some great builders are doing here. I still want to upgrade the DHT and Battery support if needed, now they are sitting on foam supports for vibration. All the pos and neg pot wiring are going to a separate stripboard screwed to the stick unit as the original PCB was. This saves me a lot of wiring going to the Arduino board.

Also used an easy to get fuse 500mA to protect the board, might be to heavy for this purpose.

I shortened the bind board wiring abd removed the bind button from it, also removed the switch wiring and made bridge to set the DHT to one way. Bind board is underneath the RF meter and visible.

If anyone can make use of the original Kraft PCB, give me a shout.

Although not the same era, my single stick will be a nice match for my Falcon in production.

I might not have many drooling reactions at the field, because most of the time, I be there on my own.

Even when it is a MAAC certified airfield, it is private owned by a Heli addicted family, and there is not really a RC club going on. But I like having a great field for myself, even when I miss the things you guys have going on with your awesome meetings. This is one of the back draws living in West-Alberta.

I hope to order another Pro-Mini as a backup, or for another vintage project. As well as an S/C encoder.

The first test bed for the Kraft will be a Stevens Aero Skybuggy 300.

I send you a couple e-mails to get in touch before, to cover your expenses Phil, I guess you are to busy to read them. Will have to send you an estimate via paypal.

[Kraft Series 71 refit using Frsky and Arduino]

Just forgot to say left knob is expo, right is rates.

[Kraft Series 71 refit using Frsky and Arduino]

I did the conversion on simple stripboard, as I do not have the tools to make the PCB. But it works fine.

From left to right, The safety switch is the TX on/off, throttle cut beside the aerial, original on/off is my comp./sec. selector. I could not resist a Blue led for power on, meter is connected to raw with 6K resistor.

Next safety switch is for the mixers on/off, that avoid me to accidentally bump it. Then the selector for V-tail/elevons. Side top is Throttle, trainer button became TX/RX bind switch, then the slider for ch6 and the toggle for ch7.

I used 95% of the original wiring. And added new for the extra options.

Battery is a Booma RC self balancing 1300mA LiFe connected to a 4 pin deans in the bottom of the case.

I might consider to ad a knob for A5, but don't feel a need for it now.

I ad some inside pics later.

Cheers,

Pat

[Kraft Series 71 refit using Frsky and Arduino]

Thanks a lot Phil. I must have had a brain fart.

Yes going back to the good old days, I have to remember how we did things back then. I was not thinking that way.

Some misunderstanding from my part. Yes it all works great. I missed the part about setting the mixers in start-up.

Pretty awesome that little Pro Mini can do all that. I wished to be able to that programming. Gonna love the S/C emulation too. I remember drooling over my Dad's magazines for those Kraft transmitters. Finally got one, and a single stick too.

Thanks so much to You and Paul for providing this great stuff.

I can't wait to finish my Reeds in the works, still tinkering about a wood or metal case for it, but winter will be hitting hard very soon, plenty of time.

If You ever get around to cook another S/C encoder, please put me on your list for one, no hurry.

I'm pretty sure, I am in debt here but will take care of that.

Some pics from my Kraft.

Regards,

Pat

[Kraft Series 71 refit using Frsky and Arduino]

I have my Kraft Series Seventy-Two single stick up and running, most of it works nice. Just a few problems. My S/C emulation works on my aileron servo, also the range check function works on one aileron servo.

And the mixers don't work like they should. A5 is connected to A0 for dual aileron servo's

A0=AIleron, A1=Elevator, A2=Rudder, A3=Throttle, A4=Ch6, A5=Aux2 to A0, A6=Expo, A7=Rates

D9-Throttle cut, D8= 75/25 mix, D7=50/50mix, D10=S/C sec. D11=S/c comp.

Any thought would be welcome, I checked the wiring many times.

Regards

Pat

[Futaba M6 Fr Sky 2.4 ghz DIY Conversion]

Hi Paul,

I might have it wrong, but I take it that the Arduino UNO can serve the same purpose as the nano.

As I am not having any Tatranis equipment, I am considering to go the Spectrum route.

Regards

Pat

[Futaba M6 Fr Sky 2.4 ghz DIY Conversion]

Posted by Patrick Thieleman on 14/08/2014 05:57:13:

Posted by Phil Green on 26/05/2014 16:29:52:

Sorry Paul it wasnt meant as criticism, I think its great that these old sets are getting back out onto the flying field where they belong! There were some lovely sets at the Retfords retro do, Orbit and RCS, the retro-refit thing has been going for decades - I started doing the s/c & reeds emulations about 4 years ago with a few propo, but Stu Foster for example has been doing refits much longer than that with 35mhz modules. Stu was the British Aerobatics Champ some time back!

Here are just a few interesting sets converted with new encoders and a Frsky module:

Also, have you seen the Microstar encoder? its a really comprehensive project, that too has been running for many years and loads of old propo sets have been dragged into the 21st century with a mstar conversion.

Then again, although the Mstar is very clever, its more fun to do it yourself!

Cheers

Phil

Edited By Phil Green on 26/05/2014 17:01:53

Very nice units, I am still looking for a Kraft or similar TX, Do you guys have anything around.

I also like to build a 1 channel for a vintage electric.

Regards,

Pat

[Futaba M6 Fr Sky 2.4 ghz DIY Conversion]

Posted by Phil Green on 26/05/2014 16:29:52:

Sorry Paul it wasnt meant as criticism, I think its great that these old sets are getting back out onto the flying field where they belong! There were some lovely sets at the Retfords retro do, Orbit and RCS, the retro-refit thing has been going for decades - I started doing the s/c & reeds emulations about 4 years ago with a few propo, but Stu Foster for example has been doing refits much longer than that with 35mhz modules. Stu was the British Aerobatics Champ some time back!

Here are just a few interesting sets converted with new encoders and a Frsky module:

Also, have you seen the Microstar encoder? its a really comprehensive project, that too has been running for many years and loads of old propo sets have been dragged into the 21st century with a mstar conversion.

Then again, although the Mstar is very clever, its more fun to do it yourself!

Cheers

Phil

Edited By Phil Green on 26/05/2014 17:01:53