Compatibility between Radio Systems

[Martyn K]

Hi all

 

I am back into this building (and soon flying again) game but I have a couple of questions.

 

I am trying to understand what from different manufacturers can be used with others. I appreciate that 2.4GHz is a special case, but I am mainly talking about things like Servos.

 

When i last used to fly (about 25 years ago), my Futaba servo plugs had pins (slightly offset), the latest ones seem to have holes and plug into a receiver with Pins.

 

There are now a lot more 3rd party products on the market place claiming to be compatible Futaba, JR, Hitec etc, but I have never been able to find out whether this is plug campatible or simply functionally compatible (ie pulse width for a given input to servo position).

 

Can anyone advise please - or better is there a look up chart anywhere. I don't want to use gender benders etc - I see these as single points of failure.

 

Thanks

 

Martyn

[Eck]

Servos are ALMOST standard these days....the only difference I've seen is that Futaba plugs have a little tag to orient the plug the right way - this needs to be cut off to fit in JR/Spektrum/Hitec etc. receivers.

[Martyn K]

By 'eck,

 

(I am sure that has been written before )

 

Thanks

 

That is very good news. As I I'm installing into a Futaba receiver that should be OK.

 

 

Martyn

[Boots]

I agree most servos do seem to be standard, to the point I could (but would not) still use my mr12 servos which came with my MacGregor digimac 4 some 25 years ago.

what may not be quite so standard is servo direction. It would seem as though servos can come normal or reversed but not be labelled as such.

I dont have a programmable/ multi model Tx so I try to standardise linkage direction on my fleet . I do have channel reverse switches BUT!!!!! you must remember to change for each model, so I think it is easier to build all my aircraft to a standard, no need to remember . Even if you have a multi model memory you still need to select the correct model