Kraft Series 71 refit using Frsky and Arduino

[Phil Green]

Hi Patrick, glad you got it working. Taking your points in turn:

S/C should work on aileron as on a rudder/elevator model that channel will be your rudder.
Range check, mixers - there is only one aileron output. A5 connected to A0 will not give you dual aileron, well it will mimic the A0 input without any of the processing. The reason for connecting unused analogues is to tie them to any input rather than leave them floating. The mimicking is by the bye and for dual aileron servos you will need a Y lead.
This is probably the reason your mixers appear not to work - they wont unless both your ailerons are plugged into the only aileron channel! Also note that you can only change mix settings on power-up, this is to avoid accidentally switching the mixer in flight.

So it sounds like everything is working as it should, but you have a configuration problem in trying to use A5 (aux2) for a second aileron channel - you need both aileron servos on ch 1. Hope this helps.

Cheers
Phil

[Patrick Thieleman]

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

[GONZO]

Phil,

Have you posted the latest sketch with the included SC emulator? Checked the 'singlechannel' site archive section P15. The link in the document still takes you to the old 6ch sketch.

[Phil Green]

Hi Pat, that looks fantastic, just like new! and, as a bonus, you have more facilities than the original!
You'll have a lot of fun flying the Kraft, the interest these old sets attract down at the field is amazing!

I'll check the document to emphasise that rudder is by convention on the aileron channel of a rudder/elevator model and also I may have omitted to say that the mixer can only be changed on power-up, I'll check.

For the reeds sets a lot of us have used Eddistone die-cast boxes, they're a bit on the expensive side but make a rugged job. A friend-of-a-friend is making a professional 'C&S 6' logo for me, so I will have a pretty accurate replica of the one at the Hall of Fame:

Meanwhile, I'm still flying the original Tiny-6 prototype! All in good time, but one day I will have a nice replica 6-channel reed set to complement the Remcon-12 and the Orbit-10.

But back to the the Kraft, that's an excellent job you've done there, well done. How does it look from the inside?
I confess my own conversions are not the neatest - that accolade goes to Ron Buckwell, see his Horizon and Macgregor conversions on the single channel forum, neat as a button!

By the way I've done a PCB layout for the genuine Sparkfun Pro-Mini version, with the buzzer etc and all the connections on headers. Here's a picture but I'll upload the mask to singlechannel.co.uk when I get a mo - though this is strictly DIY, I don't intend making them!

Gonzo, could you email me please?

Cheers
Phil

Edited By Phil Green on 13/10/2014 19:21:28

[Patrick Thieleman]

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

[Patrick Thieleman]

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

[Patrick Thieleman]

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.

[Patrick Thieleman]

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

[Patrick Thieleman]

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

[Phil Green]

The Eddystone die-cast boxes should be available locally Pat, they're very popular in industry as well as for hobby use. Our local supplier is Maplin:
**LINK**

RS, Farnell, Rapid, etc also stock them, but I'm sure they will be available over there, or something very similar. Plastic is ok too, they don't have to be metal boxes.

The Kraft naming-scheme was tied to the year so my Series 71 was made in 1971, etc.

Yes I'm lucky to be a member of a very supportive club, very few of the 200 members fly s/c but they allow me & Shaun to run the S/C and Retro R/C events every year. They're a good bunch:
**LINK**
**LINK**

Cheers
Phil

[Patrick Thieleman]

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

[Phil Green]

Hi Pat,
The elevator pot is wired with pos & neg the wrong way around, if you leave the centre connection as-is, and swap the other two around, the s/c elevator will be right. If you then need to re reverse the propo elevator just use the reversing facility.  You will need to do the calibration again after swapping the wires over.

Rates and Expo - the switches arent wired at all, they're just there for tactile feedback so you feel a click when they are 'off'. In fact you could use unswitched pots but the click is handy in practise. Its reasssuring to rotate until the click then you know they're 'off'. Its like turning a radio volume control down to nothing.

I'm grateful for you're pointing out your findings Pat, none of them are problems as such but they do show that I need to clarify the document here & there 

Cheers
Phil

Edited By Phil Green on 15/10/2014 18:03:59

[Patrick Thieleman]

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

[Phil Green]

At Ponty no-once even bats an eyelid with S/C models now, they're all used to seeing them - its no longer unusual to be flying a button-controlled rudder-only model! One of our real old-timers, Terry, had a fly of my Tomboy with the RCS Guidance System on Sunday, he loved it and his thumb had no problems recalling 50-year-old skills:

Its great fun.
I had my first S/C mid-air on Sunday, the first for decades! In true 'Jaws' style my Sharkie bit the elevator off Ian's EasyStar and both came down hard. Dab of POR an the ES was away again, no damage to the Sharkface at all!
Cheers
Phil

[Patrick Thieleman]

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

[Patrick Thieleman]

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.

[Phil Green]

Posted by Patrick Thieleman on 18/10/2014 07:47:35:

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.
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.

Thats great news Pat, I've never flown a cuddle-box but there seems to be quite a resurgence of interest in single-stickers especially across the pond. The best bit is you've done it yourself and you'll get that satisfaction every time you fly it. Excellent job, well done!
Cheers
Phil

[Patrick Thieleman]

Thx Phil, you made me do it.

[Patrick Thieleman]

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

[Phil Green]

I've posted a document describing the 'final' version of the 7 channel encoder as described in this thread, and also the Arduino sketch.

They are articles P16 and P17 on the Archive page of singlechannel.co.uk should anyone fancy a go.

Current project is the Galloping-Ghost emulation widget which is working really well, I just need a suitable model to test-fly it!

Cheers
Phil

[DJC]

Phil

am I going mad

cannot see P16 or P17, only P15 ???

dave c

[Phil Green]

Pages are cached in several places - your browser, your isp, the content-switch, the server... so usually if you force a refresh it will update everything.

Here's a tip - works with any cached content.
Often the F5 or ctrl/F5 doesn't work. Often flushing your cache doesn't work.
To force load a fresh copy through all the caching, just set a parameter on the end of the url

lets say www . somedomain . somepage.htm  is giving you an old page.

add ?a=7 to the end:

 www . somedomain . somepage.htm?a=7   and hit return.

anything will do, doesn't have to be a=7.

The singlechannel domain is actually a redirect, the actual link to the Archive page is  

http://www.mccrash-racing.co.uk/sc/archive.htm

Cheers
Phil

Edited By Phil Green on 24/10/2014 15:47:20

[DJC]

Phil

sorted - cleared cache and all working

you are a star as usual

dave c

[Phil Green]

Here's the Pro-Mini PCB:

...and populated (note I've not added the A4-A7 pins yet):

Note the coloured headers - they're from 'Squirrel Labs' : **LINK**

There does seem to be enough interest to warrant getting the boards done commercially, when funds permit (I've just spent up on a batch of 12ch reeds boards)

Cheers
Phil

[Patrick Thieleman]

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