Dave Hopkin Posted November 14, 2014 Share Posted November 14, 2014 Posted by Nelmo on 14/11/2014 09:41:46: What is the best way to attach the receivers? My spektrum has 2 receivers, connected with a 6" wire (to improve signal pick-up, says the manual). The manual shows a picture with the smaller receiver on the fuse wall but doesn't suggest how it stays there - glue? I'd imagine you'd want to be able to move it, if necessary? It also suggests wrapping the battery and main receiver in foam and velcro. I was thinking to glue the velcro to the body but should I not be doing that, just wedging it in? Not sure if that would be secure enough... Suggestions appreciated.... The smaller RX (the satellite) should be mounted as far away from the main RX as the wire will allow, align the aerials so they are NOT in the same planes as the main RX (to ensure that regardless of the planes attitude in the air one or more of the aerials will be at 90 degrees to the transmission path) Velcro'd to the fus wall is perfectly fine, though if its a wooden part, its best to coat the wood with CA (and let it dry) before attaching the velcro - or a small plastic cable tie can be used Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevo Posted November 14, 2014 Share Posted November 14, 2014 Dave has really summed it up here ! One thing I HATE is receiver installation A couple of other tips... When mounting your velcro, CA the wood first as Dave says, if you are impatient, then get a bit of spit on your finger and quickly work the CA into the timber - it becomes warm, and goes off right there. The trick is not to glue your digit to the model ! Then stick your velcro on - the adhesive does increase its strength over the next few hours! When mounting the battery, bear in mind that on those days when the ground quickly rises up to meet the model, the heavier parts, i.e. engine, full tank and battery will want to continue their journey onwards and may take out anything with them. I tend to butt my batteries against a strong bulkhead - you haven't seen my landings!! If you are into this hobby it really does pay to pop on to ebay and bulk buy a load of sticky backed velcro and trim it to size. OOhh... and one more thing... look on yell .com and find somewhere that manufacturers furniture. Visit them and blag your way into them giving you a sack full of foam offcuts (I've offered a tenner before and they always refuse!) now you have an endless supply of said foam for future models! Edited By Stevo on 14/11/2014 10:14:07 Edited By Stevo on 14/11/2014 10:17:30 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon H Posted November 14, 2014 Share Posted November 14, 2014 Another alternative would be double sided foam tape. Its like normal double sided sticky tape but has a mm or two of foam in the middle. Its more permanent than the Velcro but a far better option than glue! The only snag with double sided is you need to scrape he old stuff off and replace it whenever you move the radio gear to another model. As I don't change my gear around much I use tape but the choice is yours Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevo Posted November 14, 2014 Share Posted November 14, 2014 +1 for foam tape Jon... I get mine from Halfords - the thicker automotive stuff. It's glued on those steel weights used for balancing alloy wheels a treat! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon H Posted November 14, 2014 Share Posted November 14, 2014 Halfords eh? I will check that out as often the modelling stuff is a bit pricey. Tell you what though, this neat and tidy stuff is a far cry from some of my models. My little flair nieuport basically has all the gear wedged in however it will fit with odd bits of foam and all sorts to stop it falling about. that said, I do only have a 4inch square hole to get EVERYTHING into as the bottom wing is teeny! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cuban8 Posted November 15, 2014 Share Posted November 15, 2014 Stick Sellotape to the RX and fold a small tab from about 1/2 inch of excess so it can easily be peeled off. Apply your double sided tape or Velcro to the Sellotaped surface as usual. If you need to remove the d/s or Velcro just remove it by peeling off the Sellotape tab. Works a treat and never leaves a messy residue on the RX. Best to use genuine Sellotape. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nelmo Posted November 15, 2014 Author Share Posted November 15, 2014 Hmm, so I need an adapter of some sort to plug the battery to the switch? At the moment they both have the same female socket - any idea what that bit is called (can't find anything obvious on SLEC and SMCs sites)? I also made this battery pouch - is that enough foam or does it need to be thicker? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biggles' Elder Brother - Moderator Posted November 15, 2014 Share Posted November 15, 2014 You shouldn't have a gender problem connecting the switch to the battery! If you have you are probably connecting the wrong wire! BEB Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cymaz Posted November 16, 2014 Share Posted November 16, 2014 Battery has a male plug, switch should have a female plug....I assume you know the facts of life? Good, then that's how the battery is plugged in! If the switch has three leads, the other two are for charging and Rx. The lead on its own on the opposite side of the switch from the female goes to the Rx. The lead that joins into the switch body with the female is the battery charge lead. Try this...it says Futaba on the wiring diagram but the principle is the same Edited By cymaz on 16/11/2014 06:17:17 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nelmo Posted November 17, 2014 Author Share Posted November 17, 2014 Hmmm, my battery has a female socket.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Hopkin Posted November 17, 2014 Share Posted November 17, 2014 Posted by Nelmo on 17/11/2014 08:24:43: Hmmm, my battery has a female socket.... The female should always be on the live side of the connection (to avoid shorting out the battery) the thing that wants power has the male connector So your switch should have wires one being a male the other being a female, the male goes to the battery, the female lead offers the battery to the next link in the chain Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon H Posted November 17, 2014 Share Posted November 17, 2014 Just to clarify, the male/female refers to the metal parts not the plastic. From a plastic point of view the battery has a male plug and the switch one female socket and two male plugs (one for power to radio and one to charge through). I hope this makes it clearer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nelmo Posted November 17, 2014 Author Share Posted November 17, 2014 I think have found the problem - my spektrum manual shows a bind key with 2 plugs, one male, one female. However, I only seem to have the male plug, so I was plugging that into the one female socket coming from the switch, whereas that must be for the battery? So I need a female spektrum bind plug, I think - sound right? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete B Posted November 17, 2014 Share Posted November 17, 2014 You'll only need a bind plug when you're actually binding the Rx to the Tx. I can't recall which Tx you have but I see a photo of the binding arrangement on p18 of the Dx6i manual and there will probably be similar in other manuals. You don't have to use the switch harness for binding either - you can connect the bind plug to the batt/bind pins on the RX. Your last post but one states that your battery has a female socket. I think it might help us to sort it out if you can put up a photo of what you are trying to connect to what.... Pete Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Davis Posted November 17, 2014 Share Posted November 17, 2014 Nelmo, re Spektrum bind plugs, ignore the instructions, plug a male bind plug into any spare channel on the receiver and bind your transmitter to your receiver. It simply bridges the positive and negative terminals on the receiver. Remove the bind plug before flight, but some of us have actually flown a model with the bind plug still in place! Don't ask! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Hopkin Posted November 17, 2014 Share Posted November 17, 2014 Posted by Nelmo on 17/11/2014 17:35:02: I think have found the problem - my spektrum manual shows a bind key with 2 plugs, one male, one female. However, I only seem to have the male plug, so I was plugging that into the one female socket coming from the switch, whereas that must be for the battery? So I need a female spektrum bind plug, I think - sound right? The Bind Plug looks like this - on the RX you will see a slot position marked "Battery/Bind" - that's where you connect your battery too - First push the bind plug into any other port - switch the Transmitter on then connect the battery to the RX, the manual will tell you the exact procedure for binding the RX to the TX, once its done the bind is permanent (well until/if it looses it - then you just rebind - so dont chuck away the bind plug!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete B Posted November 17, 2014 Share Posted November 17, 2014 Now come on guys - really! We're trying to help a newbie here and feeding him incorrect information is only going to lead to confusion and frustration Firstly, the bind plug bridges the signal and negative pins. The positive pin is the red one in the middle.... Secondly, I don't know where you get the idea that plugging the bind plug into any set other than the batt/bind pins can possibly put the Rx into bind mode. Spektrum wouldn't have wasted the ink on specifying the bind pin otherwise! I was so aghast at reading that above that I had to try it out - and on neither an AR8000 nor an Orange Rx was there a glimmer of life when the bind plug was put into anything other than the batt/bind location. If you can get an Rx to bind using your method, I'd like to see it.... When you bind an Rx, the bind plug goes into the batt/bind location - and you plug the battery in on any other set. Once bound, the bind plug is removed and the batt plug can be re-located to the batt/bind location if necessary. You don't switch the Tx on then connect the Rx to the battery either - the procedure is entirely reverse to that. You fit the bind plug, power up the Rx and, with the Rx lights flashing, you switch on the Tx with the bind button depressed. Sheesh..... Pete Full details on binding and switch harnesses here Edited By Pete B - Moderator on 17/11/2014 19:35:14 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Hopkin Posted November 17, 2014 Share Posted November 17, 2014 Pete your right about placing the bind plug.... I rewrote the paragraph and got it all muxed ip! On the DX9 I simply select the bind option from the menus and it doesn't seem to matter what order the TX or RX are powered up - as long as the bind plug is in and the RX powered up, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete B Posted November 17, 2014 Share Posted November 17, 2014 Thanks for coughing it so quickly, Dave - had me all of a flutter for a while... Yes, the DX9 does have that option but I've never used it as I've always stuck with the same method from the earlier Tx's, TBH. Doesn't get DD out of the mire, though - 'ignore the instructions' indeed..... Pete Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nelmo Posted November 17, 2014 Author Share Posted November 17, 2014 According to my Spektrum DX6 manual (page 18), one end of the switch goes into 'batt/bind' on the rx, the battery goes into the other end of the switch, along with the bind key. As both the battery and the bind plug are male sockets, I can only connect one of them at a time, which means I cannot do the bind process as the manual advises. But, like I said, the manual also shows 2 bind keys; one male, one female and for some reason, my tx box doesn't have the female bind key. It may be I lost it when I first opened the box in my ecxcitement My earlier post (couple of pages back) showing the plug with a tab is the plug from my battery.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete B Posted November 17, 2014 Share Posted November 17, 2014 OK, that plug in the pic on page 2 is what I'd expect to see on the batt pack. The switch harness which you purchased may well be a generic one which doesn't have the extra wire needed for Spekky binding anyway, so just plug the battery into the socket on the harness. The remaining lead from that side of the switch will plug into your charger. The lead coming the other side of the switch will plug into your receiver. Don't plug it into the batt location just yet - plug it into any spare set of pins along the line. Now put the bind plug, not the bind socket/female bind key (which I can't see you ever needing, TBH), into the batt/bind location on the Rx. Follow the binding priocedure outlined in my post above. Once you have bound the Rx, you can fit the batt supply to any of the locations you wish. If you have followed my link in the post above, and I would strongly advise you do, as Tim Mackey knows an awful lot about Spekky, you will have read that binding with the bind plug in the Rx is so much easier.... Pete Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Bott - Moderator Posted November 17, 2014 Share Posted November 17, 2014 Pete's right Nelmo. Have a look at Tim's video (which is on the page Pete linked to). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Davis Posted November 18, 2014 Share Posted November 18, 2014 Posted by David Davis on 17/11/2014 18:37:44: Nelmo, re Spektrum bind plugs, ignore the instructions, plug a male bind plug into any spare channel on the receiver and bind your transmitter to your receiver. It simply bridges the positive and negative terminals on the receiver. Remove the bind plug before flight, but some of us have actually flown a model with the bind plug still in place! Don't ask! Sorry Nelmo. I got that wrong. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon H Posted November 18, 2014 Share Posted November 18, 2014 Nelmo Spektrum can be bound one of two ways. Using the apparently lost bind plug into the bind port on the receiver (rx from now on) or using the other bind plug you have it can be bound through the switch, that's why the manual says you plug the switch into the bind port on the rx. Its normally easier to bind it with the plug direct into the rx as you need a special 3 wire switch to do it the other way (the switch you have is most likely 3 wire) and there can be issues doing it through the switch going by my 4 years experience at a leading model shop.. I hope this is helpful p.s, fly futaba, one button to press...binding sorted! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nelmo Posted November 23, 2014 Author Share Posted November 23, 2014 Ok, followed the procedure in the video - however, I had a solid LED on the rx immediately, before switching on the tx and after connecting the battery I tried the bind procedure anyway, holding the switch on the tx while turning the tx on. It made a beeping noise and displayed BIND but that was it - the LED on the rx stayed solid all this time. Let go of the switch on the tx, light still solid, display just returned to main menu. Removed the bind plug, plugged battery in, no response from servos. I guess the problem is the LED on the rx is not flashing when I have the bind plug in the 'bind' socket and I connect the battery - any ideas why that may be? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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