Cockpit radio layout for Spekky 7 and Glider programming

[Peter Roberts]

I'm a novice to gliders although a club fixed wing pilot for 8 years in both glow and electric. I'm struggling with 2 things related to my first glider

a) rx mounting? - I want to fit a Spekky 7 series receiver in a glider - does anyone have a photo how they've laid out the cockpit area please?

b) programming my JR9XII for 6 servos and motor

I've now got a V2 Vitesse 3 meter lovely looking glider and I want to fit my spekky 7 DSM2 rx and satellitte into a narrow glider fuse which is already very full of motor, esc, lipo and elevator servo.

Any innovative ways so as deal with all the cables and ensure that the 2.4 aerials don't get crushed and the satellite is suitably fixed too. The only photo I've seen of a layout is that in the Hangar 9 Mystique by downloading the manual.

Next challenge is then programming my JR9XII radio. I've downloaded a couple of articles from the web and clearly the throttle stick is to be used for the flaps and one 3 position switch gives launch, cruise and landing modes with the motor I think on a switch and only accessible for takeoff. What if I need to go around ? is there any way of using the motor on the stick if the crow braking is not activated?

Any articles, setup of photos or advice gratefully received please.

Can anyone help me please?

Many thanks

Peter

Edited By Peter Roberts on 01/07/2016 18:12:35

[Frank Skilbeck]

Peter, can't help with the radio programming, but having crow and throttle on the same stick is fraught with dangers, and you'd have to change flight mode to use it.

If all you are using the motor is for climbing to height (i.e instead of a winch, bungee or tow plane) then having crow on the stick is best as it's easiest to modulate the amount of braking during landing, after all most gliders don't have the option of going around again.

But on my hotliners, I have throttle on the throttle stick and spoilerons on a slider, with a logic switch which means the spoilerons are only active if the throttle is closed, but this option might not be available on your radio.

[Gary Binnie]

I should be able to help Peter, I fly F3J and F5J using JR DSX9, PCM 9XII and DSX12.

I use nine channel receivers (AR9300 and RD921).

Haven't found a neat way of laying out the gear yet!

I have motor function and crow brake all the time and five flight modes.

Cheers

Gary

[Gary Binnie]

Should add that my motor function is on a switch, not the left stick.

[Gary Binnie]

It's worth searching for 'Sherman Knight 9303' if you haven't read those guides already.

The 9303 is the US version of the PCM9X, there's also the 9503 which I think is the 2.4 version.

[Former Member]

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[Peter Roberts]

Gary, I would be interested to understand your programming set up?

Steve J, thanks - interesting idea of putting the remote receiver into the stabiliser.

How do you programme the left slider to be used as spoilerons instead of the Throttle stick?

As you can tell I have very little experience of programming on my JR9XII. It was a triumph to work out how to get dual flaps and dual ailerons working on my Cirrus 22T. The ideal of the left slider for spoilers seems a neat solution and leave the throttle on its stick all the time.

At the mo - programming makes my head hurt!

Thanks for your help

Peter

PS Any photos for Spekky rx installs in glider?

Edited By Peter Roberts on 01/07/2016 22:30:14

[Gary Binnie]

Glad to help, I'm just going onto shift for the next three days but I can detail it next week, will basically list the settings in each menu.

Key thing is that the 'Glider' mode is used and that the servos are plugged into the channels needed for glider mode, it's quite different to a normal setup. I will dig one of my electro gliders out and check the channel assignments as I can't remember.

I use Velcro to hold gear in the nose including the battery and satellites, with a height limiter and frame loss checker it gets very crowded in there!

[Former Member]

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[Peter Roberts]

Wow - thank you guys I really appreciate your help and look forward to trying this out. If the motor goes into channel 7 what is channel 5 (gear) used for?

[Former Member]

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[Gary Binnie]

Had an hour spare so I looked at my transmitters, no electric gliders in the PCM9X but there is one in the DSX9, which AFAIK is the same.

'Device select' is probably the most important screen:

The 'BTFL SW' (Butterfly switch) is the motor switch and is the longer one on the left of the Tx and is labelled 'T.Hold Mix'. I have it off away from me and on towards.

I need to have a look at the receiver to see what I plugged in where.

When I set a new glider up I make a 'stick aeroplane' out of hardwood strip (looks like a battlefield cross) and lay out all the servos in their relative positions and rubber band them to it with the receiver and battery. Doing that I can set the servo arms roughly and use the reverse function to make sure they are working the right way, if not there is a danger of overdriving a surface and damaging hinges or links.

Your flap servo horns will probably need to be offset at 'throttle stick up' to get the travel, not sure if your flaps can move up as well (for full span roll control) but that can be done. It is quite important to set the flap servo horns the same otherwise the flaps will move differently.

Hope this is making sense, I have more Tx screenshots.

Cheers

Gary

 

Edited By Gary Binnie on 03/07/2016 21:40:08

[Gary Binnie]

Ought to clarify on the flap servos that the horn offset is mostly achieved using the 'sub-trim', values of U220 (or maybe D220!) are common.

If you're not sure if a switch is working or not you can fire up the 'MONITOR' screen, Left silver 'List' button > MONITOR',  to see if it is having any effect.

All great fun!

Edited By Gary Binnie on 03/07/2016 21:50:54

Edited By Gary Binnie on 03/07/2016 21:59:21

[Gary Binnie]

Just had a look at this glider's receiver, it is an AR9300 which is labelled for glider use (L-Ail, R-Ail etc). The speed controller is plugged into AUX4 but I am flying it on the DSX12 now so that might not be the same for the 9X.

If you power up with a battery you can plug a spare servo in and operate the motor switch to find out which channel the ESC is on.

[Peter Roberts]

Thank you Gary, I look forward to trying this all out with my JR 9XII!

Really appreciate the help, thank you

Peter

Edited By Peter Roberts on 04/07/2016 22:24:29

[Gary Binnie]

No worries, keep us posted.

[Peter Roberts]

I've finally managed to get near my glider to continue!! - Lots of things happening in our house over the last month including my breaking my left foot - which makes standing in a field for flying a little more challenging. However...

I've managed to get the RX installed next to the elevator servo under the canopy but have found that the flaps only seem to travel down and not up at all and the horn is in top of the flap hinge and seems to need a rod through the wing at 45º from the servo. I've read somewhere that the servo arm needs to be set 30º toward the leading edge to get the necessary throw for max flap movement! Does anyone else use this? Do you have to adjust the sub trim for flaps to get enough travel?

The saga continues

[Gary Binnie]

Hi Peter,

Yes, it is normal to offset the flap servo sub-trims almost all the way to one end of travel, on my JR radios a value of 225 out of 250 is normal. The horns are offset towards the leading edge of the wing.

Have a look at 'Maxa wing assembly' on this page for some diagrams, click the right hand floppy disk icon as they have reversed the Russian/English versions!

Gary