Peter Christy Posted July 16, 2016 Share Posted July 16, 2016 Yes, the ones I've got are 4-pole ones, and very good quality they are, too! I believe production of them ceased some years ago. To be fair, I've never had an issue with the heavy duty JR harnesses - the ones that have a separate charging lead, rather than the ones with a socket built into the switch, and I'm told the equivalent Futaba ones are good too. But my preference is still the good old Noble switch, with the poles paralleled up! -- Pete Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thunderstreak.keith Posted September 5, 2016 Author Share Posted September 5, 2016 HI all, many thanks for your help. sorry its been so long in replying. I have removed the old nicd packs and replaced with 2 nimh PACKS. bUT WE HAVE A BLACK WIRE PROBLEM.. Now, I am useless at soldering but attempted to solder them up to their corresponding leads inside the tranny. No joy. The voltage needle only goes to 2 on the front. How far back this black wire goes I couldnt tell you. But what we have got in this village is "singers precision instruments factory" I know a few guys working there so might have a word if one of them could take a look and replace the affected wires. Or does blackwire syndrome spread all the way through the system? If so then it looks like dead meat to me, unless I can sell a skyleader courier special as a retro for conversion. Any suggestions? cheers all Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Davis Posted September 5, 2016 Share Posted September 5, 2016 Slightly off topic but before I retired to France I sold a lot of old Sanwa black-plug stuff on eBay, including three transmitters. The buyer knew an electronics engineer who replaced all of the black wires and the systems functioned perfectly. The buyer even phoned me up to say how delighted he was with his purchase! Maybe the chaps at Singers could do the same for you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gangster Posted September 5, 2016 Share Posted September 5, 2016 The black wire issue could have extended to the switch and beyond but even if you had to replace the switch and the wiring beyond that is no big deal. It appears from a previous post that a replacement switch would be available. Personally I suspect the switch will be fine being four pole. The likes of Futaba JR and all the rest should hang their heads in shame when they sell what they pretend is a high quality transmitter and put a pathetic quality single pole switch in the main power line Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gangster Posted September 5, 2016 Share Posted September 5, 2016 Just another thought. That meter on the Skyleader measures RF output not battery so needs to be fully extended of course low output could be a result of power issues Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gangster Posted September 5, 2016 Share Posted September 5, 2016 Just another thought. That meter on the Skyleader measures RF output not battery so needs to be fully extended of course low output could be a result of power issues Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Beeney Posted September 5, 2016 Share Posted September 5, 2016 Having just caught up with this thread, I think the Skyleader transmitter was configured so that when the battery switch was off the two 4 cell packs were connected together in parallel and when it was switched on they were wired in series. I never knew the confirmed reason for this but I always strongly suspected it was simply for charging purposes. The standard Skyleader charger was a dual purpose unit, with both a mains and a 12V input; and when this was connected to a car battery the input voltage was exactly that,12 volts with maybe plus a few ticks, but probably not very much more than 12.5 volts generally. This is not high enough to properly charge an 8 cell nickel pack, particularly as the circuit included diodes etc. which will only reduce the voltage still further; so the transmitter packs were always charged in parallel. I’d reckon that at least a 15 volt supply would be more useful, and even better still, perhaps, 20V. Not that easy to come by on the flying field, though. If the corrosion is fairly extensive I think I would feel the need to examine the PCBs etc. very carefully indeed. In my experience this stuff goes just about everywhere over time. I once checked out a second hand model that had been hanging up in a model shop for maybe a year or so, that one was easy, most of the metal in the circuit had disappeared. Also, almost accidentally, once upon a time I discovered that even when a piece of wire is completely detached if the corrosion has started it will just carry on destroying itself. And remarkably quickly, indeed. Phil Ramsey was, as I remember it anyway, also a member of the Skyleader team back in day, too. And from memory again, although now a bit dim, the RF meter only every read max or off, usually not a lot in between. So I’m not sure if that was really ever very much use, anyway. Only intended to be just casual info. really… PB Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thunderstreak.keith Posted September 5, 2016 Author Share Posted September 5, 2016 well guys took it to singers instruments, they took a look and said bin it. way too much blackwire and the plugs seem to have welded themselves to the circuit board pins. About £100 work with parts(if the plugs are available.) so ive got a lovely retro skyleader box in pristine condition for sale ready to be converted to 2.4 gig or whatever it is now. gonna stick to my futaba and hitech for now. does anyone know of a buyer? pity about that, i learnt to fly on a clubman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gangster Posted September 5, 2016 Share Posted September 5, 2016 With regards the meter Peter. It wasn't too bad at all and quite useful. Although it read RF voltage at the base of the aerial and was as you say all or nothing it gave a valuable indication of battery voltage. With the aerial up and the case held in the normal way the meter read almost full scale. If the battery voltage fell the RF output went down proportionally and so did the needle. Good luck and black bin liner needed if you chose to ignore it IMHO probably a much more meaningful indication of the state of affairs than the voltage shown on the lcd display of a modern radio Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Green Posted September 5, 2016 Share Posted September 5, 2016 Posted by thunderstreak.keith on 15/07/2016 07:25:06: When I saw in the mag about all these conversions I thought it was a simple thing of just buying a 2.4 tranny and taking all the bits out and putting it inside the set to be converted. Didnt realise you had to be an electronics wizard. You dont Keith, conversions are easy. Even a complete refit is a straightforward project. There are six examples of Skyleader conversions in this thread: **LINK** Cheers Phil Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Green Posted December 8, 2016 Share Posted December 8, 2016 Any progress Keith? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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