While flying are any changes made on the Master Tx instantly transferred to the Slave Tx for the student?

[JohnnyB]

Hi everyone,
If I may, I’d like to pose a question about wireless ‘buddy boxing’ using,in this case, 2 Spektrum DX6 Tx’s.
I have set up my ‘master’ Tx to use the Pilot Link Master so that it is unnecessary to have any programming in the ‘slave’ Tx. This is because all the programming in the master Tx,with Pilot Link Master, is directly transferred over after setting up as required, and the slave Tx is bound to the Master.
But my question is, if once flying and the instructor changes anything on the master, ie any of the trim settings etc, will they be directly transferred, so that when ‘student has control’ these ‘new’ trim settings will be instantly effective through the slave Tx. Or, to make them effective, does it require the 2 Tx’s to be rebound again to register those new trim changes.
Also, how can you check to see if those small trim changes have transferred over as they will be physically shown on the screen of the master, but not the slave Tx.
Hoping this all makes sense.

Edited By JohnnyB on 10/10/2020 09:36:57

Edited By JohnnyB on 10/10/2020 09:38:33

Edited By JohnnyB on 10/10/2020 09:38:59

[MattyB]

I don’t use Spektrum, but every buddy system I’ve ever used just uses the sticks and switches on the slave as “Dumb” inputs. What I mean by that is those values are what comes from the slave to the master with no additional information, then they are used as replacement inputs for the sticks and switches on the master. Everything else (rates, mixes, trim, alerts etc) is then applied to those inputs by the master before the signal is transmitted to the model from the master. Nothing is transferred back from the master to the slave; any changes in trim, rates etc are made on and stay in the master. Given you state there is no setup on the slave I would say it is almost certainly working like this.

If you want the same setup on the master when they are ready to fly solo that will need to be transferred across and will sit in a different model memory. You’ll also need to rebind the RX to the slave TX of course.

Edited By MattyB on 10/10/2020 10:23:08

[JohnnyB]

Thank you so much MattyB. That’s a really great answer. Very well explained. Thank you again.

Kindest Regards,

JohnnyB.

[Peter Jenkins]

I seem to remember that Spectrum Tx were originally JR ones and so I'm surprised at your statement Matty. On my JR Tx I have the option of using the Master Tx as the primary Tx at all times so that when the Buddy switch is activated only the Slave Tx sticks positions are read. There is another mode whereby the Slave Tx must have the model memory being used set up for the model in question. When the Master Tx passes control to the Slave then all the Slave Tx settings come live so that rates and trim can be altered by the Slave.

It is always possible that Spectrum has gone the way you describe Matty but with JR, and others makes I think, there are those 2 modes of operation.

[Richard Ashworth]

As I understand it any stick trim settings put in on the slave tx come across IN ADDITION to the settings on the master

I thought the slave setup should be a basic setup with no trims.

As mixes, and switch settings are always as set on the master it makes sense to have ALL settings on it.

The base setup on the slave can then be used against any planes settings on the Master, you don’t need multiple slave planes set up on the Tx used as a slave.

Edited By Richard Ashworth on 12/10/2020 09:00:29

Edited By Richard Ashworth on 12/10/2020 09:01:43

[MattyB]

Posted by Peter Jenkins on 12/10/2020 00:09:46:

I seem to remember that Spectrum Tx were originally JR ones and so I'm surprised at your statement Matty.

They were originally, but they haven't been based on JR for many, many years now. Certainly the software has all been developed in house for at least 10-15 years (the lead developer Andy Kunz is very active on RCGroups), so it's highly unlikely there will be any JR code in the DX6s he is using (they came out ~5 years ago).

EDIT - It does appear Spektrum offer both wireless trainer options on the TX in questions, see my post below.

Posted by Peter Jenkins on 12/10/2020 00:09:46:

...On my JR Tx I have the option of using the Master Tx as the primary Tx at all times so that when the Buddy switch is activated only the Slave Tx sticks positions are read. There is another mode whereby the Slave Tx must have the model memory being used set up for the model in question. When the Master Tx passes control to the Slave then all the Slave Tx settings come live so that rates and trim can be altered by the Slave.

That may be the case for your TX, I don't know - like I said I have not used every system out there . All the ones I have (Mpx, Frsky and an ancient Hitec Prism in the 90s) worked as I describe though. Anyway, the OP stated there was no setup at all on the slave TX in his specific instance, so I am confident my answer is correct in his case.

Edited By MattyB on 12/10/2020 11:26:08

[Bob Cotsford]

Could it be that trim needs to be included to allow for differences in stick calibration between the two sets? Without that there can be differences in the way the master set interprets the zero position of it's own and the slave sticks.

[MattyB]

Posted by Richard Ashworth on 12/10/2020 08:59:28:

As I understand it any stick trim settings put in on the slave tx come across IN ADDITION to the settings on the master

I thought the slave setup should be a basic setup with no trims.

As mixes, and switch settings are always as set on the master it makes sense to have ALL settings on it.

The base setup on the slave can then be used against any planes settings on the Master, you don’t need multiple slave planes set up on the Tx used as a slave.

Yep, that is definitely the most sensible way of doing it. Having checked it does seem like Spektrum give two options though as Peter suggested above - from the DX6 manual...

Programmable Master
Programmable mode enables you to program the master transmitter to transfer any or all individual channels when you activate the trainer switch. This mode is ideal for beginners learning to control individual channels while the master transmitter maintains control of all other channels. The slave transmitter should be in Inhibit mode, if available. The Master and Slave transmitters MUST have the same programming.

Pilot Link Master
Pilot Link Master enables you to program the master transmitter to transfer any or all individual channels when you activate the trainer switch. Pilot Link Master is ideal for complex models, as the master transmitter maintains control of all secondary functions, such as flight modes, retracts, flaps and brakes. Secondary functions can be individually assigned to the Slave transmitter as necessary. It is not necessary to have model programming in the slave transmitter.

Personally I can't see any real world advantage to using the former option (there are plenty of disadvantages), but there you go!

[Engine Doctor]

I can only speak for Futaba gear, FF 9 .No changes made to the master are passed on to the slave tx.. For this reason I alway test fly the model and land it. Then set the slave so that all movements are identical and no changes occur when the buddy switch is used. The slave can now be used as is or controls softened with exponential for novice flyers on the slave Tx. The Master TX can be switched to high or low rates without affecting the slave tx ,this gives the instructor the extra control needed to recover a model when needed. An extra bonus is that computer master tx's can be set to any mode independently from the slave allowing a instructor who fly's on say mode one to teach a student who has already been taught on mode two, so no coding out of teaching on the old mode excuse.

[kc]

I think we are talking here about using a DX6 Tx that has a Rx built in to allow wireless buddy system, ( where the slave is bound to the master's internal Rx) so mention of any other radio system is not helpful!

The answer to the original question could be found by a practical test - on the ground of course. Putting the trims on one way out then checking if the model is still correct should surely answer the question.

Simple practical  test would be best,  but perhaps the question was raised because he doesn't have both Tx to hand.

Edited By kc on 12/10/2020 13:18:58