Flight School - RC Controls and Buddy Boxes

Do ALL RC control have built-in capability to

- plug in a slave buddy box ?

- act as both master or slave in a buddy-box set-up ?

- come with buddy box cable ?

- use a standard (uniform world-wide) socket & plug format for doing this training linkup ?

If not built-in, can they ALL be retrofitted to do so ?

If not, which makes should be avoided because they cannot be linked ?

Reply to
abracadabra
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Steve

abracadabra wrote:

No

Usually, if they have the trainer port at all.

No, none do that I am aware of.

No, every manufacturer is different, and generally only the same brand equipment can work together as master and slave. (Hitec and Futaba, plus the store brand from Tower Hobbies being the exceptions.)

No, it must be built in.

This isn't a brand issue so much as a model issue. The lowest end radios sometimes do not have the trainer port. Similarly, if you bought a very high end radio from a few years ago, you might have a 'DSC jack' that will allow your radio to be a slave, but not a master. (But that won't be a problem unless you are buying a rather old radio like my Futaba 9V series.)

My usual advise to anyone who is getting into this addiction and wants to know what radio to buy is: find out what your instructor uses. Some brands are more popular in some regions of the world/country. If you show up at the field with a brand new Futaba radio, and your club is

75% Airtronics and 20% JR, you will probably not find anyone to buddy-box with. (Don't bother asking how I know.) :)
Reply to
Steve

Can you recommend a model in price

- mid-range ?

- top-range ?

I'll use their feature set as a basis for local comparison.

Is the number of channels an up-front decision ?

Can additional Channels be added later ?

Thanks,

Eric

Reply to
abracadabra

Do ALL RC control have built-in capability to plug in a slave buddy box ? No, many lower-priced radios do not have the buddy box trainer port.

act as both master or slave in a buddy-box set-up ? No, some radios can only be used one way. Sorry, I don't know which ones.

come with buddy box cable ? None, to my knowledge.

use a standard (uniform world-wide) socket & plug format for doing this training linkup ? No. Hitec and JR use a standard mini plug. Futaba has used DIN plugs in the past, and is now using a rectangular plug.

If not built-in, can they ALL be retrofitted to do so ? No. Some simply don't have the internal electronics, and on ones that do, you'd need a schematic to do it. It will also void your warranty.

If not, which makes should be avoided because they cannot be linked ? Brands can not be mixed. Even some radios of the same brand can not be mixed. Futaba is notorious for this.

The best thing to do is go out to the field where you plan to fly. Look at the brands most others are flying. As said by another poster, if your club is predominately JR, and you buy a Futaba, you're out of luck. You do have the right to choose which brand radio you want to fly, regardless. If you want to fly a brand no one else has, you might consider buying your own buddy box. They are usually around $50-$100. If you buy a lower-priced radio, you could even buy two and use one for the buddy box, saving the flight pack for a future plane.

Dr1

Reply to
Dr1

Ted shuffled out of his cave and grunted these great (and sometimes not so great) words of knowledge:

I suggest getting whatever brand is used by the majority of the people at your flying field. Different brands are popular in different parts of the country.

Mid range covers just about all the major brands from 5 to 8 channel computer radios and one or two 9 channel computer radios.

EVO 12 channel, Futaba 14mhz

You are better off deciding how many channels above the basic 4 channels you will need and get a transmitter with that number of channels plus 1 or 2 additional. The MAJORITY of fliers never use more than 8 channels (actually it is more like 6 or 7 channels ). As far as features go, the major brands offer similar features.

Yes

No. There are a few exceptions where you can go from 3 channel to 4 channel, however, these are low end transmitters designed primarily for electrics.

Reply to
Ted Campanelli

Go visit the club you intend to learn at (if you do), if they all fly one brand of radio (my club is almost all futaba) then there is very little point buying a Sanwa as you won't be able to use the buddy lead facility unless you shell out for a slave box as well as your main tx.

You many even find someone who can sell you a used system as they have upgraded to the next model up.

I think the Multiplex Evo system you can do a combination of firmware updates that add channels and mechanically add the controls in, but generally what you buy is what your stuck with.

It the very least you should consider a basic 6 channel comnputer radio, the Futaba 6EXA (or 6XE) costs very little more than a non computerised system (thats $180 in Tower), whereas the non computer 6 channeler is $150, and the basic 4 channel is $130). As you are stuck with what you buy it may pay you to buy the better 6exa now than to have to trade up in a models or two's time. If you need any sort of mixing you need a computerised radio. (by mixing I mean an plane with twin Aileron servo's or a delta type tailless plane)

Reply to
Gavin

Thank you VERY much. Lots of good marching instructions there.

Eric

Reply to
abracadabra

Thank you for these helpful details.

Eric

Reply to
abracadabra

Thank you for these helpful details.

Eric

Reply to
abracadabra

NO

NO

NO

NO

NO

NONE

Reply to
seagull

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