4PK Setups, Tips, Tricks and Help

[Brandon]

Originally Posted by whoodie

So we are talking 8th scale here? How long was everything running before failsafe was entered? Any specifics on the vehicle (heat sources near the Rx box)? Ambient conditions?

Yes, 1/8th scale. Just asked an XRAY driver, when it happened to him it was over 100 outside, and the RX was inside a sealed box, inside the body with no air flow over it. I imagine it was cooking

[whoodie]

Originally Posted by Brandon

Yes, 1/8th scale. Just asked an XRAY driver, when it happened to him it was over 100 outside, and the RX was inside a sealed box, inside the body with no air flow over it. I imagine it was cooking

I am curious if it was the Rx generating too much heat (maybe 18 Watts (6V, 3A)) or an external heat source (Engine, etc...) or a combination of the two. Perhaps a cleverly placed heat shroud (read: aluminum tape) would have cured the problem.

[oldhippie]

OK I just reread this whole thing again and the question has been asked twice and never answered so I'm guessing it can't be done BUT_
Is there a way to set the mix % wheels so they only go 0 to 100 rather than -120 to +120. It really is a pain to stop and look every time ya spin the wheel. I really want to start using the wheels a lot but am afraid of the reverse penalty and the time lost stopping and resetting them back to 100.
I was gonna try and put a stop on the dial but it is not constant. It really defeats the usefulness of the mixing % feature for me not to be able to change on the fly with consistency.
I know I'm ham fist/brained but this could be easier. I'm really thinking of trying to drive sticks again, which I really sucked at.
I really am about the only person running a 4pk (leave alone futaba) around here. Help

[Harley]

Originally Posted by oldhippie

OK I just reread this whole thing again and the question has been asked twice and never answered so I'm guessing it can't be done BUT_
Is there a way to set the mix % wheels so they only go 0 to 100 rather than -120 to +120. It really is a pain to stop and look every time ya spin the wheel. I really want to start using the wheels a lot but am afraid of the reverse penalty and the time lost stopping and resetting them back to 100.
I was gonna try and put a stop on the dial but it is not constant. It really defeats the usefulness of the mixing % feature for me not to be able to change on the fly with consistency.
I know I'm ham fist/brained but this could be easier. I'm really thinking of trying to drive sticks again, which I really sucked at.
I really am about the only person running a 4pk (leave alone futaba) around here. Help

In what situation are you having a problem where you could be going to -120 and getting reverse?

There is no way to way to put a limit on that percentage as far as I am aware. I use the DT buttons for mixing because it is very easy to keep track of. I never find a situation when it is worth going lower that 70% rear mix though. I find +120 very useful though.

[oldhippie]

Originally Posted by Harley0706

In what situation are you having a problem where you could be going to -120 and getting reverse?

There is no way to way to put a limit on that percentage as far as I am aware. I use the DT buttons for mixing because it is very easy to keep track of. I never find a situation when it is worth going lower that 70% rear mix though. I find +120 very useful though.

There are spots where I just want to push the rear 10-30% to make the front grab/climb and them bump the rear up 80-100% and over. I also like to slow the rear to 10/20% on down/side hills rather than dragging all the way. It is also nice to use the % on uphill semi-digs. It is very easy to get into the -% playing around at 10-30%. Yes there are also spots where the front wants to spin down off the line when 120 on the rear or 80 on the front is helpful. I have the top wheel set on the front and the bottom wheel set on the rear. I'm not sure 120 is really any more that 100 at wot and it is kool to semi rear dig on the fly. I also use the DT buttons but they are kinda slow on the fly and ya really have to count the beaps/pushes too. I'll just keep practicing but it sure would be nice to have that control on the mix wheels without looking worrying. :-(

[wrightcs77]

Originally Posted by whoodie

I am curious if it was the Rx generating too much heat (maybe 18 Watts (6V, 3A)) or an external heat source (Engine, etc...) or a combination of the two. Perhaps a cleverly placed heat shroud (read: aluminum tape) would have cured the problem.

I would have to look and find the test, but I am pretty sure it has a video. IN a shoe box, hair dryer and a temp gun.

I believe they thermal at 142*, then go into fail safe until temps go down below 142*. They have tried heat tape, drilled radio boxes......you name it. It does not matter if it a Losi (where the rx is in the front of an 8th buggy) or a traditional radio box. It is not all rx's either, kind of a hit and miss thing. It does happen enough that a lot of drivers will not run Futaba and have gone to Spektrum, even though Spektrum is not as comfortable or adjustable.

The Starting Grid has a great thread on it, but not many people from here are probably on that site. I don't even know how you get access to the site, as I have been a member for a long time and it is a non-public site.

[hbj069]

might sound goofy but i run my futaba stuff on my losi 8 2.0 and on my 8T 2.0. I went to the losi lipo and a bec ( in the radio box) and it eliminated all those problems. I had jr 8711 all the way around and found them to be power hungry and creating thermals just as you described. i have 8 R603's and 604's and yes the thermal when put under big servo loads. You may also want to look at the 4pk settings in regards to digital vs analog and servo speed. the futabas are sensitive to the return rate of the faster servo and require some serious tuning.

Originally Posted by wrightcs77

I would have to look and find the test, but I am pretty sure it has a video. IN a shoe box, hair dryer and a temp gun.

I believe they thermal at 142*, then go into fail safe until temps go down below 142*. They have tried heat tape, drilled radio boxes......you name it. It does not matter if it a Losi (where the rx is in the front of an 8th buggy) or a traditional radio box. It is not all rx's either, kind of a hit and miss thing. It does happen enough that a lot of drivers will not run Futaba and have gone to Spektrum, even though Spektrum is not as comfortable or adjustable.

The Starting Grid has a great thread on it, but not many people from here are probably on that site. I don't even know how you get access to the site, as I have been a member for a long time and it is a non-public site.

[jfraymond]

can the PS1 be set so instead of clicking a Mix on/off with each click , that it is off when held down but turns back on when you let off the button?

[bcrofts]

Thanks Harley i love my 4pk

[Harley]

Originally Posted by jfraymond

can the PS1 be set so instead of clicking a Mix on/off with each click , that it is off when held down but turns back on when you let off the button?

Go in the Switch menu and on the far right side change the ALT to NOR or vice versa

Originally Posted by bcrofts

Thanks Harley i love my 4pk

No problem man!

[oSPANNERo]

Well, got my 4pk today and I must say it was a little bittersweet. I cracked the box tonight at work and started pouring over the manual and this thread getting the RX all setup for not only DIG but also four wheel steer! It was for this very reason I returned the 3PM I had bought not a week earlier. Everything went extreemly smoothly, the menus were a little confusing at first but with the help of this thread I got myself where I needed to go. *SWEET*

About 2 hours later I get home and get ready to install the R604FS into my pet project. Following the setup instructions from here: Front steer in CH1, ESC in CH2, DIG in CH3 and Rear steer in CH4. But wait... there seems to be something funny here... the remaining slot, which was intended for my BEC, is not tagged Batt as expected. Infact its tagged DSC which, according for the manual, is intended for operating the receiver directly, bypassing the radio. The Batt acutally shares a socket with CH4. This may mean that I can't run my BEC without some crazy wiresplicing. *BITTER*

This is really kinda dissapointing that Futaba would make their only 4 channel receiver that is compatible with the 4PK have this sort of issue. I know its not built for a crawler but I don't think its so crazy to imagine someone using all 4 channels *and* a BEC/Batt.

So the question becomes... can I put my BEC in the DSC socket anyways as long as I remove the orange (signal) wire or should I just hire an Electrical Engineer?

[whoodie]

Originally Posted by oSPANNERo

...can I put my BEC in the DSC socket anyways as long as I remove the orange (signal) wire...

Yes. I will verify this in an hour when I get home, unless Harley beats me to it

[oSPANNERo]

Originally Posted by whoodie

Yes. I will verify this in an hour when I get home, unless Harley beats me to it

I need a Smiley that does the bowing worship! Thanks for this, I really didn't want to have to cry myself to sleep tonight!

[whoodie]

Originally Posted by oSPANNERo

I need a Smiley that does the bowing worship! Thanks for this, I really didn't want to have to cry myself to sleep tonight!

Ok, I have my BEC (with the orange wire removed) in channel 2 since that is vacant. I suspect, that if you plugged in the BEC (with orange wire removed) into the DSC, that it would work just fine. Remember that all of the positives and negatives for all of the channels are common to each other, it is only the signal that is different.

[Harley]

I have to honestly say that I have never tried plugging my BEC into that port so I can't answer from experience. I would be interested to know your final result though so I know in the future

[oSPANNERo]

Wish I had a multimeter to check the pins... I am just worried that the DSC socket is actually isolated since it is meant to connect back to the reciever. Especially since when you read pg 123 where it tells you to turn on the power for both the TX and the RX when using the DSC connection. In that case the DSC socket would have to be isolated either on the RX or on the TX or both to prevent one power source from feeding back into the other, no?

[whoodie]

Originally Posted by oSPANNERo

Wish I had a multimeter to check the pins... I am just worried that the DSC is actually isolated since it is meant to connect back to the reciever. Especially since when you read pg 123 where it tells you to turn on the power for both the TX and the RX. So the DSC socket would have to be isolated either on the RX or on the TX or both to prevent one powersource from feeding back into the other, no?

You could use a "Y" connector on one of the servo leads. That would supply power and allow the servo to function correctly.

[engineerjoe]

Originally Posted by Neil76

You will set pmix1 and pmix2 as channel 3 as master and slave as channel 3 also. Then on one of them will be somewhere around 0 and -39 and the other @ 0 and +39. The only thing you need to be careful of is if you turn both switchs on at the same time it will want to swing the servo to a 78 endpoint position and use your 3 channel subtrim to make sure is centered before setting end points

I finally got around to trying this and it works great!!

Here's how to get a push button front dig on a Losi crawler or a MOA with dig switch:

1. Set PMIX1 or PMIX2 to the following settings:

UP: +22 (You can adjust this like an EPA to avoid hurting your servo)
DOWN: 0 (you may have to swap this with DOWN depending on how your dig servo is set up)
OFST: -100
MST: CH3
SLV: CH3
MXMD:MIX
TRIM: OFF


Then go in and set your preffered switch to PMIX1 (or PMIX2) and I have it set for NOR so it only engaged dig while the button is pressed.

[ROCKCAD]

nice thread harley very helpful

[swell searcher]

hey harley, any ideas why my HS-645MG is humming loudly in neutral? even when i go full lock, i can still hear it hum. i swapped back to my dx3r setup and it doesn't do this. on the 4pk, i have the rxsetup (?) set to normal with the C2 setup (604FS rx). on my mrc, ch 1 is the HS-645MG, ch 2 is a sidewinder micro, with the CC BEC in ch 3. the CC BEC is set to 6v from a 2-cell lipo. did i miss a setting for the analog servers or something else?