What radio and how many channels do i need?

[bigwig]

Ok ,so I'm looking for a radio and receiver for a GCM skeleton j2 and i need to know how many channels I need for throttle, steering, lights, winch, and a second servo to go on the steering wheel of the jeep body.

Also, I am wondering what it means when it says on a receiver the number of channels it has? Does that mean the number of plugs it has? ie: 3 channels does that mean 3 plugs? Or does it mean 3 plugs after the throttle and steering are plugged in?

So, what is the best radio and receiver for that?

Thank you very much. This forum has been a big help!

[k7zpj]

Originally Posted by bigwig

Ok ,so I'm looking for a radio and receiver for a GCM skeleton j2 and i need to know how many channels I need for throttle, steering, lights, winch, and a second servo to go on the steering wheel of the jeep body.

Also, I am wondering what it means when it says on a receiver the number of channels it has? Does that mean the number of plugs it has? ie: 3 channels does that mean 3 plugs? Or does it mean 3 plugs after the throttle and steering are plugged in?

So, what is the best radio and receiver for that?

Thank you very much. This forum has been a big help!

You can think of the channels on the RC radio like channels on a television set. Each channel carries different information and has to be kept separate for it to work. The receiver breaks down the signal it receives a splits out the channel information placing it on the control pin on the corresponding channel "plug" on the receiver.

A surface radio/receiver uses channel 1 for steering and then channel 2 for throttle. The use of the remaining channels are determined by the user.

Some items like light controllers that provide brake lights/tail lights and the servo for the steering wheel may not require a separate channel. While others like a winch controller will if you want to control it from your radio.

HeyOK in the vendor section has lots specialized controllers for lights and winches. I would browse his stuff to see it covers what you want to do.

Once you know what you want to do with what controllers and servos then you can figure out how many channels you need for your build.

I would also do some searching on how RC radios work to get a better idea of how things work and what radios are available.

[new2rocks]

K7 is spot on. With that said, I only buy radios with at least 3 channels so that I have at least one extra option on the transmitter. The hacked FlySky GT3C would be a good choice for what you're trying to do. It will actually support up to 6 channels (more than you'll need), performs well, is comfortable in hand, and is very reasonably priced. Helios RC (a vendor on RCC) sells them.

Enjoy - I love my little Skeleton!

[bigwig]

Thank you. That was very helpful. So do you think i will need a 4 channel radio/receiver?

[new2rocks]

Depending on how you want everything to work, you could conceivably do everything off of just a 2-channel radio with a wireless winch controller if you wanted and were willing to give up some flexibility in how you operate the lights and steering wheel servo. But 4 would be plenty, and 3 would be workable. That's where k7's advice is spot on. Read up on your options so that you can decide how you want it to work. That will then drive how many channels you decide to use.


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[bigwig]

new2rocks, I would like the steering wheel on the truck and on the radio to turn at the same time. I would like to get a hayok light controller and the rc4wd winch to be controlled from the radio. Or do you think it would just be easier to just get a separate rc4wd winch controller? So, how do you think I could make the steering wheel on the body and the servo on the frame turn at the same time? Also do I need both servos to be the same speed to look right?

[new2rocks]

There are a few different ways to wire up a steering wheel. Here's a thread that mentions a couple of options:
Two servo's on one channel - how to reverse one of them - RCCrawler

If you connect to the same channel as your steering servo as discussed in that thread, you may need to reverse the servo (also as discussed in that thread). If you want to be able to adjust end points for the steering wheel separately from the actual steering servo, you would need to add a separate end point adjustment module like the following:
https://www.servocity.com/html/180o_...l#.VmOk53o8KrU

Radios like the hacked FlySky that support 4WS would allow you to use a separate channel for the steering wheel and adjust that servo's operation (e.g., end points, reversing if necessary) directly through the radio. That type of setup also makes it a bit easier to run different voltage for the steering servo and steering wheel servo (which may be beneficial or even necessary depending on your choice of servos). That's an example of why k7 was suggesting to search and read up on the options so you can decide which way you want to go.

If you're relatively new to RC and this still sounds a bit complicated, my advice would be to take it in stages rather than trying to do it all at once. Start with the basics on a radio with 4 or more channels and then add gadgets in stages as you get a better understanding of how everything works and how you want your setup to work for you.

[losikid]

Originally Posted by bigwig

Ok ,so I'm looking for a radio and receiver for a GCM skeleton j2 and i need to know how many channels I need for throttle, steering, lights, winch, and a second servo to go on the steering wheel of the jeep body.

Also, I am wondering what it means when it says on a receiver the number of channels it has? Does that mean the number of plugs it has? ie: 3 channels does that mean 3 plugs? Or does it mean 3 plugs after the throttle and steering are plugged in?

So, what is the best radio and receiver for that?

Thank you very much. This forum has been a big help!

You need a channel for each thing you want to control. Traditionally steering is channel 1 and throttle is channel 2. Then channel 3 and up is for auxiliary control

Originally Posted by new2rocks

K7 is spot on. With that said, I only buy radios with at least 3 channels so that I have at least one extra option on the transmitter. The hacked FlySky GT3C would be a good choice for what you're trying to do. It will actually support up to 6 channels (more than you'll need), performs well, is comfortable in hand, and is very reasonably priced. Helios RC (a vendor on RCC) sells them.

Enjoy - I love my little Skeleton!

8 channels actually

I also sell them...

Originally Posted by bigwig

new2rocks, I would like the steering wheel on the truck and on the radio to turn at the same time. I would like to get a hayok light controller and the rc4wd winch to be controlled from the radio. Or do you think it would just be easier to just get a separate rc4wd winch controller? So, how do you think I could make the steering wheel on the body and the servo on the frame turn at the same time? Also do I need both servos to be the same speed to look right?

The GT3B/C has a 4ws mix. You could mix the steering channel to another one so two channels get the same signal. Instead of using the second channel as the rear steering you could also hook it up to the steering wheel servo so the wheel spins. The advantage of this is that you have full adjustment of that channel. So you can limit how far it spins, reverse the direction or adjust/trim the center point if you need to.

If you choose another radio that doesn't have mixing or enough channels to do this, you could just use a Y cable to send the steering signal to both the steering and steering wheel servo's. But you may have to finagle with the hardware to get it working properly.

[bigwig]

The GT3B/C has a 4ws mix. You could mix the steering channel to another one so two channels get the same signal. Instead of using the second channel as the rear steering you could also hook it up to the steering wheel servo so the wheel spins. The advantage of this is that you have full adjustment of that channel. So you can limit how far it spins, reverse the direction or adjust/trim the center point if you need to.

So what your saying is I could just plug both servos into 2 different channels and control them at the same time? Just by turning the wheel on the radio? Instead of both servos into one channel? All with your radio? Thats awesome!

[losikid]

Originally Posted by bigwig

The GT3B/C has a 4ws mix. You could mix the steering channel to another one so two channels get the same signal. Instead of using the second channel as the rear steering you could also hook it up to the steering wheel servo so the wheel spins. The advantage of this is that you have full adjustment of that channel. So you can limit how far it spins, reverse the direction or adjust/trim the center point if you need to.

So what your saying is I could just plug both servos into 2 different channels and control them at the same time? Just by turning the wheel on the radio? Instead of both servos into one channel? All with your radio? Thats awesome!

Yes, that is what i am saying