[NSRCA-discussion] Futaba and pattern

Sat Dec 22 11:28:49 AKST 2007

Ron, that jus goes to show that there is not a lot of difference between golf and pattern flying!!
Jerry
Sounds like some young entropeneur otta git wif them n build up some new radioos for us ol fellas, and maybe udders.

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Ron Van Putte 
  To: NSRCA Mailing List 
  Sent: Saturday, December 22, 2007 2:11 PM
  Subject: Re: [NSRCA-discussion] Futaba and pattern

  My "local R/C electronic techie' responded after I forwarded the below e-mail to him.  Some of you may remember him; he's Curt Oberg, a pretty fair Pattern competitor himself.  He's what Curt said:

  "Ron, yep, the MP8K is alive and doing well.  A few days ago, a single stick was listed on eBay and the last bid was for $360.  Don’t know what it ended up being sold for.    As far as using the Futuba/Jr modules with the MP8K, lots of guys are doing that all ready.  The legality of using them on 72mhz has been widely discussed but many of the MP8K users have HAM licenses and operate on 6 meters so it’s not an issue for them.  A lot of them are also in use overseas.  Several of the MP8K owners have converted their systems to 2.4 gig and Dan Thompson in Kentucky is actively pursuing making it compatible with all the different versions.

  "As far as the comment that it would not be suitable for pattern because it’s only 256 resolution, I think that the resolution of the thumbs resting on the sticks is even lower than that,  certainly in my age group.  When I was working and still playing an occasional round of golf, I had a co-worker that was buying a new set of golf clubs after just taking up the game.  He shopped around, looking at different brands of golf clubs and one day he showed me a brochure of his final choice for a new set of clubs.  The brochure claimed that their clubs were dynamically balanced, harmonically tuned, perfectly fitted, etc. and I told him that I would never buy those clubs because it would reinforce the fact that I just suck at the game of golf every time I hit a bad shot, which was fairly often.

  Curt

  On Dec 22, 2007, at 11:27 AM, Ron Van Putte wrote:

    Yes, I remember now.  My local R/C electronic techie raved about your MicroStar encoder.

    Ron Van Putte

    On Dec 22, 2007, at 11:10 AM, Gordon Anderson wrote:

      Ron,

      There is a Yahoo email list and a good size group of subscribers, MP8K at yahoogroups.com. A fellow named Dan Thompson has has the MicroPro source code and has developed a few upgrades to the transmitter.
      You can see my developments at www.mstar2k.com. I designed and built an encoder that is similar to the MicroPro, I call it a MicroStar. Mine has 1024 resolution where the MicroPro is limited to 256. About 100 or so MicroStars have been built, its a pretty small group of electronics geeks. The Yahoo list caters to both groups.
      I have also designed a receiver and a few other items, all on my web site.

      --Gordon

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      From: nsrca-discussion-bounces at lists.nsrca.org [mailto:nsrca-discussion-bounces at lists.nsrca.org] On Behalf Of Ron Van Putte
      Sent: Saturday, December 22, 2007 8:30 AM
      To: NSRCA Mailing List
      Subject: Re: [NSRCA-discussion] Futaba and pattern

      I was talking with a local R/C electronic techie a couple of days ago. He built one of the Micropro systems years ago and he still uses it. Apparently there's a "support group" for these radios. There are repair and service items and even new "stuff" is available from a few sources via a url that I could find out, but didn't at the time. 

      Ron

      On Dec 22, 2007, at 8:16 AM, John Ferrell wrote:

        FWIW, I am with you all the way on this issue. 
        It is unfortunate that the Micropro was killed in its infancy. The auto trim feature seems like a no brainer to me.
        The rubber duck antenna was handy as well. 
        If the legal aspects would permit it I believe it might be practical to build a MicroPro type radio with Futaba and/or JR RF modules.
        Another neat feature it had was that you only needed to transmit the channels you were using. I cannot remember if that permitted a higher update rate for the servos.
        John Ferrell W8CCW
        "Life is easier if you learn to plow 
        around the stumps"
        http://DixieNC.US

          ----- Original Message ----- 
          From: Bob Richards 
          To: NSRCA Mailing List 
          Sent: Friday, December 21, 2007 5:56 PM
          Subject: Re: [NSRCA-discussion] Futaba and pattern

          Ok, my 2CW.
          I really like the idea of the USB connector. Hmmm, not a new idea, really, I could do that with my Ace Micropro back in 1992. Could save all the airplane programs onto computer disk via a serial port. Could pull up the program information on the computer and edit the values (although it was not a GUI interface, it was still nice).
          Another thing would be program independent buddy box capability. In other words, the slave transmitter need only to send the stick positions to the master radio. That information would then be applied to the program in the master radio. No need to make sure the slave and master radios are operating with the same program. Hmmm, again, not really a new idea, I could do that with the Micropro radio back in 1992. :-)
          Autotrim. Lets say you have just taken off with an airplane that is out of trim. Instead of fumbling around for multiple trim levers (or buttons) you just press one button and keep flying the plane straight and level. The autotrim function will apply trim changes automatically to any of the the three flight channels so that the sticks slowly move back to neutral. Again, the Micropro had that feature.
          I liked a lot of the features of the old Micropro radio, my big complaint was that it was only 256 resolution. That alone was reason not to use it in pattern.
          As for the 2.4 ghz using the internal antenna connection, that is not likely to happen on the old radios. I like the fact that I can swap the module with a 72 mhz module and not have to fumble with mounting an antenna with an external cable.
          I have flown Futaba for over 20 years, and have had good service. However, I wish there was better support/marketing in my area of the country. We had a huge fly-in last year (Fly-for-Tots) with over 200 registered pilots. Horizon/JR sent lots of stuff, including sponsered pilots to fly demos. Futaba did send a couple of flags and items for the raffle, but it was a hugh disparity with what Horizon/JR did. I am in a distinct minority in my club since most of the guys fly JR, so I caught a lot of crap as a result.
          Just my 2CW.
          Bob R.

          Derek Koopowitz <derekkoopowitz at gmail.com> wrote:
            Futaba is looking for some new product ideas for upcoming equipment and they are interested in seeing what ideas we all have for the pattern arena that could be new and inventive. This could be anything from updating current equipment to new product development. 
            If you could put some thoughts together in an email to me, I'll make sure that they're sent to Futaba USA's attention. I'll need to have this back no later than the end of the year!
            Thanks!
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