Anxious to fly Reflex XTR, connector question!!

[Artemetra]

I just got a Reflex XTR from someone who got it for Christmas, and didn't really want it. I can't wait to try it, I am without a simulator and my helicopter cravings are giving me jitters. (Gave the RF G2 back to my father, who needs practice before he destroys a brand new Piper Cub - his first R/C model.)

My copy of XTR has a cable for a JR radio, I'd like to adapt to my Futaba 7ch - with rectangular plug. Can I simpy make a connector for the two wires and fly? Or is there more to it than just the wires? The JR audio connector is no problem, I have the parts including the Futaba-to-audio connector, and these diagrams: (maybe I can just plug it together?)

[max z]

From the Reflex website www.reflex-sim.de , look for the support>transmitter>connections menu:
The new Futaba series FF9/7/4 or 9C, 7C, 4C as well as the radio provided with the Kyosho Caliber M24 use a 6-pin square micro plug.
Technically, a very interesting plug BUT very difficult to get and very expensive.

[Artemetra]

Thanks for the link.

Hmmm. Well, I have the "very difficult to get" connector. Now it looks like I have to hack the pcb in the dongle. No problem, but too bad the arrows don't point more clearly to the components. I mean, look at those red arrows! Two of them point to... blank spaces. I will take a look inside and see if it's more obvious.

[max z]

Two of them point to... blank spaces
The way I understand that is that's where the coponents WERE! And they all point to blank spaces...
Max.

[Basketcase]

Max is right, all four arrows point to empty spaces. That is a pic showing which componenets to remove from the old interface if you are having problems. The newer interfaces look just like the pic and have the blank spaces where indicated.

Why hack the pc board? Just put a phone plug on the other end of the cable?
One wire goes to the second connector and the other to the bottom connector is the board is positioned as in the pic above. You could use a phone extension cord and just put the Futaba plug on the other end.

Wayne

[Artemetra]

Thanks. Yep, I see what you mean. (It had looked to me as though those solder pads were 0603 SMD components.)

The instructions say that you need to remove these because of an impedance matching problem 'cuz Futaba changed something on the 7c radios.

I'll let you know how it turns out as I'm off to tear mine apart.

Okay, here's what happened: (It works! Remember I have a Futaba 7c) Thanks for the help. I did have to take the dongle apart - difficult to do, because it's glued. Split the two halves apart by pushing against a vise with a screwdriver in the joint, pushed it from front to back to split each side. (It's ugly.) Next remove the four components as in the picture.

Then cut off the JR plug (audio style plug), and connect the two wires to the back of a Futaba square plug, (actually rectangular) and bridge the one contact as shown. Note the white wire and brown wire positions. The wiring in the Futaba square plug comes connected in two other positions, you have to take them both off, and forget about how they went - do it like the picture. (I used the extra plug from dad's RF G2 sim, they give you a Futaba-to-JR adapter.) Above advice was good, could have spliced to a telephone plug - RJ11 style I think.

Next is setting up the transmitter, (tricky!) but I mostly have it now. Only thing left is to get a better computer. Mine runs fine in a small window, (~90 frames/p/s), but only on the Reflex field, not the photoreal fields. Lower frame rates give stuttering. One thing about the demo - it is not the same as the sim. If the demo runs at 30 fps, it does not mean the sim will run the same, mine is slower.

[Artemetra]

Adding a little more news, as this might help those searching for info on hooking up a 7c, 7chp, 7cap radio to Reflex XTR - the above fixes work fine. And I've learned one other little thing - the jumper that goes between pins 4 and 5 (if you count clockwise, starting from the white wire), does not stop the transmitter from sending signal out throught the antenna. I tried it with and without, and I could still control a model on the floor even with the jumper in place. So I still remove my crystal to save battery life during simulator use.

The Reflex sim is great, and having now tried RF G2, AFPD, and XTR, my opinion is that XTR is the best for helicopters when it comes to physics - but only slightly if any better than RF G2. G2 has better sound, imo, and some other details are really nice. I suspect G3 improves things even more. For planes, they all have their good and bad features, but the planes in AFPD are really neat, and they have some good little foamies, excellent for 3D. Well modelled, physics-wise.