Gary Warner
Apr 03, 2007, 02:26 PM
Now in our 6th month of sales, we would like to say thank you for all the orders. We've blown through the first 1000 PCB's and ordering more now, though we still have about 140 units left before the new boards come in.
Now for the "news":
In the past we had been saying that the use of Futaba connectors would need you to use an adaptor to a plug style that didn't use the Futaba 'extra blade' on the side of the plug. Now (and for many months) we have been using thinner housings that allow the direct use of Futaba servo plugs. At the Weatherford Swap Meet we used Futaba connectors exclusively to show that they are working well.
So, if you have looked at our product and documents in the past and understood the difficulties in using Futaba’s style plugs, you may want to take a second look. Futaba is making great gains in the market, especially in high-end equipment and of course we couldn't afford to continue to exclude easy use of their servos and battery packs.
Also, I don't know if we had the 2 minute video up on the web for the original announcement, but it's there. The video shows the operations in all of the modes.
Finally, as a result of having a presence at several shows (Perry Southeastern Swap Meet and Weatherford TX swap meet) we have learned some new 'reasons' to have a YTV Servo Cycler and Driver:
A guy at the show says he bought a new servo at the LHS to replace a bad one. He get's home and finds the new servo bad. A second trip to the LHS and he finally gets a good servo. He said that if he had one of these in his pocket, he'd never had to make the second trip, which cost him nearly as much as the YTV Servo Cycler and Driver.
Someone at the show said that they keep a dedicated transmitter and receiver on his bench to setup new planes. I asked him if he ever knocked the transmitter off the work bench. He said yes. I then picked up one of our cyclers, tossed it head-high in the air and let it hit the ground. Picked it up and it works fine and nothing broke loose. He bought one.
Another guy shows up with a E-Sky driver and asked why he needs one of mine. I picked up two JR DS368 digital servos and asked him to use his E-Sky driver and tell me which one is bad. After 30 seconds trying to remember which way the battery and servo were to plug in, he checked them. Both seemed to work well. I pick the one I know is good and it runs fine, from .9ms to 2.1ms. I hook up the bad one. With it, in one direction, ANY movement past 1ms towards .9ms and the servo runs away to its mechanical limits. Asked him which servo he wanted to install. He bought our driver.
Footnote to the above story: The bad JR DS368 was one I found bad in my personal stock. Since it was a matter of showing a problem just outside of 1ms, I was worried that some how our driver was not compatible with this servo. We rushed down to the LHS where the owner was kind enough to let us check 3 new DS368's he had on the shelf. To our relief, all of them worked just fine. So, I opened the DS368 to see what was going on. I off-loaded the gear train and found that the potentiometer was not centered. That made sense since the servo was going off the end in one direction. So, I use our driver in the center mode, move the pot until the motor stops, then replace the gears. Checked it again and still the same problem. I re-opened the servo and again removed the gears and noted that the screwdriver slot on the pot was not strait front to back, but sitting at about 20 degrees off of center. The shaft on the pot does NOT use the 'D' shape to guarantee mechanical center but instead uses a spine gear, where the output shaft can be put onto the pot in any number of positions. The LHS owner was perplexed why JR would do this. Then it hit me. These are DIGITAL servos and having a perfect pot centering is not needed. Just get close to center, mechanically center the servo arm and 'teach' the servo that 'that' position is center. It saves JR in being to use cheaper pot (owing to not needing a 'D' shaft) and it speeds up production. If the pot had been centered when they programmed it, it would not go bad at its limits. Digital doesn't always mean better.
Another guy who was at a large flying meet last year said he couldn't get a plane of his fixed (broken servo) at the field because of a large transmitter impound and a busy frequency board. He said he wished he's had one of these in his flight box.
There's even a guy in Arizona who's building a full-scale self-designed recreation class airplane and is using the driver to run a throttle servo on the engine’s carb. I hope he's not reading this, because I have to say (as I told him) I think he's NUTS using this in a real plane. I fly full-scale and NOTHING made for RC would ever be used in a plane I'm in to control something as important and the engine throttle. I can see the FAA Crash Report now...
Anyway, here's a link to the YTV Servo Cycler & Driver (http://www.york-electronics.com). It's still only $20 + $3 shipping in the US.
Gary Warner
York Electronics
--
Now for the "news":
In the past we had been saying that the use of Futaba connectors would need you to use an adaptor to a plug style that didn't use the Futaba 'extra blade' on the side of the plug. Now (and for many months) we have been using thinner housings that allow the direct use of Futaba servo plugs. At the Weatherford Swap Meet we used Futaba connectors exclusively to show that they are working well.
So, if you have looked at our product and documents in the past and understood the difficulties in using Futaba’s style plugs, you may want to take a second look. Futaba is making great gains in the market, especially in high-end equipment and of course we couldn't afford to continue to exclude easy use of their servos and battery packs.
Also, I don't know if we had the 2 minute video up on the web for the original announcement, but it's there. The video shows the operations in all of the modes.
Finally, as a result of having a presence at several shows (Perry Southeastern Swap Meet and Weatherford TX swap meet) we have learned some new 'reasons' to have a YTV Servo Cycler and Driver:
A guy at the show says he bought a new servo at the LHS to replace a bad one. He get's home and finds the new servo bad. A second trip to the LHS and he finally gets a good servo. He said that if he had one of these in his pocket, he'd never had to make the second trip, which cost him nearly as much as the YTV Servo Cycler and Driver.
Someone at the show said that they keep a dedicated transmitter and receiver on his bench to setup new planes. I asked him if he ever knocked the transmitter off the work bench. He said yes. I then picked up one of our cyclers, tossed it head-high in the air and let it hit the ground. Picked it up and it works fine and nothing broke loose. He bought one.
Another guy shows up with a E-Sky driver and asked why he needs one of mine. I picked up two JR DS368 digital servos and asked him to use his E-Sky driver and tell me which one is bad. After 30 seconds trying to remember which way the battery and servo were to plug in, he checked them. Both seemed to work well. I pick the one I know is good and it runs fine, from .9ms to 2.1ms. I hook up the bad one. With it, in one direction, ANY movement past 1ms towards .9ms and the servo runs away to its mechanical limits. Asked him which servo he wanted to install. He bought our driver.
Footnote to the above story: The bad JR DS368 was one I found bad in my personal stock. Since it was a matter of showing a problem just outside of 1ms, I was worried that some how our driver was not compatible with this servo. We rushed down to the LHS where the owner was kind enough to let us check 3 new DS368's he had on the shelf. To our relief, all of them worked just fine. So, I opened the DS368 to see what was going on. I off-loaded the gear train and found that the potentiometer was not centered. That made sense since the servo was going off the end in one direction. So, I use our driver in the center mode, move the pot until the motor stops, then replace the gears. Checked it again and still the same problem. I re-opened the servo and again removed the gears and noted that the screwdriver slot on the pot was not strait front to back, but sitting at about 20 degrees off of center. The shaft on the pot does NOT use the 'D' shape to guarantee mechanical center but instead uses a spine gear, where the output shaft can be put onto the pot in any number of positions. The LHS owner was perplexed why JR would do this. Then it hit me. These are DIGITAL servos and having a perfect pot centering is not needed. Just get close to center, mechanically center the servo arm and 'teach' the servo that 'that' position is center. It saves JR in being to use cheaper pot (owing to not needing a 'D' shaft) and it speeds up production. If the pot had been centered when they programmed it, it would not go bad at its limits. Digital doesn't always mean better.
Another guy who was at a large flying meet last year said he couldn't get a plane of his fixed (broken servo) at the field because of a large transmitter impound and a busy frequency board. He said he wished he's had one of these in his flight box.
There's even a guy in Arizona who's building a full-scale self-designed recreation class airplane and is using the driver to run a throttle servo on the engine’s carb. I hope he's not reading this, because I have to say (as I told him) I think he's NUTS using this in a real plane. I fly full-scale and NOTHING made for RC would ever be used in a plane I'm in to control something as important and the engine throttle. I can see the FAA Crash Report now...
Anyway, here's a link to the YTV Servo Cycler & Driver (http://www.york-electronics.com). It's still only $20 + $3 shipping in the US.
Gary Warner
York Electronics
--