I'm starting this thread for those who own a dx18 radio and would like to share usefull information about it. If you found a way to program something post here. I will be posting setup files for a few of my planes I'm currently switching over to the dx18. Most are warbirds with retracts so I'll be playing with the sequencer a lot. I hope Andy from the dev team at SPEK chimes in here ones in a while. Aboslutely NO TROLLING please, I ask respectfully.

DX18 SPM files.
I will try to keep this updated as much as I can. Please use these files at your own risk, review them before you go flying.

If I miss something, PM me to answer!

Andy

I have a question, I'm not that knowledgable with mixes and the sequencer. As you may know on the P-51 while the engine was off there was no hydraulic pressure making the bay doors drop. Once the engine was stared the bay door where retracted with the landing gear down. Would there be a way to program this in on the dx18? So what I'd like is, when engine is off (0% throttle) the bay doors would be down, as soon as there is any throttle bay doors should close but landing gear stays down. Then when you want landing gear up or down the normal sequence starts.

A mix with the throttle position as trigger sounds like it would work. Having that mix on the gear switch when retracted.

So when you have hear down that mix is INH so throttling up for take off won't screw you but once in the air and gear retracted, that throttle triggered mix would come into play.

Why did you have to ask prior to me getting mine.

Originally Posted by freechip

A mix with the throttle position as trigger sounds like it would work. Having that mix on the gear switch when retracted.

So when you have hear down that mix is INH so throttling up for take off won't screw you but once in the air and gear retracted, that throttle triggered mix would come into play.

Why did you have to ask prior to me getting mine.

Ok, I'll try it when I get home after work. Did you mean have the mix active when gear is down though right?

Depends on how you see it working. I see retracts as retracted when the gear is up in the belly so gear down for me means the gear is out of the belly.

You don't want your mix to be active when the gear is down and on the ground. But since it's already down it wouldn't matter. You want the mix to be active when you retracted the gear in the belly.
Anytime your flying and move move to zero throttle the gear drops simulating lost of pressure.

Originally Posted by freechip

Depends on how you see it working. I see retracts as retracted when the gear is up in the belly so gear down for me means the gear is out of the belly.

You don't want your mix to be active when the gear is down and on the ground. But since it's already down it wouldn't matter. You want the mix to be active when you retracted the gear in the belly.
Anytime your flying and move move to zero throttle the gear drops simulating lost of pressure.

So maybe I did explain what I want to achieve. I'd like to program a mix that is only active while the gear is down (plane on the ground). With 0% throttle I'd like the sequencer to be inactive (meaning bay doors open), with anything over 0% throttle I'd like the sequencer to take over (bay door closed, ready for takeoff).

Oh ok now I understand. When gear is down on the ground, gear doors are closed, they open to let gear retract then close again.

So yes in this case you got it right. You want it active when gear is down on the ground and throttle is at zero. When you throttle up door close simulating hydraulic pressure.

Should be fairly simple. Just create a door mix open with throttle at low position and mix active with gear switch in the position you have it selected for your gear down.

Originally Posted by Shadrack

Good idea Minimog.
Background noise is much less.
I wish the DX18 came with more manual, so will have to depend on playing around and forums.

Yes, I'd like to keep this as close to the point as possible. I didn't think the manual is great either, but I understand it would be very hard to explain the features in depth. Thankfully we have forums like this one to share info so we can all benefit. I'm fairly new to the hobby (about 3 years), I'm mainly a helicopter pilot which is why I don't have much experience with mixes and that sort off think. I've been getting into warbirds because I like the way they look and so I'd like to learn all about mixes and the new sequencer. The dx18 in my opinion is the nicest radio with a ton of features that will make any scale airplane out there even better. $799 is a bargain compared to others. So let's share as much as possible here

Originally Posted by Minimog

I'm mainly a helicopter pilot, but I've been getting into warbirds becaus I like the way they look. The dx18 in my opinion is the nicest radio with a tone of features that will make any scale airplane out there even better. $799 is a bargain compared to others. So let's share as much as possible here

That great to hear that you are a helicopter pilot. I just got started in helicopters about two months ago. I have two MCXs and a Blade 120 SR and have been flying them with the RTF radio. My DX18 should arrived at my LHS in two weeks. Also, I have a Blade 130X on order. I took up helicopters in hopes to prevent alzheimer's creeping into my brain. I will be seventy this August and still feel like a little kid with my choppers and my new DX18 coming soon. The nice thing about this forum is whatever the manual doesn't cover, we have Andy and others to help out.

Bob

Couldn't agree more with you on having Andy here as a resource! If you ever need any help with heli related stuff you're more than welcome to send me a pm. If there is however a question on how to set one up on a DX18 please post here. I will be getting the 130X as well so I'll post my setup file here when I get it.

Just found how to remove the please register message that appears when you turn the radio on or off. Register your radio on http://community.spektrumrc.com and download airware version 1.00, even though it's the exact same one that came with the radio it will remove the "please register" message from your DX18.

Here is my H9 Twin Otter setup. It is somewhat basic and of course you may have to twitch your reverse/travels a bit but it should be pretty close. I have not taken a scale out to measure the exact travels yet.

It gives scale-like flap postitions of 10, 20, 30, and 40 degrees. I am not sure if the real one is 40 or 37.5, I have read both and it is too long since I did a Routine Inspection to remember. (I never really worked on them a lot).

The aileron doop and elevator offset reach targets a bit sooner than flaps on the way down but are co-ordinated on the way up. I just wanted to see what it looked like but matched speeds on both ways may be the best. I'm not sure though. Now that I am familiar with how to do it I can quickly land and try a different setting.

It has aileron diff and mixed to rudder for x-wind. Also diff thrust; I will have to try it and see if it is the right amount or not.

Watch out for the elevator servos, I think I have them plugged into the opposite channels so you may reverse a different one than I did. This was neccessary because of the way they constructed the tail. The other option would be one reversed servo and you could save a channel with a Y cord but they seem to be scarce in that size. There would actually be a disadvantage to that anyway since you can't tweak the Sub-Trim individually which may be handy for fine tuning.

I won't garantee the Flap System will work as-is for you since it depends on where your servo arm is in relation to neutral, it is just what made it right for my plane when I simply unplugged the 7 channel rx and the setup that was there for the DX7.

If somebody does some fine tuning on this please re-post so I can check it out too.

Correct me if I'm wrong, only thing I have to do to load this into my radio is rename the file to 02Acro.spm

Originally Posted by Minimog

Correct me if I'm wrong, only thing I have to do to load this into my radio is rename the file to 02acro.spm

That's right.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot. This is the file that I changed the switch priority positions so that POS 0, and 1 are the "Master" positions of my primary switch.

I suggest you do not visit the F-Mode setup page or I suspect it will revert back to POS 0 and POS 2 as the "Master" positions.