The Crazyness just began.

After giving a heavy Lipo dose to the TX, Its now getting a little brother along with it .

Wish me good luck Brothers!  

Hmmm, don't see the point.  It is already 2.4Ghz, and the recievers are not that expensive (or are they)

1.1K vs 3.? K. Airtronics RXs not worth for foamies and 450 Helis.  

I just got a PM asking if Assan can be used on nitro planes. Here is my answer so that it can be helpfull to others as well.

No Idea for bigger plane. But I have seen ON THE NET that people are using it on 50 sized nitros w/o problems. But think of it, If you are putting it on any bigger plane say 90 sized which could have costed a good 30K, would you leave the safety on such cheap Assan receiver??? 

I would not do that. I am as of now limiting it to foamies and under 500 sized electric helis  . For any model costlier than 10 to 15 K I would go for Airtronics receiver.

OK Guys. Got a step ahead. I connected the RDS8000 to the assan hack using the trainer port. So how good is it? Read on.

First I connected the assan through the trainer port and switched it on. There was a huge beep from the module and it initialized. Next I binded the RX, which was fairly simple and happens in 5 seconds.

Tried some servos and it worked well. No jitters and complete movement. What I was worried was how well the Servos centered! This may not be a very important for foamies, but for a leveled swash plate I bet it is!!!

The swash plate was initially leveled using my Airtronics 7 channel RX and 2 CCPM Mixes. Now I replaced it with a Assan 7channel RX and well what? I had to center the servos again!

Thats it. Moved the swash to -10 degrees. all fine. Moved the swash to +10 degrees and I noted that it was not level. I switched off one of the CCPM mix and voila It worked like a charm.

Not only The servos centered PERFECT as well as I switched OFF a CCPM mix which was required by airtronics RX. So servo movement wise I felt the ASSAN RX was better than my Airtronics RX. COOOOOL!  

I havent fixed the Hack inside yet as I had to make this tests. I will fix it inside this weekend as If I open the TX and start drilling holes I cant fly this sunday. So it should be a 1 shot work.

Pics explain more.

Just finished it. Photos explain everything.

1)Drilling holes.

2)Hack antenna and switch connected.

3)A soldering helping hand really helps

4)Hack module Velcrod and ready to go in.
 

1)The TX module in place before closing. Note that there was a LED on the hack module. I cut it off and transfered it to the top right in the photo.
Also If you see that the ASSAN hack is placed on the left since the Airtronics module is in the Right bottom (below the board). Also the wire is guided through a different path than the airtronics so as to reduce the interference what so ever.

2)TX is now ready to use. The Assan LED is the on the top LEFT (Green colour) It is glued there by hot melt glue.

3)Top view

4)Antenna folded

Connectivity and Power Consumption.

How to connect:

1)The Red wire on the trainer port is +ve voltage. Connect it to Assan hack module red wire through the switch.

2)The brown wire on the trainer port is ground. Connect it to Assan hack module dark brown wire.

3)The black wire on the trainer port is PPM signals. Connect it to the Assan hack module light brown (Orangish) wire through the switch.

As of now Iam not able to track PPM signal on the board. So I have provided a switch just to switch off and on ASSAN hack only. Airtronics will always be on.

Power consumptions:

The images display everything. Ya I agree I had to do all sort of naughty connections to connect my watt meter in series. So I used a heli battery to power the TX.

My Rhino 3S lipo takes in a charge of 2800+ mah.

Considering that the Airtonics module used alone I get a back up of 2.8/0.18 = 15.5 Hours.
Along with Assan module = 2.8/0.22 = 12.7 + Hours.

Thats quite a task.

Photos:

1)Weird way of connecting battery to TX through watt meter.  

2)Maximum recorded amps of TX using Only Airtronics.

3)Maximum recorded amps of TX using Airtronics and Assan Together.

4)My room a living mess after this project.  

Hope this effort will be helpful to someone some day.  

 

Hats off to you man

Keep it up 




Sanjay

Thanks Sanjay.

BTW the time taken to think /design/ drill/ solder/ fix etc = 5 hours.

http://www.google.co.in/search?hl=en&source=hp&q=assan+rds+8000&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=

Hi Guys,

Here is the link to my ASSAN Hack Conversion !!!

http://is.gd/2a4RM

Enjoy !!!

Cheers
Saurabh.

Congrats Vinay!! you finally did it!! do post the link on other worldwide forums and get RCI more traffic!!

One little advice. See if you can port the LED of the Assan Tx module on the front panel of the TX... it would make much sens as you can readily see if the module is on or not.

I already did this yesterday, but not keeping in mind to get more traffic to RCI. I had got a lot of support from those sites to create this hack, but I was too lazy to upload all the photos and instructions there again.


This is already done yesterday itself. Chek out the green LED beside the LCD on the left on pic ASSAN RDS 8000 6.jpg above.  

Ohh I didn't notice Vinay. Hey any plan to switch off the RDS Tx module in the future ? I know it would be like open heart surgery, but I flutter on the fact that two 2.4GHz Tx modules would be transmitting just few cm apart!

Any re-thoughts ?

As of now I will use the Assan for small foamies and 450 and smaller helis which requires smaller range. For anything bigger, I have 2 Airtronics RXs and I will switch off Assan. I doubts the interference. I will do a range test to see if it passes for ASSAN. If passes, who cares!   They both are anyway different technologies.

Problem happens mostly when RX is very near to any other 2.4 Ghz TX (like a video camera TX on a plane.)

I anyway get a battery time of 13 hours with both ON. Its just a matter of recharging every month.

 Vinay,

Any Range test conducted on ASSAN against RDS ?

Please let us know.


Sanjay

Yup , The range test went PERFECT. I almost went away till I barely see my Heli (almost a football ground length) and gave slight throttle and the Heli Spun up  .

Maidened my V2 and It was flying stable. Did 2 flights.

I then decided to reprogram the ESC and after that connected the RX back and damn, nothing worked. At first I thought it was the problem with ESC or the RX, but after coming home, I spent quite some time to figure out that the problem was with the TX module initialization.

If you see my previous photos the Trainer port had some open ends. I believe this was touching the mother board. Also the postion of the assan hack was not right. It was putting too much pressure on the board when closing. I had tightened it anyway.

I then and there decided to redo things and did a lot of changes.

1a)Changed all the wires to thin. and kept them long so that they wont strrech or put extra pressure on the board.

1b)Change the lay out of the Module and the TX antenna guide. So that the box closes easily w/o pressure.

2a)Hot glued all the exposed wire on the trainer port.

It now rocks. I am confident no more problems. Hope it stays like that. There was no any kind of intereference noted or any range issues.

EDIT: The TX module was recieving PPM signals from some where else and it was initializing in the wrong way. I believe that the exposed wires of the TX trainer port was the culprit and was picking up signals from the board somewhere when closed.

Also If you see in the Photo, the Assan TX module antenna guide (the gold colour near assan module) is not taped in the Photo. But before closing I have taped it all around the gold connector. This was done in the earlier layout also.

Nice work Vinay... looks much clean.

1. Heat Shrink the switch connectors
2. Hot glue the wires instead of Fiber tape - Tape are good but glues are more permanent.

Thanks Ujjwal,

BTW I thought of using heat shrink on the switches(which I had done in the earlier layout), then noticed that none of the switches were heat shrinked (if you note the red ones.) So I tot who the heck will do it and left it there. Iam trusting my soldering skills better now.

I had hot glued the wires first but also noted that the fiber tape was more stickier and went ahead with the fiber tape plan.

Is there no way you can prevent both from transmitting at the same time ? How about seeking help from international forums, on where on the board to tap the lines ?

I did the Assaning of my Futaba 7chp long time back with success.

The principle there is to rout the +5V to the FM transmitter/ or the Assan 2.4 ghz transmitter module thrugh a switch, so that only one of them get the power, there by avoiding both the transmission. Generally on most of the Transmitters, the Xmitter portion is a seperate PCB and probabaly the same method can be adopted. PPM signal goes to both the xmitter modules but  +5V, since routed thru the switch will go only to the selected Xmitter module.

Vinay See, even Ashta sir is telling the same thing I said. Now when you are comfortable with Assan working, you can surely find the +VCC line going to the TX module ans switch it.

Though I am not an Electronic engineer, being DIY electronics and HAM (without license), I know that due so many principles like standing waves etc, two transmitters transmitting very close at same frequency is a trouble.

Would Electronic engineers on the forum comment ? Vinay's hack is unusual from  most of people who hack their FM with 2.4G, reducing such risk due to transmitting on totally different band.

Sanjay, its difficult to do a range test of ASSAN against RDS and to see which one wins. coz to see how both perform I need to take the TX and RX almost 1.5 km apart!

To see this we need to use High range RXs. It does not depend on TXs. For example the Assan X8R rx has a range of 1600 to 8000 meters. But the TX remains the same.

NO! The Tx power is the actual bowl of contention for getting Tx Type approved in many 'Not so liberal' countries . The Tx final stage RF AMP power is measured in Decible (dB) which is logarithmic. so if Dx6i has a power of 80dB and Dx7 as 160dB, the power increases manifold and  not just 2 times, and thus the ranges.

Actually the Max power of Tx is regulated by many governing authorities, so what is left for most of the OEM is to tweak with Rx and come up with highly sensitive Receiver pre-amp stages.

What about doing the Range check of our Tx'es  this weekend ?

Ya, I agree that it is govened by counties/governments. But what I was trying to say is for a same TX you can have multiple different RXs of different range. So for range testing you need to have high gain RXs. For example DX7 and DX7i has different transmitting powers.

No problem, we can compare Airtronics, Futaba and as well as Assan. But how? we can ask some one to use our TXs at jakkur and then travel out of jakkur with a battery , rx and a servo and see.

Dont tell me that Assan can win against ATX/Futaba  

  Hello from Kerrville, TX, USA.  I stumbled across this thread  while researching Assan hacks.  Just joined RCI so as to join in. 

  I'm a retired electronics tech and computer nerd.  I recently ordered the Assan hack module kit & a pair of 4-channel receivers from Hobby King.  I plan to modify one of my old 72 MHz band Tx's for flying small models on 2.4 GHz.

  Regarding this thread: I'd put a switch in the +V wiring so as to power only one of the RF decks at a time.  Having both transmitters antennae radiating at once & in such close proximity makes me shudder.  Visions of intermodulation dirtying the band swim in my mind's eye. 

Just my 2 cents worth.

  CR

Welcome Charley to RCI.

Totally agreed that transmitting 2 X 2.4 Ghz may cause problem. What I have noted is that since this is a 2.4 radio, there is no separate TX module board. All are integrated onto one board  .

If I find the +V and the PPM line, then I have to scrape it on the PCB (considering if the PCB is single layered or the these lines are on the top layer.) Since I dont have and oscilloscope and there were no Range problems, and considering the fact that one of the Antenna will be standing when the other is sleeping I mean both perpendicular as I will be using only one. I am as of now ruling out the chances of interference. I am not that much of a a technical guy to investigate these flows on the board.

I heard a head phone listening trick will work, But too busy to do it. 

Hello Vinay,

  Thanks for the welcome.

   Argh!  I guess I spoke too soon.   I have an RDS8000 but have never needed to open the case.  I'll try to find time to do so.  Thanks for the info.

  CR

   

With Hobby City coming out with 15$ RXs for JR, Futaba etc, I think its time for Assan to reduce prices.

We have no idea how long this honeymoon is going to last !  Talk on the forums is that these are a batch of AR6100 park flyer RXs (from an earlier production batch of the now discontinued receivers), or someone made copies of the firmware...  and neither will last for long. 

Hope fully Anwar, I dont want to feel that I wasted money on Assan  

But if you see HK discussions, Jason is promising FASST RXs 

Hi Vinay,

Most of the modern Tx has provision through trainer port to switch of the HF Module when used in trainer mode, when two pins of the trainer side of the buddy cable is shorted. in your case RDS800 trainer port pin layout if I am not wrong must be

Pin 1 - HF dissable
Pin 2 - grnd
pin 3 - PPM out
pin 4 - +Bty/VCC
pin 5 - PPM in

you should try to give vcc from pin 4 through switch to pin 1 also along with the Assan hack to disable the native HF module when you are using Assan module.

I believe this should work.

There is no HF disable in the trainer port as there are only 4 wires reaching the port. The trainer port just provides voltage to enable the signalling circuitry of the trainee radio, the trainee does not use the battery voltage during this mode. The TX module of the RDS gets its power from battery and not trainer port.

Thats sad. I saw your photos posted in rcgroups.

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=994433&page=39


Then in that case you will be still able to use the Assan hack without switching on the Native Tx Module.

Take +VCC for the Assan hack and for the pin 4 before the switching at the battery point at the main switch. Introduce a toggle switch which will either supply VCC to master switch or the Assan hack.

When it is supplying VCC to Assan hack and Pin 4 now only Assan module and the control circuit is switched on without switching on the Native Tx.  

I understand what u are trying to say, But I dont know if that will switch ON the Radio LCD / switches etc in ASSAN mode. I havent anytime tried connecting 2 RDS as master and slave. So Iam not sure if it will switch on the Slave LCD. Let me see when I open the radio the next time if that will work. Thanks for the suggestions by the way.

Also y so sudden interest in RDS assan? U have 1?

Nope I am pure Futaba and Plantraco. Recently did a hack for Plantraco module on futaba.

Interest in Assan hack germinated when I was about to buy a Futaba 4EX 72 Mhz in the forum

Ordered HK 2.4 6 channel for my colleague's son now. was contemplating Assan hack for the same. Guess not worth the effort as no programing features on HK tx. 

Just saw your post on the recently updated in RCI and pitched in.

Cheers

Anyone still interested in hacking their RD6000S (airtronics/ Sanwa) transmitters with a Hack module such as Assan or Frsky DHT ? I did the same with switched conversion from 35Mhz to 2.4Ghz (actually switching off the 35 Mhz RF). If anyone is interested I can post the way to go about it. Even on RCgroups, people have done this but there is still the irritation about the beeper and the battery voltage reading on panel not working. I have solved this too.
Regards
Saju