Radio question

[double0757]

Do you guys recommend getting a 2.4 JR9303 for a big bird like a Bergen observer?
Can I run two 2.4 radios, one DX7 for the gimbal and camera and the 9303 for the ap ship, without glitches on both? Thanks Double O

[Tonystott]

No, the great majority of opinion in the forums is that you cannot reliably run a 2.4Ghz downlink system alongside a 2.4Ghz radio control unit. The problem is that the downlink transmitter, sitting near the aircraft receiver, swamps the signal.

Anyone who tells you otherwise is a serious gambler...

[double0757]

Tony what would you recommend, radio-wise, for the gimbal (up/down, left/right and shutter)? I thought of ruining 900MHz down-link for the video transmitter. Double O

[Tonystott]

On mine, I use mode 1 (throttle on the right with ailerons, ele and rudder on the left), but as I don't have a panning mount, I use the gear switch for the trigger, and the left side slider for camera tilt. The right slider adjusts gain on the AP2000i, mixed with the flap switch bove the left stick, which selects three ranges for that right slider, from memory- CAL-46%, off-75%, and 30-87%. In general though, the right slider stays about half travel in the middle flap position, except when calibrating..I am using a GY240 tail gyro, which doesn't need TX gain control, but if it did I would set it on the spare sdlot on the AP2000i and adjust it on the ground.

BIG EDIT COMING! :)
Firstly, I misunderstood your post. I don't see why you couldn't have two different 2.4Ghz radio driving heli and gimbal.

I am using 2 Rxs driven from the one Tx on my balloon panning rig. The balloon gondola only needs one channel, to fire the propan burners, while the AP mount needs pan, tilt and shutter. So both Rxs are on the same frequency, but each task is on a diferent channel

Don't know if that is much help for you though, as you will need at leasst 10 channels, so then you would ne4ed ExtremeLink 2.4Ghz gear. Doable though :)

[henrik04]

I had a very similar question.
So I did try with a friend 2.4 GHz Tx and Rx only to command the X Y servos of the camera.

The Heli was still commanded by the JR 36 MHz radio. Meanwhile the video link from the video Tx was equally on 2.4 Ghz (1 Watt). After few very near ground tries everything looks ok..

As soon as the heli was 30 meters away, the results were dramatic. The 2.4 Ghz Rx got completely confused and if this would have been the link commanding the heli, well.. It would have crashed.

So I decided not to use 2.4 GHz for both video link and commanding the heli. If you are game you can try for yourself, who knows might work in your case..

But 1Watt or even 500 mW on a very near frequency with a receiver looking for microvolts.. Hmm.. I wouldn't dare.. Can't afford to crash big birds too often.. LOL

Happy flying.

[Tonystott]

But Henrik you do appreciate that there is a huge difference between flying with a 2.4Ghz Tx onboard compared to flying wityh 2 x 2.4Ghx Rxs onboard. In the latter case, the second 2.4Ghz radio is not "a loudhailer shouting in the ear of the other 2.4Ghz Rx", but is sitting there listening too :)

[aramsdell]

If anyone is going to use 2 different Rx's on 2.4 ghz then don't use the Extreme Link. (XPS) The XPS also transmits back to the ground. I intially tried a 2.4 downlink onboard with the XPS. Never got to fly as ground range was 300' . With XPS antenna removed from TX range was a whopping 12".
I'm flying 9 ch Evo 9. Enough channels to do it all from one Rx. Gain for AP2000i, Shutter,zoom. Could squeeze out another channel by using a gy240 instead of a gy401.