HowTo: Throttle hold in neXt, using DX6i

[getsuyoubi]

This may not be new to most of you, but since I just figured out how to get throttle hold to work in neXt with the DX6i, I thought I post it here for the benefit of everyone that's still struggling with it. Took me a while, too, but in the end it's very logical and straightforward.

0. Set up linear pitch and throttle curves in your transmitter, and zero throttle for throttle hold.
1. When going through the transmitter calibration procedure, make sure to have throttle hold engaged, so neXt picks up the pitch channel, not the throttle channel with the pitch/throttle stick.
2. Disengage throttle hold, and push the throttle stick all the way up. neXt has already identified and disabled the pitch channel for the rest of the calibration, so it will see this as the throttle channel.
3. Click on "autorotation switch" in neXt, and engage throttle hold. This will cause the throttle signal to drop from full throttle (because your throttle stick is all the way up) to zero, and neXt will recognize this and identify it with throttle hold. Done!

[whitehedr]

This method must have a dongle that is capable of passing more than 4 channels, correct? I have purchased two dongles now and they both only pass four channels. For your method to work the program needs to see the pitch channel, correct?

ROG

[Wrencher62]

Whitehedr, I see you've already found the post I was referring to. These instructions should work with your current dongle. The only thing that could be clearer is that you need to go completely through the calibration with TH on. After you click complete calibration go to the buttons tab and go on with step 2. It took me a couple tries to get it right, but it works.

Thanks to the OP for posting this.

[whitehedr]

Unfortunately when I engage TH at the beginning of the calibration I only get as far as centering the sticks. When I Push the left stick all the way up and click next the calibration process stops right there waiting to see a maximum value. The program never sees the max value because TH is holding it at zero.

I can fly the sim with a 4 channel calibration. I just can't do an auto.
I tried assigning Autoration to a switch after calibration and I get full negative pitch when I engage the TH and I have no control with the stick.

ROG

[getsuyoubi]

Are you sure you did set your TH pitch curve to 0 to 100, or -100 to +100 depending on what radio you use?

[Michaelinpr]

I tried the instructions and cant get TH Hold to work either. I can make it through the calibration but Nothing seems to work. I also dont get the buttons section that was mentioned. What do I do there?

Can someone or is there a video or detailed instructions?

[getsuyoubi]

This could indeed be a case of a 4-channel cable. So you DO get through the transmitter calibration on both sticks, both directions (pitch/throttle, rudder, aileron, and elevator)? Watch the sliders on the screen when you do that. Does only one slider respond when you calibrate throttle/pitch, no matter whether or not you're in TH? If that's the case you're only getting four channels - at least I can't think of anything else.

[Michaelinpr]

I think that is the problem then. I only see one slider moving.

The dongle I got only has a mono 1/8" jack to go to the transmitor. My Phoenix one had a stereo one.

Oh well. Still flies great. I just am in Idle up with no control of TH via anything but the simulator menu. I can live with that for now.

[getsuyoubi]

My cable also has a mono plug, and it works. So that's apparently no indication of the number of channels.
You don't have to go to the menu to turn off the motor, there's a key for that. Forgot which one, maybe space. So if you manage to hit that with your nose while flying you can practice autorotations that way...

[Michaelinpr]

Originally Posted by getsuyoubi

My cable also has a mono plug, and it works. So that's apparently no indication of the number of channels.
You don't have to go to the menu to turn off the motor, there's a key for that. Forgot which one, maybe space. So if you manage to hit that with your nose while flying you can practice autorotations that way...

I fear If I practice autos by using my nose I would hate to develope a weird habit and start doing that at the field in real life. LOL

I mostly like to have the TH hold working so I continue the habit of hitting it when I crash.

[Wrencher62]

Well I finally upgraded my TX and got a DX8 and I've found that while this setup works fine for the DX6i it doesn't work for the DX8.
I dug around a bit and found this thread to setup a DX9 so I'm wondering if it will work for the DX8.
https://www.helifreak.com/showthread.php?t=640259
Has anyone had any luck with this?

[getsuyoubi]

That's interesting - I never expected that it would not work on other (Spektrum) radios, since they should all be able to communicate with each other when used as a buddy box. I only have a DX6i, so I cannot check it myself. I really would like to read an explanation by somebody who understands this!

[Wrencher62]

I've been hoping someone would be able to shed some new light on this issue but I haven't given up yet. I'm only guessing here but it seems the internal signal routing for the DX8/DX9 is different from the DX6i due to the assignable switching. I tried following the instructions for DX9 that I found but I can't seem to get the throttle channel assigned as described. I've experimented using the heli model and nearly got it to work but ran into another issue. To get TH to be recognized I had to assign Aux2 to Hold and that in turn shows up on channel 8 in the sim. After getting that all sorted it appeared at first glance that all was well. All channels recognised properly and TH worked as it should until I tried to fly it. For some unknown reason the motor would intermittently glitch out momentarily. It seems channel 8 was unstable and I've yet to figure out what needs to be done to remedy that.

If I disable TH and just fly it performs beautifully. It's hard to describe but even on the sim the DX8 feels a lot more connected than the DX6i ever did. I would have never guessed the TX would make such a difference. I just want to get TH to work properly so I can practice autos again. I'd rather crash 100 times on the sim than once in real life.

[getsuyoubi]

This is really puzzling to me. TH is not a separate channel, it acts on the same throttle channel as your pitch/throttle stick. The entire idea is to separate those two channels during transmitter calibration in neXt, so your pitch/throttle stick is recognized only as the pitch input. Then the TH switch is calibrated to act on the throttle channel and turn off the motor. IMHO this HAS to be the same on all Spektrum radios, because - as I said before - they can all communicate with each other through the buddy box cable. If channel assignment were different that would just not be possible, because either the student of the teacher would not have full control of the model, or act on the wrong channel.

[Wrencher62]

Since there's no issues setting up and flying my models I can't see any reason there would be issues with buddy boxing.
The issue seems to be in how Next "reads" the signals through the dongle. I don't recall which channel reads throttle for the 6i but I know it's showing up as channel 8 for the DX8.
When you go to set TH for the 6i it reads the switch on the throttle channel so all you have to do is make sure you have the values set correctly and you're all set.
Not so for the DX8. Using the default heli model on the 8 throttle reads on channel 8 in the sim and the TH switch doesn't do anything. The thought occured to me that since switches are assignable maybe it would show up in a different switch. I found through the process of elimination that the Aux2 switch was acting on the throttle channel so I routed Aux2 to the Hold switch and it seemed to work untill it started glitching the throttle. The only thought I have now is that maybe since Aux2 is a 3 position switch and Hold is only 2 positions the sim just doesn't like it. If I assign the Hold switch to Autorotation in the sim the channel starts glitching. If I reset (disable) the switch in the sim it doesn't. I'm just guessing but I'm determined to figure it out.

[getsuyoubi]

This is really odd. If we hooked up my DX6i and your DX8 to buddy-box, they should be able to communicate. I never tried hooking up my radio to someone else's, though, but it would be really odd if that didn't work. If the DX8 assigns throttle to channel 8 the DX6i should have no clue what to do with that signal, because it only "knows" 6 channels, and those are channels 1 to 6 (obviously). It must be possible to "dumb down" a DX8 to act like a DX6i!
I recall now that last fall I borrowed a friend's DX7 (not the 7s) for a while to use with neXt while my 6i was back at HH for repair, and I had to have TH on a different switch (something on the left - probably the gear switch). I didn't spend too much time getting it assigned to the TH switch because it was only temporary, but apparently things may be different on different Spektrum radios.

[Michaelinpr]

Why isn't Next trying to figure this out?

I know it is a cheap sim, and a great sim which I am very happy with, but come on. Cant they just do some research and tell us how to do it for eachtransmitter?

[Wrencher62]

I've sent an email to Klaus. I'll let you all know what I find out.

[Wrencher62]

Hey all, just to keep you updated I got a reply from Klaus. He says he's working on a new update for the sim right now but that he would look into it. I sure hope we can get this sorted soon. I really enjoy flying this sim but being able to practice autos again would really be the icing on the cake.

[Wrencher62]

Well I've got a couple observations to share. #1 is that rainy days can be a good thing and #2 is that as my luck runs it seems that just as I was about to give up and hope Klaus could give us a solution I found one myself.

I was right about it being a signal routing issue. It just took a while to figure it out. I can't explain why it works, but it does. I'll be opening a new thread shortly to explain my findings.

Needless to say, I'm a very happy camper now!