2 receivers, 1 radio?

[kinderkram]

Hi mates,

I always thought 1 radio can only bind & operate 1 receiver alone. This is obviously not the case....

My AQ Hexa has a bigger DSLR gimbal now and I wanted to operate it in 2 modes: with only 1 radio for the pilot where all functions can be activated or as a standalone with a separate radio for the cam operator. The latter one is easy, for the "sole pilot version" I will be testing a solution with 2 Delta8 receivers, 1 set up for CPPM to operate the AQ and one as standard PWM so I can use all 9 channels with my Hitec Aurora9.

After binding the second receiver: surprise! Both work with the radio signal simultaneously.
So ... my idea is to use channel 8 as tilt passthrough and channels 7&9 for the LANC control (start/stop recording, zoom in/out).

Did anybody try a similar setup, controlling 2 receivers with one radio? Anything needed to take extra caution?

[joebar.rc]

Yes, that is also the case with HoTT and Spektrum. And be very very careful (speaking from experience) if used dual binded receivers for different frames . Imagine one frame in the air, the other on the ground and some $!@# plugged in the power. Nothing happening until you land, disarm and arm again. 2 frames are now armed without knowing.
Do I need to continue

[kinderkram]

I would never try that, I swear!
But good to know that it works ... somehow.

[Trnquill]

With Futaba that is also possible. You bind the receiver to one transmitter, not to one model within one transmitter (as with Spektrum Model Match for example). I use two receivers all the time; one is for the heli and the the other for camera gimbal. Since all my gimbals have unlimited pan it makes things really simple having separate receiver (and battery) in the gimbal. It's totally independent of the helicopter.

To switch to two man operation one has to either use trainer cable for the second radio (to pass all the signals through one master radio) or bind the receiver in the gimbal to a different radio. Both are easy and fast to do. If you hate wires you could do wireless trainer link etc.

The only "catch" with using two transmitters with one radio is that you have to use different channels for different devices. With Futaba it means you maybe use one 8-channel receiver with the helicopter (usually with S.Bus) and then have the channels 9-14 (+ two digital) for the camera gimbal. And in the gimbal you need a receiver that can output the said channels 9-14. This means either expensive 14+2 channel receiver or using S.Bus receiver together with S.Bus decoders. If you have gimbal controller that understands s.Bus and can use any channel then there's no problem, of course!

[kinderkram]

Uh, so this is common practice and Im only a lil late...

Atm. the cam op has his own separate radio. I dont like the trainer port thing - dont want to be tied to anyone and dont want anyone to have a connection to my radio.

So ... I only need to find an easy solution to swap between the "2 radios/2 receivers" and the "1 radio/2 receivers" solution.

Wait - the Delta8 is also compatible with Futaba and FrSky radios.
If I use one of these I could simply rebind the second receiver to the different radios. Dang! Thats it!
So I only need to swap 1 cable (for the tilt) to make it happen.

Thx for the enlightment, guys!

[Trnquill]

Is it possible to bind one receiver to two radios simultaneously? With Futaba that is not possible.

[kinderkram]

Nope, you can bind a receiver to different radios but not use them simultaneously.
But that wasnt my intention. I will re-bind the receiver to the radio in use each time I want to switch from the cam op to the pilot-only solution.

[JussiH]

Well....I got a little bit inspired by this discussion. And since I about to deliver a bunch of EduQuads, I thought this was the right time to try it out....

So here it is: 3 idendical quads flown simultaneously on the same TX - enjoy.



Should someone doubt it, I can upload the log files...

[kinderkram]

Yeah, great!

Also shows that each of them is flying exactly like the others - which helps a lot in that scenario.

I guess RTH would also work so you could fly a little "swarm" autonomously?

[JussiH]

Thanks.

Yes, RTH works...tried it after shooting this vid...