Midwest Products Prestige 6 radio

[stuart mackay]

Whilst waiting for Mike Kitchen's sticks to arrive following their time travel from 1972 (!), thought I would strip the case and clean up all the switches and auxiliary controls which were not bonded to the case (like the roll button pot and meter), so at least the case would not shame Shaun's shiny new Sprengbrook stick bezels that are, hopefully, winging their way to Swaffham Radio Works!

[RobertC]

Looking good on the stripped pictures

[stuart mackay]

Well the Shaun Garrity obscure spares-parts service came up trumps with new stick bezels arriving after some plane spotting this afternoon, so, this evening, both sticks were stripped, de-rusted (!),cleaned and lubed before re-assembly of the mechanics into the case.

This is how it looks now compared with as received and will move onto electric install, once the Flight Link is completed.

[stuart mackay]

This morning saw the pot, auxiliary, single channel button (was the roll button on the side) and expo pot (was the roll button adjuster) wired up and a trial fit of the battery, encoder & renovated PCB.

After the tight constraints of the Flight Link, you can have a party inside this Tx!

After

Before

Pot wiring

[stuart mackay]

Finished off the Prestige VI today.

Used a trimmer pot and 6V2 zener to get the expanded scale meter and calibrated it using my power supply and charger which gives digital voltage indication. Nicked the LiPo out of the Flight Link and this all fitted nicely where the original DEAC was located.

Channel 6 is a second aileron channel and Ch 5 is the rotary pot.
Installed a three way switch for throttle hold and channel 7 to replace the original Prestige ch 5 retract switch which was looking rather tired.
Used the side mounted roll button for single channel and the concealed pot below it is for rates or exponential and is accessible externally using a small screwdriver to adjust.

Fitted an Orange DSM2 module as the long threaded aerial connection of the ORX allowed me to use the original Prestige aerial mount with only minor modification to fit and the green LED fits nicely in the meter to illuminate it when on.

All in all, and considering it's condition when received, I very pleased with the results and it has a very solid, weighty feel to it and will make a video over the next few days. Just need to find a Bulldog and Meteor 60 now!

[RobertC]

Nice job there Stuart , amazed that the HB precision stick units were (back in their time) over a pound dearer using Allen Bradley Pots , almost as if they had entry level and competition level on the stick units ...

[stuart mackay]

Yes Robert, quite a percentage price premium on the stick units, but it will be no surprise that, a very limited production, premium set such as the Prestige was fitted with AB pots!

I shall have to ask Mike K to examine the circuitry and see if there is any similarity with the Sprengbrook & Staveley Digital sets that Doug Spreng had a significant design influence upon and, which, Terry Cooper would have seen during his time at Staveley.

[stuart mackay]

Here is the video of the Prestige VI project

https://youtu.be/E-E-Qpn19GQ