Odd Ball - Single Stick Radios

Single to Multi propo
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stuart mackay
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Re: Odd Ball - Single Stick Radios

Post by stuart mackay »

Another variation on the Mick Wilshere/Pete Christy World Engines UK Talisman.
This is a one owner example that dates from 2000 (?). It is one of three owned from new.
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Pchristy
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Re: Odd Ball - Single Stick Radios

Post by Pchristy »

Wow! Haven't seen one of those in a while! In good nick, too!

I do have a UHF set (459MHz), which Shaun passed on to me a while ago:

ImageSS-UHF_2 by Peter Christy, on Flickr

Its quite crowded inside, with some weird mixing functions I have yet to get my head around!

ImageSS-UHF_4 by Peter Christy, on Flickr

It fired up as soon as I replaced the battery pack, and was still on frequency, too! :)

I've paired it up with an existing receiver and keep meaning to take it out and fly it!

--
Pete
Tobe
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Location: Varberg or Stockholm, Sweden

Re: Odd Ball - Single Stick Radios

Post by Tobe »

I still have also a few single stick Tx left like a Micro-Avioninc and a Kraft but I had to do this!
The knob fits nicely on my stick project
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Knob B.jpg
Knob C.jpg
Knob D.jpg
Cheers,

Tobe
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Wayne_H
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Re: Odd Ball - Single Stick Radios

Post by Wayne_H »

Pchristy wrote: 15 Aug 2020, 09:51 .... Its quite crowded inside, with some weird mixing functions I have yet to get my head around! .....
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Pete
Pete, does it use a Signetics 5044 encoder? The internals are very reminiscent of the modified ACE Silver 7 encoder & mixers done by Dwight Holley for his flapped sailplanes. I have full details of those mixers if of any use.
Cheers,

Wayne
Once a Retrobate, always a Retrobate............ ;)
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Phil_G
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Re: Odd Ball - Single Stick Radios

Post by Phil_G »

I see a socketed 16-pin dip chip under the wiring so could be...
The RF strip looks identical to the Wood & Douglas 432mhz ham board, same layout, same components... :D looks very familiar!

Tobe your twiddlers are superb, the RCG lads will go crazy for those!

Because at the time it was the first exam-free band in the US, UHF was popular with experimenters even back in the valve era... quite a few appeared as projects in the very early magazines... and in 1949 Ed Rockwood did a reed UHF set which was produced commercially in small numbers!
Who knows how reliable they were (or not) :D

Receivers could be very simple as the permitted transmit power was 5 watts - by comparison, 15 years on, the Pye Pocketfone PF1 radios used by our police were only about 70 milliwatts!

Pete its quite possible that W&D having kick-started your 459 R/C project then pinched and produced a comms version of your design! I'm quite sure they would have been watching closely... :D
Pchristy
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Re: Odd Ball - Single Stick Radios

Post by Pchristy »

Wayne: Yes, its a 5044 encoder. These were good little encoder chips, once you managed to suppress the RF pickup they were prone to - especially at 459 MHz! We had to build them with a double sided PC board, with an earth screen under the chip!

There is a switch marked "throttle mix", another unmarked switch, and a pair of sliders and associated trims on the top of the Tx!

I think it was intended for a twin-engine setup, with the ability to separate the throttles if desired. But I could be wrong!

I do have a Silver Seven encoder in an old Tx somewhere, but it only has the basic "plug-in" board with it.

Phil: No, the RF board is all my own work! My very first UHF experiment did use a (very complex!) Wood & Douglas board, but it started off from a 12 MHz crystal, used a varactor for one of the multiplier stages and had horrendous current consumption! You could pull the crystal across half the 459MHz band!

I've also got one of their later synthesized boards, which I've been meaning to build into a Tx since forever, but never got around to!

My own boards started off at 76.5 MHz (or thereabouts), multiplying by 6 to get to 459 MHz. Initially I used specially cut 3rd overtone crystals, following the Multiplex example, but later switched to 5th overtones when I discovered I could modulate them just as easily! The 5th overtones weren't always as easy to get going initially, but once you'd coaxed them in to life they were just as stable as the earlier 3rd overtones - and a lot cheaper!

P.S. Should have added: I'm in awe of Tobe's work! :)

--
Pete
Tobe
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Re: Odd Ball - Single Stick Radios

Post by Tobe »

Tobe's Odd Ball is awaiting to get a case so tomorrow it will be time to cut & bend some 1 mm aluminum plate but first I have to decide the layout. Standard like the Micro-Avionics or narrower like the old Heathkit. Need also to make a decision concerning the springs to be used. The rudder trim is the 3rd trim around the stick.
Size wise the Single Stick is comparable to the one on a Kraft or the Micro-Avionic but slightly more shallow.
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Cheers,

Tobe
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stuart mackay
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Re: Odd Ball - Single Stick Radios

Post by stuart mackay »

Flight Link Single Sticks from Series 3, Series 4 Restomod, Sovereign Mark 1 and Sovereign Mark II
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stormer254
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Re: Odd Ball - Single Stick Radios

Post by stormer254 »

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In the hunt for a rumoured Flight Link radio for Stuart belonging to one of our club members who passed on some time ago I have come across this single stick radio with a couple of flight packs, I think the deac might need to be cycled a few times though, luckily the batteries had been removed from the TX so no corrosion! . I have to assume it is completely home produced even including the stick units. Unfortunately the Flight Link set has not surfaced and none of us in the club who are left alive including those who cleared his kit can remember it. I would off been the one who would of recognised it and would have asked for it but I was not a member then having left the club to go Classic Scrambling. Perhaps one of our more learned members might recognize it and fill in some more details. Also a rather tidy REP Gemini TX and RX has turned up, also with the battery removed!
Pchristy
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Re: Odd Ball - Single Stick Radios

Post by Pchristy »

The receiver and servos are Sprengbrook. The Tx is either home design, or possibly a Digitrio? The Digitrio was a project in the American RC Modeler magazine. The Tx exterior bears a strong resemblance, and they did do a four channel single-stick conversion for it. All the plans and circuits were in the magazine.

That Sprengbrook receiver was one of the best 27 MHz receivers of its time (I have two of them). Its only weak spot was the SCS devices used in the decoder. These were very temperature sensitive, and were prone to stopping working in sub-zero temperatures (don't ask how I know!).

The servos were originally used in the American MicroAvionics sets in the late 60s. Brand Microprop in Germany took over production for a while and supplied them to Sprengbrook.

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Pete
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