Category Archives: Radio Equipment

Radiomaster Shimmering Winch …??

On Radiomaster, quite a few of us at Datchet notice a little shimmering on the mainsheet winch… a little shiver or judder. You can feel it best with your fingertip on top of the winch drum screw. It doesn’t seem to present any issues while sailing, but it would be nice to get rid of it. It happens not when sheeted right in or out, but is there in the centre on the mainsheet travel.

Our man in Australia says to try replacing our ceramic antenna ERC receivers with an ER6. NB has done this on the VISS.

However, this weekend, PH suggested he has found the answer by setting the Transmitter packet rate from the original 500/sec to 333/sec.

Very easy to do. Go to the ExpressLRS button of your transmitter system page.

Just access your ExpressLRS button on the Transmitter software to see where you adjust the PacketTransmission Rate.

You can see the field you need to change in this blocked are of the photo. Try that on “333 Full” and see what you get.

I’ve tried this on an ER5Ci receiver with a TX15 this morning. I’d swear my shimmering winch is reduced, but sadly not completely eliminated. It might be specific to the TX15 – we just don’t know yet.

Futaba T6K Transmitter Range Test….!!

This is a no news item in reality!!! It seems that a Futaba is a Futaba as far as range is concerned. I thought we might see a difference as the T6K is distinctly older tech than the T10J.

This morning I ran up the T6K Futaba with R3006SB Receiver in a glassfibre hull (IOM) with the lid on …. in the same position as all the other tests.

Within about a metre, the T6K/R3006 radio gave identical range to the T10J/R3006 – in the same league as Radiomaster TX15 with a ceramic aerial ER3Ci Receiver. On a straight line of sight, you can go a jolly long way. Let’s call it 200 metres.

As the boat today was a glass fibre IOM (K2) there was no need for an antenna frame – the beautiful SailboatRC pot has threading holes to position the antennae appropriately.

Radio Sailors Guide to the Spektrum !!

Our third radio sailing transmitter guide has just gone online – this time for Spektrum !

All our latest transmitter features are in there. Take a look if you can ! Errors, omissions and amendments gratefully accepted. Just email them in via our Contact page.

To read it, click on RADIOS in the Menu Bar above.