Tag Archives: marblehead blog

Transmitters For Beginners 3 : How to Set Up The Radiomaster Pocket Transmitter for Radio Sailing

If you have only just started radio sailing, or are thinking of starting, the world of radio transmitters can feel daunting to say the least. Good news is that you are not alone…

No matter which transmitter brand you go for, the user manuals are bewildering – all about planes, gliders and drones – no mention of radio sailing. Quite honestly it’s a real challenge.

Online, we found the American MYA had some years ago published one manual for Spektrum DX4 and we quite liked the style and structure that they used to address this need.

So we have decided to set out to write our own Radio Sailing Manuals for each of the leading brands, aimed specifically at people who are new to the sport.

It’ll take some time to get them all done, but we have made a start with the “Radiomaster Pocket”, which by the way retails at the time of writing from k7yachts for around £65-£75.

Volunteers to write the equivalent manuals for Futaba, Flysky and Spektrum would be welcome.

Two ways to download the 25 page manual. You can go to a new Category in this website called “Transmitter Manuals” in the category list. Or…

Click here to go to the download page..

Radiomaster Pocket : Beginners Guide to Setting up the Transmitter for Radio Sailing

Living in The Southeast? Do You know TJD Models…?

It probably doesn’t matter if you live in the Southeast of UK or not…. but we are all interested in where we can find shops and suppliers useful to radio sailors.

When I borrowed an IOM to start radio sailing, I needed some help to replace batteries with JST connectors and also intelligent chargers. A Chipstead member recommended TJD Models at a little place in North West Kent named Sutton at Hone. Maybe all model shops are like theirs, but to me the range of stock seemed enormous.

They were all about rc cars and planes, but listened patiently to me wittering on about radio sailing. They were really helpful and to meet my requirement, they had to pop out the back and solder up some connectors for me free of charge. Really kind and helpful. Nothing was too much trouble. I promised them straight away that I’d be back.

For one reason and another it was a few months before I thought to contact them. I decided I’d get a spare radio receiver to keep in my toolbox.

I placed the order on their website at 4.58pm on a Saturday. I was thinking delivery maybe the following Wednesday. Honestly,…. at 5.45pm the same afternoon there was a ring on the doorbell and a smart guy hands me a package and says “here’s your receiver”…. I couldn’t believe it. 47 minutes delivery.

Basically I had only just logged off from the computer. I couldn’t figure momentarily what had just happened. It was like I had a “Dr Who Tardis” type moment. Time warp in action. The super kind chap from TJD had dropped the package off on his way home.

Beat that, Amazon Prime…..Or Deliveroo.

https://www.tjdmodels.com

Radio Receiver Chatter – Interesting Short Video….!

I saw in the Club WhatsApp group some exchanges about transmitters and receivers. In particular, Craig and Rohan were very keen on a receiver unit called the AR620 from Spektrum.

This little video came up when I googled it. It’s just a few minutes long. It’s an interview with the Technical Director of Spektrum. It is pretty interesting to hear what the product designers think is important. Of course, it’s 100% about planes and rc cars, but nonetheless I was intrigued to hear his comments about:-

No antenna – integrated aerial by Texas Instruments and it actually performs better than dangly wire aerials
Binding to the transmitter via a button, and two methods
FlyBy telemetry for reading onboard battery capacity, and “flyby” means it only works to a range of 600-800 feet
A very intriguing set of remarks about mounting the receiver 2-3 inches away from carbon fibre in the plane fuselage as the carbon blocks the signal. Given the amount of carbon fibre in our Marbleheads, it’s worth reflecting over. Note that Craig and Rohan didn’t make any comments about this being a problem. A small (not thorough) piece of research from me said that Kevlar does let radio signals in. Interesting.
Quite a large amount of chat about two failsafe modes, “PreSet” and “SmartSafe” and the “Hold Last Command”. In radio sailing that part of worth listening to a couple of times.