Phoenix Calibration help

[Holst]

Hi all

Ive just bought phoenix but I cant get it to work with my Walkera Transmitter.

Im using a walkera wk-2401 2.4ghz transmitter that came with my 4#3B heli

The transmitter is detected by phoenix but when I try and calibrate the bars that show the different chanel positions jump around like crazy, even if I keep the sticks still.

The calibrator keeps reseting to the first screen where it wants you to centre the sticks, if I do the calibration quickly and pess next then it will complete but its not properly calibrated and it wont work

Is anybody else using this transmitter for Phoenix?

How do I fix it?

Any help will be very much appreciated.

I have downloaded and installed all the updates.

[cjcj1949]

Looks like bad news unless somethings changed. This is off the web site.

Which transmitter types does Phoenix support?
Our USB interface device is compatible with a huge range of transmitters and training boxes. Please note that Phoenix will only accept input through the included USB device, and does not accept control through USB controllers.
The current supported transmitter list is as follows:

All JR MC/MX (no adaptor required)
Spektrum DX6/DX6i/DX7 (no adaptor required) - ** NOT new DX7 Special Edition "SE" version **
Spektrum DX5e (adaptor required)
All Futaba (Futaba round or square adaptor required)
Futaba FX-18 with 2.5mm stereo training port (FX-18 adaptor required)
All Hitec (Hitec adaptor required)
All Multiplex (Multiplex adaptor required)
All Sanwa RD-series (Sanwa adaptor required)
All Sanwa RDS-series (Sanwa RDS adaptor required)
E-sky (Mini-DIN adaptor required)
Co-Pilot (Mini-DIN adaptor required)
Blade CX-2 (no adaptor required)
Art-tech 100B (no adaptor required)
Art-tech 100C (Art-tech 100C adaptor required)

Please note that the following transmitters are not supported:

No USB controller devices/joysticks
No Walkera (not currently supported)

Sorry,
Chris

[Holst]

Oh crap
Very dissapointing

At least I bought it from midland heli who are only down the road.

I did tell them it was to use with a walkera transmitter and they sold me the lead to go with it. Last time I went in I spoke to there sim expert, but at that stage I didnt talk to him about buying a walkera so we didnt talk about compatibility.

Is there any other transmitter that will work with my 4#3B?
I supposed I could buy another transmitter but I want to use the same transmitter for phoenix and my heli

Spending almost £80 on phoenix is bad enough, but its hard to justify spending even more money on a transmitter as well.

Im getting much better at side on hover now, but I wanted to use phoenix to reduce my crashes a bit, but phoenix + transmitter = lots and lots of 4#3B spares.

I was also thinking that I might buy a bigger heli in the summer, but that wont be untill ive mastered the 4#3B. Untill I decide if I want to get into this hobby more seriously im reluctant to spend more money on a second transmitter I might never use.

I think I will just return phoenix and carry on practicing in real life, crashes and all.

[machasm]

I have a 4#3B and have managed to get the Tx to work with phoenix.
I have noticed that the heli will occasionaly jump and I put this down to the Tx not having very good pots on the gimbals. (Phoenix works fine with my DX7 BTW).
The point is that it does work but sounds like your Tx may be at fault.
Does the 4#3 show any signs of twitchy controls (outside the normal twitchiness due to its size)?

[Holst]

I have a 4#3B and have managed to get the Tx to work with phoenix.
I have noticed that the heli will occasionaly jump and I put this down to the Tx not having very good pots on the gimbals. (Phoenix works fine with my DX7 BTW).
The point is that it does work but sounds like your Tx may be at fault.
Does the 4#3 show any signs of twitchy controls (outside the normal twitchiness due to its size)?

My heli is flying better than ever. The tail is still a bit wayward, but It will hover for a couple of seconds with my hand off the right stick without crashing which is as good as you can hope for with these helis.

The transmitter does "sort of" work with phoenix, but its very very jumpy and its not possible to even take off as the calibration is completely wrong.
All the channels do work, I can move all the heli axis in the sim, but without propper calibration its useless.

Which transmitter do you have? I assume its not the same as my 2.4gig one.

[machasm]

I think it is the same actually.
It has WK-2401 printed on the back.
It is the 2.4Ghz version as well.
So in the calibration screen the sticks are not smooth?

[Holst]

In the cal screen they jump all over the place.

Maybe there is some hope of getting it to work then.

Are you using the cable that came with your transmitter or did you buy a different one?

[machasm]

Just had another play and it still works fine.
Only thing you need to do once setup (if you get that far) is set a flat line throttle curve of 100% since this is only 4 channels and set channel 6 to the collective control.
But the cal screen should not be jumping all over the shop.
Sounds like either the dongle is faulty or the trainer function on the Tx is.
Have you tried Phoenix with another Tx?

[Holst]

I dont have another transmitter.

I think I will take the trasmitter and leads to midland tomorrow and see if they can get it working on there system.

Another option might be a second hand transmitter to use with phoenix.

[Balders]

You should be able to get hold of a 2nd hand Tx without too much difficulty. I have a Spektrum Dx6i which I highly recommend. It's cheap, will hold it's resale value well if you decide to sell-up, and is also an excellent Tx should you decide to go for a bigger heli.

PS. Hope you got my PM, thanks for the tail spare and 1mm CF...arrived packed better than some commercial suppliers!

[unwind-protect]

The calibration bars will appear to jump all over the place until you've pushed the sticks to their limits, but I suspect that's not the problem you're having.

My Walkera tx also worked fine with phoenix. Maybe it's just a bad connection somewhere, or dirty contacts?

I do have a spare/ infrequently used 4#3b tx if you're sure yours works fine otherwise and would like to try swapping it for a different one.

[cjcj1949]

Why do Phoenix say that walkera txs are not supported? Have you contacted them? The cx2 transmitter should be cheap to get and it's on the list it supports. It should be available cheap or on lends by some one who's progressed. Might be worth looking on a scope at the waveform coming out. Perhaps voltage levels need to be changed, would be simple to make something to sort it out, like one transistor and a resistor.

Chris

Chris

[unwind-protect]

Why do Phoenix say that walkera txs are not supported?

My guess would be because walkera use a proprietary socket that Phoenix don't have an adapter for.
Incidentally, I recall plugging the tx into the lead before switching it on, and this stopped the tx doing it's normal connect routine with the flashing lights. I wonder if maybe switching it on before plugging it in might cause the output to be corrupted. Just a thought.

[cjcj1949]

Will the walkera txs work with a straight usb lead then on fms or similar? I'dlike to see the waveforms. Sometimes it's a spec problem. It could be that the phoenix dongle has a tighter spec than the Walkera tx and so some work and some don't. It should be fixable cheaply.

Chris

[unwind-protect]

Well, the phoenix and generic usb lead I have both terminate in a 3.5mm headphone style plug. My walkera tx shipped with an adapter to fit it to that, and Phoenix sell adapters for Futaba square, Futaba round, etc, but not walkera afaict.