The first thing you want to do would be to hook the transmitter up to your radio. Typically, you will connect it to the trainer port or the module connector. Different radios will have slightly different ways of connecting things up but the basics are the same. Your transmitter module comes with a cable with three wires, as follows:-
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The (+ve) connection on the cable is where the power to the transmitter module goes. This can be external battery power between 6V to 18V, or preferably switched power drawn from the radio for greater convenience. By "switched power", I mean that the power gets cut off when you turn the radio off, as opposed to "unswitched power" which goes straight to the battery and bypassing the switch. Switched power is obviously preferable if the module can supply the current requirements. The exact place to get the switched power supply from the radio varies from make to make. The transmitter module draws about 180mA to 190mA when running off about 8V to 9V. This is similar to what your normal 72MHz or 35MHz module would be drawing for example, so it is not drawing inordinately more power that usual and you can expect normal battery life from your radio.
Note: In newer DragonLinks, a servo style cable is used where +ve is red, ground is brown/black, and the PPM signal is white/orange.
A second consideration you will want to take into account is the existing RF module. Many radios have removable plug-in modules for different frequencies. Where possible, you will want to remove these modules or disable them so as not to be emitting unnecessary RF signals and incurring unnecessary power drain from the unused modules. In some cases, the radios require the modules to be present for proper operation and may require some ways to trick the radio into operating without them. Additionally, some radios have integrated modules and are a little more difficult to remove. The exact procedures for dealing with these will obviously vary from radio to radio.
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- IMG_0739a.JPG (317.1 KiB) Viewed 45050 times
- JR 9X2
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- Multiplex Royal Evo 9
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- Futaba T9CAP
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So, you are going to have to make some decisions about how you want to connect the transmitter module to the radio. Do you want to:-
1. Connect the DL transmitter to the trainer port
2. Connect the DL transmitter to the module connector
You also want to think about the power. You will need to decide whether to:-
1. Power the DL transmitter from the radio
2. Power the DL transmitter using an external battery
If you are going to power it from the radio, then you need to know if switched power readily available from your radio. In some cases, you may not have power available - such as for JR (and possibly Graupner) radios. These come with a D.S.C. port (their trainer port) which supplies a very low voltage PPM signal but no power. Futabas, on the other hand, provide switched power from the trainer port.
For the more adventurous, you may want to integrate the DL transmitter into your radio. This is going to be a bit more complicated and won't be discussed just yet, but the basic connections are still the same. You will need to make the three connections - power, ground and the PPM signal. It should be noted that the voltage levels for the PPM signal varies widely from radio to radio, and from the module connector to the trainer port connector, and while the DragonLink has been designed to operate across a wide range of PPM input voltages, it will tend to work better in the middle of its' range. We will say more about this later.
Daniel
Note: For connector pinouts not described in this thread, you can find the information elsewhere, such as
http://www.mftech.de/buchsen_en.htm where many pinouts are listed. We cannot, however, vouch for the accuracy of the information provided elsewhere so please double-check everything.