Audio Interface works Great! - Found a fix to a bug

[Shaw Goh]

Just hours after I order an USB interface (for US$40 - which is a fair bit converted to $AUS), I thought I would try the cheapie Audio interface.

At first, I was incredibly sceptical. I mean, how can someone even think of Microphone (or line) input converting signals from a Radio Tx into a game controller!

Anyhow, after spending just $AUS 5 on a 10K Ohm resistor, 6-pin DIN plug, and 2metre mono mic cable (shielded), mono 3.5mm jack, and 10 minutes to solder, I proceeded to download the driver. Copying the driver to FMS program directory, I struck trouble.

With the winmm.dll driver in FMS folder, FMS would not start. Exception errors occurred in DLL.

I tried a few versions of drivers (for C-Media On-board) sound card - all still same result. Then I struck the FIX.

The problem, is with the Unimodem Voice driver (Voice driver for my internal modem). It makes sense, a voice modem would have audio input and this caused conflict with winmm.DLL.

I UN-INSTALL the driver in control panel, then all is well.

A couple notes;
1. You cannot just DISABLE the driver, you have to UNINSTALL it.
2. On restart of machine, chances are, Win2K will re-install the driver on PnP. Simply remove again.

My observations with this interface;
- It really is cheap and easy to make. My Hitec Tx interface maybe cost twice as much as JR's as the 6-pin DIN plug was AUS$3.
- Instructions on website did not state the wiring on the mono plug - Although this is obvious, in the case of Hitec/Futaba, Pin 2 goes to centre pin on mono plug.
- Calibration of signal quality (using sound recorder) should set the volume at low to mid point - resulting in clearly distiguishable signals.
- So far, I only have 4 channels working on my Hitec Eclipse 7 - Sufficient, but could be better I guess.


Any questions, please post here for all to see, please don't email me as I may not reply.

[PlasMa^]

hihi
Your idea works great, but i have a question to ask.
How can i calibrate the signal using sound recorder? I am getting 6 channels instead of 4 on my JR 3810 radio.

[billy]

???

hello,

please, mine connection with audio interface does not funcion.

can you help me ?

[Griffo]

Hi

Can someone please help me I’ve just downloaded SmartPropo from http://www.interq.or.jp/japan/cyber/fms ... ual_e.html and installed it I’ve got a JR X-378 radio running in SPCM mode my problem is when using FMS I can fly all the aeroplanes ok but nothing happens when I try and fly any of the helicopters why? I’ve tried my radio in all modes and using the mic in on my sound card but with no luck I’d appreciate any help ….. Thanks.

Kevin

[dubworks]

Hi. I have a JRxf421 transmitter, Win98SE, and a Soundblaster Live. I am about to order parts to wire up my own serial interface... if all goes well, i will be making these for my friends in my local R/C club. I downloaded the smartpropo dll's just to see if i could get them to work.... I have read that smartpropo only works with WinXP or 2000, but I have also read that somebody used it with win98. Most of my friends are still running win98 and smartpropo is the smartest way to go because there is no adapter necessary.... does anybody know if and how smartpropo works with Win98?

Thanks in advance!

Rob

[jeremy122]

I just wired up the sound interface but when I swich on my tx I here the constent low piched signals from the tx. I know there is a simple fix but I can't remember . can some one help? I am running xp.

[DaveP]

Jeremy,

Do you mean sound is coming from your computer when you hook up your Tx to Audio In? If so, you just need to mute your Playback sound:

1. Open the Control Panel,
2. Choose Sounds and MultiMedia,
3. Choose the Audio tab.
4. Click Volume from the Sound Playback area.
5. Turn on (click) Mute in the Line In Balance area.

The above dialog box names are from Windows 2000. No idea whether they've changed in XP, but you get the idea.

The Audio interface is wicked cool, works like a champ!!!

Dave

[dan__olson]

I've got the exact same low frequency noise problem running windows 98. If I get it to stop outputting to the speakers, it kills the interface also. The program kills any sound playing when it loads up, and I'm sure that you guys aren't flying around with no sound, so I have to think there is a way to fix it. I've checked and unchecked every box in the playback section of the sound controls to no effect, so I'm at my wit's end on this problem. Thanks a lot for any help you can give me. The interface works great except for that.