Futaba FP-T6NL - Any way of connecting interface?

[Rockfist Rogan]

I give up with the old sanwa :angry:

I have a spare Futaba FP-T6NL Tx
Is there a way of connecting the interface to it?
I don't mind destroying it for anything else.

I'm getting desperate now....

[johnhlong]

I believe that is the same radio I have.

I will look the mods up tonight.

John
Seattle, WA
USA
(425) 837-0802

[Rockfist Rogan]

That sounds good to me
Thanks John

RR

[johnhlong]

RR,

Mine is the Futaba, Conquest AM. FP-T6NLK. Should be the same radio.

Take the back off the radio. You will see two PC Boards. The big on one the right controls the functions. The smaller one on the left is the RF section.

Connecting the two together is a small 5 pin molex connector.

Here's what I did:
1. Connect the signal output to the bottom pin (Lets call it pin 5) of the connector.
2. Connect the ground to the pins 2 and/or 3 (counting the top pin as pin 1).
3. I installed a connector on the side of my transmitter for the new interface but it would be better to mount on on the bottom or back. (won't get as much in the way when you use it).
4. Remove the crystal from the RF section.
5. NOTE. We found that we needed to keep the RF section connected to get good signal shapes.
6. I built/used the cable with the 2N2222 transistor in it to give better levels.


The signal is inverted, but it works great with the serial input.

John
Seattle, WA
USA

[Rockfist Rogan]

OK John, I understand that fine. I presume I can just connect to these two pins and run them to a mono 3.5 jack socket which I can put in adjacent to the aerial. No need to remove anything, apart from the crystal?
As Murphy's law dictates, I have already built an interface circuit, but the one using BC547 and BC557 as described by using a 9 pin D connector. Won't this work?
If not, AArrgghhhhhh! :angry:
You better tell me where to find the circuit using the 2N2222 then, please

[johnhlong]

I would think your circuit should work. The transistors are used for level shifting.

The 2N2222 circuit is listed in the FMS documentation under Parallel interface. It is very simple if you need to build it. It only uses a 2N2222 and a resistor or two. Try yours first. I have not tried the serial circuit but see nothing to stop it from working.


OH! I also addad a small (10k) pull-up resistor to the output on the d-25 connector (parallel interface). I don't remember if that was necessary or just something I added to help the output pulses look stronger.

John

[Rockfist Rogan]

It works!!!

For anyone who's interested, the Futaba Challenger FP-TN6L Tx, modified as John Long suggested in his post of Mar. 07 2002,02:19, and using the two transistor interface as described by and using a 9 pin D connector works really great.

I carefully unscrewed the larger of the two circuit boards, and soldered one wire (signal) to the back of the bottom pin, and the other (ground) to pin 2/3 (from the top - they are already commoned). I took these up behind the board to a 3.5mm jack socket (signal to tip) which had I installed adjacent to the aerial. The trims and rates on the Tx work fine, which is what I wanted. My only (big!) disappointment is that it only works with FMS, and not MS-CFS.

Many thanks for your help John.

[johnhlong]

If you build one of the joystick interfaces it should work with all the games.

John

[Rockfist Rogan]

Jostick interface?
Shoot! Wasn't that what I just built... :0

OK, I'm game for some more soldering...I would appreciate your advice as to which though, and where to find it!
My only proviso is that it fits the new 3.5mm socket in the Tx
RR