Tutorial For Futaba 14SG and DJI Phantom 2

[skeeter]

Again, Brandon.... THANKS!

I flew her today for the first non-bench flight with your profile. Wonderful flight. I don't even miss the self-centering throttle (well, until I fat-finger it and don't realize I just shut the motors down.. ). The slow yaw setting is great...I might try to make it even slower or ramped sometime in the near future but for now, it's just peachy...

I am wondering if it is possible to route the gimbal tilt to one of the "Volume" knobs.....The slider is great, but those pesky ratchets make it a tad jumpy...The VR and VL knobs are detented as well...hmm. I will open the controller to see if the ratcheting device can be removed....

I saw a reference to using the VR knob for gimbal tilt on the Futaba 8J Tut, so I suppose it is a similar routing on the 14SG.

Edit...The ratchet mechanism was easy to just bend slightly to keep it from detenting. Still has the center detent...

..sk

 

[Ozon8r]

I just upgraded to the Futaba 14SGH and this post made this super easy. THANK YOU! I can't wait to get out and try out the new controller.

 

[Ozon8r]

Again, Brandon.... THANKS!

I flew her today for the first non-bench flight with your profile. Wonderful flight. I don't even miss the self-centering throttle (well, until I fat-finger it and don't realize I just shut the motors down.. ). The slow yaw setting is great...I might try to make it even slower or ramped sometime in the near future but for now, it's just peachy...

I am wondering if it is possible to route the gimbal tilt to one of the "Volume" knobs.....The slider is great, but those pesky ratchets make it a tad jumpy...The VR and VL knobs are detented as well...hmm. I will open the controller to see if the ratcheting device can be removed....

I saw a reference to using the VR knob for gimbal tilt on the Futaba 8J Tut, so I suppose it is a similar routing on the 14SG.

Edit...The ratchet mechanism was easy to just bend slightly to keep it from detenting. Still has the center detent...

..sk

Skeeter - Thanks for your post. I just did the same thing to mine. Now I need to figure out how to D/R the switch .

 

[skeeter]

Cool. Did you route the gimbal to the VR knob? Or?

 

[Ozon8r]

Cool. Did you route the gimbal to the VR knob? Or?

No. I like having the gimbal control underneath much as it is on the stock rx so I can keep my thumbs on the sticks. It seems that I would have to pull my hand off the stick to manipulate the vr switch. Leaving the gimbal as is allows me to pitch and roll simultaneously.


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[skeeter]

Cool. Did you route the gimbal to the VR knob? Or?

No. I like having the gimbal control underneath much as it is on the stock rx so I can keep my thumbs on the sticks. It seems that I would have to pull my hand off the stick to manipulate the vr switch. Leaving the gimbal as is allows me to pitch and roll simultaneously.


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My thoughts exactly!

 

[Ozon8r]

Great post here for controlling the gimbal speed using the 14SG Program Mix combined with Motor function.

viewtopic.php?f=19&t=8358&start=20#wrap. Thanks to @ianwood for the great work fiddling with these settings to take control of the gimbal.

 

[Ozon8r]

Well, I took the 14SG for a spin today to test flight and gimbal controls as well as range. Two huge thumbs up on gimbal control (ianwood's settings) and flight controls with these settings here.

However, the range was extremely disappointing. Running the same range as I did Monday hitting 3400m/2+ miles on the stock receiver, I reached 1600m before FS/RTH kicked in. The next two flights I only achieved 940m before RTH kicked in. My antennas are placed as they are in this tutorial.

I wonder if I have a bad antenna on the tx or something is wrong with the rx.

What ranges are others experiencing with the Futaba 14SG/8J/8FG?

Anyone care to share photos of antenna positions?

 

[Torquerolljoe]

I just set my PH2 with my 14SG and have not tested distance. Once I get more confident, I will check!

 

[Ozon8r]

I upgraded the R7008SB futaba receiver to the 400mm boat antennas and hit 2800m today with the 14SG. While not the 3400m I have reached with the stock rx/tx, it is much better than the range with the antennas that came with the R7008SB limited to <1000m.


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[lgeist]

Hi Brandon,

Any idea if your Phantom 2 Futaba 14SG profile will work with my F550? It's pretty much all the same components (14SG, R7008SB, Naza V2, Zenmuse H3-2D). Just finishing up construction now and will power up for the first time tomorrow.

 

[ladykate]

Hi Brandon,

Any idea if your Phantom 2 Futaba 14SG profile will work with my F550? It's pretty much all the same components (14SG, R7008SB, Naza V2, Zenmuse H3-2D). Just finishing up construction now and will power up for the first time tomorrow.

I used the ianwood profile with my T8FGHS on the 550 and it worked fine. The only problem is that with a non-Phantom NAZA you might have to set failsafe to work. Try it and see - my 550 would not go into failsafe with the stock settings (which are HOLD - the rx will just hold its last input). Other than that, it was a great match. I've flown it out to 600 meters with the stock antenna (600 meters is a long way for a 550 - it only has 9 minutes of power).

The following link questions whether the fix for failsafe (non-Phantoms only apparently) will work if you aren't using S-Bus. I confirmed it will.

http://www.sarawuth.com/2012/06/setup-f ... -nazawk-m/

 

[bkhaley]

Hi Brandon,
If I don't install the R7008SB, will Part 2 of your tutorial work?

 

[lgeist]

Hi Brandon,

Any idea if your Phantom 2 Futaba 14SG profile will work with my F550? It's pretty much all the same components (14SG, R7008SB, Naza V2, Zenmuse H3-2D). Just finishing up construction now and will power up for the first time tomorrow.

I used the ianwood profile with my T8FGHS on the 550 and it worked fine. The only problem is that with a non-Phantom NAZA you might have to set failsafe to work. Try it and see - my 550 would not go into failsafe with the stock settings (which are HOLD - the rx will just hold its last input). Other than that, it was a great match. I've flown it out to 600 meters with the stock antenna (600 meters is a long way for a 550 - it only has 9 minutes of power).

The following link questions whether the fix for failsafe (non-Phantoms only apparently) will work if you aren't using S-Bus. I confirmed it will.

http://www.sarawuth.com/2012/06/setup-f ... -nazawk-m/

Thanks ladykate, much appreciated!

 

[ladykate]

Hi Brandon,

Any idea if your Phantom 2 Futaba 14SG profile will work with my F550? It's pretty much all the same components (14SG, R7008SB, Naza V2, Zenmuse H3-2D). Just finishing up construction now and will power up for the first time tomorrow.

I used the ianwood profile with my T8FGHS on the 550 and it worked fine. The only problem is that with a non-Phantom NAZA you might have to set failsafe to work. Try it and see - my 550 would not go into failsafe with the stock settings (which are HOLD - the rx will just hold its last input). Other than that, it was a great match. I've flown it out to 600 meters with the stock antenna (600 meters is a long way for a 550 - it only has 9 minutes of power).

The following link questions whether the fix for failsafe (non-Phantoms only apparently) will work if you aren't using S-Bus. I confirmed it will.

http://www.sarawuth.com/2012/06/setup-f ... -nazawk-m/

Thanks ladykate, much appreciated!

No problem. I'm getting a 14 sg for a bigger hex that I'm building. It should be here in a couple of days. Let me know if you have any issues - I can hook it to the 550 easily.

 

[fanredwings]

Re: Tutorial For 14SG and DJI Phantom 2

Part 2 - The Transmitter Setup

Prerequisites:
1. You've completed "Part 1 - The Physical Installation" of this tutorial.
2. You have the Phantom 2 Assistant Software installed and working.
3. You have an SD card on hand (SD: 32MB-2GB or SDHC 4GB-32GB).
4. You have a Microsoft Windows PC with a Card Reader.

FYI, For those of you who have a Mac, I have posted my successful result with using the Futaba Software via WineBottler.
viewtopic.php?f=19&t=6419&start=10

BrandonBallard, thank you for the excellent tutorial

 

[markab]

Thanks for this guide very helpful,

I just got my 14SG yesterday, took about 4 minutes to remove the ratchet from the throttle to get a sprung centre and also I removed the ratchet from the sliders.

One gotcha I came across, after performing stick calibration in the P2 assistant I noticed in the view screen that my throttle and elevator were not zero, after a load of messing around I finally found the stick calibration function on the 14SG, I ran this then reran the assistant calibration and it is all working as expected now.

For transmitter fail safe is it correct to leave all channels in hold with only the mode select channel U set to P2 fail safe value or should the other channels fail safe at neutral rather than hold?

Noticed the 14SG locked up a couple of times around the model select copy screen, a google search shows it is not uncommon, anyone else come across this? just wondering if I should return for another unit?

Thanks

 

[ladykate]

Thanks for this guide very helpful,

For transmitter fail safe is it correct to leave all channels in hold with only the mode select channel U set to P2 fail safe value or should the other channels fail safe at neutral rather than hold?

Yes, that works on the 14sg and the 8fghs

Noticed the 14SG locked up a couple of times around the model select copy screen, a google search shows it is not uncommon, anyone else come across this? just wondering if I should return for another unit?

Thanks

I got mine to lock up but I blamed that on not being familiar with everything. It resets easily.

 

[ianwood]

Thanks for this guide very helpful,

For transmitter fail safe is it correct to leave all channels in hold with only the mode select channel U set to P2 fail safe value or should the other channels fail safe at neutral rather than hold?

Yes, that works on the 14sg and the 8fghs

This is how the latest version of my profile is set up for failsafe. It didn't make any difference on the P2 whether it was hold or setting U to failsafe but now hopefully should be compatible with non-P2 Naza as well.

 

[ladykate]

Thanks for this guide very helpful,

For transmitter fail safe is it correct to leave all channels in hold with only the mode select channel U set to P2 fail safe value or should the other channels fail safe at neutral rather than hold?

Yes, that works on the 14sg and the 8fghs

This is how the latest version of my profile is set up for failsafe. It didn't make any difference on the P2 whether it was hold or setting U to failsafe but now hopefully should be compatible with non-P2 Naza as well.

Yes, it (version 4) triggers failsafe on my 550. I recommend checking it on any setup, though.