Wiper to Pot Transmitter mod

[wingnutt]

Has anyone done a mod to their Tx to switch the steering control to a potentiometer intead of the wiper system? seems as though it would be more reliable. i dont care if it will only by RH drive afterwards. i could not find anything in the searches.

[Donziikid]

Originally Posted by wingnutt

Has anyone done a mod to their Tx to switch the steering control to a potentiometer intead of the wiper system? seems as though it would be more reliable. i dont care if it will only by RH drive afterwards. i could not find anything in the searches.

I have yet to see such a thing done to the stock Xmods controller. If you could pull it off, that would be pretty sweet.

[wingnutt]

from taking a cursury glance at the controller and board layout, it shouldn't be that big a project at all. but, it will RH-drive for life!

[Donziikid]

Originally Posted by wingnutt

from taking a cursury glance at the controller and board layout, it shouldn't be that big a project at all. but, it will RH-drive for life!

You should do it. Many people have mentioned doing such a thing, but I have yet to see anyone actually go through with it.

Actually, I'm quite curious as to how you'd go about this. I don't see really any way to do this without a totally new PCB board.. The steering and throttle inputs are both wiper; if you were to terminate one set of wippers, it seems as though the other set would also be terminated.

[wingnutt]

Donziikid - well, im looking at doing the steering first. to do it, i would remove the wiper system completely and mount a pot on the back side of the TX so that the steering wheel drives the pot directly. like i said, it was a cursury look and i havent cracked it open or put a DMM to the wiper yet. man, these lunch time projects keep adding up!

[wingnutt]

just picked up an extra transmitter (free! )to tear apart and begin the steering (and possibly throttle) mods. working at RS corporate does have some perks i guess.

dropped in the AWD kit (now $0.97 for the kit) and full pedal launches are straight as an arrow. now that we stopped carrying the bearing kits, who has the best deals on them now?

[xmodkidd33]

Try vxb.com. They usually have some good stuff.

[jameslew]

you work at rs corporate? do you know anything about a new like of xmods?
your project seems pretty neat. It should be good when it's done

[wingnutt]

xmodkidd33 - thanx, ill give them a looky-loo

jameslew - yep, i work at rs corporate. i am not sure if i can release that information, but from saying that you can guess the answer to your question.

[stangdude94]

dude that didnt make sence

[wingnutt]

think about it...

my job may suck, but i dont want to lose it.

[Donziikid]

Originally Posted by wingnutt

jameslew - yep, i work at rs corporate. i am not sure if i can release that information, but from saying that you can guess the answer to your question.

I hope for your sake you're not trying to pull a prank. People have done this in the past and it hasn't blown over well for the community nor the member who tried to pull the prank.

If you do work for RS, congrats and welcome to the Xmods scene that we all love. Now try and keep it alive!

Congrats on the extra TX. Can't wait to see what you can accomplish, because I'm still quite baffled on how you'll be able to get this competed from a stock Xmods controller.

[RedSXmodder]

Extremely interested! Please snap some pics along the way, because I've been searching for ways to make this crappy tx better!

It seems like you know what you know what your doing.

Later,
RedSXmodder

[wingnutt]

dzk - no prank here and thank you for the welcome.

rsxm - will do. i too find the tx rather lacking, but it may also be a function of how the Rx board needs the signal. we'll see and here's hoping.

[wingnutt]

wow, this Tx wiper mod may take a little longer than i thought. its a mess in there. spent about 30 min tracking traces, but making progress. anyone have a schematic?

[texan_idiot25]

Nobody has a schematic that I know of.

This maybe one of the better mods to the controller, instantly getting rid of the biggest complaint of how many "steps" there are in the steering.

You think messing with the ribbon cable that links the steering/throttle board to the rest of the Tx board will be the key? Looking at the controller I have open right now, seems that'd be the way to start.

Welcome from another Texan too,

[wingnutt]

Ti25 - yes, but exactly how is the key. That 8 wire ribbon cable only connects the wipers from the throttle and steering wipers (ok, duh). If it were to be set up like a NORMAL pot using system, there would be only 6 wires. So why are there 8? I think it has to do with the throttle trim (using only 2 arcs versus all 4). Also, at least one wire is shared between the throttle and steering, but not the 'base' pads as you would expect.

Starting with the end wire just above the lable "CN1" it is:

1 - Steering "base" pad
2 - Throttle "base" pad
3 - Steering Full right turn rotation (in RH mode)
4 - Throttle, but not sure what its function is
5 - Throttle, but not sure what its function is
6 - Shared between Steering and Throttle
7 - Steering, but not sure what its function is
8 - Steering, full left turn rotation (in RH mode)

I'll keep pluggin away though. I don’t like to let pieces of plastic beat me.

[texan_idiot25]

6 could be like a ground, or just where current goes for both steering and throttle when either isn't applied.

[wingnutt]

More pondering… I don’t think the main IC brain is reading an analog signal like you would get from a pot, but rather reading which combinations of the 6 output wires (2 wires being the bases) are being used and in what sequence (direction of movement). In short, the steps are fixed and hardcoded into the code of the main IC. So to make the conversion to potentiometers would take a major overhaul of everything before the actual transmitting modulation board. This is not to say it couldn’t be done. One could do it with a progammable PIC, but would have to be someone with more time than me to do it. I apologize to all who had hopes that little ol' me could solve this HUGE issue. I did what I could.

Someone please tell me im wrong!

[BART]

Originally Posted by wingnutt

More pondering… I don’t think the main IC brain is reading an analog signal like you would get from a pot, but rather reading which combinations of the 6 output wires (2 wires being the bases) are being used and in what sequence (direction of movement). In short, the steps are fixed and hardcoded into the code of the main IC. So to make the conversion to potentiometers would take a major overhaul of everything before the actual transmitting modulation board. This is not to say it couldn’t be done. One could do it with a progammable PIC, but would have to be someone with more time than me to do it. I apologize to all who had hopes that little ol' me could solve this HUGE issue. I did what I could.

Someone please tell me im wrong!

Your theory should be quite easy to test with a dvom, a pen, and paper. Just start running continuity from base to wherever and note at which points you show continuity as related to wiper position. If it is analog you would see a varying resistance where if it is stepped you would be able to detect definitive on off signals depending on where you probe with the dvom. My guess is it's stepped, let me know if you dont want to mess with it anymore and i'll ignore the raccoon for long enough to figure it out this weekend.