What else can I upgrade in my radio?

Where to find parts? Refactoring your entire transmitter, new cases? Sticks etc..
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Re: What else can I upgrade in my radio?

Post by Rad »

Lol, according to your photo, your motors seem to be like a half cm bigger! About one third! And of course the flat side helps. How is the vibration in your radio? Does it vibrate well enough? Link for those motors?

EDIT: This looks quite good too.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/2PCS-6mm-8mm-D ... Swe2xbxF9j
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Re: What else can I upgrade in my radio?

Post by jhsa »

I use two, one of each side of the radio. I don't really remember where I did get mine from. :( Perhaps ebay, perhaps another user from this forum sent them. Really can't remember. But try yours with a battery and see how they vibrate. I believe they are 3V motors?

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Re: What else can I upgrade in my radio?

Post by Rad »

jhsa wrote: Tue Mar 05, 2019 5:48 pm I use two, one of each side of the radio. I don't really remember where I did get mine from. :( Perhaps ebay, perhaps another user from this forum sent them. Really can't remember. But try yours with a battery and see how they vibrate. I believe they are 3V motors?

João
I just tested the motors with a 3V power source, and definitelly are too weak...

So I think Im going to buy this:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/2PCS-6mm-8mm-D ... %7Ciid%3A1

Do you think they will work with the rest of your setup?
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Re: What else can I upgrade in my radio?

Post by jhsa »

Difficult to say by just looking at them :( without having them it is not possible to have an opinion. :( I do really apologize..

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Re: What else can I upgrade in my radio?

Post by Rad »

Well, no worries. I will order them and lets see what happens... My only worry is the safety of the 9xtreme...
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Re: What else can I upgrade in my radio?

Post by jhsa »

They won't be controlled directly by the 9xtreme board, but by the transistor..

But talking about safety, did you do the 100 ohm resistor mod in line with the RF module signal, pin 1 in the module bay?
That resistor should protect the processor pin.

By the way, NEVER insert or remove the RF module when the radio is ON, even if you did the resistor mod. There were a number of 9xtreme boards damaged because of this..

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Re: What else can I upgrade in my radio?

Post by jhsa »

Another mod I have on my radios is a self made switch board with a circuit that will keep the radio and RF module ON if the power switch goes bad. But you need to make a PCB and solder some SMD components.

I designed this board after the power switch of my 9XR-PRO went bad, and the radio thought it had to shutdown.. One half of the switch detects when the radio is ON, and the other side actually powers it. The detection side of the switch got damaged..
I managed to repair it though. After opening the switch I could see that the contacts were completely black :O
Cleaned them with some alcohol and an old toothbrush and it is working fine since then. But I don't use that radio to fly very often. My main radio is the 9xtreme..
I also like my Ar9x radios. Very nice boards, shame that they are not being produced anymore.. :(

João

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Re: What else can I upgrade in my radio?

Post by Rad »

jhsa wrote: Wed Mar 06, 2019 11:00 am They won't be controlled directly by the 9xtreme board, but by the transistor..

But talking about safety, did you do the 100 ohm resistor mod in line with the RF module signal, pin 1 in the module bay?
That resistor should protect the processor pin.

By the way, NEVER insert or remove the RF module when the radio is ON, even if you did the resistor mod. There were a number of 9xtreme boards damaged because of this..

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Yes, that was one of the first mods I did... And Im glad I did it. For years I never unplugged the module with the radio on, but the other day I had the radio in my hands when a friend called me. We were talking and I dont know how, but I ended removing and plugging the multiprotocol module back to the radio with it switched on. For a while my blood was frozen, but thanks to god the radio seems to work well. I thought with that resistor it was safe, but now you scared me... Maybe would be better to install a better resistor? Any other mods?
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Re: What else can I upgrade in my radio?

Post by Rad »

jhsa wrote: Wed Mar 06, 2019 11:09 am Another mod I have on my radios is a self made switch board with a circuit that will keep the radio and RF module ON if the power switch goes bad. But you need to make a PCB and solder some SMD components.

I designed this board after the power switch of my 9XR-PRO went bad, and the radio thought it had to shutdown.. One half of the switch detects when the radio is ON, and the other side actually powers it. The detection side of the switch got damaged..
I managed to repair it though. After opening the switch I could see that the contacts were completely black :O
Cleaned them with some alcohol and an old toothbrush and it is working fine since then. But I don't use that radio to fly very often. My main radio is the 9xtreme..
I also like my Ar9x radios. Very nice boards, shame that they are not being produced anymore.. :(

João

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If you have some clear info about that mod, I will do it too!.
And yes, Shame there are no more 9xtreme... Hope somebody can make another batch someday...
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Re: What else can I upgrade in my radio?

Post by jhsa »

Oh, clear instructions for that mod, I don't really know if I have, but here is the project page. Not very long.

viewtopic.php?f=95&t=8210

It's been 2 years since I last did something for this project. I hope I can remember enough to be able to help. I have just read the entire thread though :) Shame that there weren't many people interested on this, as it can save your radio and your models..

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Re: What else can I upgrade in my radio?

Post by Rad »

Hi Joao, I have some news here. Does this look ok to you? I know it is ugly, but as long as it works...
So does it have your blessings? Lol

70174b16-fe59-4a3c-a649-82bf82ec4db9.jpg
a79f0928-7e67-4321-bf62-faebad6e7293 (1).jpg
8ac1059d-a0c1-4900-b9c6-4002a398ae75.jpg
2a9407a2-4fe2-424e-a101-80ffd3b2caf0.jpg
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jhsa
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Re: What else can I upgrade in my radio?

Post by jhsa »

It looks ok from here, I can see that you added pins for the second motor :)

Don't forget the reversed polarized diodes at the motors. make sure their polarity is correct, otherwise you might burn something.

are you using the BS170 transistor or an equivalent?

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Re: What else can I upgrade in my radio?

Post by Rad »

Great, good to know everything is fine so far.

Yep, I added pins for the motors. In case I have to fix something, will be easier to replace.
The polarized diodes https://www.aliexpress.com/item/100pcs- ... 4c4dj1u992 are on the way, as well as the new motors. I have not forgotten it, but thanks for remembering me, I keep forgetting and destroying things all the time, lol.

Regarding the BS170... Yup, I fitted this: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/10pcs-l ... 4c4dhKbXx2

Basically I ordered everything that you wrote on the list, except the resistor that I forgot, so I got one in a local shop. Hope is the right resistor, lol.

I will update the thread again when I have the rest of the parts here.


I also got a couple of the encoders. Those are really dissapearing, there are now less than a hundred in Mouser, so if somebody is interested on them, it would be better to grab them now.
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Re: What else can I upgrade in my radio?

Post by jhsa »

Resistor looks correct. Brown (1), Black (0), Black (0), Red (00).. 10000 Ohms or 10 Kilo Ohms, 10K. ;) :D

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Re: What else can I upgrade in my radio?

Post by hackerjoe »

Hello there,

For the metal standoffs did you just cut the old ones out and epoxy in the metal type?

I'd like to get rid of the stripped out plastic ones in mine but not sure the best way to do it.

I tried filling them with hot glue and drilling them out a bit but the screws wont hold still.
Cleaning the hot glue out was a pain in the a$$ but I got it cleaned out and ended up just sticking in some short pieces of wire in there and the screws are able to bite into that and catch.
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Re: What else can I upgrade in my radio?

Post by jhsa »

Cleaning hot glue is the easiest task in the planet :mrgreen: ;)
Just use some alcohol.. :) It will come right off.

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Re: What else can I upgrade in my radio?

Post by hackerjoe »

Thanks João
I got rid of the hot glue that was in the holes.
I was wondering how he added the metal standoffs?
I'm guessing he cut the old ones off and screwed the new ones on the back and added some epoxy then maybe used some rubber bands around both to hold it until the epoxy dried?
Metal standoffs sure do sound nice to replace broken or stripped out plastic ones.
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Re: What else can I upgrade in my radio?

Post by MikeB »

In the UK, I got some 6BA self tapping screws around 20mm long. These are slightly larger in diameter than the original screws that hold the case together. They cut a new thread in the plastic.
As standard, when doing up screws I turn them BACKWARDS until they "click", then I know they are aligned with the existing thread and will do up without stripping the plastic.

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Re: What else can I upgrade in my radio?

Post by hackerjoe »

Thank you Mike I will look on Ebay for some of those screws, Lowes or Home Depot near me might have them as well.

Oh and I'm guessing 6BA is a #4 screw?
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Re: What else can I upgrade in my radio?

Post by MikeB »

I don't know, "BA" is fairly specific to the UK I believe!

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Re: What else can I upgrade in my radio?

Post by hackerjoe »

Mike,
Sorry, we don't use BA here :)
I looked it up in a conversion chart it's a #4 screw
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Re: What else can I upgrade in my radio?

Post by Rad »

hackerjoe wrote: Thu Mar 21, 2019 1:54 pm Hello there,

For the metal standoffs did you just cut the old ones out and epoxy in the metal type?

I'd like to get rid of the stripped out plastic ones in mine but not sure the best way to do it.

I tried filling them with hot glue and drilling them out a bit but the screws wont hold still.
Cleaning the hot glue out was a pain in the a$$ but I got it cleaned out and ended up just sticking in some short pieces of wire in there and the screws are able to bite into that and catch.

Sorry for the late reply!

Those are the steps:
I bought some stand offs. M3, and the hex part is about 7mm I think. THis is not critic, so everything around that should be OK.
Then I grabbed a dremmel and with a rotary disc, I cut the plastic mounts the same ammount of milimeters that the hex part in the stand off had.
Then I bolted a long hex bolt inside the standoff, and the standoff just located over the hole of the old plastic mount, then and i put heat on it with a soldering iron. Carefully when it started to soft, I screwed it with the help of an allen key.

Worked perfectly in the 6 standoffs.
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Re: What else can I upgrade in my radio?

Post by Rad »

Meanwhile I receive the rest of the parts for the vibration in my radio, a coleague grabbed me two encoders. He will ship them to me in a month or so.
So so far I have the encoder,
the andreju blue PCB board.

What else do I need? what were the resistors? Also I think the encoders does not have enough pins. Do I need to do something else?
THanks!
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Re: What else can I upgrade in my radio?

Post by jhsa »

The encoder normally should be connected to some processor pins through some resistors. But as you have the 9xtreme board, I think might might have a simpler solution using the I2C connection and an extra little arduino board.. I believe he mentioned it somewhere.
Please watch this video carefully. The encoder must be soldered to the 9x mainboard correctly. Yiou have one chance only of doing it the right way. Solder it the wrong way and you will be in deep trouble. So, please take your time and do not rush it. Watch this video as many times as you need before you attempt doing it. Pay attention to the position of the encoder.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgD_VLkfgkY

Also, you might have to sand the encoder PCB a little bit so it doesn't interfere with the backlight.
Also, have a look at the attached picture from my 9x radio with m2561 processor.
Connections to the processor on that piece of stripboard are from top to bottom:

Haptic (not yet installed, forgot about it :) )
Next 3 connections with a 3K9 resistor, are the encoder connections
Next 2 are for the serial connection to the ArduVoice module.
The 2 last connections at the bottom are the Telemetry mod..

I hope it helps..

João
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Re: What else can I upgrade in my radio?

Post by Rad »

Hi Joao, as always thanks for the help!

I know some things have already been asked in the forum, but some info is outdated, some other is not, and also each radio is different (Plain radio, different smartieparts boards, other boards, different mods done in the radios and so on..) So is hard to know what to follow.
But just some small info here:
I think Mike said that I already used all the connectors in the 9xtreme. I have bluetooth and I have haptic in process... So I think the only option I have soldering to the processor. I will make some small PCB too for it.
Regarding sanding the PCB, this blue board comes already prepared for that, so no need to sand there, great news :) Also the 9xtreme screen is smaller than the hobbyking backlight.

I will take another look at the video... Still months until I have the last piece of my puzzle, but is better to have all the info digested, lol.
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Re: What else can I upgrade in my radio?

Post by jhsa »

Rad wrote: Mon Mar 25, 2019 3:39 pm I think Mike said that I already used all the connectors in the 9xtreme. I have bluetooth and I have haptic in process... So I think the only option I have soldering to the processor. I will make some small PCB too for it.
In that case you will have to connect the encoder exactly as I did on my board. To the 9x board's processor. This is how I have it done also on my 9xtreme radio.
Regarding sanding the PCB, this blue board comes already prepared for that, so no need to sand there, great news :) Also the 9xtreme screen is smaller than the hobbyking backlight.
Ok, but still, this is something you will have to see when you are doing it. Something to just keep in mind ;)
I will take another look at the video... Still months until I have the last piece of my puzzle, but is better to have all the info digested, lol.
Please do.. Remember, you only have one chance. If you mess up it will be difficult to remove the encoder without destroying something, probably the 9x board. :(
So, really take your time to look at how he did it on the video..

João
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Re: What else can I upgrade in my radio?

Post by Rad »

You scared me, lol. I hope to be able to do it right...


In other order of things, I just arrived home and I found this in the mailbox https://www.aliexpress.com/item/100pcs- ... 4c4d12bIzj for the haptic. I guess the black part goes to positive, right?

If yes, the last piece missing of the Haptic puzzle are the motors. :)
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Re: What else can I upgrade in my radio?

Post by jhsa »

I don't want to scare you at all, just to remind you that you will really need to pay attention to the way you solder the encoder to the 9x mainboard..

If those diodes are supposed to.be connected across the motor pins, then the cathode (black ring) connects to positive..
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Re: What else can I upgrade in my radio?

Post by Rad »

Hi guys, today I just want to say thank you all again. Without your help, this would not be possible.

photo_2019-03-28_22-00-48.jpg
photo_2019-03-28_21-59-29.jpg
photo_2019-03-28_21-59-28.jpg
Haptic installed and working!

The last thing, the holy grail of this, will be the encoder. It still has to wait some months, but that is the only missing part of the puzzle.

Thanks to all of you, specially to Joao and Mike!
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Re: What else can I upgrade in my radio?

Post by jhsa »

Nice :) How does the haptic feel??

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