Immersion RC EzUHF Series, Overview & Operating Instructions

Page 1: ...ImmersionRC EzUHF R C Control System 1 EzUHF R C Control System Overview Operating Instructions Nov 2010 for Firmware v1 18 ...

Page 2: ...ex DIN to EzUHF Mini DIN cable 9 Cabling the TrackR2 to the EzUHF Transmitter 10 EzUHF Receivers 11 EzUHF Receiver 8 channel version Connections 12 Powering the Rx when using high powered servos 12 Receiver antenna configuration 13 Driver Software Installation on a PC 13 EzUHF EzOSD link 13 Antenna Selection 15 Diamond SRH771 15 Active Robots 433MHz Straight 16 Active Robots 433MHz R A 16 Antenna ...

Page 3: ...ect head tracker input adding head tracker compatibility to most radios Power switch boost power when at long range optionally drive from unused control on the R C Tx Standard SMA antenna connector compatibility with 433MHz 70cm Ham band antennas Flexible buffered AC coupled PPM input ensures compatibility with 3 3v thru 9 6v PPM levels Standard USB port Mini A for firmware upgrades and system con...

Page 4: ...Because of this this product requires an Amateur radio or similar license to use in most parts of the world Please check your local legislation before using this product EzUHF Transmitter Powering the transmitter The EzUHF transmitter has two flexible power options Both of which may be used for additional redundancy 1 Power supplied via the 4 pin mini din connector In the case where the transmitte...

Page 5: ...d by the R C Tx Note that point 3 does mean that rebinding is required if the EzUHF transmitter is switched between different R C transmitters especially those with different frame rates For more advanced binding see Appendix A Binding multiple transmitters to a single receiver The binding procedure is as follows 1 Connect suitable antennas to both the EzUHF Tx and Rx and place them within 1m of e...

Page 6: ...ion is a little different Power Level control The toggle switch on the top of the EzUHF Tx is used to switch between high and low power modes Even if full feedback of uplink status is available on the EzOSD display it is highly recommended to fly in low power mode most of the time switching to high power mode if required The difference in power levels between the two modes is approximately 6dB whi...

Page 7: ...PPM In and the link to the Headtracker see below Cabling the TrackR2 to the EzUHF Transmitter These connectors are the same as those used on the TrackR2 headtracker with the same pinout These connectors are also the same as those used by the popular S Video standard which makes finding pre molded connectors and cables quite easy The S Video cables have Chroma Gnd and Y Luma Gnd as two twisted pair...

Page 8: ... any confusion the pin out is marked directly on a photo of the transmitter below Futaba square to EzUHF cable A Futaba to EzUHF cable is supplied with the EzUHF The wiring diagram of this cable is shown below for reference Not Used Gnd VBatt PPM In ...

Page 9: ...hed VBatt 3 Ground Gnd 4 Out In PPM In 5 Disable HF NOTES Bridge pins 3 5 to disable the HF module in all MPX radios Do not enable the trainer port as input or the output will be disabled Multiplex only has one pin for PPM input and output unlike Futaba who have a dedicated pin for each In the first published version of the UHF firmware very short PPM frames such as those produced by the Multiplex...

Page 10: ...will be available late November 2010 from ImmersionRC resellers A standard S Video cable cannot be used due to the necessity to cross over the PPM In out connections Note that both connectors are viewed from the back of the male connector where the solder connections are to be made Note that the switch on the TrackR2 must be in the Normal position and not Low End when connecting it to the EzUHF ...

Page 11: ...the highest signal strength is used at all times The OSD Link allows link quality metrics to be queried by the EzOSD 2 4 channel uni directional with single antenna connector This is a featherweight receiver ideal for smaller models who only require a maximum of 4 servo outputs and don t need the antenna diversity OSDLink Bi directional features of the 8 channel version Note that the range of this...

Page 12: ... is very important to take care with powering the Rx especially when high torque digital servos are used If a BEC is used ensure that it can deliver the current required by the servos Digital servos can create huge current pulses on the power line and if the impedance of the supply is too high these will cause the receiver to malfunction The use of a high performance BEC such as the Turnigy 5 7 5A...

Page 13: ...r to the EzOSD can create a very powerful combination The EzUHF receiver 8 channel version will periodically inform the EzOSD of the following measurements 1 The RSSI received signal strength on each of the two antennas 2 The overall signal quality which includes packet loss information 3 Frequency error measurement difference between Tx and Rx frequencies 4 Error rates per frequency bin These mea...

Page 14: ...IY cables the following Farnell parts may be used 5 POS Molex PicoBlade Housing 615109 Flying lead 300mm 1125274 The EzUHF Rx end of the cable uses a 5 pin Molex connector as used for the GPS connection to the EzOSD PCB the OSD end not the GPS end ...

Page 15: ...plink side using a UHF link this is also critical Retailers and distributors of the EzUHF system are asked to carry a selection of suitable antennas which may be used for various types of model and flight style The following commonly available antennas have been use successfully by the ImmersionRC design and test teams during many months of testing Diamond SRH771 This is a higher gain whip semi fl...

Page 16: ...tenna works well when antennas are placed remotely from the receiver using extension cables see below terminated in bulkhead SMA connectors These connectors can be embedded in a wing or fuselage pointing straight up or down Active Robots 433MHz R A http www active robots co uk 433mhz antenna rightangled p 545 html Model ANT 433MR Two of these antennas angled at approx 45 degrees from each other co...

Page 17: ...ns it is highly recommended to separate the A V Tx from the UHF Rx and UHF antenna Two configurations have been shown to work very well during hundreds of hours of flight testing 1 A V Tx out on a wingtip with the EzUHF Rx antenna on the opposite wingtip 2 A V Tx out on a wingtip with the EzUHF Rx in the nose and EzUHF antenna just in front of the vertical tail fin ...

Page 18: ...oise emission at around 432MHz These don t seem to affect the EzUHF much in practice but it is a good idea to separate the GoPro from the UHF Rx Antenna as much as possible As a rule of thumb if the RSSIs for an EzUHF system look good 60 80dBm range and the link quality indicator is often dipping below 100 suspect an interfering source on the plane Cameras SD and HD and poorly designed switching p...

Page 19: ...arios 1 When redundancy is required for safety reasons One transmitter may be switched off and another on to recover the model 2 To increase security during long range flights or when a plane once leaving line of sight for a first pilot is passed to a second This appendix will be completed once the feature is fully supported in the firmware ...

Page 20: ... successfully decode the servo positions 2 Ensure that the UHF Tx and Rx have been correctly bound together See the section Binding earlier in this document Problem Tx beeps continuously even when not in Bind mode Beep codes can identify the source of the problem Combinations of long and short beeps will be emitted and can be identified using the following table _ Transmitter internal error return...

Page 21: ...link quality indicator is often below 100 This is in almost all cases an interfering RF source located on the plane Look for cameras which radiate unintentionally in the UHF band or noisy switching regulators especially those used to switch up from 5v to 12v to run a 12v camera ...