Having been shamed into upgrading from a Spektrum to a Futaba 8FG (thanks Adam ), I tripped over a small but frustrating little problem: The Futaba servo connectors (and the battery connector) on the R6208SB receiver are keyed. There are no markings for signal, +V, and ground. For those of you who are not experienced RC'ers and are coming at this from the world of video/photography, this means Futaba has a proprietary connector and is not going to tell you the pin-out in its documentation. So there. Unfortunately, that means you have no clue which of the two outer pins are signal and ground. The cables that come with the Radian are wisely unkeyed so that you are not locked into Futaba. However that raises a challenge? Which way do you plug in the Radian servo connectors? Answer: The key notch is closest to the signal pin. The center is +V, and the pin furthest from the key notch is ground. Hope this saves someone else a few minutes of head scratching/Google searching. Here's a diagram. As we say in the software business, the good thing about standards is that there are so many to choose from. (This also applies to the video business, doesn't it?) Andy.
I should have added that I use a silver pen to mark the top surface of the Radian, right above the pin column closest to the port numbers to remind me that that's the signal pin. I've lost too much kit to inadvertently reversing polarity and letting the smoke out of the wires. This may not happen with servos but I'd really prefer not to be the first guy to find out that it fries something. Andy.
HI Andy, Just so you can sleep easy at night if you were to plug a connection in backwards on the Radian there would be no smoke, only the signal and ground would be reversed. Also you can tell which way the connectors go when using a FUTABA type plug as the radian has keyways that fit the FUTABA plug. Tabb
Thanks, Tabb. By the way, all three sensors are installed and running fine. No problems at all. Haven't flown it yet, but easy install -- now I have to mind-wrestle with the Futaba 8FG manual to assign additional channels for Radian Aux use for the IR/LANC camera control. I do have a couple of questions though (somewhat off thread): 1. Where can I get more of the double-sided servo tape the production Radians use -- seems to be far stronger than the 3M tape I was using and I'd like to use it for HDMI converters, IR controllers etc. etc. 2. Where can I get stiffer O-rings for the vibration isolators? Are they available on amazonsupply.com? If I knew the durometer value for the stiffer ones, I could see if I can find them. Thanks Andy.