Switching between Single operator & Dual operator ... how 2

This was my reply to a post elsewhere in the forum ... but I thought it warranted it's own thread as I've seen a few requests and queries about it, so hopefully this helps future requests.

Our setup is a CS8 with 3 axis gimbal stabilised with 3x radians. The CS8 controlled with a MX-20/GR-24 and gimbal with a MX-12/GR-12.

Obviously this is what works for me and by all means not the only solution, the button configuration is my preferred layout and you can assign them the way you prefer ...

I have set up my MX-20 to control the 3 axis gimbal as a single operator for when I'm practicing etc. It gives me full control of the gimbal. I can switch the gimbal off, to mode and to slew mode. I can also control the PAN and TILT when in slew mode as well as control the IR trigger switch for the camera. So there is no need to unplug any servos or tie any servos up as they will all be powered up. Unless of course you want to remove the slew feature of the PAN axis and only be able to control the TILT, then simply unplug the PAN servo and strp the gimbal to a boom to prevent it from moving around.

I'll show you my setup from the dual operator system and then the single system will make more sense. I use a MX-12 for the camera operator and a GR-12 on the gimbal. The first thing I did was assign the channels to the various switches as per this diagram.



I also switched two of the input channel around ... made sense when I assigned the MX-20's channels later. To switch the input channels follow these screen shots. Go to "Base Setting" on the MX-12, then scroll down to "receiv out" then I switch channels 3 with 2 and 2 with 3 as I wanted by TILT on the left stick and the PAN on my right stick.



I then went to "Control Adjust" to assigned the 3 lever switch required to switch between the RADIAN's "OFF" - "MODE" - "SLEW" and the single spring switch to trigger my IR Camera Switch.



With that done the MX-12 is setup for the camera operator to control the gimbal during dual operator mode. All that is required is to BIND the MX-12 to the GR-12 when needed.

Now to setup the MX-20 for single operator and dual operator use. The channel and switch assignments only have to be done once. The Transmitter will work during both single and dual operator ... except the gimbal assigned controls and switches will become inactive if the Gimbal RX is bound with the MX-12 first. For single operator use BIND the gimbals GR-12 with the MX-20 first, then the CS8s RX (mine being a GR-24) with the MX-20 second. The second bound RX becomes the master RX and the telemetry of that RX is the one that is received by the MX-20.



So now you have both RX bound with one TX.

Now for the big switchup ... due to the MX-12 only being a 6 channel radio, the channel and switch assignments on the MX-20 have to be reassigned in order to open up the lower numbers so they can be assigned to the GR-12 on the gimbal to operate the RADIANs etc. First thing, in the set menu of the MX-20, scroll down to "TX. output swap" then reassign the following channels - Change Ch 2 to Ch7 and Ch3 to Ch10 and Ch7 to Ch2 and Ch10 to Ch3



Then you need to assign the relevant switches, dials and levers. I used the same two switches and lever as per the MX-12 to switch between the RADIANs "OFF"-"MODE"-"SLEW" and to trigger my IR Camera Switch. I then assigned the two Rotary Dials CTRL 7 and CTRL 8 to operate the TILT and PAN respectively.





After the MX-20 has been set up and all channels are assigned, you then need to make the relevant changes in MK TOOLS and the RADIAN software. In MK Tools, you need to reassign the NICK and ROLL of the Flight Control to Channels 10 and 7 respectively. This frees up the lower numbers that will correspond to the lower numbers assigned to the MX-12. Then the two rotary dials, Ctrl 7 and 8 can now be assigned to Channels 2 and 3 which as the same as the MX-12. Remember to write these values back to the MK flight control.



Then the last step is to assign your RADIANs to the the corresponding channel numbers for all the axis's and the 3 lever switch and the AUX for the IR Camera Trigger. I'm not going into depth about how to do this ....



That's that .... now during single operator use, you can control the TILT and PAN of the 3 axis gimbal, as well as flick through the various RADIAN modes and control your camera and hopefully still fly as well!

I definitely need more fingers or a dexterous chin to operate every switch and lever!

The only bit of "work" is that when you switch between single and dual, you have to re-bind the TX and RX's every time your switch between the 2 flight modes ... but it only takes 2 secs. Like I mentioned earlier in the post, if you do not want control of the PAN axis and do not want it to be in SLEW mode, then simply unplug the servo from that RADIAN.

Hope this helps

 

Sure thing Steve ... Good to see that someone finally made use of it!

 

Fantastic!