Radio control receivers

[The mechanic]

Not sure if this is the correct place to post this, but here goes......

I have a Planet T5 2.4GHz transmitter. I have a small collection of live steam locomotives which I would like to fit out with radio control, but don't see the point in buying a separate transmitter/receiver combination for all of them.

I therefore would like to be able to just fit receiver, servos, battery, etc. and use the same transmitter. I understand that the Planet transmitter has facility for this, but would like to enquire (a) Will the Tx communicate with other manufacturers' receivers? (as I understand Planet items are no longer manufactured) (b) Can anyone suggest a good combination (price and reliability-wise) to use with the Planet Tx based on experience?

Dave

 

[maxi-model]

I seem to remember Planet's T5 compatible receivers having a bit of bad rep' for reliability in the hot environments they might find themselves in on a live steamer. It also seems to be reported their TX's only work with their own make RX's. I only have one loco using this kit. I cannot remember the generic classification for RX's that will tell you if they will work with multiple TX's and vise versa.

While pricey the Spektrum R/C kit seems good and you can bind multiple locos to their transmitters. I have 4 locos using that kit on one TX, one is a battery loco too. If you want to move away from those big boxes with sticks the Fosworks range of compact TX's, made for live steam, and their matching RX's might be worth a look. Max

 

[Tony Walsham]

There are no more Planet R/C Rx's being made.

As with most 2.4 Ghz R/C they are mostly brand specific. Usually you can bind as many same brand Rx's to one Tx as you wish.
Very few brands will work with other brands.
Probably the only ones that will, use DSM2/DSMX protocols.
DSM2/DSM is made by Spectrum, Orange and Deltang. Xenon (Lemon brand) make receivers.
There are a number of cottage industries using Deltang components including My RCS brand.
I for one would like to know what other brands are compatible with one another.

 

[PhilP]

As others have stated, Planet receivers are 'end of life', so will become rarer, and those you will be able to get will probably be second-hand.
Initially, these will be cheap, as users 'jump-ship' to something else, but then as existing units fail, the price may well rise.

You tend to need to stick to a 'brand' (or more correctly, a protocol) for things to work together.

Possibly the protocol which is most widely available is the DSM2/DSMX group of equipment.
Transmitters and receivers using these protocols, will tend to talk to each other, and will work with each other to a greater, or lesser, degree.

As an example:
Deltang uses a feature David calls 'Selecta'. This allows a transmitter with this feature to talk to (up to) 12 receivers individually.
So you can have a single transmitter, which can be used with several locomotives, at the flick of a switch. Depending on how the receivers are configured, they can be set to continue running, or come to a stop, if communication is lost between transmitter and receiver.

You could bind a different manufacturers DSM2/DSMX receiver to the transmitter, but as it does not have Deltang software, it would not know what to do with the 'Selecta' information. - The receiver would respond to the transmitter for all positions of the Selecta switch.


You can (usually) bind many receivers to a single transmitter. However, you then need to switch loco's off and on, in order to control one at a time.

PhilP.

 

[maxi-model]

You can (usually) bind many receivers to a single transmitter. However, you then need to switch loco's off and on, in order to control one at a time.

With the Spektrum DX I have you select the loco you want to bind to from a scrollable menu on the TX. There is no actual need to switch off individual locos bound to the one transmitter when using their RX's.

Useful to know about the protocol terminology used. I have heard the terms used when fitting locos with R/C. What I did not realise is if you "mix and match" TX's and RX's operating on the same protocols you may not get all the facilities you might be expecting that are associated with the individual makes. Max

 

[dunnyrail]

I seem to remember Planet's T5 compatible receivers having a bit of bad rep' for reliability in the hot environments they might find themselves in on a live steamer. It also seems to be reported their TX's only work with their own make RX's. I only have one loco using this kit. I cannot remember the generic classification for RX's that will tell you if they will work with multiple TX's and vise versa.

While pricey the Spektrum R/C kit seems good and you can bind multiple locos to their transmitters. I have 4 locos using that kit on one TX, one is a battery loco too. If you want to move away from those big boxes with sticks the Fosworks range of compact TX's, made for live steam, and their matching RX's might be worth a look. Max

I have used Fosworks (actually obtained prior to his takeover from Peter Spoerer) for my Live Steam and find them to be much better than the great big silly Plane/RacingCar/Boat Transmitters. As Max mentioned Fosworks felt I should endorse them. So far as I understand you could have just 1 Transmitter and a different receiver for each Loco. Pretty sure that they can all be bound, though with Fosworks new enhanced Binding Process having to bind each time you run a different Loco would not be too traumatic. Ring Steve at Fosworks and ask him. He is very approachable and offers immense help when required.

 

[The mechanic]

Does anyone have any experience of these products?.....

RC CODE 2.4G FHSS

I have a CODE transmitter which allows selection of multiple receivers via an on board LCD display, are they any good for live steam operation?

Their multi channel receivers are widely available and very reasonably priced, just bed to know if they will suit my purposes as listed above