I’m using a dx6e radio and lemon rx combined with this on/off switch to try and use if for a single gun and I can’t seem to get it to work. As soon as I plug it in it opens the solenoid valve and I can’t get it to close. I’m trying to use my elevator stick for the gun. I like sticks over buttons for a single gun anyway. I’ve tried different settings in the radio as far as servo trims to try and get it to work but to no avail... Anyone have any ideas? Directions say for this switch to work correctly you will need to set the related channel travel to + - 100%. How do I do this with the sticks?
I am by far not a electronics expert but it looks like you have both + & - running thru the switch. I only have one side running thru the switch and the other say + runs strait to the valve
You are firing a solenoid with the receiver power. If that were a true switch it would not have a positive and negative .If you take what you have disconect the solenoid and put in a spst relay you would then hookup a battery of the solenoids rating 12v-6v ect and run it through the normally open relay contacts your solenoid will then fire properly
Directions say for this switch to work correctly you will need to set the related channel travel to + - 100%. This statement makes me wonder if it's intended to run off an actual switch on the radio rather than a stick. The elevator stick generally is spring loaded and returns to a neutral position in the center. Try moving the switch to the gear or aux channel and seeing if it likes that. If it does, it's probably not going to be happy running on a spring loaded stick except as a momentary 'off'. Plus as folks have mentioned, it looks to be pulling from receiver power so I would only use it for very light loads.
Well what’s a commercially available board I can use a stick on the controller with besides BC boards? I’ve ordered some stuff from them but with COVID going on I know they take awhile to get orders out. I just need a simple board for a single gun.
These were popular for a long time in the hobby. I still use them in some of my ships. https://www.servocity.com/micro-pwm-switch/
I use the pololu also except I use the one with the on board relay . I like dry contacts for isolation and although larger it is much more rooky friendly.
Its probably an optical isolated transistor on the board, and needs power to both sides. Maybe designed for powering lights? Cut one of your solder joints and put the solenoid battery in between the cut ends. Match the + and - on the board to the battery polarity, its likely to act like a diode. Bring it over to my workshop some time if you cant get it to work. It might need a diode to snub the voltage spike when the solenoid field collapses, or might not. I would need to see the other side of the board to tell for sure.
I’ve just tried the battlers dual gun switch to no avail. Any reason the board won’t work? The lights sometimes blink but in no specific order or with stick movements. All my trims are centered for the channel I’m trying to use... I’m running the lemon rx with a 10A esc powering it. Any reason this won’t power the board correctly? About to say heck with it and just run poppets.
Test the switch with a solenoid hooked up. Plug the switch in on a 3 position switch channel to make sure it works. Have the three points set to 100, 0, and -100. Have the switch at the 0 position when you power on. If it does work, could you post some photos? One of the wiring, and one of the dx6e's screen on the monitor tab with the sticks at neutral. I had the same problem on my dx6e with BC pump switches on their own dedicated power but found a solution for it on the radio side.
troubleshooting via forum is hard. I always try to isolate the issue by testing things one by one. Things I would test: Test solenoid with a separate mechanical microswitch/battery, make sure it clicks. sometimes if the top nut is too tight it wont click Power receiver from a battery instead of via the BEC from the ESC, test it out Go to the channel monitoring screen on your radio, verify neutral is neutral Check your endpoints are 100% Try a different channel on radio Hook up a light to output of switch instead of solenoid, test it out I'm also a fan of the Pololu switches, I've run my brushed pumps from them for a while (actuate relay), going to try to run some guns
I’ve hooked up a multi c board with the same solenoid and rx and the valve cycles fine. I would like to use this board but I’m not sure why I can’t get it to work. View: https://youtu.be/kyRtYrr2BPw
Ok, now I have gotten it to work with my pump switch toggle as well but I cannot seem to get me stick configured to make it work with it yet... jeez this thing is kicking my butt. User error per the usual it seems. Can anyone point me in the right direction with these radio settings? What am I missing, because my stick settings work fine hooked up to the multi-c board.
Okay yeah that sounds like the pump switch problem I was having. The switch won't "arm" unless it sees a zero from the stick at a specific position. I can see from the radio's throw settings that neither your aileron nor elevator channel were exactly 0 at neutral. Might've just been when you were bumping the trim tabs, idk. Under the System Settings, calibrate the sticks. Gently push them in a + motion up and down then side to side. Then, when you're on the main screen of the radio (the one that shows the plane) roll the wheel rightwards until you see the vertical bars showing stick positions and make absolutely sure your sticks are at zero when at neutral and at ±100 when at full throw.
It has to be some sort of issue like you described because sometimes it will work but sometimes it’s laggy or triggers on its on or sticks on. It’s really odd, I wonder if I just need to do a reset of some sort cause I’ve recalibrated the sticks like you said and everything seems fine on that end but I can’t for the life of me get this to work correctly. Any other suggestions besides driving to Ronnie Hunts house to have him fix this for me?
Alright so I gave up on the dual firing board and just ended up going with a multi-c board that has everything working just fine now with the same radio trims I tried on the other board. I don’t know why I couldn’t correct the problem but oh well I’m happy now. I’m curious to see if the regulator can keep up with my fingers ROF.. Will post a firing test video when I can get around to it this week. Just coated the board in CC after I made sure it worked first.
