Sunday, January 20, 2008

Vex Remote Mod



This shows the guts of the Vex Remote.

My idea is to add to the 1 remote an extra transmitter (it's the big brown board).

I will add a switch to control which board will transmit the signal at any given time.

In Essenes this will leave me with a 12ch remote that I can use to connect to 2 different Vex micros on different Freqs.

I'll use some controls to drive the body, dome, arms, doors. Then flip the switch and I can control the periscope, pie panels, etc.

Since I have incorporated the 12ch Ebay remote to the Vex micro, This gives me additional channels to control things like the lights, holo movement, etc.

Now I have more than enough channels, 16 motor ports, and I/O ports to work with, I'm not worried anymore about controls.

6 comments:

The life of thomas said...

Wow calvin! you really are the "vex-go-to-guy" ;)

Thomas

Anonymous said...

calvin. i'm not sure if this is such a great idea. i think you could do this much simple w/o hacking the transmitter this way. but if you really do want to go this direction, then why not just switch between two crystals rather than two whole transmitter boards inside?

chris

SuperDad said...

Wow...this sounds complicated!

I hope you can pull it off! I sure couldnt!!

Jason

Calvin Thomas said...

The idea is to not have to switch the crystals at all.
That would take alittle time to do and if your showing your R2 it would be easier to just flip a switch between the 2 Freqs.
But you did give me another idea :)
Instead of adding another FM board, I may try to make an adapter to plug into the original crystal plug. This adapter would carry both crystals and have the switch mounted between the two.
This would allow the original remote to remain it stock form.
Calvin

Anonymous said...

calvin - that's what i said. switch between two crystals. i didn't mean physically remove and swap out crystals, but an electrical switch.

i still dont think it's such a good idea though for a bunch or reasons. you're droid motors will basically be dead when your controlling your periscope etc. just think. you're going to want to spin the dome when you pop out he periscope. switching back and forth is going to be slower than you think.

you're also going to take up two full channels at events.

i really think you should have full and instant control of the dome and drive motors at all times when R2 is out and about.

i think you can achieve what you're trying to do so many other ways.

sorry to be so negative, but i think you're going to be disappointed when you come to try and run him around at events.

chris

Calvin Thomas said...

I still have the 12ch Ebay remote that I can use through the Vex to controll things also. The main reason I'm looking for more channels is unlike the Futuba remotes, I can't add features like Wayne Orr has done. He flips 1 of numerous switches to active items.
It will take some carefull mapping of the remote to pull this off.
The crystals Freqs. will be changable and I'm also looking at the crystal mod on Vex modders group to add different Freqs.
I would love to have a more instant control of R2, But the Vex is only going to allow me to do so much without knowing more about programming. Having 2 Vex in R2 is needed, But having control of the 2 is the problem. Maybe having the slipring between the body and the dome will open more access.
Don't worry about negative comments, This is how we all learn and this is what my Blog is about.
Calvin