05forfun

iTrader: (81)

Hi, I am just wondering do people calibrate their radio after certain period (say 1 year or 100 hrs)? Many people buy or trade used high end radio like M11, 3pk, but how do they know the radio functions as what it should be? I am thinking about sending my M11 to airtronic for calibration and some check (I bought it as a used one), because I want to make sure I am using a M11 that I expect it is a real M11, not the one acts like a MX3 but I don't notice that. I am not saying MX3 is not good, just want to say M11 has more functions than MX3. Any comment?

Duster_360

iTrader: (21)

I got my 3PK ina trade/deal about 4yrs ago. I called an talked to Futaba tech support - took several calls to actually get one of the guys that would work on one if I did send it in. His adiovice was no calibration needed as long as it worked correctly and had good range. Mine is fine, its never shown any sign of having probs. Def one of the better deals I've made.

05forfun

iTrader: (81)

Well mine is working fine too. But how can we tell it is working correctly and within right range? For example, 50% throttle exponential is actually 40%, or when you think you have increased the servo speed by 20% but the radio is actually doing nothing, but we still think the servo is 20% faster.

I actually contacted Airtronic and they told me if the radio is working fine, it is not necessary to send it back for calibration. But since the radio has been use by different owners, how can we make sure every adjustment is corresponding to the desired level?

Duster_360

iTrader: (21)

There is a difference here - the calibration Airtronics is may be referring to is for the transmit frequency, I know that's what I was referring to. When you ask about calibration, thats what they're prob thinking. A given channel has a small range in actual freq that is allowed - when I asked Futaba about checking out my 3PK, that's what they explained - they would check that the transmission was within tolerance for my TX module's channel. Not sure how this works for 2.4Mhz.

What you're asking about is more about features and if they fucntion correctly and or haven't drifted. I've never seen mention of that being adjustable or tuneable or an issue for that matter. Those feature settings are prob programmed at chip level and may be an all or nothing deal anyway.

Was your discussion with Airtronics sufficiently clear they understood that you were not referring to calibrating xmit freq, but verifying features were working as initially programmed??

05forfun

iTrader: (81)

I didn't specifically tell them what I want them to do, just tell them I want to make sure my M11 will work as it came out the factory, and then they told me send the radio back and they can go through the whole system to check if it has some problems. They also mention that a radio should be calibrated every 100 hrs or one year. I guess maybe Airtronic and Futaba are talking about the same calibration, just frequency check only.

Trips

iTrader: (16)

Aside from making sure the module transmits on the exact frequency it is supposed to, the only other actual calibration a radio will need is for the potentiometers in the wheel and trigger, they can get dirty or wear over time. Eventually (if you have the radio long enough) they will need to be replaced.

All the things that you mentioned, like exponential, servo speed, etc. can not be calibrated, they are in the software, and work the same from day 1 until the day the radio dies.

05forfun

iTrader: (81)

This is more like an engineering answer, make sense! Thanks dude

triplesix

I know at KO's EX-1 series the potentiometers can be re-calibrated by the user, no need to send it in for service.
Does anyone know if this can be done with an M11 as well??

Regards,
666

Dave H

Spektrum DX3R pots can be user calibrated also.

boomerrw

/\ can you tell me how? or where in the manual it says so?

lil-bump

iTrader: (89)

I've been a CNC service technician for the better part of 15 yrs. And the first rule when service equiptment is

If it ain't broke then don't fix it!!!

Trips

iTrader: (16)

It's part of the reset screen, the "parameter" function is where you can recalibrwte the pots.

Pages 26 and 27 in the DX3R manual explain it.