To Josh Bixler Mainly, but I'll take the advice of ANYONE on this

[doc_mat]

I remember you guys doing an episode with the E-Flite Apprentice. So much so that I went out and bought one, after the first flight, I fell in love with it. I recently purchased an extra Apprentice Rx, as well as two extra Apprentice motors and two extra Apprentice ESC's... I have everything bound to the original transmitter that comes with the Apprentice, and I'm mounting everything into the FT Guinea Pig. My question is: would there be a way to use differential thrust with the Rx that is "made" for the Apprentice? I asked E-Flite and I got the obligatory "Our product should be used as intended... blah blah blah". If such a thing is possible, could you possibly do a video as to how to do it? So far, both motors are working together with a Y-Harness to the Throttle position... I'm just curious as to setting up differential thrust...

 

[krinaman]

- To use differential thrust you need to have the motors on their own channels. Not a Y cable.
- This means you need an extra channel. The good news is the Apprentice Rx has an unused aux2 port.
- This also means you need an extra channel on your transmitter. This is the bad news. The RTF radio doesn't have one.
- You also need to be able to do mixes. Again, something the RTF transmitter can't do.

So unless you get a new transmitter it won't really be possible.

 

[pressalltheknobs]

- To use differential thrust you need to have the motors on their own channels. Not a Y cable.
- This means you need an extra channel. The good news is the Apprentice Rx has an unused aux2 port.
- This also means you need an extra channel on your transmitter. This is the bad news. The RTF radio doesn't have one.
- You also need to be able to do mixes. Again, something the RTF transmitter can't do.

So unless you get a new transmitter it won't really be possible.

If this is the SAFE RX then you may have trouble with mixes. Differential thrust may be ok since I don't think SAFE messes with the throttle. However it may do and it may also mess with the rudder. You may find that a differential thrust setup is less than satisfactory because of that. It might be an interesting experiment but you will probably get better or at least more predictable results with a non SAFE RX.

It is theoretically possible to set up differential thrust using on board mixes instead of mixing in the Transmitter. You can probably get close with the vtail mixer cable. Some thoughts on that here...

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=688971

This vtail mixer looks interesting since it apparently has a couple of modes and adjustable mix levels. I don't have one so I'm just pointing it out...
http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__58184__Turnigy_DLG_Butterfly_V_tail_Multi_Mixer.html