A4WD1 & Tri-Track Spektrum RC Control Tutorial

Last modified by Eric Nantel on 2023/01/27 14:56

A4WD1/Tri-Track Spektrum R/C Stick Radio Control Tutorial

Updated 04/20/2011

Safety first! Wear eye protection and never touch a powered robot!

Note: Do not use Loctite or thread locks on the assembly. They are not necessary and may cause damage to the Lexan.

Tri-Track and A4WD1 Rover with DX5

Step 1.
The Sabertooth 2X10 RC has a feature called battery elimination circuit (BEC) that provides power to the RC receiver. It can provide enough current to power the receiver alone, but not if servos are used. In order to provide enough power for the receiver and the servos attached to it, we need to add a separate battery pack. In addition, we need to bypass the Sabertooth's BEC to prevent it from interfering with the battery pack.

Use an exacto knife to carefully pry the black tab up and slip the red wire out of the black housing as shown in Figure 1.

Bend the red wires up and use electrical tape to cover them as shown. This will prevent accidental shorts.

Figure 1.

Step 2.
Plug the Sabertooth into the receiver as shown. Make sure the yellow wires are toward the middle of the receiver. On some versions, there are two connections marked "AILE". Use the slot between THRO and ELEV for CH 1.

Sabertooth	Receiver
Ch 1 (Throttle)	AILE
Ch 2 (Steering)	ELEV

Table 2.

Figure 2.

Step 3.
Solder the BATC-01 cable to the WH-04 and cover the bare wires with heat shrink or electrical tape. This will allow you to use our rechargeable 6.0vdc batteries for the receiver and servos. Attach the switch to any of the holes in the top panel of the chassis. Plug the battery's wiring harness from the radio into the receiver as shown. Make sure the black wire is on the outside of the receiver. This is shown in the schematic below.

Figure 3.

Schematic.

Schematic.

Step 4.
Bind the transmitter to the receiver. Refer to the Spektrum manual for detailed instructions.

Figure 4.

Step 5.
Make sure your Sabertooth's dip switches are in the default positions, as shown in Figure 5. It would be a good idea to read the Sabertooth manual to familiarize yourself with the different settings. With the default settings, you can now control the rover although the controls will be reversed. This will be corrected later.

Figure 5.

Step 6. (Optional Pan and Tilt)
If you are not installing a Pan and Tilt you can skip down to step 8, ignoring this step. Punch the cutout out of the top panel.

Figure 6.

Step 7. (Optional Pan and Tilt)
Create a pan and tilt. Detailed instructions can be found here. Insert the bottom servo into the top panel and secure with 3mm hardware.

4 x

Figure 7.

Step 8.
To set the controls to behave normally, you must adjust the servo option switches. They are located on the front of the remote. Set them as listed in Table 8.

Channels	Function	NOR/REV
THR	Tilt Servo	Normal
AIL	Pan Servo	Normal
ELE	Steering	Reversed
RUD	Throttle	Reversed
MIX	Right stick mixing	Normal

Table 8.

Step 9.
Refer to Figure 9 for information on controlling the robot.

Figure 9.

Tags:

Created by Eric Nantel on 2023/01/27 14:38

A4WD1 & Tri-Track Spektrum RC Control Tutorial

Navigation