New "Buddy Box" Alternative
Musing through some of the back rooms of RCGroups, I found the details of an interesting new product that is being developed called the "XPO". The short description is that it's a replacement for the old "buddy box" system of linking two transmitters with the difference that it does it in the plane! ...now the advantages may not seem immediately obvious but what this allows is for two completely disparate Tx/Rx systems to be used to control the plane. Instructor can be on 2.4Ghz Futaba, and the student on a Spektrum system.
It manages all this by allowing two receivers to plug into this box. A switch on one channel operates the unit and allows switching between the receivers. Pretty interesting stuff!
Scratch the surface a little bit and other interesting uses become possible as you can, for instance, switch just one or two channels over to the trainee... so you could allow someone to learn how to hover and torque roll one channel at a time like some flight sims allow. If you're flying a high priced model, you could use it as insurance against link issues if you're using different channels/systems. The pilots are also naturally not bound by the cable. Many clubs also have public access days where you can have the general public get on a buddy-box and have a go. With this you could buddy box the student system and rotate the students on two Tx's and leave the instructor alone with his system.
An idea that I had was that this would be groovy to set up an actual scale process of dropping bombs from a bomber model. As the plane was flying over a target, the pilot would relinquish control of the plane to the bombardier, who'd fly the plane over the target and drop the bombs, and then hand the control back to the pilot. What could be done is to set up an FPV system as if it was a bomb sight, and literally give control to the bombardier RC pilot to drop the bombs, and then back to the main guy. For extra points, the TV screen for the bombardier's FPV can be in a box that one has to crouch over and look down just like the real thing. Sounds fun to me!
Check out the details of the XPO at the website! http://www.2icrc.com
It manages all this by allowing two receivers to plug into this box. A switch on one channel operates the unit and allows switching between the receivers. Pretty interesting stuff!
Scratch the surface a little bit and other interesting uses become possible as you can, for instance, switch just one or two channels over to the trainee... so you could allow someone to learn how to hover and torque roll one channel at a time like some flight sims allow. If you're flying a high priced model, you could use it as insurance against link issues if you're using different channels/systems. The pilots are also naturally not bound by the cable. Many clubs also have public access days where you can have the general public get on a buddy-box and have a go. With this you could buddy box the student system and rotate the students on two Tx's and leave the instructor alone with his system.
An idea that I had was that this would be groovy to set up an actual scale process of dropping bombs from a bomber model. As the plane was flying over a target, the pilot would relinquish control of the plane to the bombardier, who'd fly the plane over the target and drop the bombs, and then hand the control back to the pilot. What could be done is to set up an FPV system as if it was a bomb sight, and literally give control to the bombardier RC pilot to drop the bombs, and then back to the main guy. For extra points, the TV screen for the bombardier's FPV can be in a box that one has to crouch over and look down just like the real thing. Sounds fun to me!
Check out the details of the XPO at the website! http://www.2icrc.com
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