Setting up the FlySky FS-i6 transmitter for use with RC Desk Pilot simulator

Hi Everyone -

In my continuing journey experimenting with and evaluating the very inexpensive and capable FlySky FS-i6 transmitter, I recently set it up to be used with the free to download RC Desk Pilot simulator.

I should also add at this point that my transmitter screen may look different than yours if you have the stock FlySky FS-i6 as I have done a firmware upgrade to have a timer, 10 channels, etc.  You can learn more about how that went by watching this video.

I got the inspiration and information I needed to accomplish this in the easiest and most inexpensive way by watching this video by Mirko FPV.

I picked up the required cables from Banggood and Ebay.  I couldn't seem to find both suitable cables from just one vendor unfortunately, but shipping was free from both😊  Here are the links.

• 4 pin S-video to 3 RCA female plugs (this part plugs into the back of the transmitter) $1.41 USD from Ebay;
• 3.5mm jack plug to 3 RCA male plugs (this part connects to the first cable and then plugs into the microphone port on my computer) $1.66 USD from Banggood.

I went to the SmartPropoplus website to download that software so that my transmitter could interface with my computer.  When you clink on the link, you can do much more reading about the basics and more advanced properties of SmartPropoplus.

Once loaded up on the computer, this is what it looks like before connecting the transmitter.  A few shots taken from my computer screen, apologize for the quality😊  I should mention that I have a PC using Windows 10 in case you have another setup or a Mac, I do not know if it will work or look like the pictures below.

Since the transmitter must be turned on when using the simulator, I built a "plane" in my transmitter strictly for the sim so that I would not interfere with any settings on my real planes.

I then connected the two cables, plugged them into my transmitter and computer and opened SmartPropoplus.  If the transmitter is turned off when you do this, you will see transmitter disconnected in the bottom window.

On the Transmitter page, you want to select Standard in the PPM window, I didn't change anything else at this point. 

I did check the Joystick page to ensure that when I moved the sticks, the green moved up and down accordingly and matched the channels in the transmitter.  I have a Mode 2 transmitter, so Channel 1 is aileron (roll), Channel 2 is elevator (pitch), Channel 3 is throttle and Channel 4 is rudder (yaw).  I'm not sure why it shows channels 7 and 8 active, however, I didn't worry about that too much as RC Desk Pilot is a simple simulator with primarily 4 channel or less models in it's data base.  I couldn't really see any way to change this in SmartPropoplus anyway😊 vJoy 1 is the only selection I had available which is my transmitter.

I'm not sure if it makes a difference, but on the Input page, I selected "Auto" on the Bit Rate and Audio source channel in hope that the computer would optimize the settings.

Once SmartPropoplus is happy and the transmitter is turned on and communicating correctly with the computer, you should get this message at the bottom.😊 If not, it will give you a message of what needs to be corrected before the transmitter will communicate properly with the computer.

I then downloaded RC Desk Pilot to start setting that up.  Here are a few notes of the requirements from the downloads screen.  Interestingly, I guess with my Windows 10 computer, as I was going through the download process, it would not download RC Desk Pilot until DirectX 9.0c was downloaded, the "down loader" essentially told me this and I just agreed as I went along and it worked out fine.😁

RC Desk Pilot is fairly simple to use, to make any changes, you need to "hover" your mouse cursor in the top left corner of the screen to make changes, selecting "menu" will take you to the page you need to ensure your controller is working properly.

Once you select menu, you go to this page where you can change between aircraft and other items, to set up the transmitter, select controls.

Your transmitter may be different I'm not sure, I had to change most of the channels in this menu to correspond to the appropriate channel/axis on my transmitter controls.  

Also of note, I had to reverse three of my channels to get things working properly.  Fortunately, when you have your plane on the runway in RC Desk Pilot, you can see the controls moving when you move the sticks, so that is a visual way to see if things are set up properly.

There are several other settings you can experiment with, but I won't go into those here, I simply wanted to cover the basics so that you can get your FlySky FS-i6 connected to a simple and free simulator😊

Park Jet noise...the "other" sound of freedom😎

Cheers,

Scott

"Table Talk" - How I make KF4 airfoils for park jets

Hi Everyone -

I am asked often about how I do KFs for my park jets, so I thought it time to do a more detailed video rather than trying to answer the same question numerous times.  Some of the information in the video below is obviously opinion and suited to how I like my planes to fly, but it is also backed up by a lot of field testing of different size and shapes of KF airfoils across a wide variety of planes.

Here is the link to the blog post I wrote as part of my blog series called "Which Park Jet for me?".

A close up picture of my drawing for the F-18 wing plate mock up I used in the video above.

The terms "fuselage notch" and "engine notch" are unique to RC Powers V5 plans, so when drawing the top KF on other plans, I just ensure I make the inner line along where the fuselage will be.  Then again for the bottom KF where the inner edge is indicated in red (sorry that it is a bit blurred😕), it should go along the outer edge of the engine/nacelle/intake part of the plane along the bottom.

Here is the close up picture of a Mig/Su style swept wing where the trailing edge sweeps forward.  The measurements and calculations are essentially the same as shown above.  Once I make the calculations for the wing area, I also draw out the top KF using the LERX which you can see in orange at the top of the picture.

For F-22/T50 style wings, it can be a little bit trickier as the wing has such a unique shape, so as mentioned in the video, I don't use the normal trailing edge to calculate the 40% as this would cause the KF to be too large.  In the case of this style plane, not only could this introduce more drag and the negative behaviors mentioned in the video, since the horizontal stab and elevon are so close to the wing, the "vortex" caused by the KF could interfere with these if the KF was too big.  Once making the calculations for the wing, I also include the area along the intake marked in orange at the top of the picture for the top KF.

In the video, I realize I might not have done a very good job of explaining how to trace out the bottom KF if you don't use the method of recycling the plans to cut them out.  In the picture below, I have highlighted the outer edge of the top KF in orange and drawn a line in red where the inner edge of the bottom KF would be.

Imagining that you have the top KF cut out, what I do then is lay it on another piece of foam and trace the portion to the left of the red line, making marks or using pins to mark on the foam where the inner edge of the bottom KF will be.  Then I join all the lines and cut out the bottom KF.

KF airfoils are certainly fun to experiment with and with a little foam and testing it is an inexpensive way to enhance the performance of your park jet or any other foam plane for that matter.😊  

Park Jet noise...the "other" sound of freedom.😎

Cheers,

Scott