# Airwire and servos?



## Mike Reilley (Jan 2, 2008)

Does anyone know how one might use an Airwire TX to control a live steamer using servos?  Does someone make a DCC decoder to servo controller?


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

Hi Mike, here's one: http://www.tonystrains.com/technews/td_mrc_newprd_0108.htm 

Regards, Greg


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## Cougar Rock Rail (Jan 2, 2008)

Hi Mike,

Massoth now makes a nice little function decoder that can control two servos as well as lighting functions etc..  It is called the 8FL, and I would recommend you download the manual for it and have a read.  The beauty of this product is that you have the choice of either fully proportional control using the throttle, or you can have the servo travel between fixed end points.  So it is ideally suited for your live steamer where you want one proportional for the steam regulator and one for the valve gear.

Here is a link:

http://www.massoth.com/index.en.html

Keith


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## Mike Reilley (Jan 2, 2008)

Thanks...it looks like this stuff can work.


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

We are here to help! I can come over with a soldering iron! 

Regards, Greg


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

I sent an email to the manufacturer of the board (SMC4) in the first reference. It seems to me that if you can connect a DCC sound board to an AirWire receiver, then the speed commands must be "getting through" to the DCC sound board. If you put this servo decoder board there (since it's DCC) and set it in the mode for proportional servo control based on throttle setting, it might just work. 

Might be kind of cool to have an AirWire system that could run Track power, battery power and either sparkies or live steam. 

Just a wild idea... 

I'll report back on what the manufacturer says... 

Regards, Greg


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## Mike Reilley (Jan 2, 2008)

Question....is there a DCC output on the QSI decoder? You'd need one if you use the Gwire receiver I'd think.


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

I was thinking of the DCC servo board being run by the AirWire receiver, from CVP, not trying to connect it to the QSI. If you re-read my post you will see that I am not mentioning a QSI anywhere.... 

This is the misunderstanding of Tony and Bob when they were bombarding me last night. 

Regards, Greg


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## TonyWalsham (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By Greg Elmassian on 02/27/2008 12:28 AM
I was thinking of the DCC servo board being run by the AirWire receiver, from CVP, not trying to connect it to the QSI. If you re-read my post you will see that I am not mentioning a QSI anywhere.... 

This is the misunderstanding of Tony and Bob when they were bombarding me last night. 

Regards, Greg


Greg.

I was not misunderstanding anything.
The problem was that, based on information you had supplied him,  Casey believed he could do it with a QSI, G receiver and Airwire TX + an as yet non existent servo decoder for the QSI.
As yet he cannot do that.
However, both Bob and I knew all along that it *would* be possible to do the job of driving the Ruby + the rotary and sound etc with an Airwire TX & RX, plus a DCC servo decoder to control servos for the Ruby.

That would have meant *not* using the QSI and substituting it with some other sound system.

If that was going to be the case there are other, much less expensive ways of doing it, than the above.
Regular ground frequency Digital Proportional R/C with servos for the Ruby and an ESC or simple trigger for the speed of the rotary engine will be very simple to do.

That is all we were trying to explain to Casey.


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## bobgrosh (Jan 2, 2008)

DITTO /DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/tongue.gif


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

What I told Casey was the AirWire receiver and a DCC servo controller, hanging off the AirWire receiver. Since we were ALSO talking about putting a QSI into his rotary, there was a lot going on. Maybe he got confused and took the QSI out of the rotary and put it in the Ruby. 

Again, my idea was that he could use an airwire transmitter to control both his steamer and rotary, different receiving systems in each. 

You guys were doing an "SA" bombardment, not waiting for me to explain. I would suggest that next time there are two people, one a new member 13 years old, and me, you would entertain that I am the person NOT confused. /DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/wow.gif A little less bombardment would help. I seriously could not say what I have said in these 2 posts because of the rapid fire questions and, really, accusations that I had led poor Casey astray. 

Anyway, I figured instead to banging heads on chat, I would just post what I said here. 

So, anyway, I will be interested to see if some of these new DCC servo controllers could be controlled reasonably through an AirWire receiver. I'm guessing they may not have the fine response of the typical R/C systems used now. 

I'm almost tempted to buy one and go over to Mike's to experiment!

Regards, Greg


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