I received my Stylus Glider Card yesterday (Bob Renaud, thank you, thank you, thank you!!!). So, I sat down to load it in and get my glider ready for flying tomorrow, practice for next weekends contest, right? As such, let me give you a couple words of advice to avoid the pitfalls I encountered today!
1.) Leave yourself with as much time as you originally did when you programmed up your glider. (In fact, you need to leave a bit more...you now have a whole world of options to learn about.) E.G., don't do it the night before a contest! (I didn't, but I would have been tempted!)
2.) Start with a fully charged transmitter, so you don't run out of juice 1/2 way through the re-programming. (My next purchase is another battery pack!)
3.) Might as well dig out your receiver so you have access to all the servo leads... you're going to need to swap them around! (I knew this fixed my 4-channel compatibility problem. I neglected to consider that impact on my 8-channel! head-knocks-on-wood!)
4.) While you're at it, might as well open up those wing servo bays...you'll probably need to reposition the servo arms on the splines.
5.) Oh, yea...when you copied down your previous settings prior to introducing the glider card, you did take the time to figure out and write down which channel affected which control surface, didn't you? (i.e., EPA for channel 1 means your setting end-points for...left aileron??? Right aileron??? Maybe a nap???) The glider card has them named correctly on all the menu items, where before some of the references were to the channel # rather than the control surface labels. Since servo leads are swapped in the receiver, what was *ain't*!
BONEHEAD MISTAKE!!!!
6.) When you go through the menu items, you will learn that you now can create *two* alternative setups, and activate them at any time by the flip of a switch. Before, you could only do one alternate!) DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, ASSIGN 'ALTERNATE 1' AND 'ALTERNATE 2' TO A TWO POSITION SWITCH!! !
When you turn off your transmitter, and turn it back on, you will be automatically activating either 'alternate 1' or 'alternate 2'. The Stylus defaults to start up with a warning message (and constant beeping) if you have an 'alternate" setup defined and the switch activating it is nipped. Normally, you would get past this alarm by simply flipping that switch off. However, IF YOU USED A TW0 POSITION SWITCH you will always either be in 'alternate 1' or 'alternate 2'. This means you will not be able to bypass the alarm and warning message. In fact, you can't do anything! You are now dead in the water!!!
"How do I get out of this?" you ask? Well, your alternatives are:
1) Turn off the power, remove the glider card, turn on the power and respond 'yes' to resetting the transmitter. (Congratulations.. .you just erased all your programming!!! Grab a beer, reinitialize with the glider card, and start over!!!)
2) go through the steps in #1 above. Once the transmitter has been reinitialized with the glider card, remove it, install your 50-model memory card, and copy off your previously saved settings... and go assign the alternatives to a *three* position switch, or turn them off! (You *did* buy that memory card, didn't you? You *did* save your basic setup before you started implementing all the fancy stuff, didn't you? If not, consider this a lesson well-learned, and reread the last sentence in #1 above!)
All-in-all, it is *amazing* what capabilities you now have at your fingertips. The opportunity to really screw yourself up by an accidentally flipped switch is almost beyond comprehension! (But then again... that is *why* you bought the radio in the first place, right?)
Let's see now... cool... I can now have crow kick in when landing mode flaps have been deployed beyond 80%, unless my camber trim authority has been reduced to below zero, or I'm in alternate 2 *and* I have high rates flipped on *or* I'm in... wait... was that alternate 2 or 3? How did I do that point adjustment again? Why is my aileron servo suddenly moving opposite?
*RESET***!!!
L.G.
