Servo Recoil

A servo recoil is a very nice option to have for use on an RC tank. I am going to show you how to add a servo recoil to any radio system that can mix servo channels. In this example I will be using a HK T6A. This is a low cost programmable Transmitter that is available for less than $30. The Receivers are very affordable at less then $10, making this a great system if you have multiple tanks. Below are screen shots using Digital radio Software that can be used on the Hobby king T6A Transmitters Setting up the radio.

The thing to note on the screen shot above is that the Main Data tab is selected and that channel 6 has been set to have the one end point adjustment to 0%, This will stop any servo chatter to the servo assigned to this channel. In this example Channel 6 is going to be mixed with Channel 3. To do this you need to select the Mix Data tab

The image above is what you will see when you select the Mix Data Tab. You will notice on Mix 1 I have set the source to Channel 3 and the Destination to Channel 6 These are the settings that link channel 3 and 6 together. The up rate and down rate are set to 100. This means the servo travel on 6 will be exactly the same as on 3. For the servo recoil this setting fine. The only other thing to do is set the switch to on, This actives the switch on the transmitter which will allow this mixing to be turned on or off. This is my preference as I always like to have the ability to turn a feature off if you set this switch to off, you would just limit your ability to turn the recoil on and off, and the mix would be on all the time. Once you have made these changes you have to then down load the changes to the transmitter as described in the software. You have now configured you radio for servo recoil.

Building the recoil

I am a firm believer that a picture says a thousand words so I will let the picture above do most of the explaining. I like lego blocks as they are rigid and true and make great structural components. These were glued to a base cut out of styrene. A Styrene tube is then glued to the base to make a receiver for the metal cannon barrel

The picture above shows the guide slot cut in the Styrene receiver tube. A threaded brass rod is then screwed into the barrel. This becomes the tie in point to hook the barrel to the servo. The pictures says it all on how I then connected this to the servo used for recoil. The device on the servo is a Turnigy servo control card. These are available from Hobby King for less than $9.00. This device sits between the receiver and the servo. Output from the receiver goes into the Turnigy and then the servo is connected to the output of the Turnigy. The adjustment on the top sets the direction and speed in both directions. A perfect setup for great recoil action.

Operation of the device is simple. By mixing the two channels together two actions happen with just one stick movement Up the stick the fires the cannon as it is supposed to do, but the mixing you have done now causes the recoil servo to activate as well moving the barrel back and forth. Without the Turnigy device the recoil would follow the back and forth action of the stick movement. With the Turnigy speed control the action is delayed by the adjustments you dial in. So this will work on any radio system that allows you to mix channels, and offers an affordable small, fully adjustable recoil . If you have a DBC3 and Benedini you can continue to follow along to see how we use the Benedini TBS to sync up the DBC IR shot, Cannon flash, and recoil

Adding the DBC3/Benedini to the mix

The DBC3 controls the timing on when an IR shot is fired. It does not however control the recoil action. To make this perfect we have to do some creative mixing with the Benedini. Using the programming features on the Benedini we are able to do this. To control the recoil action we use the Benedini. I will describe what happens. The DBC3 sends a digital signal to the Benedini to play the cannon sound when the IR shot is fired, and only when the IR shot is fired. This fact allows us to make the Benedini do a couple of things for us. When the cannon sound is played, we program the Benedini to send a Negative power pulse to output pin A3 for one second. We connect the negative of the servo to pin A3. So the only time the servo is powered up is when the cannon sound is fired, and the only time the cannon sound is played is when the IR shot is ready to fire. This relationship then means the recoil will only work once the DBC3 has sent the play cannon code to the Benedini, resulting with a synched system that works together.

Wiring hook up

The screen shot above shows how the parameter setting has to be set up for the Benedini TBS. The cannon sound is sound 3 in address four. I have circled this in red. Under the sound function I have instructed the Benedini to Active PIN A3 for a timed period when sound 3 is played. The time is preset at 1000 ms and this time function is coded in the Benedini TBS, and is not variable So when the cannon sound is played the TBS supplies the pin with a negative charge for 1 second which in turn energizes the recoil servo for 1 second. The DBC3 signals the IR to flash and the LED flash to go off all at the same time, so you end up with a totally synched system that will fire and recoil when the DBC3 has the IR shot ready to fire.