This is a cross post for one of my original blog posts on DIY Drones. It is included here for permanent reference.
Until recently my main TX was a Turnigy 9X and I (like many others) was using a hacked in 6 position POT switch to select modes on my various aircraft. Unfortunately the 9X has died so has been replaced by a shiny new 9XR. Rather then hack apart the 9XR (too pretty) I wanted to experiment with using the existing controls to select modes on my aircraft. I have seen several tutorials on this but none met all of my requirements below.
- Not relying on guessing the position of the continuous POT switches
- Gives a easy to read visual indicator of current mode
- Uses only a single radio channel
- All performed with the default software and hardware – no flashing/hacking required
The method I used was to combine the 3 position switch (ID0/1/2) with the Aileron Dir switch. Between these two switches there are six possible combinations which neatly matches the 6 modes of the APM ecosystem.