4 wheel steering with Futaba 4PK

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[Note: This article is written for the original 4PK model, the newer 4PKS and 4PKS-R models include a built in 4WS mixing mode.]

Yes, your old Futaba 4PK can do 4WS mixing for rock crawlers and monster trucks. It’s not too hard to setup either. You can set it up to do front 2 wheel steering, 4 wheel anti-phase steering (tight radius), 4 wheel “crab” steering (sideways driving) and even rear 2 wheel steering, using each mode individually with the numerous buttons and dials on the 4PK.

To get it all going you need to use of one of the most powerful features on this radio, Program Mixing. Program mixing allows you to set one channel to respond to inputs from another channel. For instance, you can set the throttle channel as a slave to steering and when you turn the wheel left or right it can reduce or increase the throttle in response. That’s just one minor example of the innumerable things you could do using this feature.

So lets get right to it and setup your Program Mix for 4 wheel steering. To start with, we have to find the Program Mix application. It is only available on Menu Types BIGCAR and Level 3. So if you’re still using the default menu type Level 2 (and why are you really?), you’ll need to change to one of those menu types before you can access it. To do that, press right on the navigation pad to bring up your menu. Move the highlight over to the bottom right and click on the *MENU-T label.

Program Mix 003 Once in the Menu Type application, use the + button twice to change over to Level 3, then press down on the navigation pad to Exec and press both the + and - buttons at the same time to activate Level 3. Now you’re playing with power!

Program Mix 009

Press the End button to exit the Menu Type app and return to your menu. You will now notice a whole lot of new entries on your menu. The two we’re interested in are labeled PMIX1 and PMIX2. Highlight one of them and click the navigation pad to enter the application. It doesn’t matter which one at this point, you’ll be using both to setup all 4WS types.

Program Mix 010

On entering you’ll see the following screen with the default settings.

Program Mix 013

You’ll need to change all of the following settings. Use the navigation pad to move the arrow to SLV and use the + button to change it to CH3 (or CH4 depending on where your rear steer servo is plugged in on the receiver). Move down to MODE, and use + button to change it to ACT. Now navigate back to the top and use the + button to set LEFT and RGHT to +100.

Program Mix 014

Once all that is done, press the End button to return to your main menu, select the other PMIX entry and enter the application. Now you’ll set it up basically the same as above, but for LEFT and RGHT you’ll want to set them to -100.

Program Mix 015

Press End again to return to the menu, now we need to set a couple of the buttons on the transmitter to activate these program mixes. On the main menu press the + key to move to page 2. Select the entry labeled SWTCH and click the nav pad to enter the app.

Program Mix 016

Using the nav pad select the button you want to map the function to and use the + button to scroll through the options to select PROG MIX1 or PROG MIX2. Now set another button to the other prog mix. The buttons on the transmitter are as follows: PS1 is the button on the bottom side of the steering wheel; PS2 is the button on the transmitter hand grip, just below the throttle trigger; PS3 is the button on top, to the left of the antenna. I recommend PS1 and PS2 for this setup as they are momentary buttons (active only when holding) whereas PS3 is a locking button (active on pressing, inactive after pressing again).

Program Mix 017

Now, with those set, any time you hold one of those buttons and turn the steering wheel, then your 4WS will activate. Finally we need to set up for rear steer only. Which is as simple as going back to the menu by pressing the End button, moving up to the DIAL entry and entering the app.

4ws 002

Now you map one of the dials on the 4PK to channel 3 (or 4, again depending where you have your servo plugged into the receiver).

4ws 004

Highlight whichever dial you’d like to use for rear only steering and use the + button to select CH3 (or CH4). The dials are as follows: DL1 is the top dial on the hand grip; DL2 is the bottom dial on the hand grip; DL3 is the dial on top, to the right of the antenna. I use DL3 for this setup.

4ws 005

Once setting the dial, you might want to adjust the dial rate, which determines how much the servo moves per click on the dial. Press right on the nav pad to put the arrow on the number, then use the + button to increase it. I set mine to 10. If your rear only steering isn’t turning the way you want it to, you can also move over once more to the NOR option and change it to REV, using the + button, which will reverse the direction the servo moves.

So now you have total control over 4WS on your model. As I said at the beginning, Program Mixing is the most powerful feature of this radio. And it can be made even more powerful using a feature called 2nd Condition. More on that in a later article.

A lot of the features that are available in the newer 4PK models (4PKS and S-R) are also available in the original model, but you can find the original model for much cheaper on ebay.

Click for more Futaba 4PK how-tos.

Setting the Fail-safe on the Futaba 4PK

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Setting your fail-safe on your Futaba 4PK is an essential safety precaution. A fail-safe when speaking about R/C cars is a feature that sets certain parameters on the model to put it into a safe pattern or come to a stop when it loses the signal from the radio or the battery in the model becomes too low to be safe.

[Note: This article is written for the original 4PK model but should be similar enough for the newer 4PKS and 4PKS-R models.]

The first thing you need to know is that your vehicle’s receiver needs to be turned on and bound to your transmitter to turn the fail-safe function on as the transmitter will transmit your setting to the receiver when you make the necessary changes.  On your 4PK, the first thing you need to do is find the fail-safe menu entry. It’s labeled as F/S and is in a different location depending on what Menu Type setting you have. To enter the menu, first press right on the navigation pad. If your menu type is set to Level 1, then the F/S entry is located right in the middle of the screen.

Menu Type 1

Menu Type 1 F/S location.

On menu type Level 2 (which is the default menu level) and BIGCAR you will find it at the bottom of the middle column on the first page.

Menu Type 2

Menu Type 2 and BIGCAR F/S location.

On menu type Level 3, it’s located on page 2, bottom of left column. It is not available in the ALLOFF menu type.

Menu Type 3

Menu Type 3 F/S location.

Select F/S and click the navigation pad to enter the menu. You will then see the following screen.

FS All Off

Failsafe menu screen.

For the safest operation of your r/c car or truck, you should turn on the throttle fail-safe. Hit the navigation pad once to the right so the arrow is blinking on the OFF under TH, then hit the + button to set the option to F/S. It will be automatically set to 0%, which means in the event of signal loss, your car’s throttle will be cut to neutral and it will coast to a stop. If you are in menu type Level 3, you will have a third option called HOLD. Do not set this option to HOLD, as then your model will continue on at whatever throttle you had it at prior to losing signal. If it’s at full throttle, then it’ll be speeding on at full speed until it hits something, or worse, someone.

FS On Batt FS ActAfter setting the option to F/S you will see a new option for setting the receiver battery voltage cut-off. In all menu levels except for Level 3, this will be set automatically. For Level 3 you need to use the navigation pad to move down to the OFF option and then use the + button again to set it to ACT.

FS On Batt FS IACTThen (again for Level 3 menu type users only) press right on the navigation pad to move over to the RX option and use the + button to set the minimum voltage that your receiver should engage the fail-safe. The default option of 3.8v should be fine for most 1/10 scale vehicles, use the higher voltages for larger scales, when using high power servos or when driving your vehicle at extreme distances.

During this process you should see “Auto Transmitting” pop up on your screen every time you change a setting. Once that goes off, your receiver has been programmed and your vehicle is ready to fail safely. Make sure you do some bench tests by elevating your vehicle off it’s wheels, giving it throttle then turning off the power on your transmitter. If the motor cuts off or returns to idle and the wheels coast to a stop then it’s working, if not, then you might have missed something so go through and double check your settings.

Click for more Futaba 4PK how-tos.

Thermaltake Massive23 LX Notebook Cooler Review

I’ve had issues with my laptop overheating during gaming sessions.  It just had insufficient cooling for the processor and hard drive.  So I started looking for a simple solution.  The best and easiest is a cooling lap pad for the laptop to sit on.  After shopping around I settled on the Thermaltake Massive23 LX.  This is my review of it.

The Thermaltake Massive23 LX lives up to it’s name with a substantial feel.  The aluminum and plastic body has great build quality with no rough or sharp edges.  The black anodized finish of the aluminum looks great and should hold up to a lot of abuse.  It has cool looking blue LED lighting, but that seems unnecessary.  Thankfully Thermaltake is nice enough to include a separate on/off button for it, so you can turn the light off without turning off the fan.

Even though the Massive23 uses light-weight aluminum and plastic, it is still a fairly heavy pad.  That can make it a little uncomfortable to use over a long period of time, but for normal use, an hour or so at a time, it’s not a problem.  It has no sharp edges on it, the Massive23 won’t dig into you, unlike some other – cheaper – cooling pads do.  Both lap contacting areas are large, have rounded edges, and are plastic, so it sits fairly comfortably on your lap.

The Massive23 includes two USB ports, one is used to connect the pad to the laptop, the other is used as a pass-through so you don’t actually lose access to a port when using the pad.  I wish it included more USB ports, making it a USB hub in addition to a cooling pad.  I can never have enough USB ports.  It’s also a “plug and play” solution, there are no drivers to install or software to setup.

There’s a few minor things I don’t like.  The non-slip pads are a bit on the small side and don’t match up well with my laptop.  If they were larger and square I think they would work much better, my laptop doesn’t move around much but larger pads would keep it locked in place.  The vent holes on the bottom side are bigger than they probably need to be and it’s easy to stick your fingers through them into the fan.  I have large, sausage like fingers and I can easily poke them through.  This shouldn’t be much of a problem because the handles on the sides give you no reason to reach under and grab, but it could come up.  The included USB cable is too long for my tastes.  I understand why it has to be long, Thermaltake has to cover all kinds of situations with all kinds of laptop layouts, but I’ll be replacing the cable with a shorter one as soon as I can find one.

The Massive23 uses a humongous 230mm fan to keep the fresh air moving.  The fan runs at a fairly low RPM, making it pretty quiet,  it’s inaudible over the sound of my laptop’s own CPU fan and hard drive.  It makes up for the low speed by having a ton of large blades, so the fan still manages to move a lot of air.  The air flow really helps to keep things cool.

Cooling Performance – Normal Use

To get the cooling performance of this cooler I started with the laptop sitting directly on my lap while doing some browsing, emailing, tweeting, Excelling, and other basic productivity tasks, the laptop wasn’t working very hard.  I kept tabs on the temperature using an infrared thermometer in two areas, one near the CPU vents and another where the hard drive is located.  Once they reached a point where the high temps leveled off (117.1° for CPU and 117.6° for HD, all temps in Fahrenheit), I put the cooler under the laptop and turned on the fan.  I then took temp readings every two minutes and thirty seconds for thirty minutes.

Temperature drop over 30 minutes.

Over the last ten minutes my CPU had an average temperature of 92.7° and the hard drive had an average temp of 99.4°.  The low temps were 90.3° and 98.6°.  These are pretty significant drops, about -24° for the CPU and -18° for the HD, over just 30 minutes.  It shows that the Massive23 does move a ton of air and that really helps keep things cool.

Cooling Performance – Full Load

I started up SiSoftware’s Sandra Lite benchmark utility and ran a processor and hard drive burn-in test twice for 45 minutes each time.  The first time with the laptop sitting directly on my lap, the second time with the Massive23 under it and the fan running.  I let it run for 15 minutes to get the temps up.  After the initial warm up I then checked temps every five minutes.  At the end of each test I graphed and also averaged the temps.

Separate temp tests under full load using burn-in test of SiSoftware Sandra Lite.

Under full load for 45 minutes, without the Massive23 my laptop’s CPU temperature peaked at 130.2° and averaged 125° across the seven temperature samples I took.  The hard drive peaked at 123.9° and averaged 119.4° over the samples.  With the Massive23 under my laptop, those numbers dropped considerably with the CPU peaking at 106.4° and averaging 100.5° while the HDD peaked at 106.7° and averaged 100.7°.  So a 20° difference of the averages between with and without the cooler is pretty impressive to me.

Final Thoughts

The Massive23 LX is a perfect fit for 15″ laptops, a bit on the small side for 17″, and too big for 13″, it’ll still work for those sizes though.  It’s a comfortable and quiet cooler that does an excellent job.  I used to have problems with my laptop overheating and shutting down during long gaming sessions, those issues have now disappeared.  I like the Thermaltake Massive23 LX and would recommend it to anybody that asks.

Recommended

My Favorite Restaurants in Pueblo – #3 – Gray’s Coors Tavern

The very definition of “bar food.”

Fans of the Travel Channel show Food Wars may already be familiar with this Pueblo landmark.  Gray’s Coors Tavern went head-to-head against another longtime Pueblo restaurant, The Sunset Inn.  While Sunset walked away with the win, Coors Tavern will always be my favorite.

The only reason to go to Gray’s Coors Tavern is for the Slopper.  They (probably[1]) invented the thing and their version will always be the best.  For those that don’t know, a Slopper is simply a  hamburger or cheeseburger, with no condiments or other add-ons, smothered with your choice of red or Pueblo green chile, though no true Slopper lover or Puebloan would ever get theirs with red, Pueblo green all the way.  The Coors Tavern way is to serve a single, double or triple burger, open-faced.  Add-ons are kept simple, offering only shredded cheddar cheese, onions, and oyster crackers as options.  One thing to be aware of is that Coors Tavern’s ideas of single, double, and triple clash with the traditional meanings.  A single Slopper actually has two hamburger patties, one on each bun.  A double includes four patties, and a triple, as you may guess, has a whopping six patties.  If you only want one patty, a true single, you need to be ordering the half Slopper.

The Slopper is ubiquitous in Pueblo.  Even our local A&W franchise location serves a Slopper (more on our A&W in a later article, it’s unique in the entire nation).  I think you’d be hard-pressed to find a locally owned restaurant in Pueblo that DOESN’T serve their own version of the Slopper.  So why do I prefer Coors’ over all the others?  The flavor of the burger.  I don’t know what they put in it, but it’s flavor is far beyond what anybody else does.  This isn’t just a bland, plain ol’, charred burger covered with green chile.  It’s a masterful blend of seasonings that complement the competently made green chile.  Add some raw diced onion to the mix and your tastebuds will explode.

My only complaint about Gray’s Coors Tavern is that they are stingy with the green chile on the Slopper.  They need to be delivering a lot more per bowl.

Being downtown and rather small, Coors Tavern is usually packed during lunch and is a popular after work dinner and beer place.  Your best bet for avoiding a crowd is to go during the mid-afternoon.

Gray’s Coors Tavern is located at 515 West 4th Street, at the intersection of 4th and Elizabeth.  It’s a couple blocks north of the Pueblo Riverwalk.  You can dine in or call and carry out.  If you’re looking for just a meal, no alcohol, you’ll probably spend about $20 – $25 for a couple after adding pops and fries or onion rings.

I’ll update this post with hours and menu information when I get around to getting it.

[1] The Slopper entry on Wikipedia points to an unavailable article in the Colorado Springs Gazette that apparently suggests both Coors Tavern and another Pueblo bar/restaurant known as Star Bar as possible inventors of the slopper.

IG Wrap stretching system tips…

I learned about the IG Wrap system about a year ago and have since used it to stretch dozens of canvas prints.  I’ve learned a couple of things about the system that you should probably know too, if you’re just starting out with it.

The IG Wrap system is billed as a tool-less system that can be used to stretch canvas photo prints and traditional art in just a few minutes. The system consists of pre-sized and cut stretcher bars with adhesive applied, a set of clamps, a few pins to hold it together, and tension braces to keep the stretched canvas taut. It is a simple and straight-forward system, and if you follow the instructions, you should have a very nice way to display your artwork. It’s available from multiple retailers in the US under many names, but they are all the same IG Wrap system[1]. It should be noted that this is not an archival quality stretching system. Once the artwork is on the frame, it’s there permanently, you will not be able to remove it. But the adhesives are all pH neutral and everything is acid free, so you won’t have to worry about discoloration of your prints.

I have used the IG Wrap system to stretch canvas prints of my photos in sizes ranging from 10″ x 10″ up to 32″ x 16″.  The pre-cut mix and match bar lengths make it very easy to create a frame to match your print size.  The canvases that I use are Legion Paper’s Moab Anasazi Canvas run through my Canon Pixma Pro9500 using 19″ x 13″ sheets and Canon’s Graphic Canvas through my Canon IPF6350 using 24″ rolls.  After a print is made I set it aside and let the ink dry for anywhere from 24 to 96 hours before varnishing the canvas with Breathing Color’s Timeless matte varnish.  The varnish is then allowed to dry for another 24 hours before stretching.  For the large format prints coming off the IPF6350 I choose to use the 1 3/4″ deep “Pro” bars, for the small prints from the Pixma Pro I use the 1 1/4″ deep “Standard” bars.  Using this system I have stretched dozens of canvas prints with only a few minor issues.

On rare occasions the adhesive strips don’t fully tack on to the canvas in some spots.  When that happens the canvas can pull up and become loose, making the print sag and ruining your presentation.  The instructions for the bars suggest you trim any overhanging canvas for a nice, clean back edge.  After having a few prints lift from their frame I have decided to keep at least 1/4″ of canvas (but the more you have, the better off you’ll be), which I then wrap over the back edge after stretching and staple into the frame using stainless steel staples.  Since using the staples I have not had one print come loose.  This could lead to other issues though if you aren’t careful with your aim.  I have ruined a few wraps by shooting the staple too close to the outer edge, causing a “pimple” in the canvas.

Another issue I have run into using the Pro bars is with the tension system. Using the Pro bars, tension is applied by hammering corner braces into cut grooves on the bars.  If you apply too much tension you will tweak the frame, causing it to sit against the wall in a crooked way.  Loosening the tension by pulling out the braces could lead to folds showing in the corners of your canvas when it relaxes.

Both of these problems can be overcome simply by experience.  Knowing where to shoot the staples and knowing how far to insert the corner braces are just a matter of practice.  You may ruin a few wraps along the way, but the results are worth the effort.

[1] Hahnemuhle sells complete kits (bars, jig, glue, pins and a sheet of canvas) and two bar packs under the Gallerie Wrap name.  Breathing Color sells bulk packs of bars as EasyWrappe.  Armadillo Photo Supply sell them as DIY Gallerie Wrap Bars.  And there are plenty of others.