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Design Ideas: June 6, 1996

RC receiver hosts two independent switches

Tom Howell
US Army ARDEC, Picatinny Arsenal, Dover, NJ


Typical inexpensive radio-control (RC) systems have servo-motor outputs, but no on/off switch outputs. You can add two independent RC switches to a system without making any transmitter or receiver modifications. The switch circuit of Figure 1 simply plugs in to two unused channel sockets of a commercial RC receiver in place of the servos. You operate each switch by pushing its corresponding transmitter-control stick to one end to switch it on and to the other end to switch it off. The position where the switch activates is adjustable over the full-stick travel by varying potentiometer R1 for switch 1 and R2 for switch 2.

You can use output transistors Q1 and Q2 to power lamps or latching relays, for example, from a separate power supply. You could also add optical couplers for high-voltage isolation. You can readily obtain the 4.8V required for circuit operation from the receiver's servo-output connector. If the receiver has a higher output voltage, simply add the resistor and zener diode denoted by the dashed line. Each channel of the circuit operates as follows (refer to Figure 2):


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