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Writer's pictureNigel Barrow

Thought for the day - Setting up a new transmitter and winch

Updated: Dec 11, 2022

I received an email requesting help on setting up a Futaba T6K transmitter. The owner had previously used a Flysky and wanted to upgrade and have a ratchet on the sheeting toggle.


Recently I did exactly the same change. I noticed with my Flysky, that the sail settings were changing slightly at random. I thought this might be because of electronic interference at home but was causing me to lose confidence when sailing, so I tried upgrading/spending more money to get a T6K. Problem solved.


The new transmitter was beautifully packaged and came with its own bound receiver so all I had to do was plug in the servo (Channel 1) and winch (channel 3) to the new receiver on the boat and I am ready to go sailing. Note my set up is as follows. The battery (VAPEX LiFePO4 1600) is connected to an RMG switch using XT30 connector, the switch to the winch again using XT30 connector, the winch to the receiver, and finally the rudder servo is connected to the receiver. This is exactly as shown on the winch user guide. The boat battery will last for 2 days racing but I change it every day. I use Bonai 2800mAh rechargeable batteries in the transmitter which last for mare than a days hard racing. It saves me a fortune in buying standard AA batteries,


There is a BUT in the above, because if you have not programmed your winch to limit travel you are at risk of doing serious damage to your boat if the transmitter malfunctions. Bill Green who sells the winches in the UK strongly recommends you programme the winch before sailing.


How do you program/re-program the winch.




Once I set my system up, the only change I make to the programmed transmitter settings is to adjusts the end points of the sheeting depending on conditions. This also needs adjusting if I change my sheets because you can never replicate the sheet lengths exactly. I do not use exponential on the rudder as I am working on finger dexterity. Everything else I leave.


If you have any problems setting up let me know and I will endeavour to help you, although your local club sailors should be able to help as they will have been through the trials and tribulations of set up.


When you set up radio control for the first time as I did last year, it is quite challenging to get things right first time. Once you have done it a couple of times it is all quite straight forward. It took me four goes to program the winch properly when firstI tried it.






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