TQ Link 2.4GHz - 2 to 4 Channel Mod

[danielhr77]

I won't be at home today to check it, but I'll check it tomorrow...

[zilam]

btw mine is traxxas link 2.4ghz 5 blink on channel and 2 red bottons... i want to make it 3 channel for reversed

tnxx

[zilam]

boss daniel any update for my request? and what switch do i use for 3rd channel.... tnx alot

[trax de max]

for the third channel switch i used was an on-on type which gave full throw both directions for 1st and 2nd gear.
Then i put roof lights on channel 4 using a electronic switch connected to receiver to operate them via Tx
There is a post somewhere on this site how i did the roof lights.

[zilam]

how can i enable my 3rd channel? anyone can do me a diagram or pics for pattern... tnx

[zilam]

on page 1 correct me if im wrong, the number 1,2 and 6 wire is the third channel? and using the on-off-on switch?
tnx

[trax de max]

what are you planning to run on ch 3

[nitrogt1]

Daniel, Che! You are a genius my friend! I am sitting here contemplating a new 2.4 radio for my Revo 3.3 that came with gen one. Just to keep them the same and be able to use any radio with any truck/receiver. Then I read the first page of this post, grabbed my slash 4x4 radio and did the channel test and came out with 5 blinks! Totally excited to put this mod to work. Oh, traxxas shouldn't hate you as you commented, they should hire you! Thanks for the awesome find!

[zilam]

what are you planning to run on ch 3

revo 2.5r the old radio of this car was TQ3 AM only, so i have an extra traxxas link 2.4ghz from e-revo vxl and i decided to transfer the traxxas link 2.4ghz to my nitro revo 2.5r and then mod the tx to get the 3rd channel for reversed switch.... am i correct for the wiring? number 1,2 and 6 wire, and is it on-off-on switch?

tnx

[nitrogt1]

Just finished wiring the 3rd channel! I used an on-on switch and it worked flawlessly for the reverse servo. It was almost as easy as taking the 5 screws out, lol! Thanks again Daniel!

Zilam- you only need a two position switch, like an on-off or on-on. Not on-off-on. Technically the three position should work, you would just skip over the middle position.

[zilam]

if i used like and on-off or on-on switch how do i install the 3 wire... please can you draw me a diagram? please

tnxxxxxxx

[nitrogt1]

If you get an spdt switch it will look just like the switches pictured on the first page from Daniel.

[zilam]

like this?
and then solder the number 1 and 2 wire to the ends and then ground to the middle?

[trax de max]

mines a toggle switch, but yea same thing if that is an on-on switch.
no.1 powers servo, fully one way.
no.2 powers servo, fully opposite way.
ground is the power feed to make it work.
i don`t think you can use an on-off switch on channel 3 (i may be wrong on that)..

[nitrogt1]

I was told an on off switch wouldn't work because when switched "off" it wouldnt send any power to the servo to move it back, making it move one way only.

Zilam- if that is the switch you are going to use make sure you have internal room to mount it. Space can be limiting on inside of the remote.

[nitrogt1]

Clever little device! From what I gather you still need a switch on the remote to activate it, but just eliminates the mechanical parts, such as servos. My imagination is running with this one! Lights, winch, ez start mounted on the truck, oil slick, smoke screen,missles

[trax de max]

i have a switch installed using ch4 you just need to add an on-off switch on the tx, wire the switch into the receiver and output to lights.

here is some info from another thread http://traxxas.com/forums/showthread...18#post4776418

channel 4 works with channel 5 also, which means putting lights on ch4 and some on ch5,
ch5 lights wont work unless ch 4 is powered

[xxgg]

Wow,,, it's nice to see that this thread is still alive... for good reason.

Like I have said several months ago, my radio only shown 2 lights as a 2ch radio but after messing around with different settings, doing multiple resets to different models (as shown on manual) for some magical way... my radio one day decided to become a 5 channel radio.

I actually recently installed 1 3-position switch, 1 2-position switch and it is all working great!

What I might have forgotten to say before was that I had 2 Link 2.4GHz radio. One model is HighOutPut, other isn't. But both are 2.4 Link. 1 radio was 2 ch, (which i have explained above) and other was a 3 channel radio which only had led showing that it was only 3 channel radio... I also messed around with this... just random playing with menus, bunch of resets to different default models and such... battery in, out all that crazy non-sense. While I was installing 2 addition switches to my other radio, I decided to check to see IF! and it ****ed had all 5 channels working! So i installed 2 additional switches to this radio aswell and confirmed that i have a working 4 channel radio.

[Project240]

I had the same luck as xxgg, with a radio showing 2 channels available in the configuration menu, then later showing 4 channels. I had reset it several times without having an effect on the channel numbers, but I added On-On switches to both channels 3 and 4 and was able to control a servo on each channel. When I checked the configuration menu, it showed 4 channels available.

I don't know if the processor does some boot-up check on the logic level of the extra channels and decides to allow additional channels only if a switch is detected, since the input put would otherwise be floating. In the On-Off-On switch setup, the input would remain floating if the switch was in the middle position during power-on, so maybe this is not exactly the mechanism used to set channel numbers.

[Cpt Beefheart]

So I think I may have discovered the key to getting any of these TQ transmitters to work on all 5 channels. I read this entire thread and it seems like regardless of the the model number some of the transmitters will blink for 2 channels like the one I have, and others will blink for 5 with with no real rime or reason. This seemed strange to me because obviously all of them came off the same assembly line and should all be built and programed the same way. Now I noticed that a few people had posted that after fooling around with the the set points and resetting a few times it would switch to 5 channels. I tried this and it didn't seem to work.

So Here's what I did. I attached two servos to the ch3 and ch4 terminals on the rx, turned it on along with the tx and still nothing. I could still turn the servos by hand meaning that there was no signal coming from the tx locking them in place. I opened up the transmitter and while it was still on, took a wire and held one end to the ground (#5 and 6 contact in the pic) and touched each of the contacts you have numbered 1-4 with the other end of the wire. Still no response from the servos. So just for the heck of it, I decided to keep going down the line of terminals. If you touch the two labeled TH and THT, it will bypass the throttle and send a signal for full forward and full reverse. Same deal with the steering for the terminals marked ST and STT. So here's where it got interesting. When I made contact with the next terminal marked VCC, all of a sudden the two servos that I had hooked up kicked back to center position and when I went back and touched 1-4 they were all working! So I shut everything off, turned the tx back on and sure enough, 5 blinks. So I didn't bother to check what VCC is connected to, but grounding it out seems to be the key that unlocked the other channels. So anyone else who wants to give this a try, let us know what happens.

[glen5122]

thanx very much to every one in this thread. i did the check and only got 2 blinks. reset the tx, deleted models, re binded models until i plugged the servos into ch3 and ch4 and rebinded the two and wholla. got a 5 channel/2channel redio.

[WindDrake]

Figured I'd add my 0.02 to this thread, since I was curious of the same thing.

I've got a Slash 4x4 that's about a year old now, with the TQ-Link HO TX (Red Buttons).

My TX originally showed 2 blinks (2 Channel).

Figuring that it's all Firmware controlled, I decided to play around with the board some.

The ultimate solution to open up all 5 Channels was to ground ISW-DWN (Ch.5) with the TX OFF!, then turn the TX on. This, at the logic level, shows the TX that there is input on channel 5 at boot time.

This also means there's just a linear check done at boot time on the TX, and no sanity checks (Whatever channel it decides to see last is the number of channels it assumes it has.)

This unlocked my 2-Ch transmitter into 5-Channel mode.

The serial I've got is A01592xx, so anything higher means your TX was made later, lesser means it was made earlier then mine.

Hope this helps someone.

[danielhr77]

Nice! I'm glad this thread is still alive! Traxxas will hate me for a long time!

[WindDrake]

It also appears that you can't separate Ch.4 from Ch.5, they are linked. You can't move the Ch.5 servo until Ch.4 has moved, which sucks. It means I've got a SPST where I need a Center-Off DPDT.

[ycx 428]

halo everybody.....i would like to ask u all to help me for the traxxas tq 2.4ghz (model 2239 channel 4) channel 4 activate at radio or receiver. i am follow all connection same like your diagram which is an indication from u at traxxas forum. but the problem i have is at TSW connect wiring just only the function i have active the(down) only at my servo and the (up) function total dint have a function. Or i not yet activate from transmitter radio setting?

can u help me to solve the problem i have, please. thanks.....

[fast_til_crash]

I just checked mine that came with my Rustler about a month ago (serial# A0006969), and it will only blink 4 times, after that it goes back around to 1 blink. Should I still be able to mod it for 4 channels?

Same here,, the first time through it blinked twice then back to once. I powered down while it was still blinking once. Then I read this post and tried again and I am finding 3 and 4 blinks but not 5.

Now,, what to do with the extras. Time to do some searching...

[builder]

thank you daniel, another success mod...

[danielhr77]

Excellent! I'm glad it worled or you too... Guys, I know many of you sent me questions about this on this thread and by PM, I'm sorry I wasn't able to answer to all of you, I don't have much free time lately...

[K-Note72]

OK so I'm trying to do this mod to my 2-ch Tx with a 2-position shift switch from a TQ3 radio. I followed your directions, I soldered the neutral (middle) wire to one of the empty ground pads and soldered the other two to the up/down terminals down on the circuit board, but for some reason the transmitter still doesn't recognize anything on the 3rd channel? Any idea why?

[noir 522]

great write up I will start my conversion tomorrow

[danielhr77]

Unlocking the TQi is the next challenge...

[Newth Cox]

Has anyone found another way of opening up the extra channels? I've tried all sorts & my tx is still locked on 2.
Before I spend money on more receivers, I'd really like to be able to open up all channels, so I know all my cars are covered.
I've tried the extra channels just in case, but they're still dead.

Thanks,
Newth

[Franck WOOF]

Thanks for all this literature, I have tried all and found the good one.

Here what was right for me :
I opened the transmitter (with the 5 screw on the back), I switch ON the transmitter, took a wire and held one end to the ground and I touched each of the contacts you have numbered 1-4 with the other end of the same wire. I continued to make contact with the next contact marked VCC. I turned OFF the transmitter and turned the tx back ON.
Now the transmitter recognize 5ch (1,2,3,4 and 5 blinks in the channel setup menu)
I never touch the receiver.

My transmitter is a 2238 model (ref 22383940) with the serial number A0183366.
I have now to find 3 servos (from a friend) and 2 switches to test it. I’ll will tell you if what I want to do is working.

Thanks to Danielhr77 who initiate this thread and to Cpt Beefheart who find the good solution for my case. I don’t forget all other members who make this thread very interesting and instructive.

[Franck WOOF]

I have made the same modification with my second 2Ch transmitter wich has the same model number (22383940) and with the serial number A0267277. So 5 blink on the channel setup menu. I'm still waiting for the switches.
I wish you an happy new year.

[Greenskeeper]

Sweet mod! Can't wait to put my light kit in and have it switched!

[Franck WOOF]

A lot of thing have been written to modify the transmitter.
But I just want to explain i will do on the receiver side to control a light system with Led. Fortunately the led are little power consumer, so you can power them directly with the receiver with the + and - pin of one channel.

But if you want to control an ON/OFF system to light them on or off, you need a little circuit which convert the signal received on the third pin (a servo has 3 inputs +, - and the signal in an digital one which is open or close to power or not the led.
Pololu make a little circuit which make this : http://www.pololu.com/catalog/product/752
I bought one and waiting to receive it to test it to control the light with the third channel.
In the few next day i hope having time to install the switch (now received) on the transmitter.

[Lil Mini Revo]

Hi all, thanks for this thread, Ive gotten the 5 channels to activate - how Im not exactly sure, it just started working after following some methods here - Im just not sure which one did it!

The only thing is - once I have Ch 4 on and hook up Ch 5 they both go to neutral. Only Ch 4 or Ch 5 can be on at one time. Anyone have this problem? Seems like some others got either Ch 4 or Ch 4+5 to work at the same time (Ch 5 once Ch 4 was on).

[Newth Cox]

I still can't seem to unlock mine from 2 channels
Anymore suggestions anyone please?

[Lil Mini Revo]

I still can't seem to unlock mine from 2 channels
Anymore suggestions anyone please?

This is the last thing I did before mine was unlocked:

Reset the tx in Jato Mode
Ground the RSW Up and Down and hold there
Ground VCC and hold there
Turn off TX, wait a few seconds
Turn on TX while still Grounding VCC and RSW Up/Down and hold for a few seconds
Let go and test RSW Channel by Grounding with servo plugged in Ch 3

[Newth Cox]

I'll give it another go. Thank you.