The RC transmitter I scratch-built 38 years ago
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- Опубліковано 6 лют 2025
- Whilst tidying the workshop I came across this hand-made radio control transmitter I used for all my RC planes almost 40 years ago. It's a real mess now but I figured viewers might be interested in seeing inside and hearing a little bit about it.
Turn it on, and seeeee :-) I remember you having that out at Taupo Maaany many moons ago. And pretty sure it was a TEAC V.U meter you used for the BATT & R.F indication. The LED (oh yes you took me through the back parts of it) was to check the regulator was working. Most of the bits (I.C's excluded) were ratted from dead other things. Think it was a PYE stereo (or two) you got the coil former's from......So long ago....
Please consider making a restoration video on this one of a kind transmitter!
What an incredible find! a treasure from the past. Thanks for sharing that!!
Brilliant Bruce. To have a transmitter with so many channels and dual rates pre 80's is impressive. We certainly take a lot for granted these days.
Love it! Thank you for sharing that piece of RC history, we should all know where our passions first started.
Very impressive stuff for 1979 Bruce ! That's still well over my head 👍🏻
That's fantastic. to have the
skill to build your own tx would be unreal. you need to revive it and do a episode
I went to tech school in the mid-70's and was taught tube theory and not until the end of the training did they introduce digital logic, IC's , transistors etc, so what you developed, really was state of the art for the 70's..., I used to love building Heathkit testing and Ham radio gear in the late 60's early 70's , that stuff looks ancient today.....
I wonder what electronics will be like 40 years from now ? Great memories, thanks !
I love seeing this stuff.
I know you don't have the time but you should rebuild it.
Wow. Was so great to see this video and notice that all the parts, Crystal Oscillator, buffer stage, mixing circuitry, square wave pulse generators and amplifier stage is still the same things that were needed when I made my own home built 27Mhz transmitter using an Arduino and some basic electronics parts for controlling an old RC Truck, now 40 years later! Wish I could have seen this video before I started that journey. I think I just learned I need to add something to clean up all the "harmonics and things". Cheers
brings back memories of my UK Quantum 6 diy build in 1972 -soon switched to Futaba M after that challenge
thanks for sharing Bruce
Wow that's a beautiful old piece of handwork. Thanks for sharing it :)
Looking back in time in1994 I was going to start a model railroad (paid Entrance) at the Ettamogah Pub on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland went out and got $6k's worth.. Never Happened.
Still live up here and have not gotten to the back of a container where about half is stored.
So this post has lit a Fuse.
Thanks for your time
Tony
I really enjoy seeing things like this. Made back when you really had to figure things out instead of plug and play
I love seeing this kind of stuff. Not to make you feel old, but you built this before I was born. Great to see how it was done done before the "high tech" systems we have today. Thank you for this great informative video.
Cool. 38 years ago and you can't remember why you added an LED, not surprising really, I have difficulty remembering why I bought a bit of Chinesium when it turns up 4 weeks later.
And then you remember it was for that random project that you were gonna do that you also forgot about :)
Amazing stuff to see, Nice work SCS! ;-) I was 5 years old when you made that transmitter. Thanks for the video Bruce. -Jamie
Dig the cutting edge ICs Bruce. We take so much of today's tech for granted not only RC but computers in general.
That's awesome Bruce! I got my ham radio license in 1978 and built a radio set!
Ask a 15 year old today what Ham Radio is and see what kind of look you get!
Would be cool to see you get it going fly a glider or something with it!
Please! Stop apologizing. It was very neat to see.
I never heard him apologize.
Your a amazing man, thanks for sharing that with us. I remember having to change those crystals. The only thing I every built when I was a kid was a crystal radio and that was in late 50's. I had a antenna hooked up to it and I had so much fun with it. Love your channel and I learn so much from you.
Cool! Very interesting Bruce. More videos like this, please. :)
Keep it going, love to see more stuff. That transmitter is quite a good bit of work I reckon.
i love this kind of stuff. rebuild it 2.4 or 72. would be awesome to see. I'm surprised SCS isn't a product were buying today, you definitely have the skills for it. Great stuff Bruce.
Nothing to be ashamed of there Bruce, you built something very functional and expandable using cutting edge components available at that time. I am sure that it would function again with minimal work, unlike today's technology where a whole unit is thrown away, simply because it was designed to replace rather than repair....
Great find Bruce, loved the video!
My father scratch built RC gear for our boats when I was a kid, before he built the proportional gear we had sequential. Great days, so easy now
Dude, I would love to sport something retro like this when I'm flying haha. Looks so dope
Looks like one of the old silvertone radios Bob Young built in those days,, nostalgia! :)
5:10 What!? we could be talking about the new SCS Transmitter right now. Nice Bruce
your a genius bruce. i love seeing how it used to be done!
wow man. talk about skill-set. much respect. That TX had to be coveted by everyone down at the local airfield back then lol.
Did I see an LM 324 in the logic board? This is still my favourite quad amp op chip :-)
Awesome! More please! Great stuff and very interesting.
I love seeing stuff like this!! If you have more vintage gear don't be afraid to review it :D
Just redo the damaged boards to get it to work.
And love seeing this content..
...still better than most of what Hobbyking sell today! 😄 Great, great video, Bruce.
This is so awesome. Your videos are inspiring, and always educational my friend!
As a lot of others said already, please rebuild it and keep it as a relic from the past ;)
great video good luck with the tidying up
Reminds me of the RCM&E system a mate built for me about that time.I later converted it to 35mhz,and extended it to 7 channels(2 originally).Worked fine on cars,but never much good in the air.
I would like to see more Bruce!
Wow! Thanks for taking your time.
it would be amazing to see you fly something with that transmitter ;)
I'll bet Bruce had "Big Hair" back then ! Great stuff Bruce
Very cool. Thanks for sharing.
very cool! i had a heath kit 6 channel i built in 1978
great to see. Keep up the good work
Those gimbals must have cost a fortune back in the 70s.
I built a music synthesizer back then and seriously wondered if i should fork out even for the ball type joystick that you describe.
The things we did back then because there was no other option.
that is super cool, thanks Bruce
LOL
I've seen your shop on my visit last January from the states, just be careful in your shop.
Cheers .
Thanks Bruce enjoyed the video
Wow hats off! You must have been a very keen youngster to build that yourself! But not surprising seeing how you still have great drive in what you love. How common was it then to build your own radio gear? I got into RC in the 80s and my first gear was a Futaba gold set if I remember correctly? Never saw anyone in those days with their own built gear. Would love to see anything back in those old days. Thanks for all your hard work.
really neat to see Thanks Bruce :)
i wonder how 40 years in the future rc transmitters would look like. maybe with so many regulations this hobby itself could be a relic.
Haha do you remember the Simpletone superhetrodine single channel kit sold by someone in Hemel Hempstead Hertfordshire UK in the Aero Modeller or similar? I built it and needed an escapement (os preferred) left right up down or something in that sequence. All I could ever manage was a few seconds before crash. All that survives is the Center tuned antenna.
Wow, nice. Good talent.
Very cool stuff! And we nit pick on the stuff we have now, we are so spoiled.
Bruce keep the case and put 2.4 in it but have the big dummy antenna on it lol look Gr8 on the flight line ....
I want to see you flying a miniquad with this radio ..... LOL
Let's see, what was I doing 40 Years Ago? Graduating High School, Playing Drums, and Chasing Girls! (Not In That Order!)
Thanks Bruce! Very Cool Video!
Most satisfying video ever :)
G'day Bruce. That thing is so cool I love old radios I have a collection of them haha. Have you thought of putting a 4 or 5 channel new radio inside it and keeping the old case on the outside so it still looks the part yet it's on 2.4ghz and can be used and bound to modern receivers?
Cheers
Holy crap you did electronic elevons back then!?! (bows down on knees) "WE'RE NOT WORTHY, WE'RE NOT WORTHY!!!"
That's awesome!
Lovely!
Try and resurrect it Bruce....... :-)
Send it to Dave Jones!
I want to see that happen too!!!
Yes, please.
Dave will take one look at it and proclaim that it's garbage. I think it's awesome and nice to see, but resurrecting it will require a lot of work, and without the corresponding receiver there's no use.
Brilliant!
Xjet where can I get one banggood.?? Lol. Good job mate very modern for its day, look how far we have come now with tech. Advancing quicker than we can keep up.
I wanna see this thing fly a qaud.. This is really cool by the way thx for the share.
what do you mean 'not a pretty sight'... it's beautiful!
It would be great to see if you could revive it and install a 2.4G kit. I would love to see that.
Awesome! You should repair it.
I'd love to see you restore this and fly a mini quad with it :p
I wonder how long the wire antenna would last, hanging out the bottom!
Why
Respect!
Fascinating stuff
I adjusted/converted some gear back then but never scratch-built. That's impressive especially for the era. Did you perchance publish any of your designs in the hobbyist magazines of the time? I've a faint memory of seeing some "cutting edge" designs from you (or someone very like you) back then. I'm a couple of years younger than you but my memory isn't as good
Thumbs up for this creativity long time ago. Bruce did you had that company scs and selled rc stuff?
I had a business at the time (SCS) that did bespoke electronic design and small-run manufacturing. It was a lot of fun because no two projects were the same.
Thanks for uploading this. I dabble with RC Electronics myself, more at the Rx demodulated end but have always been intrigued by the RF stuff too but never been able to find much info about it. Would this have used pulse position modulation (PPM) or did that come later?
If you ever get rid of it let me know I love stuff like that I even got a nice looking 1970 futaba that's in it's foam packing
that's awesome!
Repair it and use it for a bit!
Mind you don't short circuit the board!! (haha) Great to see.
Mate, that thing is older than I am! lol.
Still have a box of components from my dads stuff... including tubes. Waiting to be assembled, on a button transmitter. Its on the shelf but not in line for assembly. Im not that brave lol!
Send it to dave jones(eevblog)!
You should rebuild it by putting the guts of a Taranis inside and just rock up to a meet with it haha
garageadz quite a few people have been doing just that, "resto-mod" and either leaving the existing patina, or stripping and brand new paint, decals and everything. Others have just done new mfg in retro style.
Nice
It reminds me of the Horus in many ways..
Wonderful, thanks for sharing. Where did you get the case from? Looks almost too neat for DIY :) The meter seems to be a re-labeled audio VU meter as someone else suggested in the comments.
Truly awesome to see this!
It has very much the same colour as my old multiplex rc gear from the 70ties.
But it's not that futuristic as yours .... with all that fancy mixing and dual rate stuff on it. Great rc gear you did back then.
But one thing was better with all of them, you had to build better Servo to rudder alignments....
Today you just can throw your Servos in and do all the center and way adjusmet later.
Anyway thank you for that great vid.
I just found the 4 channel I built 45 years ago!
You should have kept going with your design. Clearly yours was ahead of pretty much everything out there. I noticed that you have a bad habit of jumping from thing to thing. I am guilty of the same thing but I know had I stuck with one idea,I would have done well with it. I know you have many unfinished projects that are great ideas but dont stick with them. My brothers garage is full of them including a beautiful slope glider all hand made that he never finished. It even has a custom case. Oh well. That may be our only regret someday is not following theough on some of our dreams. Seems life is too short to get them all in.
COOL!
That is interesting.
Did you have an oscilloscope at hand when you made that?
Yes I did. I had a business designing and making specialist electronic equipment for commercial and industrial users.
cool vid, how big was the rx you built for it? eg dimensions, just curious... guessing it ran on 4.8 nicad pack?
What did the receiver look like?
I would like to make some analog RC, which literature do you recomend?
It is much more interesting than arduino stuff...
how old are you Bruce ?
I'm 64 in the shade.
xjet booooo!!!!!
Restore it (old style) and keep it!
Ehhhh, Give it to Ron, he will sort it out 🚁💨🐖💨
27mhz was surface yes?
27MHz was for *everything*, back in the day.