This tutorial will walk through how to use our new Jumper T-Pro RC Transmitters & the EdgeTX Operating System which is installed on them for controlling a Combat Robot. Additionally we will cover how to perform basic operations such as binding your radio receiver, and wiring up your receiver to your bot.

Note: Many of these instructions will guide you through editing simple settings on the EdgeTX Radio directly. EdgeTX also allows easy management of configuration using an application called "EdgeTX Companion" which runs on Windows, Mac, and Linux. This tutorial does not cover the use of EdgeTX Companion, but a future tutorial will cover that info. For now, if you want more info on EdgeTX Companion, see the section near the end of this document which provides links to find out more about EdgeTX and EdgeTX Companion.

Introduction to the CRNZ EdgeTX Config

We have developed a customized configuration for the T-Pro Transmitter specifically for Combat Robotics. This configuration comes pre-installed on every T-Pro transmitter that we ship.

The config is easily updated, you can customize it, or make changes as needed, but this way every radio is easy to use out of the box, and will work in an expected way, keeping things easy, with a minimal learning curve for new users.

Key Features of the CRNZ EdgeTX Config

• Consistent assignment of channels to receiver outputs, so that a common wiring standard is possible
• 2 Pre-Programed Profiles, one for "Standard" and one for "Tank Steer"
• Analog weapon control on an easy to access dial (right finger)
• Safety arming/disarming with a switch
• Boot up protection, which checks the controls are in a "Safe" place, before allowing the transmitter to fully boot up (to prevent mistakes like spinning up a weapon when you don't intend to)
• "Flip" switch for driving inverted (no more flipping the remote upside down!)
• Voice prompts for all key functions so you don't need to look at the remote
• User Adjustable "Expo" on stick controls
• Ability to bind multiple receivers to each profile (for multiple bots) 
• Ability to copy/rename default profiles into custom ones for each bot (if you wish)

Tour of the Jumper T-Pro Transmitter

Introduction & Quick Start

This section will introduce you to the various buttons/inputs on the Jumper T-Pro radio transmitter, and serve as a quick start guide on how the basic functions work.

If you don't want to read this entire guide, please at least familiarise yourself with this section.

To get started right away, you will simply need to bind a bot receiver to one of the two models/profiles provided (CRNZ-Std or CRNZ-Tank) depending if you want normal steering, or "Tank Steering" (using two stick controls, with one stick controlling each drive motor). Other than this difference, the configs are identical.

Button/Input Layout

Description of buttons/functions:

1	Power Button	Push and hold this button until the dots on screen, and lights on the mode buttons either fully light, or go dark to power on, or off the  transmitter.
2	Sticks	The sticks are the primary input mechanism, primarily responsible for driving the robot
3	Antenna	The T shaped Antenna is rigid, and can be folded out to provide easier access to the shoulder controls for the index or middle finger during operation
4	6-Way Mode Buttons	These buttons are not used in the CRNZ config, but can be mapped to any number of functions (either as individual toggles, or as a 6 way mode select). More info to come in a more advanced tutorial soon!
5	Stick Trim Switches	The Trim switches are 4 way little "joysticks" which can be used to adjust the trim of the main stick up down left or right. (note this will generally rarely be needed in combat robotics). Mostly useful if using the Standard control scheme, and your bot consistently pulls to one side or the other when trying to drive in a straight line, the trim can be used to adjust the steering to closer to straight.
6	Menu Button	Press briefly to pull up the normal "Model Config" menu, which allows you to edit settings for a given model profile, or choose a different model profile.  You can also push and hold this button to bring up the "System" menu which allows you to change system settings for the transmitter itself.
7	Tab Select Button	This button is used to cycle through tabs or screens of information when in menus, or to cycle through information screens (such as different status displays, or telemetry displays)
8	"Back" Button	The back button backs out of wherever you are, returning to the previous screen/field/etc
9	Selection Wheel	This is the main input for navigating menus, or editing values. Rolling the wheel acts to move up or down a menu, or to increase/decrease a value, etc. Clicking the wheel (by pressing down on it) acts as an "Enter" key, to make a selection, or save the current value.
10	Shoulder Buttons	These two buttons are momentary press buttons on the left and right "shoulder" of the transmitter, placed to be easily accessible to the index or middle finger during normal operation.  In the CRNZ Config, briefly pressing the left shoulder button will reduce the "Expo" value (more on Expo later in this tutorial). And pressing the right shoulder button will increase the "Expo" value. Either action will result in the remote reading back the current Expo value to you so you know what it is set at.
11	Shoulder Switches	These switches are 3 way switches, and by default should be in the "Down" position (rocked away from the front face of the transmitter), which is the "safe" position for boot up. These are placed on the left and right shoulder of the transmitter, next to the shoulder buttons, and are designed to be easily accessible to the index or middle finger during operation. The left switch when in the "down" position is "Safety On" which disarms the robot by putting the drive motors and weapon motors in an "Off" position. After booting the transmitter, you can flick this switch into the "Up" position to "Arm" the robot (which is "Safety Off"). The right switch in the "down" position is "Normal" mode, which is for standard operation of the bot. if you switch this one to "Up" it enables "Flip" mode, which is for running the bot inverted. In that mode, if your bot is inverted, the inputs will work as normal for driving and steering, compensating for the upside down drivetrain. Any toggle of these switches will result in a voice prompt being played, indicating the new state.
12	Shoulder Analog Wheel	These analog wheels allow smooth rolling up or down, with the "zero" position being rolled towards the outside edge of the transmitter, and "full" position being rolled in towards the center of the transmitter.  These are also designed to be accessible for the index or middle finger during normal operation. The right analog wheel is designed to control weapon output. It is also setup to beep when the wheel reaches it's center point (at 50% throttle). During bootup you will receive a "Throttle Warning" if the right wheel is at anything other than the "Zero" setting, for safety reasons you will have to roll the wheel back to zero before the transmitter will boot normally.

 

Tour of Menus and Screens

The Home Screen

There are several views for the home screen, they can be switched by hitting the tab select button, these display different status information. Usually showing the name of the selected profile, the current battery status of the transmitter, and the flight mode (in our case ARM or DISARM), as well as some input information. Here are some examples of the available home screens:

This first screen is plain, and only shows basic info. The 4 lines with blocks in the center along the borders of the screen indicate the current "trim" setting for the 2 sticks in the horizontal and vertical axis. That the blocks have a double line in them and are at the center of the line, indicates they are "Center", if you use the trim adjustment switches, you will see these indicators moving, showing you have applied some level of trim to the inputs. These generally should be centered unless you are adjusting for uneven steering.

This next screen is similar, but adds a visual representation of the sticks, inputs, and switches

This screen shows the output status of the first 8 channels, with a bar all the way to the left of the center line indicating -100%, the center line being 0% and to the right of the center line indicating +100%

This screen shows the named output channels as they are being sent to the receiver. Note that "Wep" here (weapon) shows -100% which because the weapon is not usually configured for bidirectional control, that means "off" whereas the LDri and RDri (drives) usually are bidirectional control, in which case -100% is full reverse and +100% is full throttle forward.

The Model Settings Menus

Briefly pressing the menu button from any of the home screens will bring you to the Model Settings Menus:

This is the first tab, the Model Select Screen, where you can select which model profile to use (the two included profiles are shown here, CRNZ-Std, and CRNZ-Tank)

This is the setup screen, where you set many general settings for the model.

This is also the screen you will go to in order to bind a new receiver (you will find an Internal RF section further down on the SETUP page, and in that section you will need to set the Receiver Type and Subtype, as well as choose a receiver number, and activate binding mode. If you need more information there is a section below with detailed instructions on binding each of the two receiver types we sell.

The heli setup screen can be ignored, it is only used for RC single rotor helicopters, and has no application to Combat Robotics.

The flight modes screen is where we define our various Modes of operation, in our case we have configured "DISARM" and "ARM" flight modes, triggered by the safety switch (left shoulder switch)

The inputs screen is where we define the different inputs we want, their properties, and which physical input method they are connected to. In this case we have defined for the "CRNZ-Std" model, a "Drive" input (drive throttle, forward backwards on the left stick), a "Steer" input (left/right on the right stick), a "Wep" input (the right shoulder analog wheel), and an "Aux" input (left shoulder analog wheel)

B_

The Mixes screen allows us to define how the inputs (defined on the previous screen) are utilised to control our Combat Robot. We can apply math, curves, or combine together different inputs in novel ways. In our case in this profile we are mixing the steering signal into the 2 drives, to allow for automatic 2 wheel drive steering by varying the throttle of the left or right side. This would normally be done with a hardware mixer device in the bot, but with the power of EdgeTX and Mixes, we can do this in the transmitter, and simplify the wiring of the bot, while reducing our weight! (we also disable the weapon output for example when the safety is on and a few other bits of magic in here)

Now the Outputs screen, allows us to take the mixes we defined in the previous screen, and map them to output channels on the receiver. We can specify things here like the minimum and maximum pulse period for PWM control, or do things like invert a backwards motor. Or if we want to put limits on throttle, or weapon output to avoid damaging components, we can do that here too.

The Curves screen, lets us create customized curves using various formulas, or even by manually specifying points in a chart. These saved curve can then be applied to inputs to create complex control systems (for example you could have a series of curves for complex motions in a series of servos, so that a smooth motion of the stick results in a complex sequence of motions in the servos).

For our configs we don't use any of these Curves currently (but it is a very powerful feature should you need that level of customization)

The logical switches screen lets you configure logical switches which can apply programming logic based on inputs, variables, or other logical switches to essentially program custom behavior, rules, safeties, or other concepts into the radio. Logical switches essentially provide a simplified custom programming capability. We don't currently use any of these in our configs

Special Functions allow you to trigger special functions across the whole model config when certain conditions are met (such as a certain input, or timer, or logical switch being triggered). These can do things like override outputs, apply curves, play sounds, save files to the SD card, and all kinds of other special functions.

In our configurations we use the special functions to override variable values which define the inverted driving function, as well as the user adjustable expo variable.

Additionally we use these to trigger the voice prompts in our configs.

The Telemetry screen is where you setup and configure any telemetry you will be receiving back from a Telemetry Enabled receiver (Telemetry is an advanced topic, which will be discussed in another tutorial)

The Displays Screen allows you to setup custom information screens using variables, or telemetry data. This is also another advanced topic that will be addressed in a future tutorial

The System Settings Menu

When on the home screen, pressing and holding the menu button for a couple seconds will bring you to the System Settings Menu. Here is where you configure settings globally to the entire transmitter (not associated with a specific model/profile).

Generally speaking the radio comes pre-configured with the correct values here. None of the settings in this section should need to be changed on a radio purchased from our store.

If you wish to customize the global radio settings, that is beyond the scope of this basic tutorial. A more advanced tutorial on EdgeTX will be coming soon.

Common Settings/Functions in the CRNZ Profiles

Both of the provided CRNZ profiles/models have some things in common:

• When powering up the radio, a basic safety check is performed, to ensure the radio is always powering on in a "Safe" mode. This prevents unwanted driving or weapon spinups that could be dangerous. This requires that the all the switches are in the "Down" position, and that the weapon throttle is all the way down (the right analog wheel rolled all the way to the right)
• The left switch is the "Safety" switch, which when in the down position is "Safe" or "Disarmed", and when flipped to the up position, is "Safety Off" or "Armed". When disarmed, no inputs will be sent to the bot, only "Neutral" drive position, and "Off" for weapon.
• The right switch is for "Flip" mode (which allows inverted driving). Normally when your bot is flipped upside down, the controls become reversed. If using "Tank Steering" mode, you can simply flip your remote upside down, but this means other controls aren't easily accessible... Instead, this switch can be flipped up, if your bot is upside down, and it will automatically correct the inputs for you, so that the bot drives normally (assuming of course your bot is designed to work inverted... It is, right?).
• The two shoulder buttons act as adjustments to the Expo setting. There is a saved Expo setting in the profile which allows you to adjust how "smooth" your controls are near the center of the stick movement. This setting can be turned up and down using the left and right shoulder button, an audio prompt will read out the current numeric value between 0% and 100%. For more info on Expo please read the section below titled "Expo"

The "CRNZ-Std" Profile

The CRNZ "Standard" profile is designed for "normal" steering (sometimes also called "Arcade Steering" though that usually refers to using a single stick where we use 2 sticks), this means that the left stick is your throttle (drive forward/reverse) and your right stick is steering (turn left/right).

In this config, only the vertical axis of the left stick is enabled, and only the horizontal axis of the right stick. So you don't have to worry about extraneous inputs.

The remaining aspects of the profile are as per the "Common" functions above.

The "CRNZ-Tank" Profile

The CRNZ "Tank" profile is designed for "Tank Steering" which is preferred by some drivers. 

With Tank Steering, both sticks use their vertical axis, and the left stick corresponds to the left drive wheel, and the right stick the right drive wheel. By adjusting how much power to provide to each wheel (and in which direction), you can drive the bot or turn the bot, etc.

Aside from the stick configuration, the rest of this profile is the same as the "Std" profile, using the common functions as per above.

Expo

"Expo" is a term used when you apply an exponential curve to the inputs of a stick on a particular axis. 

What this means in simple terms, is that the movement of the stick has less effect the closer it is to the center, and more effect the further from the center. It means smaller movements are more forgiving, but as you approach the end of the stick movement, you can still reach the full potential of the output.

Normally when you have no Expo, your stick movement directly correlates to the output. So at 25% stick movement, the output is 25%, and 50% it's 50%, and at 100% it's 100%.

But when you turn on a bit of expo, that becomes a curve instead of a straight line, so now 25% might only be 10% output, and 50% might be 40% and 100% would still be 100%.

The more the Expo level, the more aggressive this curve is. So by tuning the expo level up and down, you can find a sweet spot for your personal driving style in which the bot isn't overly twitchy with small movements, but still feels natural at high levels of stick deflection. 

In the CRNZ configs, expo is enabled, but the Expo value is a variable between 0% and 100%.

By using the left and right shoulder buttons, you can adjust this value up and down easily. If you set it to 0% it disables Expo, and at 100% you get the max expo effect.

You will be surprised how much of a difference Expo can make to the "feel" of how your bot drives if you've never used it before.

Binding to Receivers/Bots

Note: Each Config/Model can only have one Receiver Type and SubType set at once. If you wish to easily bind to multiple bots with different receiver types, you should make a copy of the model/profile so that you can have each one set for different Receiver Types. (for example FrSky D16 vs FlySky AFHDS2A)

Binding to FS2A Receiver

The FS2A Receiver is a FlySky compatible AFHDS2A Receiver which has 4 Channels, with PWM outputs.

To bind the FS2A Receiver follow this procedure:

1. Prepare the Transmitter First
1. Power on the Transmitter
2. Enter the Model Settings menu by briefly pressing the menu button
3. Use the Tab Button to switch to the SETUP (2/12) screen.
4. Use the Select Wheel to scroll down through the setup page, until you reach the "Internal RF" section
5. Ensure that "Mode" is set to "MULTI" (it should be already like this when we ship it)
6. Ensure you select the correct Type and Subtype for the receiver (in this case AFHDS2A or "FlySky2A" and PWM output:
1. Highlight the "Type" option, and briefly press the select wheel to edit the field, the value will begin blinking.
2. Use the Select Wheel to select the FlySky2A Type and then press the Select Wheel to select that option.
3. Highlight the "Subtype" option, and brifly press the select wheel to edit the field, the value will begin blinking.
4. Use the Select Wheel to select the "PWM,SBUS" option
7. Scroll down to the Receiver line, and highlight the number, select an appropriate number for this bot's receiver (if you have multiple bots, you can bind more than one receiver using different numbered slots)
8. Once you have selected a number, scroll to highlight the "[BND]" entry.
2. Now Prepare the Receiver
1. Press and hold the button on the receiver
2. Apply power to the receiver while holding the button
3. The Blue LED on the receiver should begin flashing indicating it is in Bind Mode
3. Now Complete the Bind Procedure
1. Back on the Receiver, with the [BND] option highlighted, briefly press the select wheel
2. The [BND] option should begin flashing briefly while it's seeking the receiver
3. Once bound, the [BND] option should stop flashing, And on the Receiver the LED should switch flashing patterns to a slower flashing rate.
4. Setup Failsafe
1. Once the binding procedure is complete, use the back button to return to the home screen
2. On the home screen, ensure the switches on the transmitter are in the "Down" position (safety is on).
3. This should then transmit "safe" signals to each channel.
4. On the receiver while powered on, press and hold the button on the receiver.
5. The blue light should blink rapidly several times, then light solid. This indicates the failsafe mode has been set.

Congratulations! You have now bound your receiver to the transmitter!

Binding to Jumper R1 V2 Mini Receiver

The Jumper R1 V2 Mini receiver is a FrSky D16 compatible receiver, which has up to 16 Channels sent via an SBus output. 

Because this receiver is an SBus receiver, it is a bit more advanced to use. 

Pairing instructions are coming soon for this receiver.

Wiring up the Receiver in your Bot

This section will provide some basic guidance for how the standard configs expect your bot to be wired to your receiver.

Channel Assignment/Function

1	Left Drive
2	Right Drive
3	Weapon
4	Aux
7	Expo
8	Armed/Safety

 

Wiring FS2A Receiver

Coming Soon!

Wiring Jumper R1 V2 Mini Receiver

Because the Jumper R1 V2 Mini is an SBus Receiver, it is much simpler to wire (only requiring power, and a single signal wire for SBus Signal). And this makes it much smaller and lighter than alternatives as well.

However using SBus means that you must have a "Smart" controller, or SBus compatible ESCs in your bot. 

We are working on a few products which will make this "Plug and play" in the near future, however for now SBus remains an "Advanced" topic. So a tutorial for wiring SBus will come soon, once we have plug and play products available.

What if a motor is working reversed/backwards?

If one of your motors is running in the opposite direction than intended, this is easily correctable. This can be done either in hardware if you wish, or can be done by a slight adjustment in the configuration.

NOTE: If you change the settings for a reversed motor it will apply to the entire profile (any bots paired with that profile). If you have multiple bots, and only one is affected by the reversed motor, you can make a copy of the profile, and apply the fix to the copy. If you wish to work on a copy, see the section below called "Making a Copy of a Model/Profile".

To fix a reversed motor:

1. Briefly press the Menu button to open the Model Config menu
2. Use the Tab Button to switch to the "OUTPUTS" tab (7/12)
3. Use the Select Wheel to highlight the output channel that is running backwards (for example LDri or RDri)
4. Briefly press the select wheel to select the output channel, which will bring up a context menu as shown here:
   
5. Click the Select Wheel when "Edit" is selected to begin editing the selected Output Channel
6. Use the Select Wheel to highlight the "Direction" option as shown:
   
7. Click the Select Wheel to toggle the setting between "INV" and "---" where "---" means normal operation, and "INV" means "Invert this channel" so that it runs in the opposite direction.
8. When done, press the Back Button to back out to the home screen, and test to ensure the motors work as expected.

Making a Copy of a Model/Profile

If you wish to make a copy of a model/profile so that you can rename it, or make customizations without affecting the original CRNZ config, you can easily do so.

To copy a profile:

1. Briefly press the Menu button to open the Model Config menu
2. Confirm you are on the "MODELSEL" (1/12) screen shown above in the tour of the model menu.
3. Use the selection wheel to highlight the model config you wish to copy
4. Press and hold the select wheel on the model you wish to copy, you will be presented with a context menu as shown here:
5. Choose the Copy Model option with the select wheel
6. You will then be taken back to the list of models, but a + sign will show on the right, you can now use the Select Wheel to select a previously empty slot, and press it briefly to select that slot as the destination of the copy as shown here:
   
7. Congratulations! You have just made a copy of a model configuration!

Additional Links & Resources for EdgeTX

• The official EdgeTX Homepage: http://edgetx.org/
• Facebook EdgeTX Users Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/edgetx/
• EdgeTX Github Repo: https://github.com/EdgeTX/edgetx
• EdgeTX Latest Releases Page on GitHub: https://github.com/EdgeTX/edgetx/releases/latest