T14SG Telemetry: Setting the Warning Level for the Flight Battery

Personally, I really like Futaba's telemetry function: this way, I can always accurately see how much juice my Phantom's flight battery still has. In this article, I will show you how to configure the T14SG to warn you when the voltage of the flight battery drops below a certain level.

DJI Phantom and Futaba T14SG/R7008SB

Some time ago, I had this great idea to replace the original DJI transmitter and receiver units in my Phantom with with something better and more robust. I opted for a Futaba transmitter T14SG and an R7008SB receiver, complete with telemetry.

I've even upgraded my Phantom with a Zenmuse H3-2D gimbal recently; that required replacing the original main board.

For those interested in these upgrades I've documented both the hardware upgrade side, as well as the gory details of programming (or configuring) the T14SG transmitter. As there are quite some things to take care of, I've cut down the rather big topic into a series of blog articles:

• Phantom transmitter/receiver upgrade Futaba T14SG/R7008SB.
• Programming the T14SG for the Phantom.
• T14SG and the Phantom failsafe.
• T14SG Dual Rate.
• My T14SG switch assignments.
• Upgrading the Phantom with a Zenmuse H3-2D gimbal.
• T14SG Telemetry: programming the flight battery warning level.
  

In addition, you can find more articles with respect to the Phantom quadcopter and the Futaba T14SG transmitter:

• tag: aerial.

For the Records: Phantom Cable Spaghetti

Luckily, newer firmware releases for the Naza-M starting with V3.16 support S.BUS2 operation. The english articles already base on a S.BUS(2) setup. Having only a single cable between receiver and Naza-M is a great improvement, no more cable spaghetti.

For the records, I'm documenting the mess that was my interim setup, using seven servo patch cables to connect the receiver to the Naza-M flight controller. You need to see this...

T14SG Switch Assignments

After all the detailed programming of your Futaba transmitter T14SG you may now wonder what switch does what? So, here's a quick reference at your convenience...

T14SG and the Phantom Failsafe

In this article, I'm going to take a closer look at the topic of failsafe. The Futaba transmitter T14SG and receiver R7008SB both come with failsafe functionality, as does the Naza-M flight controller inside the Phantom too. Now how do all these failsafes work together? As usual, no warranties given, this is just how I did it and I may be perfectly wrong...

Programming the T14SG for the Phantom

Futaba T14SG: 2.4GHz transmitter,
12+2 channels and telemetry.

In a previous article I described how I upgraded my DJI Phantom quadcopter with a Futaba R7008SB receiver. In this follow-up article, I'm now showing how to program the T14SG transmitter in order to fly the Phantom. So let's start...!

Phantom Transmitter/Receiver Upgrade Futaba T14SG/R7008SB

My DJI Phantom with Futaba R7008SB receiver and
T14SB transmitter. Telemetry now included!

The international version of my blog is still lagging behind, but I try to slowly catch up. So here we start with Pimp My Phantom...

The DJI Phantom comes ready to fly and so the box includes only a simple and inexpensive 2.4GHz transmitter to keep the box price low.

Update: Meanwhile, DJI has improved the Phantom's transmitter and receiver. While the company now markets this improvement as a frequency hopping system, measurements show that the new system only uses four discrete frequencies, so this is still a very simple system.

After having flown the Phantom with great pleasure for several ten of hours I wanted more comfort and more reliability than just what the beginner's level has to offer. I wanted more reliability of the radio link even in difficult locations with many reflections, automatic timers for monitoring the flight battery, and also a proper slide lever for controlling the camera for my future gimbal upgrade.

After touring the local electronics chain store I picked up a Futaba T14SG transmitter that also comes with a suitable R7008SB receiver. This combination features flight battery telemetry, that is, the receiver send back the battery voltage to the transmitter. Don't declare me nuts, read on for my story of upgrading my Phantom...