Introduction
Setting up ExpressLRS on an RC car can seem daunting, especially if you’re using a RadioMaster MT12. The system, while powerful, may appear complicated at first. However, with the right guidance, you can unlock the full potential of your RC car and even add extra features like controlling lights or adding FPV.
Getting Started
Before you can start customizing your RC car, you need to ensure that you have the right tools and equipment. Make sure you have all the necessary items, such as the RadioMaster MT12, the ExpressLRS system, and any additional components you may need for your modifications.
Setting Up ExpressLRS
Once you have gathered all the required materials, it’s time to start setting up ExpressLRS on your RC car. Follow the steps carefully and make sure to pay attention to every detail. This part of the process is crucial, as any mistakes could lead to issues later on.
Customizing Your RC Car
With ExpressLRS successfully installed on your RC car, you can now start customizing it to suit your preferences. Whether you want to control the lights, add FPV, or even incorporate pan and tilt features, the possibilities are endless. Take your time to experiment and see what works best for you.
Choosing the Right Receiver
This would allow you to pull the receivers out of the cars and just have that one radio and just have a model set up for each those individual cars trucks, boats, whatever it is now. The first thing we need to talk about is the fact that the car or truck has to have a separate physical receiver that you can pull out in order to replace it with a new one that will work with your new radio.
Considering ExpressLRS
Now, with some of the new radios in the MT12, you can get multiprotocol ones that you can actually get to buy to older receivers, but I would recommend, if you’re going to do this, I would bite the bullet and go for ExpressLRS. ExpressLRS is the mod radio system really developed initially for multirotors, but has come on fantastically since then.
Installing the Receiver
I’m going to install something called an ER5 C, a five-channel receiver to replace the one that’s already inside this. The reason I’m going for five channels is that I’m obviously going to need steering, throttle, an extra channel to be able to turn my lights on and off, and then another couple of channels for things like Pan and tilt for some kind of FPV, head tracking as well. That’s what I am going to install.
Setting Up the Steering Servo
The only other trick I’ll give you is that, when you have taken out the receiver that’s already inside this, then I would just plug in the steering servo into a Servo Checker and confirm what the middle Channel is.
Setting up Model on RadioMaster MT12
To begin setting up ExpressLRS on your RC car using the RadioMaster MT12, start by turning on the radio and going through the setup process. While it may seem straightforward, there are a few tricks to keep in mind, especially when dealing with ExpressLRS.
Creating a Model
In the model menu, select an empty spot and create a new model. At the moment, the setup is basic, with only throttle and steering inputs available. To add some Expo into the steering, highlight the steering input, hold the enter key, and select edit. Add a healthy amount of Expo to help with control.
Adjusting Servo Checker
While not absolutely necessary, adjusting the servo checker can make setup easier. Make sure the wheels are straight and look at the value on the servo checker. This step can be fixed later on, but it helps with initial setup on the radio.
Installing the Receiver
Once the model is set up on the RadioMaster MT12, it’s time to install the receiver on the RC car. Combine the receiver with the car and ensure that everything is securely in place. This step is crucial to ensure proper functionality.
Testing the Setup
After installing the receiver, test the setup to make sure everything is working correctly. Make any necessary adjustments to the setup to ensure optimal performance. With ExpressLRS, there may be a few additional steps or settings to consider, so pay attention to any specific requirements for this system.
Configuring the Controls
Probably about 35. Well see how that feels that will just deaden the controls around middle sck means that theres final control thats the first thing we need to do uh.
Naming the Configuration
I would also potentially, if we go, if we exit out of this, I would also go back. Lets actually give it a name, so always a good idea. Isnt it lets call it something like WL toys and dont forget by pressing and holding the enter key thats going to give us lower case.
Setting Throttle Cut
Next thing I want to do is add a throttle cut so that we have a safe position where the throttle will not work so Im going to go into something called special functions, hit the enter key and Im going to move the switch Im going to use This one down here below into its default position as the radio starts and Im going to say that were going to override the throttle channel to zero, which is the middle Channel position, make sure that is turned on and we can check thats the case.
Testing the Throttle Cut
If we come all the way out, if I now pull the trigger, nothing happens. If I now move that switch out position, just be aware, be careful of this. The little thing at the top is actually showing you all the different channels that were available, and I had it. You can see theres like a little solid bar um in a car. We just want channels one and two isnt moving until I flick the switch and then it is thats kind of a throttle.
Safety First
Another little thing that we need to do with that same switch uh. We need to tell the express L system that were going to use in this car that it is active, so all of the goodness turns on its not in kind of standby mode.
Activating the Express L System
At the moment, with Express lrs, we have to do that by changing Channel 5 to a high value, its a bit of a weird Legacy thing, but we need to do it so lets go back into the menu Zoom across until we get to the special functions Again.
Configuring Channel 5
This time were going to do, enter and were going to move the switch into the position. But what were going to do is were going to say rather than say. Essay in the up position were going to scroll with it high highlighted and were going to find when it has an exclamation essay in the up position and were going to say turn channel five to 100 and turn that on as well.
Full Power Activation
So now. That means that when the throttle cut is off, the express LR system is going to be kind of at full power. If you want to think of it like that again, we can see that in action, because when the throttle cut is in the default position, my throttle isnt working. I get no movement at all when it moves out the position. Not only do I get my throttle working, but Channel 5 over here has gone to full power, so we need to do that too.
Binding the Receiver
Next thing we do, then, is we need to bind to the receiver now to bind the receiver theres a couple of different ways that Express lrs does this by default. These receivers come without something called a bind phrase on it. So the two ways that you can bind to a receiver is either you can power it three times very quickly to put it into buy mode and in here what well do is well. Click on system well go into the Express lrs menu and, if it ever does this, it means we havent told the radio we want to use express lrs, so lets come out of that. Well go across and well go right down to the bottom of this. Second screen – or it actually rolls around and we will say, the internal mode is going to be for crsf, which is is the way that the radio communicates with the express lrs goodness inside.
Setting the Internal Mode
So now, when with that set on. If we go into system again hit Express lrs, we should get all of that stuff appearing. So there we go now down here we have the ability to hit the bind, and then that will bind to the receiver. Now you can either set up uh a pass phrase on each on the radio and the receiver, so they just kind of bind automatically like. I said: the receivers by default will come without a bind phrase on them, so to get them to bind.
Setting Up ExpressLRS on a RC Car (using the RadioMaster MT12)
You need to power them very quickly, three times so I’m just going to use a battery Eliminator circuit here, which is going to give it the 5 volts. However, you could just plug it into a 5vt power supply.
So let me do it very quickly. One two three that’s not quite got it the, but only flashing once lets. Try again one two three I’ll do it four there we go now. The LED D is double flashing. It’s in bind mode. I will hit bind on the radio and the LED has gone solid. We are in great shape if we come out of that all the way.
We now see that we’ve got these little signal indicators on the screen, so that is now bound now. The only other thing I would check is I would leave this receiver powered for 60 seconds. It’ll create something called a Wi Fi access point. You can connect to it via a browser on your computer. You’ll find it appears as express lrs RX. You connect to it, go into the model menu and just make sure that the fail-safe values for the PWM channels are all exactly how you want them now.
Obviously, we are going to want the throttle to be zero and the steering to be zero as well, and that isn’t always the way they’re set up. So I would just do that now we have that we are now ready to go and install Telemetry last we’re also getting Telemetry back, so we will be wiring it up to the battery voltage inside the car so that we can have that displayed on the radio.
Connecting the Pieces
Back inside the car, we have the receiver set up and now it’s time to plug in the pieces into the receiver. Each channel is labeled on the receiver itself, such as channels 1, 2, 3, 5, etc. We need to ensure that we are connecting everything correctly. With only two connections, one from the steering servo and the other from the ESC, it’s easy to distinguish between the throttle and the steering channels on the receiver. In this case, channel one is for the throttle, but it’s important to double check as this may vary in the future.
Connecting the ESC and Steering
I’m going to plug the ESC into channel one, ensuring that the polarity is correct. The opposite side of the notches usually indicates the negative side. Next, I’ll plug the steering into channel two. Once both connections are secure, I can position the receiver where the previous one was located. Using double-sided foam tape, I’ll secure the receiver in place and wrap a cable tie around it for added stability.
Connecting the Voltage Sensing Cable
We’ve only got one more thing that we can do here before we power everything up now – this little receiver. This connection on the top here is actually for voltage sensing, so we can connect that via the cable that comes as part the kit to the positive terminal here on the ESC. That’s going to tell us or send telemetry back to the radio on what the voltage on the car is as it’s running around.
Soldering the Cable
This cable comes as part of the kit, so it needs to plug into the top, and I need to do a little bit of soldering and just solder it onto the positive terminal here on the ESC. Once that’s done, then let’s just come back in a moment. We’ll check everything still looks okay, power it up, and just test it all for the first time.
Final Setup
So here we have the car with it all installed. We have the receiver now in the middle, with a cable tied over the top, and we have the little red cable going from the voltage sense and it’s actually soldered to the bottom of that pin. Now it’s here on the bench, I have it plugged into a battery but it’s not live. I’m using something here called a smoke stopper. It’s just a handy thing to make sure if there’s any issues with the wiring that, rather than the magic smoke coming out and it never works again, we should be okay.
Preparation
Now I would probably recommend that you have this slightly off the ground as well in case everything bursts into life. So, let me grab a couple of boxes and stick the model on those boxes so that if we are unlucky enough that something horrible happens, the actual tires are not on the bench.
Initial Radio Setup
Let’s turn on our radio, welcome to htx. We’re going to need to check here that all the directions and everything are right in terms of the steering and also the throttle too. So, I’m just going to turn on the switch on the bottom of the car first. I think that’s the right way, let’s power it up. Okay, turn on the switch, it immediately cut out with the smoke stopper.
Connecting the Receiver
I’ll actually connect it directly to the battery, reasonably confident that this is okay, so let’s just bite the bullet. Let’s power it up. So there we go, we have the receiver connected.
Testing the Steering
Let’s check the steering works – it does and it’s in the right direction. If it wasn’t, then what we could do is reverse it, and I will do that at the very end, when we’ve tested everything.
Testing the Throttle
Last thing to do, I’m going to actually hold it for this bit, which is slightly dangerous, but it’s kind of the way we’re going to have to do this. I’m going to pull the trigger, obviously going to take it out of throttle hold so it’s now active.
Initial Setup
Let me pull the trigger that’s going in the right direction and reverse that’s going in the right direction as well. Okay, that looks really promising, so let me unplug the battery just so everything’s safe and then what we can do is we can do the last bits of setup on the radio just to get everything absolutely spot on now. We know that the basic controls work we’re in a really good place.
Adjusting Steering and ESC
It may be that when you come to try it, you find that your steering is backwards, or maybe your ESC is backwards. Probably more likely to be your steering and also the midpoint that we had a look at with the servo Checker is also slightly out now. We can obviously use the trims on the radio to kind of sort the steering out when we actually get to run the car, but we can use the radio to get it very close before we start.
Setting Output Characteristics
So what were going to do? Go into the model menu and let’s go across into a screen that we haven’t looked at before, which is called outputs. This is where we set all of the output characteristics for the individual channels that we’re talking about at the moment on this radio. If you remember channel one is the throttle channel two is the steering.
Reversing Steering Channel
For example, if our steering was backwards, that’s easy to fix. We highlight channel two and we say edit and what we do is we go down and we find where it says, direction to be inverted and that will then reverse the steering Channel.
Adjusting the Channel Position
This is where I do it. Mine works, okay, so I’m going to put it back to normal. The other thing you might note at the top there’s this little thing here. That tells me exactly what the output from the receiver is going to be a 1500 that’s middle Channel position. However, if you needed 1460, you knew that from the playing on the bench that’s where you needed for straight steering, then we can go into the subt trim and we can highlight the subt trim and we can change that value and you can see here it’s changing. It at the top and we can go down and get it so that it says 1460, and that means that by default, it’s going to be pretty close when we go, however, mine was actually pretty good.
Setting the Default Value
The tracking and everything looked reasonable, so I’m going to set mine back to where it was, which is the default 1500 don’t forget. I would recommend if it’s vastly away from 1500. Personally, I would have a look at maybe resetting the linkages on the servo and once you’ve done all that. Whatever number is here on the radio, I would go back onto the receiver via the Wi-Fi page and set that default that same number as the default for the steering Channel. And that means if it was ever running and something happened to the radio, the wheels would just go straight, so it would kind of roll to a stop in a straight line, rather than be turning and flipping over potentially and damaging itself.
Setting up ExpressLRS on a RC Car
Only last couple of things here, the other thing as well, so I just come out here – is if we go all the way out to whats called Telemetry at the moment the car isnt powered up.
Discovering New Values
But if I go down here with a car powered up and Ill insert an image here of what this looks like and say, discover new. What its going to do is its going to find this value here. That is the value of the battery inside the model, and that now means that I can use that as Telemetry.
Setting Up Warnings
So I could set up a warning on this thing so that when it drops below a certain value the radio is going to. Let me know that thats the case or I could even get it displayed on things like a Telemetry screen here on the radio as well.
Finalizing the Setup
So there we go thats how I would set up a car like this isnt, particularly tricky, hopefully by following all of those steps. Youll get to the end and youll have as much fun. Do stay tuned Im going to be talking about using curves and some other bits to do things like increase the ability to have very sensitive steering at slow speed and other things too, as well as some other tips and tricks. Thank you for watching the video. If you watch my videos and find them useful, then please take a moment to hit the like And subscribe button.
Downloading the necessary software
To set up ExpressLRS on your RC car using the RadioMaster MT12, you first need to download the necessary software. Make sure you have access to a computer with internet connection to facilitate this process. The software required can usually be found on the official ExpressLRS website or community forums dedicated to RC enthusiasts.
Connecting your RadioMaster MT12
Once you have downloaded the required software, the next step is to connect your RadioMaster MT12 to your computer. This can usually be done using a USB cable that comes with the radio transmitter. Follow the instructions provided with the software to establish a stable connection between the transmitter and your computer.
Configuring ExpressLRS settings
After successfully connecting your RadioMaster MT12 to your computer, you can start configuring the ExpressLRS settings. This step involves adjusting parameters such as frequency, power level, and other custom settings to optimize the performance of the RC car. Refer to the user manual or online guides for specific instructions on how to configure ExpressLRS for your setup.
Uploading the settings to your RC car
Once you have finalized the ExpressLRS settings, the final step is to upload them to your RC car. This typically involves connecting the transmitter to the car’s receiver using a binding procedure. Make sure to follow the instructions carefully to ensure a successful setup. Testing the connection before operating the RC car is also recommended to avoid any potential issues during usage.
Supporting the creator
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Conclusion
By following these steps and taking the time to set up ExpressLRS on your RC car using the RadioMaster MT12, you can unlock a whole new world of possibilities. Don’t be afraid to explore different customization options and see how you can enhance your RC car’s performance and capabilities. With a bit of patience and dedication, you’ll be able to convert your existing models and enjoy a truly unique RC experience.
Remember that all the videos on the channel are organized into playlists, making it easy for you to find relevant content. Using keywords like “painless” and “360” in your Google and YouTube searches can help you discover more tutorials and guides related to RC car setup and maintenance. Stay informed and keep exploring the world of RC cars with ExpressLRS technology.