A Couple Of Acoms Ap227 Mk2 Issues, Help!

[Live Steam Mad]

Hi, I made a practically NIB condition Acoms AP227 MK2 radio set for myself by buying a few dirt cheap crappy old knackered radios off Ebay and cobbling together the best of the parts.

However I would like to ask about something please, about the rubber bung that goes in the ARB227 receiver to cover the crystal and make the receiver water tight to prevent water stopping the electronics from working. The ARB227 that I got had no bung so I had a look in my spares and I had an Acoms AR227FE RX that had a dried out rubber bung on it that was not very good, and I noticed that it had a cut out along one of the walls on the inside of the bung, I assume that this is so that you can allow the crystal's wrap-around coloured label (the thing that you normally pull the crystal out by) to poke through this cut out and seems to have 2 functions, 1) so that you can see a little of this label sticking out and so you can see which frequency you are on because you can see which colour it is, and 2) so you can remove the bung and then still be able to get hold of the label and pull the crystal out.

I then found a perfect ARC227 that I have with a perfect rubber bung that had not gone hard, but this one had no cut out in the rubber bung ?! So I can only assume that if you use this one you won't be able to allow the label on the crystal to hang out a little so you 1) won't be able to tell which frequency you are on and 2) you potentially won't be able to get the crystal out of the receiver because you won't be able to get hold of the label because in order to push the rubber bung in in the first place you would have to push the label of the crystal down into the RX case alongside the X'Tal, leaving none of it available to be got hold of for X'Tal removal

The manual for the AP227MK2 does not mention what kind of bung the ARB227 RX should have, does not mention anything about the bung at all, and I don't even have the AP227MK3 manual (I am desperate to get my hands on that one). The MK2 manual however does actually show the top of the RX with the bung present in a diagram and also in a photo', whereas the MK1 manual does not show any evidence of any bung. Same with the MK2 and MK1 product boxes.

Does anyone know what bung comes with the ARB227 RX (please can someone look at theirs and tell me ) ?.

The second matter that I would like to mention here is a Tip. It is (unless you are very lucky) quite rare to find an ATB227 MK2 TX with the silver rings around the sticks which have not been damaged in some way. Luckily I found a couple of TX's with almost no damage to the paint and was able to touch up the remaining small marks where the paint was missing by using a very small paint brush and Tamiya TS30 (Synthetic Lacquer) " Silver Leaf " paint, it is an *** extremely *** close match for the original paint, and if you do it very carefully then it is very difficult to see where you have corrected the faults . Also the TS30 dissolves in White Spirit so it's easy to remove from the brush (or the TX if you make a mistake!).

Cheers,

Alistair G.

[Blacque Jacque]

EDIT: Having *properly* read your post I see I've made a muppet of myself, just ignore my inane ramblings

[Live Steam Mad]

EDIT: Having *properly* read your post I see I've made a muppet of myself, just ignore my inane ramblings

LOL hey at least you thought about my problem. It's driving me nuts.

Any light that anyone can shed on this for me is gratefully received. Hey I just had a thought, Moosey and a few others have 227 Mk2's, I think I'll try e-mailing them.

Cheers,

Alistair G.

[rc-martin]

Without digging out all my stuff in the loft, when i got my Sand Scorcher in 1983 it came with a new 227 mk2, and the receiver had the bung with the cut out so you could see the tag on the crystal.

Hope this helps,

Martin.

[retroman]

If it's any help Alistair, My Blazing Blazer came with period Acoms radio gear, and the monster reciever has the rubber bung for the crystal, where the tag for the crystal comes out the side of the bung, and is visible. I know it's a different set up to yours, but same style and period.

Hope this helps,

Rich

[Live Steam Mad]

Without digging out all my stuff in the loft, when i got my Sand Scorcher in 1983 it came with a new 227 mk2, and the receiver had the bung with the cut out so you could see the tag on the crystal.

Hope this helps,

Martin.

Many Thanks. Great info. Mark (Moosey) replied to my e-mail and said his MK2 also has the bung with the cut out.

Can anyone who has a MK3 (Acoms ' first Techniplus , the one they use in the Punky Brewster video LOL) check their RX and tell me which bung it comes with? i.e. the one with the cut out or the one with no cut out (on the inner wall of the bung). I got an ARC227 ( MK3 RX I think) a while ago and it has the bung with the wall that has no cut out so has the problems of not being able to see the colour (frequency you are on) and not being able to remove it because when you push the bung down it pushes the X'tal's wrap around label into the receiver! Unless the bung came from another receiver! If someone with a MK3 could help here I would be most grateful

Cheers,

Alistair G.

[rc-martin]

From memory again, I bought a 227Mk3 when i got my Wild One around 1986. The receiver was the one with the battery and servo leads coming out of the case with plugs on the end of the leads. Is this the receiver you mean? I am almost positivley sure that the bung did not have any cut out on it.

Martin.

[rc-martin]

Have got a couple of pics of the receiver, this one is in my FAV, unfortunatley it hasn't got the bung in it. It is a ARC-227.

The servos by the way are AS-5S

I do have a copy of a Beatties flyer that shows the Mk3 transmitter and receiver, but it is saved on a pdf file and i don't know how to post it on here, could send you it by email though.

[Live Steam Mad]

From memory again, I bought a 227Mk3 when i got my Wild One around 1986. The receiver was the one with the battery and servo leads coming out of the case with plugs on the end of the leads. Is this the receiver you mean? I am almost positivley sure that the bung did not have any cut out on it.

Martin.

Yes this is the RX I mean. It's the ARC 227. However I have not been able to definitively confirm yet that the ARC227 came with the MK3, as I have no manual for the MK3 (need someone's help on this, please scan it somebody!! EDIT : Now found manual BUT only for the BEC version, I scanned it and uploaded it to this forum, I still need to find the manual for the non-BEC version). Yes the bung that my ARC227 came with is the one with no cut out, so this is starting to sound like it is the correct bung for the RX. Weird how there is no cut out, so you can't see the X'Tal colour, and it pushes the X'Tal wrap around label into the RX case stopping you from getting the X'Tal out! Was this an oversight on Asahi's part, where they forgot to have it cut out in their factory, or was it that they changed supplier and they went with a different bung, or was it MEANT to be like this?! I can't think of much of a reason why the one with the solid is better than the one with the cut out (apart from that the X'Tal socket is totally waterproof with the solid-walled bung!).

Pic's below of my ARA (no bung), my ARB (cut bung) and my ARC (solid wall bung, no cut out!). Odd how they changed the bung as they went from MK2 to MK3...

In the pic's of the bungs, the solid wall bung from ARC227 is shown at the top, and the cut bung (which is being treated with Glycerin ) from the ARB227 is below it.

Cheers,

Alistair G.

[rc-martin]

Yes this is the RX I mean. It's the ARC 227. However I have not been able to definitively confirm yet that the ARC227 came with the MK3, as I have no manual for the MK3 (need someone's help on this, please scan it somebody!! ).

The ARC-227 reciever definatley came with my Mk3, so you don't need the manual to prove this aspect. I could send you the scan of the beatties flyer showing the receiver and transmitter together.

[Live Steam Mad]

Have got a couple of pics of the receiver, this one is in my FAV, unfortunatley it hasn't got the bung in it. It is a ARC-227.

The servos by the way are AS-5S

I do have a copy of a Beatties flyer that shows the Mk3 transmitter and receiver, but it is saved on a pdf file and i don't know how to post it on here, could send you it by email though.

Yep that's the RX that I mean , ARC227. The servos with the MK3 were AS-5S ? Odd, I thought they were AS-7 ? As the second hand car (my Optima) that the ARC227 came with also had two AS-7 servos on it.

Boy do I need that MK3 manual to know which servos it had!

I am almost 100 per cent sure that the Acoms Techniplus MK4 was called the Technidrive (the one after the Techniplus MK3 in the Punky Brewster video, but the one before the all-chrome fronted one which is the Techniplus MK5) and came with AS-11 servos, because I can just about see that info. on a picture of the specifications of it that someone has a NIB one of in their showroom but it's a bit fuzzy in the picture and difficult to tell for certain. I've asked the guy if he can scan the manual of the Technidrive for me, as I am interested in that as well .

The MK2 came with the AS-1 servos because it says so in my manual LOL!

Yes I'd love to see that Beatties flyer please, I'll PM you with my e-mail address shortly. Then I'll extract the contents and attach the pic's here for anyone who is interested!

Cheers,

Alistair G.

[Live Steam Mad]

Here's the rather nice Beatties advert that Martin sent to me ;-

Cheers,

Alistair G.

[Live Steam Mad]

OK I just noticed that the receiver pictured in the Beatties advert does NOT appear to be an ARC227, it seems to be a BEC version of the same design. However I believe that there is a very close equivalent receiver, which as far as I am aware was the first Acoms RX to integrate the BEC function into the receiver, it is the pictured in the photo' below taken from the Fox promotional video which seems to read " ARD227MP " , you can see that the one on the Fox video also has " LSI " on it ( Large Scale Integration ) which the one in the Beatties advert does not have (you can see this Fox video here, I just uploaded it) ;-

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=I78xyVj4G0Q&fmt=18

Also note that the radio set in the Beatties advert is not just called the AP227MK3 , it's called the AP227x Mk3, " x " for "extra" maybe, which to be seems to indicate that it was originally supplied with the ARC227 (1985?), and then later on came with the ARD227MP (?), the one with LSI BEC on it, and then finally the one in the Beatties advert when Acoms finally realised that " LSI " meant nothing to the buying public in general so they dropped the term. Just my thoughts, I would love to know the score on this.

EDIT : The receiver after the ARC227 was the ARE227 , this receiver above seems to have the letters MP in the name, which I now believe means " Manufacturer Prototype ".

Cheers,

Alistair G.

[Live Steam Mad]

Manual for the MK2 is here ;-

http://www.tamiyaclub.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=46175

Cheers,

Alistair G.

[Live Steam Mad]

Picture of the label from the rear of this MK2 TX ;-

Serial no. is 0194209. My runner TX's serial no. is 0130758, it's in excellent condition!

Note that there seems to be a way of telling Mk1 and Mk2 rear casings apart. MK1's say " ASAHI COMMUNICATIONS INC. " whereas Mk2's say " ASAHI CORPORATION ". Also, MK1 PCB's are brown, MK2's are green.

Cheers,

Alistair G.

[Live Steam Mad]

Forgot to ask, has anyone ever seen in the flesh the Acoms receiver above in post #13, the one that says " LSI " on it? Or is it a pre-production model only?

I have seen a load of ARC227 receivers but none of them ever said LSI on them?

Would like to know please !

Cheers,

Alistair G.

[Live Steam Mad]

I have been wanting to add one of the rx's labelled " LSI RECEIVER " by Acoms to a Fox that I want to start building (since step 1 in the Fox manual is to sort out what rx / BEC arrangement you want to use) and since I have done extensive searches and never found this actual receiver, I am going to have to do a DIY job and recreate one. Also Acoms' engineers probably only speak Japanese, maybe won't have much recollection of creating it as it was rather a long time ago, and this exact one seems to have only been a pre-production prototype (so why has Tamiya got one in it's Fox video?!), there is no documentation on it that I can find, there is no Acoms website for it, and so on. So I looked on youtube etc. to find as good a Fox promotional video as I could find and found that mine showed the highest resolution in the picture of this receiver. I plan to paint match as best I can some silver paint that looks passable and more or less the same as the original label (I will use an AR277FE for this as it's got BEC built in, and appears to actually be the production version of this receiver) and then I will print out using black ink the logo, ontop of the silver paint sprayed onto some inkjet special paper. No clearcoat as the original is matt!

So for (maybe) better quality, I had to take the original video, extract the relevant raw frames, use Registax to align them and stack them to remove the noise and increase the detail level like you do for e.g. processing webcam images from a telescope to make them look like they came from Hubble. I did the best I could, result is below. I will need to trace round it in an art package and make a printable logo which I'll post here at some point.

Then hey presto I'll finally have the receiver that I saw in the Fox video!

The one in the video (now as I have processed the image, and especially in the moving image) still looks very much like it says " ARD-227MP ". Wish I could find the original receiver for real, but I've never ever seen one of those.

Yes I am nuts but it's one of those details that has been bugging me.

Cheers,

Alistair G.

[Live Steam Mad]

I just figured out a way of doing this, you scan the ARC227 label at high resolution and borrow the character (letter) shapes from it and recompose them to create the new label. I'll post some progress later.

Cheers,

ARG

[Live Steam Mad]

Raw ARC227 label scan, lowest compression, 1200 DPI . I will modify it to make it into the ARD227MP one.

Cheers,

ARG

[Singapore_959]

Raw ARC227 label scan, lowest compression, 1200 DPI . I will modify it to make it into the ARD227MP one.

Cheers,

ARG

Hi Alistair,

I have that fully sealed rx in my Kyosho Seawind. It's sealed in a clear plastic bag but I am due to do some maintenance on it so I will try to get a photo of it for you. I don't know if it says LSI on it but will find out and post up the photo! Its cool because it has that bung you are interested in to seal the crystal and the leads plugs being the way they are mean that I can change the servos without undoing the plastic bag the rx is in. The range is fantastic, the TX says AP-227 MKIII Techniplus. Only you know what that means I think!

Can you tell me why it's so good?

Feels good in my hands, range is brilliant and hardly uses any power, I can sail for several hours for many days without having to replace / recharge the cells. Good old school! The servos have lasted all the years right through to today and I think that is VERY impressive given their age and the very strong forces the wind/sails and water/rudder puts on them.

[Singapore_959]

D'UH !

I just remembered, I actually have the complete box and manual etc for this. I will have a look at it for you and get some photos for you.

[Live Steam Mad]

I had a play in Photoshop and have managed to do this so far ;-

Cheers,

Alistair G.

[Blacque Jacque]

Looks pretty good so far. The BEC logo is standard so you should be able to snag one off the net somewhere.

[Live Steam Mad]

I just found a knackered old AR227FE in my spares boxes. Good grief it's an ugly SOB compared with the original ARC227. Hey ho that's progress for you. It has the BEC logo so here's the scan. It's way scratched up though. It'll have to do. I'll clean it up a bit and then add it to my label. I made a bit of a mistake, I should have interpolated up the video frame with the ARD227MP badge before I started to overlay it with lettering from my ARC227 rx. I only applied the standard 1.5 enlargement from the original that I do when I process e.g. Jupiter LOL. As a result it's a tad pixellated as you can see. I don't think it'll be bad though. I'll redo it at higher res. later on if it's not quite satisfactory. The problem is for me ATM is that I have no printer. I'll get a new one and then I can proceed, one of those MF ones should do.

The AR227FE has a different layout than the ARC227, so I'll have to take out the insides and plumb them into the ARC227 and then add the label to create my mythical ARD227MP .

Cheers,

Alistair G.

[Live Steam Mad]

Logo created. All my own work! Wish I had an original though!

Cheers,

Alistair G.