Radio Compatibility

Use RC Industry Standard PWM Receivers

The ShockWave 3 sound module has been carefully designed and engineered to be compatible with any radio control (RC) industry standard transmitter and receiver that outputs 1- 2ms PWM (Pulse Width Modulated) pulses with a frame rate (repetition rate) between 50 and 100 Hz. Any RC radio can be used on any transmission frequency.

It cannot be used with receivers that output only proprietary serial bus signals such as Futaba S-Bus, Spektrum X-Bus , FlySky IBus etc.

Telemetry and some Gryo Stabilized Receivers May Cause Problems

Telemetry equipped receivers can cause problems in two areas. Similar problems have also been found in gyro stablized receivers such as the Spektrum AS3X series.

1. The telemetry receiver is actually a transceiver (transmitter/receiver) which is receiving RC control signals part time and transmitting telemetry data back to the remote-control radio part time. Because the ShockWave 3 sound module's RC inputs respond so fast they may be susceptible to picking up radio interference from the telemetry transceiver on the servo leads which can cause erratic control of the sounds. If this occurs this can generally be corrected by using our special Resistor-Capacitor filter servo leads which are available at extra cost from us - USD$4.99 for the male-male-female Y servo lead and USD$3.99 for the male-male servo lead.



2. A further issue arises with some new so-called SMART ESCS/transceivers such as the Spektrum AR637T AS3X and the Spektrum Avian SMART ESC. Spektrum SMART accessories cause the radio receiver to output signals in its proprietary Serial Bus format on the ESC servo lead instead of industry standard PWM signals. These proprietary signals cannot be understood by the sound module.

   That Serial Bus data line confuses the sound module as it doesn't know what to do with that digital serial data present on that signal wire. These systems are incompatible with our ShockWave 3 sound module.

   There are two workarounds if problems arise with a telemetry enabled ESC.

   Possible solutions are:

   • Change the ESC for one that does not generate telemetry signals on its main signal wire.
   • Make a secondary throttle channel output on your receiver by making a mix on your radio to output the main throttle channel from an additional channel. Then use the main throttle channel to drive the ESC and the secondary throttle channel to drive the sound module. In this way the sound module is not receiving any telemetry or Serial Bus information on its THTTL1/2 inputs to confuse it.

You May Have to Adjust The Startup Delay Period

The ShockWave 3 sound module must have stable RC inputs from the radio receiver before it can be used. To this end, there is an adjustable Startup Delay period that allows the ShockWave 3 sound module to wait for the receiver to complete its own initialization and start outputting valid and stable RC pulses. This delay period defaults to 6 seconds, as delivered from Model Sounds Inc. This is adequate for most receivers.

However, some advanced receivers such as the gyro stabilized Spektrum AS3X series require considerably longer than this before it provides stable outputs. If you experience unexpected startup behaviour of the sound module and non-sensical throttle controlled engine sounds, then a Startup Delay period that is too short may be the cause.

In that case, you need to increase the Startup Delay period by editing the BasicHardwareSettings.txt file on the microSD card of the ShockWave 3 module. It has a maximum value of 20 seconds and a minimum value of three seconds.

Pistol Grip Radios Are Not Supported

We DO NOT support the use of pistol grip style radios which are popular with some model boaters. The extremely small range of throttle trigger movements on this type of radio makes it very difficult to start up and shutdown the engine sound unless you are using a separate switched radio channel for engine sound startup and shutdown.

If you want to use the throttle channel to startup and shutdown the engine sound, you will have to use an airplane style stick radio instead.