Vintage Futaba 'Ripmax' M4 & M6 for R5-D4 - 1.0

......photo from the set, R5 operator with transmitter....

On my searching and discovery of R5 pictures over the years for references for his build etc, I found the above pic of R5, [astromech.net], we'll call them his 'technical operator crew'.

It show's the original electronics of these Droid(s), in the open space where his dome/head would be. For me tho was the remote control transmitter being held by the operator.

I thought it would be a nice addition to have and at show's, could help people travel back in time to when the film would have been made. So I started my search for info related to this type of controller.

The controller is a Futaba.

From the image, there is a black 'knob' on the right hand side top & a switch on the left.

From my searching, I have found that this could either be an M3, M4 or M6 unit.

(the number represents the number of channels)

I say either as there are two versions (that I have found) but these are slightly different

(the top panel switches & black buttons seen in above pic) I've settled on this being an M4 version (until convinced otherwise lol).

Also the versions that were imported into the UK, where I believe, done so under the name 'Ripmax'. So USA versions are logo'd as just Futaba, but UK ones as Ripmax/Futaba (see pic's below).

Ebay searches through up a few of these on a semi-frequent basis and at not to extreme prices. So the internet history info search was on to find the correct version that I wanted.

Then last week, I found not one.....but two for sale!

Not only that, but the two were being sold as a pair for only £22!!

An M4 & M6 version.

Futaba M4 transmitter

Futaba M6 transmitter

There's always a catch tho lol.....no antenna's.

UPDATE: Thanks to Alan, a fellow R2 club member, for helping source a link to antennas.

I have also found that modeller's have converted these to 2.4Ghz's in order to fly their vintage plan's which have also been converted to the new frequency.

UPDATE: Thanks also goes to Brad and his knowledge, this can quite easily be done.

So this could be something for the future as well.

The units should be arriving the end of this week, but they arrived Tuesday.

They power up, do need some TLC and a clean, but for they're age, are not to bad.