THIS IS A DISCONTINUED PRODUCT LINE. TECHNICAL SUPPORT IS NO LONGER AVAILABLE.

If you are working with old RC6 equipment, this collection of User Manuals and wiring diagrams might be helpful to you.

RC4 Wireless has been producing safe, reliable, powerful, finely controllable remote control motion systems for over two decades.  The RC6 Wireless Motion System builds on this experience, delivering a safe, modular, and versatile motion control framework.

The core of RC6 is a secure data structure that accommodates eight axes of control, plus numerous global control channels.  Not only do RC6 controllers send commands to remote motor drivers, those same drivers return a slew of high-resolution status information to the controller.  This includes the position of numerous limit switches and rotary encoders, as well as power supply voltage, current draw, and temperature for every driver in the system.

Motor drivers can operate in simple speed/direction mode, servo-based speed/direction for precise speed even when loads change, and full servo positioning.

Multiple motor drivers can be grouped together and deployed in several different motion modes, including tank drive, drive and steer, and four-wheel mecanum.

Using tank drive mode (also called differential drive mode), one or more motors on each side of a piece are assigned to left and right axes.  The piece will drive straight forward or back when all motors are operated at the same speed in the same direction; it will steer to one side or the other when the speeds of the two axes are different.  RC6 tank drive mode converts simple direction, speed, and steer control signals at the controller  into appropriate drive levels for each motor driver.  Whether you control it with  a handheld joystick or control-voltage (CV) lines from an automation system, the result is smooth movement in the direction you expect.

Drive and steer mode is more like an automobile.  A drive motor controls speed, forward or backward.  Steering is accomplished with a servo positioning motor, usually connected to a rack and pinion mechanism.

Mecanum mode is the most intriguing RC6 mode.  With four motor drives fitted with special mecanum wheels, the piece is able to drive in any direction — any arbitary angle — without rotating the frame of the piece.  This is difficult to explain, but easy to see.  Please have a look at the RC6 Mecanum Video.

The RC4 Wireless Motion Safety System (MSS) has been available as an accessory to various RC4 products for many years, and is seamlessly integrated into the RC6 system.  MSS uses the same techniques employed with remote control cranes on construction sites, and remote control locomotives in train yards.   (Yes — full size trains are driven around remotely all the time!)  It is a heartbeat system: an autonomous device delivers a continuously changing MSS heartbeat to the transmitter, which is then transmitted with all the other control signals in a system.  The receiver delivers a replica of this signal to an MSS detector.  If the MSS heartbeat fails to make it all the way to the detector, it disconnects and stops the motors.  By enveloping the entire control system in this way, any failure anywhere along the control path will result in a shutdown.

RC6 hardware consists of four primary building blocks: two different transmitter types, a data receiver, and a motor driver.  These can be combined, along with custom hardware and software, to accomplish any remote control motion task.