Converting a Vintage RC Transmitter Into a MIDI Controller

RC (radio control) vehicles have been popular with hobbyists for several decades now, which means that there are some interesting vintage RC transmitters available. From a practical perspective, they aren't very useful — even modern budget models tend to outperform them. As with many other vintage electronics, this means that they either end up in a landfill or some creative maker finds a new use for them. That's what led HYPRREAL to converting a vintage Futaba RC transmitter into a modern MIDI controller.

HYPRREAL started with an RC transmitter from the Futaba FP-T line, which appears to have been made sometime in the 1970s. It would have been marketed towards hobbyists for use with RC planes, though it could have been used for other applications. Like most RC transmitters of the era (and today, too), this Futaba model had two potentiometer joysticks. Each joystick can pivot on two axes and each of those axes connects to a rotary potentiometer. Because potentiometers are analog, this allows for smooth, fine control.

HYPRREAL used those joystick potentiometers, the few other original controls, and a whole bunch of added potentiometers as MIDI inputs.

The original Futaba transmitter was, of course, designed to send radio signals to an RC vehicle's receiver. But HYPRREAL had no need for the remote capability and so abandoned the radio transmission. Instead, he used an Arduino Pro Micro development board to monitor all the potentiometers. That wouldn't have had enough I/O pins for everything, so multiplexing was necessary.

The Arduino runs a MIDI controller library that lets it appear as a standard MIDI input device when connected to a computer via USB. That means that will work with any MIDI software and doesn't require special configuration on the PC side.

From a practical perspective, any maker could achieve a similar level of capability by attaching a bunch of potentiometers to a box. But this vintage Futaba transmitter oozes retro character and personality, which makes it very appealing.