FS-i6/TGY-i6 Spring return

[Tankbear]

Hi guys a I know a few of you guys use these radios and will know one stick doesn’t have a spring return and not sold (as far as I know) as a kit to install.

Recently I added spring return to my Turnigy 9XR Pro radio, the solution here is rather than buy and fit a spring but buy the full stick gimbal with the spring on both axis and fit that. This is great because Hobbyking sell them cheap and only 5 minutes to do. But no such luck with the i6 radio, but since the Turnigy appears to be a rebadged FlySky radio I thought maybe I could strip the spring return out of the old 1 axis gimbal and use in the i6 radio.

So looking at it the parts next to each other it looked very close, so I started to dismantle the gimbal and retrieve the parts and size up in the i6 radio

So I find

Plastic arm, with metal rod/hinge and spring to fit.
There is also 2 metal pins which transfer from gimbal to the plastic arm. Didn’t try (see later) but look suitable

But one last bit, the spring needs attaching to the above plastic arm and the transmitter. The 9XR gimbal has this moulded to the case, the i6 is a screwed in affair so this part would need fabricating.

This is where I stopped, to install the above parts would require dismantling of the i6 gimbal and I didn’t have the patience to start that last night.

So overall verdict yes it looks like you can use parts from a 9XR gimbal, plus some fabrication but looks fiddly to do.

I personally think trying to source a 2 spring axil gimbal and swapping across like the method with the Turnigy 9XR and Pro radios is a better route if can be found at a decent price.

Ian.