Advice On Which Radio To Buy (Second One Ever)

[pressalltheknobs]

I put the 9x receiver in my storch last night and succesfully bound the transmitter to it and everything. Everything seems to be in order. Call me crazy, but the servos seems to be moving more smoothly now? Is that possible? This could just be my brain trying to find improvement to justify the spent money, but I feel like they move more "jittery" before.

May have time to test fly the storch tonight after work with the new radio setup. Wish me luck!

If you had the HK-T6A V2 the it's a Flysky then I would expect the receiver to work similarly to the stock 9X setup.

But that is just what I would expect and not what actually is. The 9X RF9X-V2 module may well work better than the T6 TX and the 9X8C V2 receiver may well perform better than the HKTR6A V2 that comes with the TR6.

The HKTR6A V2 receiver apparently works with the 9X Turnigy RF9X-V2 module so you are in luck if that is what you had.

Hope it goes well

 

[Kurt0326]

I have a Taranis too, however I have been looking into the Graupner MZ-12 - 6 Channel Transmitter. If I were in the market I would closely at these.

 

[pressalltheknobs]

The reason I'm suggesting a radio I haven't tried yet, is after selling that to Patrick, I ended up with the big 12 channel [Graupner] radio. And so far, I really like it. A lot.

It's more expensive than the Taranis, but from what I can tell, it does all that the Taranis does, and more, with a touch screen.

Hope that helps.

Not really because defhermit already bought a 9X but it's interesting to hear what people recommend and why anyway.

At $500 I would hope the 12 channel Graupner compares favorably feature wise to the $200 Taranis Do you like the touch screen? I'm a bit dubious this context but I haven't tried one

Taranis is really for the geeky hacker crowd. It's the radio the 9X hackers were trying to create. Plus it's still cheap enough you don't mind hacking it some more and you can rewrite the software if you want it to work differently. It's a different appeal than the Graupner and it's notable because it can probably do most if not more than the Graupner can do for $300 less. To start it has 16 channels and you can expand it to 32 just adding a module. Why? Well who knows but someone will have a use. Plus the receivers are much less. However if you like the Graupner you are probably going to find the Taranis frustrating with a bit of a cheaper feel. Nothing is for everyone.

The 6 channel Graupner looks like a nice radio if you were looking at say the Spektrum DX6i as a comparable. I haven't done the comparison but my sense is the Graupner is much niftier. However, DSMX BNF is a pretty powerful force for Spektrum and the Graupner doesn't have a module bay so looks like you are kind of stuck with Graupner and their receivers are quite expensive. If you are a builder, BNF is not so important and you can always get a used Spektrum DX4e/5e to do that if you want BNF bad enough.

 

[defhermit]

while I have all these very knowledgeable eyes on this thread, can I ask a related question?

I now have this transmitter that is capable of expo. I had dual rates before but I could only effect the range of motion..
Think I've found where I can set this up, but I have no idea what are appropriate values. Apparently there can be individual settings for expo and dual rate the ailerons, rudder and elevator. Can anyone advise me on what to set these to? I think I understand the idea behind expo and think it will help a lot. Just want a bit less sensitivity on the inner portion of the swing of the stick...

 

[Julez]

Try beginning at 40% expo on all surfaces with 80% low rates and 100% high rates and then adjust your preferences from there.

 

[joshuabardwell]

Tune the rates based on how responsive you want the plane to be at full stick throw. In other words, if you do a barrel roll, how fast do you want the plane to roll? Tune the expo based on how sensitive you want the stick to be during normal flight, when it is not deflected very much.

More expo makes the stick more sensitive at the center, but there is also a more sharp transition between the slow/sensitive center-stick and the extreme full-stick deflection.

Personally, I like to start with a low value like 10% expo and just slowly increase it until the stick feels how I want it to feel.

 

[ZoomNBoom]

The reason I'm suggesting a radio I haven't tried yet, is after selling that to Patrick, I ended up with the big 12 channel radio. And so far, I really like it. A lot.

It's more expensive than the Taranis, but from what I can tell, it does all that the Taranis does, and more, with a touch screen.

Despite being more than twice as expensive, it doesnt do all the taranis does; I could give you a list of things it cant do, but Ill just say "LUA" to prove my point, or 32 custom mixes and 32 curves, or more flexible USB functionality. I also have some custom mixing for my 5FJ that I highly doubt can be done on any radio other than opentx derivatives (short version: flaps on throttle with 5 fixed positions/flightmodes and 2 proportional ranges for landing flaps and crow, all on one stick, with hysteresis and audible feedback).

Thats not to say your $500 radio wont be enough for most people, Im sure it will, and certainly for the OP. It may even have features the taranis doesnt have - including more expensive receivers and telemetry sensors and a touch LCD you cant read in the summer and cant operate in winter .

 

[joshuabardwell]

Thats not to say your $500 radio wont be enough for most people, Im sure it will, and certainly for the OP. It may even have features the taranis doesnt have - including more expensive receivers and telemetry sensors

I don't want to dogpile on the $500 radio, but I do feel it's important to re-iterate that purchasing a radio is not just purchasing the radio, but also buying into the whole receiver and telemetry ecosystem. Even if you end up not using the Taranis, the FrSky ecosystem is very compelling. There is a wide range of receivers in various sizes and capabilities, all of which are pretty reasonably priced, and the radio protocol is as good or better than literally anything else (2.4 GHz, of course) on the market. There is a lot to be said for being able to spend $20-$35 on a receiver instead of $75-$100. When I see a Futaba-branded 8-channel receiver on sale at Tower Hobbies for $120!!!! My jaw just drops. For $22, I have an 8-channel, CPPM cabable receiver with telemetry and separate analog RSSI output for connecting to an OSD.

 

[pressalltheknobs]

Tune the rates based on how responsive you want the plane to be at full stick throw. In other words, if you do a barrel roll, how fast do you want the plane to roll? Tune the expo based on how sensitive you want the stick to be during normal flight, when it is not deflected very much.

More expo makes the stick more sensitive at the center, but there is also a more sharp transition between the slow/sensitive center-stick and the extreme full-stick deflection.

Personally, I like to start with a low value like 10% expo and just slowly increase it until the stick feels how I want it to feel.

Surely less sensitive at the center ? - but I suppose it depends on how you look at it.

Rates artificially limit the maximum deflection of the control surface and reducing the rate has the effect of making the same stick movement, move the control surface less. I think of this as making the stick less sensitive to the movement of my fingers.

Expo changes the curve of the relationship between the stick movement and the control surface movement. It does not limit the maximum deflection of the control surface. This is typically used to make the same stick movement move the control surface less in the center of the gimbal and more toward the edge of the gimbal. I think of this as making the stick less sensitive to movement of my fingers at the lower end of its the range

You can combine "rates" and "expo' to get both effects at once. If you just had rates before you can probably use higher rates than you were previously comfortable with if you combine them with expo. This will give you more available control while still keeping your craft controllable

For planes the control surface movement is the actually the movement of the control surface. For multi-rotors it is converted to a function of the relative speeds of the motors but the principle is the same.

 

[HilldaFlyer]

You may want to consider a FrSky Taranis, its the last radio you will ever need. Excellent radio.

I agree!

 

[Ocean]

I agree!

I double agree!

 

[ba1100ns]

FrSky Taranis is amazing....