All Purpose Transmitter (fpv drone and rc airplanes)

Colleycol

New member
Hello everyone,

Newbie to any type of flight. I want to get into drones (fpv) and rc airplanes. i want to get a transmitter that will do both in one transmitter.

Whats the best all-around, budget and non-budget buy?

Thanks,
Cory
 

Ketchup

4s mini mustang
So, most rc flight transmitters should be able to handle quads and planes. As to what is the best though, that is a difficult question to answer. First though, you have to decide what protocol you want. Usually each brand has a different protocol. A lot of drone pilots use transmitters with a protocol called ACCESS (I think, I don’t use this protocol so I don’t know much about it), because apparently those transmitters have better range. A decent amount of plane pilots use DSM2 or DSMX (Spektrum protocol) though, because many prebuilt planes use that protocol. So, you should just know that my suggestion for a budget tx was chosen without protocols in mind. Anyways, for budget transmitters there is a fly sky bundle that is fairly cheap. It comes with a decent transmitter and a receiver. I think that it is called the fs-i6. I haven’t owned it myself since I fly Spektrum, but I have heard that it is good. For non budget transmitters though, there are a lot of options. Again, it depends on a lot of things like protocol. If you want to use all protocols, there is a transmitter called the jumper t16. I don’t know much about it, but I know that it is good and it is compatible with a lot of protocols. For the ACCESS protocol, I’m actually not sure since there is a large selection and I don’t know enough about them to make a suggestion. For Spektrum though, it depends on what you think you will fly. If you are going to fly planes with a bunch of channels, you might need something bigger like a DX8 or DX9 (the number is the amount of channels), but if you aren’t going to do that, a DX6 will work. Well, I think that’s all I got. Just so you know though, my knowledge of any radio system that is non Spektrum is very limited, so somebody else might have to come along and give you suggestions for that stuff.
 

Bricks

Master member
^^^^^^ This

What might be a good idea is if you have a club near by and see what others there are using for radios, having hands on help setting up a radio is way easier then trying to muddle thru on your own.

I like my Spektrum a great company that backs there products, a bit more expensive due to they have there own in house programmers, versus the other brands that depend on programmers not involved with the company. Many do it as a hobby which is nothing wrong, but when things go wrong who do you go too.
 

PsyBorg

Wake up! Time to fly!
Any of the opentx based radios will be a good investment. You will get feedback on "the learning curve" but basic set up for any model is super simple and NOTHING different then any other radio system out there. It can be as complex as you want to set something up or with a little reading or help you can simplify things down to basics with proper use of the various methods available to do the same function in different ways.

There is also a huge community with lots of live resources who have done nearly any and everything you can think of. Best thing is it has basic set up click throughs for fixed wing, multirotor and heli set ups. You can also trade model profiles to and from anyone and copy them into your radio fast n simple.

If you get one of the higher quality ones with 10+ channels you would probably never have to buy another radio again. It would also have a decent resale value should you decide the hobby is not for you. Proprietary radios dont usually hold that resale value even if new since they are exclusive and usually more expensive.
 

Colleycol

New member
Wow...thanks everyone for the GREAT advice!

After doing some additional research I am leaning towards a Jumper T18 Pro as my only transmitter.

I understand there may be multiple firmware updates since its so new but it seems to be very versatile.

Any thoughts on that decision?
 

Ketchup

4s mini mustang
Wow...thanks everyone for the GREAT advice!

After doing some additional research I am leaning towards a Jumper T18 Pro as my only transmitter.

I understand there may be multiple firmware updates since its so new but it seems to be very versatile.

Any thoughts on that decision?
So, you probably already did this, but make sure to watch some videos and read some reviews on the tx. This is just to make sure that you get the right one since it is nice to just get one transmitter and only use that for a long time. Also, you should check out some similar transmitters to make sure that you can get the best value. Another thing to check out is this review on the transmitter by OscarLiang (he is like Joshua Bardwell but articles instead of videos). I know that you already chose a tx, but I just wanted to make this post because the review that I posted the link to compared the t18 pro to a couple of other transmitters and showed some pros and cons for it.
 

Colleycol

New member
So, you probably already did this, but make sure to watch some videos and read some reviews on the tx. This is just to make sure that you get the right one since it is nice to just get one transmitter and only use that for a long time. Also, you should check out some similar transmitters to make sure that you can get the best value. Another thing to check out is this review on the transmitter by OscarLiang (he is like Joshua Bardwell but articles instead of videos). I know that you already chose a tx, but I just wanted to make this post because the review that I posted the link to compared the t18 pro to a couple of other transmitters and showed some pros and cons for it.

Will do....Thanks again!
 

FDS

Elite member
Jumper is awesome if you can get your head around OpenTX. There’s also the Radiomaster T16 which is a jumper clone. My Jumper has done great, bound with everything and flown both quad and fixed wing plus using any receiver with the multi module. New inboard multi module version means you can have every other radio makers stuff and Crossfire all on one platform, truly amazing!
 

JasonK

Participation Award Recipient
Joshua Bardwell was just reviewing one of the Jumper and pointed out that some of the newer FrSky receivers have firmwares that won't talk to the multi modules and they are taking down the older firmware(s) so you can't down grade to one that would work with it.

 

JasonK

Participation Award Recipient
^^^^^ That exert was interesting.
yup it was. the whole idea of an openTX/RX type system really sits well with me, but apparently not companies that want vendor lock in (if the communication is open, then you have to compete on the quality of your hardware, not vendor lock in).
 

Boberticus

Active member
I had no idea there was a new jumper radio, that 18 pro looks sweet.

frigging jp5n1?!?!? they added the flipping ISM band!!!!!!! fudge, Im sooo glad i held out on ordering the T16/pro/updated/whatever.

gonna be ordering this as soon as its in stock somewhere.
 

LitterBug

Techno Nut
Moderator
I would stick with "OPEN" hardware. IE Jumper, possibly FrSky if you have no older FrSky gear, but FrSky seems to be trending away from openness.

Old Man RANT: This whole debacle that FrSky has started by creating ACCESS without support for ACCST really irks me to the core. Even my genuine brand new R9 gear has been relegated as obsolete and I would have to upgrade all my "NEW" hardware that had just been released. I'm in a state of limbo at this point. Not going back to Spektrum. Severe hatred to the path FrSky is taking with no backward compatibility.... Fortunately I have enough working gear laying around so I guess there is no need to buy ANY new RX/TX hardware for a few years till "hopefully" all this has played out and a new king of the affordable TX with great gobs of functionality emerges.

LB
 

Aireal Anarchist

Elite member
I would stick with "OPEN" hardware. IE Jumper, possibly FrSky if you have no older FrSky gear, but FrSky seems to be trending away from openness.

Old Man RANT: This whole debacle that FrSky has started by creating ACCESS without support for ACCST really irks me to the core. Even my genuine brand new R9 gear has been relegated as obsolete and I would have to upgrade all my "NEW" hardware that had just been released. I'm in a state of limbo at this point. Not going back to Spektrum. Severe hatred to the path FrSky is taking with no backward compatibility.... Fortunately I have enough working gear laying around so I guess there is no need to buy ANY new RX/TX hardware for a few years till "hopefully" all this has played out and a new king of the affordable TX with great gobs of functionality emerges.

LB
agreed I spent days searching for R9 receivers to stock up
 

Bricks

Master member
Like my Spektrum even when they came out with DSMX they made them all backward compatible to the old troublesome DSM2 when many planes were in the air at one time. The DX series was such a step up they will do anything OT can except add extra channels.
 

Ali F

Member
@Colleycol I think you should see this video from Painless360 channel comparing the Jumper T18 with the RadioMaster Tx16s, and finally he said that RadioMaster is a better choice, and he explained why in the video: