Been away from the hobby for about 20 years. Going to build a tri-copter to play with. How is it that Turnigy and others radios are so much cheaper than say a Futaba (which was my favorite radio back when)? Are there that much differences in the radios? I find it hard to believe that a Futaba 6 channel radio is 169.00, and the Turnigy is 50.00. Makes no sense to me, what are the differences? Sorry to ask such basic questions, but the hobby has changed drastically since I've been away!
Cheap Transmitters
- Thread starter sbodi4d
- Start date
"The fundamental things apply, as time goes by."
It's about cost and reliability.
If I flew a $10,000 jet full of JP-1 over the local kindergarten, I would fly with the Futaba.
I fly a $150 quad or tri that has plastic rotors and weighs 850 grams or so in my yard. I fly with the Turnigy 9X.
It's about cost and reliability.
If I flew a $10,000 jet full of JP-1 over the local kindergarten, I would fly with the Futaba.
I fly a $150 quad or tri that has plastic rotors and weighs 850 grams or so in my yard. I fly with the Turnigy 9X.
I suppose you could put it that way. I believe it's more about trust in the system and how much you want to tune it. If you like doing your own programming and messing with the radio's internal structure, you can't really do that easily with Futaba, Spektrum, JR, Airtronics etc. whereas the Turnigy and FRsky radio's encourage you to change things at your whim. They are open source type radios whereas the major manufacturers have been doing this a lot longer and developed their own systems that are very reliable and pretty much out of the box perfect for most users.
Personally I fly a Spektrum DX8 for all of my models. It allows me the flexibility to fly my most complicated planes and helis with ease and still fly my bind n fly models from horizon. I also like the user interface, and my friends and I almost all fly the same thing so it's easy to learn and teach each other our tricks. It works for me. My brother has the same relationship with Futaba. A lot of people on this forum don't want to spend the money on the high end stuff, and many many others just prefer to tinker with the radio a lot. For me, the out of the box radio is better.
What do you want in a radio?
Personally I fly a Spektrum DX8 for all of my models. It allows me the flexibility to fly my most complicated planes and helis with ease and still fly my bind n fly models from horizon. I also like the user interface, and my friends and I almost all fly the same thing so it's easy to learn and teach each other our tricks. It works for me. My brother has the same relationship with Futaba. A lot of people on this forum don't want to spend the money on the high end stuff, and many many others just prefer to tinker with the radio a lot. For me, the out of the box radio is better.
What do you want in a radio?
I am a huge Turnigy 9x fan. I also have an FrSky Taranis. With either, you get a lot of radio for the buck. I'm not really sure who the REAL manufacturer of the 9x is, but it is marketed under several brand names including Turnigy, FlySky (not to be confused with FrSky), Eurgle, and maybe others. It was designed to be manufactured cheaply. The gimbals, switches, etc. may not be as smooth as more expensive radios, but they work. I don't hesitate to recommend the 9x as a good starter radio, especially if you are somewhat of a DIYer. I had my 9x open and making mods to it and flashing the firmware before I got my first plane in the air.
The 9xr requires no hardware mods, but I would still flash it to OpenTX.
The Taranis comes with OpenTX and is the radio I would recommend as my first choice, but it is difficult to find in stock.
For a $50 radio, the Turnigy is a great value.
The 9xr requires no hardware mods, but I would still flash it to OpenTX.
The Taranis comes with OpenTX and is the radio I would recommend as my first choice, but it is difficult to find in stock.
For a $50 radio, the Turnigy is a great value.
NewZee
Member
I had to ask myself the same question about three months ago when I jumped into this great hobby, I decided on the Spektrum DX6i. It seemed to have the functionality I was looking for (programmable, dual rates, 6 channel, expos, mixing etc.), but only cost me $139, I could have gone cheaper, or more expensive, but felt this was a good radio to start with, and could grow with me for the foreseeable future. I have no doubt the other radios you and others mention are OK too. You will have plenty of support from this community regardless of your choice.
Welcome to the forum, sbodi4d!
The old adage, "You get what you pay for," has a tough time standing up to the ever decreasing costs in today's world of electronics. I submit that you would be equally as happy with a Turnigy ER9x transmitter with a FrSky module as you would a much more pricey Futaba. And, if you don't want to get into flashing firmware and all that, you don't have to. The ER9x firmware is quite nice straight from the factory. To be honest, its nice because the factory is using the open source firmware that others have developed to a very nice point.
Transmitter prices aside, consider that an extremely user friendly and capable flight controller can be purchased for $30. Want something with gps and autonomous flight capability (some serious electro-geek stuff)? That can be had for a couple of hundred bucks. Want gps, return to home, but without autonomous capability? That's just over $100.
Things are MUCH more affordable today than in the past. Don't write off a product because it is "cheap." In many cases, you just aren't having to pay a ridiculous markup of certain brand name manufacturers.
The old adage, "You get what you pay for," has a tough time standing up to the ever decreasing costs in today's world of electronics. I submit that you would be equally as happy with a Turnigy ER9x transmitter with a FrSky module as you would a much more pricey Futaba. And, if you don't want to get into flashing firmware and all that, you don't have to. The ER9x firmware is quite nice straight from the factory. To be honest, its nice because the factory is using the open source firmware that others have developed to a very nice point.
Transmitter prices aside, consider that an extremely user friendly and capable flight controller can be purchased for $30. Want something with gps and autonomous flight capability (some serious electro-geek stuff)? That can be had for a couple of hundred bucks. Want gps, return to home, but without autonomous capability? That's just over $100.
Things are MUCH more affordable today than in the past. Don't write off a product because it is "cheap." In many cases, you just aren't having to pay a ridiculous markup of certain brand name manufacturers.
I agree with most of what's been said to this point. I mean, you will never be disappointed after buying a nice Futaba, Spektrum, Hitec or JR, I'm not sure where Airtronics is these days, but you will likely be very happy with a 9X or Taranis as well. I've heard some people complain about the cheaper radios unless you do certain mods but that's really up to the individual. I bet there's many more people that are perfectly happy with them right out of the box as well.
I'd like to know what you plan on flying, that would help us recommend certain features.
I'd like to know what you plan on flying, that would help us recommend certain features.
rcspaceflight
creator of virtual planes
I still fly with the cheap $30 Hobby King 6channel. I haven't had any trouble with it, but I do fly close to myself. Plus I scratch build and I build cheap. So, I really don't care if something radio related happens and I break something. Like the others said, it really depends on what you're planning on flying. A $3 foamie, pfft, I don't care if I crash. But if I spend over a hundred dollars on just an airframe, I'd invest in a much better radio.
I started out building balsa rubber band powered models in the 70's, then my uncle got me into control line flying. I started building balsa R/C models in the 90's, and learned to fly R/C basics. I am definitely not an accomplished pilot, I could take off and land, and do a few loops and rolls. Before I could get any better, I moved and gave all my equipment to my uncle. Now I would like to get back into it, and build a tri-copter. I figured I could use it to continue learning and building my flying skills, and eventually get into FPR and maybe long range flying. Just looking for the basics to get started, and then get the good stuff after I feel more confident in my abilities. Thanks for all the helpful comments.
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