Does anyone know a good transmitter and receiver?

JJwheelie30

New member
I am new to the hobby and want to buy the Mighty mini corsair and I needy a receiver and a transmitter. Can someone help?
 

JasonK

Participation Award Recipient
depends on your needs and budget. Radio brand discussions can cause a bit of an intense disagreement with some people. So lets start with your needs/requirements/budget.

for example, if you want to get a radio that can handle most/all of flite test's designs, take a look at the 'getting started cheap' link in my signature.

However, if you want something that will last you likely forever, I would suggest looking at something running OpenTX with a 4 in 1 module and module bay.

I am sure there are people who will say Spektrum is the best also.
 

JasonK

Participation Award Recipient
As an asside, I wouldn't recomment the MM corsair for a first plane, but would suggest starting with the Tiny Trainer then moving on to that. They use the same FT power pack, so it would be easy to move your electronics over, but the TT has much better characteristics for learning on.
 

Ratcheeroo

Legendary member
As an asside, I wouldn't recomment the MM corsair for a first plane, but would suggest starting with the Tiny Trainer then moving on to that. They use the same FT power pack, so it would be easy to move your electronics over, but the TT has much better characteristics for learning on.
I agree, the MM Corsair is definitely not a beginner plane
 

CappyAmeric

Elite member
You often get what you pay for in transmitters and receivers. Cheap may feel good when you purchase, but when your foam board work of art failsafes into 50' trees, you may not feel the same.

I have almost 40 receivers bound to my Spektrum iX12. Some are Spektrum, some are Orange, some are Lemon. The Orange and Lemon occasionally give me failsafe, and that often results in a crash - but the Spektrum receivers are rock solid - always.

I recommend Spektrum transmitter and receivers. NX6 or DX6 are good starting transmitters, and AR410 or AR610 receivers.
 

JasonK

Participation Award Recipient
And I had people [who have the back ground for me to feel they know when they are talking about] tell me to do lemon over spektrum receivers as they are more consistent in quality and some of spektrum receivers are hit/miss for signal quality.

What I haven't seen is any good side by side testing of the protocals for packet drops, range, etc. if you know where one is, I might be intrested. But talking to IBCrazy about antennas as FF and I think he is right, the quality of the antennas is really important and most of the radios don't put on the best antennas to start with.
 

JJwheelie30

New member
As an asside, I wouldn't recomment the MM corsair for a first plane, but would suggest starting with the Tiny Trainer then moving on to that. They use the same FT power pack, so it would be easy to move your electronics over, but the TT has much better characteristics for learning on.[/QUOTE
I've been flying with the Flysky FS-i6x for several years. I keep saying I'm gonna buy a better radio but this thing does what I need for an unbeatable price. I've got about 5 receivers currently binded to it for various planes. You can also check out the used market place. I'm sure there are some deals there.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07Z8VCB45/?tag=lstir-20
thanks for the link
 

Hondo76251

Legendary member
I'll throw in a vote for spektrum.

I started with spektrum going for the buy once cry once theory and i have not been disappointed. (Though im up to an iX20 now so I didnt exactly "buy once")

Not a big fan of the Dxe that i have, however, I suppose if you didn't use a $50 phone the idea of using an app to change your settings wouldnt be so bad but if youre willing to fiddle around getting your gear set up there are hundreds of cheaper systems that do a better job than the Dxe does for a much better price.

If i had to go back and tell my old self what to do, id suggest finding a good used spektrum to get started. Then i might not have needed the, Dxe, the 8, 12, and 20... but hey, i can wirelessly buddy box for the whole family! Lol
 

sprzout

Knower of useless information
Mentor
You often get what you pay for in transmitters and receivers. Cheap may feel good when you purchase, but when your foam board work of art failsafes into 50' trees, you may not feel the same.

I have almost 40 receivers bound to my Spektrum iX12. Some are Spektrum, some are Orange, some are Lemon. The Orange and Lemon occasionally give me failsafe, and that often results in a crash - but the Spektrum receivers are rock solid - always.

I recommend Spektrum transmitter and receivers. NX6 or DX6 are good starting transmitters, and AR410 or AR610 receivers.

As a fellow ix12 user, I will state that I would NOT recommend it to someone wanting to get into the hobby and wanting to go Spektrum. They decided to run Android OS on it to run an app. That version of Android OS was several years old when the ix12 first hit the market, and it is SLOW to load up the Spektrum Airware app. Not only that, but I've seen issues with it, even with the latest version (I changed over from light to Dark mode, and my timers wouldn't display the proper countdown time until it restarted. Turns out it's a bug that's being addressed for a future update :rolleyes:).

If you are wanting a Spektrum radio, I'd steer you towards the NX series, as they have voice alerts and diversity antennas, and they're pretty solidly built, and don't take anywhere near the time my ix12 takes to boot up.

I would be careful with the A410 and AR10 "antenna-less" receivers; I had one that shifted during the maiden flight of my Strix Goblin (it was taped on and the tape let go in the Southern California heat) and the receiver pressed up against the carbon fiber spar of the wings that runs through the center of the fuselage. Instant loss of signal, and it nosed into the fence of our parking lot. Carbon fiber and receivers do not like each other...Switched it over to a Lemon RX receiver with diversity antennas, and no fades/drops at all. :)

I've not had problems with the Spektrum receivers with antennas, just those antenna-less ones. The older AR400s and AR6610Ts that I have work great.
 

sprzout

Knower of useless information
Mentor
I'll throw in a vote for spektrum.

I started with spektrum going for the buy once cry once theory and i have not been disappointed. (Though im up to an iX20 now so I didnt exactly "buy once")

Not a big fan of the Dxe that i have, however, I suppose if you didn't use a $50 phone the idea of using an app to change your settings wouldnt be so bad but if youre willing to fiddle around getting your gear set up there are hundreds of cheaper systems that do a better job than the Dxe does for a much better price.

If i had to go back and tell my old self what to do, id suggest finding a good used spektrum to get started. Then i might not have needed the, Dxe, the 8, 12, and 20... but hey, i can wirelessly buddy box for the whole family! Lol

That wireless buddy boxing is HEAVEN when I'm training students on Monday nights at the field. I don't have to have them within the length of the trainer cord, and if I have to hold the transmitter up to block the sun so I can see where they're flying, it doesn't rip the transmitter out of their hands or disconnect them and cause the plane to spiral out of control. Wireless buddy boxing is THE way to go if you can do it with your equipment.
 

sprzout

Knower of useless information
Mentor

NX6 is a solid radio, will do a great job for about 95% of what you'll want to do with it, and is reliable. I had the predecessor, so to speak - the DX6 - as my first radio, and it worked great for 6 channel planes and even my racing quad. The NX series has wireless capabilities to update firmware, so you don't have to do the SD card swap to get it updated, and it's got a color screen, which are improvements over the old grayscale LCD screens on the prior models.
 

Hondo76251

Legendary member
Yeah, my DX8 is still my go to radio for grab and go flying, and 90% of the time a 6 would be more than enough. I only have a handful of recievers that have more than 6 channels.

One of my biggest gripes, as much camera work as ive done, i havent had propper sliders for pan and tilt until i got the iX20... id think that should be on anything with more than 4 channels!