Help! Got my transmitter. It's not THAT complicated...

[buzzbomb]

I went with the Turnigy 9x. Everything about it is better rated than everything else in it's price range. EXCEPT it's Open TX and the instructions are horrible.

OK. I can figure stuff out. I found this link to an instruction manual to the same transmitter under a different name. It is much better worded in english through most of it. Some is still not really comprehensible, but that's usually for some seriously advanced features I don't have to worry about right now.

I haven't put batteries in the TX yet, but the RX comes pre-bound, and I believe I can set up a model profile, and set expo for throws. I plan on 30% on the rudder and elevators for my TT.

Is there anything I am missing that I also need to set up, both to practice on a sim, and fly the TT?

 

[donalson]

I have one (got it for my son)... it's running er9x firmware... somewhat like openTX... but different and not as easy to setup IMHO... I need to flash the board at some point to standard openTX... I got mine used for $60 with a spectrum dsmx tx buit in and a newer model frsky module on on the back and a few other mods (stand, case, long sticks and a life battery... I stole all but the battery for my taranis... works very well and works with all my planes which is perfect for letting my kids fly... but I'm still wondering if I shouldn't have splurged for another qx7...

 

[buzzbomb]

I have one (got it for my son)... it's running er9x firmware... somewhat like openTX... but different and not as easy to setup IMHO... I need to flash the board at some point to standard openTX... I got mine used for $60 with a spectrum dsmx tx buit in and a newer model frsky module on on the back and a few other mods (stand, case, long sticks and a life battery... I stole all but the battery for my taranis... works very well and works with all my planes which is perfect for letting my kids fly... but I'm still wondering if I shouldn't have splurged for another qx7...

So, model, expo and throws. Anything I'm missing?

 

[CarolineTyler]

Hated my Turnigy 9X - the software as standard is so inflexible, so many of the switches are hard coded to a single function. Replaced with a Jumper T8SG V2 plus running Deviation, so much better and I love the smaller case, the multi-protocol built in and the Hall-Effect gimbals. I prefer Deviation to OpenTX even, the mixing is so logical and extendable.

 

[buzzbomb]

Hated my Turnigy 9X - the software as standard is so inflexible, so many of the switches are hard coded to a single function. Replaced with a Jumper T8SG V2 plus running Deviation, so much better and I love the smaller case, the multi-protocol built in and the Hall-Effect gimbals. I prefer Deviation to OpenTX even, the mixing is so logical and extendable.

Thank you. However, I've got what I've got and I like it. It's got switches and gimbels and stuff, it feels really nice in my hands, and it's my first transmitter and it is awesome and I could afford to buy it. One day I honestly hope to outgrow it and need something better.

Today, I just want to know if I'm able to set the model to airplane and set my expo's to 30%. Is that enough to fly my plane, or am I missing something?

 

[buzzbomb]

the software as standard is so inflexible, so many of the switches are hard coded to a single function

That's not what I'm finding. Granted I just got the TX, but is seems like nearly every switch is programmable. Maybe you're experience was with an older firmware?

 

[FDS]

Don’t forget to set your rates and be sure everything is the right way round. I took a look at the online documentation and sat back as it went WHOOOOOOSH, straight over my head,...
Good luck, I am sure someone clever will drop by with a simple answer for you.
I did see a series here on YouTube that had OK footage of the menu screens etc. There might be something there to get you started.

 

[CarolineTyler]

Thank you. However, I've got what I've got and I like it. It's got switches and gimbels and stuff, it feels really nice in my hands, and it's my first transmitter and it is awesome and I could afford to buy it. One day I honestly hope to outgrow it and need something better.

Today, I just want to know if I'm able to set the model to airplane and set my expo's to 30%. Is that enough to fly my plane, or am I missing something?

It's the basis of a good start! check your end points so the rudder/elevator have the distance of travel (throws) recommended by the plans, calibrate your ESC by attaching the battery with the throttle on full, waiting for the beeps to stop and reducing the throttle to zero (no prop on) and you should be good to go!!!
Best of luck!!

 

[d8veh]

I didn’t realise that they're Open Tx now. The one Flighttest reviewed wasn't and nor was the one my flying buddy has, though he did a mod to convert his to Open Tx.

Oh well, Open Tx is better when you've got it figured out, but you'll need to spend some time wathcing Youtube instruction videos. One thing that makes life easier is to install Open Tx Companion on your PC. It has a nice wizard for setting up new models.

Open Tx is different to most operating systems in that you have complete freedom to assign any switch or any channel to any function, but it has the complexity that you have to make those assignments, and with some transmitters, you have to tell it which switches you have before you can assign them.

Open Tx is virtually a hobby on its own, but for flying a Flitetest plane, you don't need to do anything complicated. If you just lookup how to setup a plane in Open Tx, that should be enough. The hardest thing I found was figuring out what all the pages in the menus were.

Once you have one model set up, you can copy it for the next one. The only thing you need to do after that is reverse any servos that go the wrong way and set the rates. Setting the rates is simple after you've done the first one. You just go to the page with them on and change a number. 100 is maximum range. If you change it to 80, you get 80% of the movement of the control surface.

A good channel for instructional videos is Painless360. I don’t know whether there's one specifically for the Turnigy - maybe you should start one and/or keep a diary to help other people through it.

It can be very frustrating at first, but all good transmitters are changing over to Open Tx, so bear with it in the knowledge that you're developing a vital skill for RC flying. Actually, it's not ithat difficult once you get you head around it, but it's like it's all written in Chinese at first.

Good luck. You can ask for specific help hee if you get stuck.

 

[buzzbomb]

I didn’t realise that they're Open Tx now. The one Flighttest reviewed wasn't and nor was the one my flying buddy has, though he did a mod to convert his to Open Tx.

Oh well, Open Tx is better when you've got it figured out, but you'll need to spend some time wathcing Youtube instruction videos. One thing that makes life easier is to install Open Tx Companion on your PC. It has a nice wizard for setting up new models.

Open Tx is different to most operating systems in that you have complete freedom to assign any switch or any channel to any function, but it has the complexity that you have to make those assignments, and with some transmitters, you have to tell it which switches you have before you can assign them.

Open Tx is virtually a hobby on its own, but for flying a Flitetest plane, you don't need to do anything complicated. If you just lookup how to setup a plane in Open Tx, that should be enough. The hardest thing I found was figuring out what all the pages in the menus were.

Once you have one model set up, you can copy it for the next one. The only thing you need to do after that is reverse any servos that go the wrong way and set the rates. Setting the rates is simple after you've done the first one. You just go to the page with them on and change a number. 100 is maximum range. If you change it to 80, you get 80% of the movement of the control surface.

A good channel for instructional videos is Painless360. I don’t know whether there's one specifically for the Turnigy - maybe you should start one and/or keep a diary to help other people through it.

It can be very frustrating at first, but all good transmitters are changing over to Open Tx, so bear with it in the knowledge that you're developing a vital skill for RC flying. Actually, it's not ithat difficult once you get you head around it, but it's like it's all written in Chinese at first.

Good luck. You can ask for specific help hee if you get stuck.

Weelll, I may have made a booboo. And I'm not quite sure where or even if. I'm a bit confused to be honest. I read where it came with Open Tx. Reading stuff and watching the youtube, I am now learning that I might have to flash it. (no clue how do that, but I'm game) I honestly don't know what it's running on.

It's all part of the Journey, and I love the Open Tx idealogy: Assign anything to anything that you want, then make anything do anything that you want. From what I've read (and your post here d8veh only strengthens that belief) I can do all that and that's pretty cool. Pick a switch on the TX that you want to do something, and you can make it do that. That's Strong.

So, I am going to back up so I can step forward. I don't care what I've got on my TX. I'll just flash it with the latest Open TX (since I can do that with this Trans. Whoot!) I'll google it, but I'd rather have someone with actual experience and knowledge help me out.
It's a brand new transmitter and I want to fly. I may or may not be flashing a whole new operating system onto it. Depends on if someone can show me how. Or if I've already got it. I honestly don't know.

 

[CarolineTyler]

I didn’t realise that they're Open Tx now. The one Flighttest reviewed wasn't and nor was the one my flying buddy has, though he did a mod to convert his to Open Tx.

Oh well, Open Tx is better when you've got it figured out, but you'll need to spend some time wathcing Youtube instruction videos. One thing that makes life easier is to install Open Tx Companion on your PC. It has a nice wizard for setting up new models.

Open Tx is different to most operating systems in that you have complete freedom to assign any switch or any channel to any function, but it has the complexity that you have to make those assignments, and with some transmitters, you have to tell it which switches you have before you can assign them.

Open Tx is virtually a hobby on its own, but for flying a Flitetest plane, you don't need to do anything complicated. If you just lookup how to setup a plane in Open Tx, that should be enough. The hardest thing I found was figuring out what all the pages in the menus were.

Once you have one model set up, you can copy it for the next one. The only thing you need to do after that is reverse any servos that go the wrong way and set the rates. Setting the rates is simple after you've done the first one. You just go to the page with them on and change a number. 100 is maximum range. If you change it to 80, you get 80% of the movement of the control surface.

A good channel for instructional videos is Painless360. I don’t know whether there's one specifically for the Turnigy - maybe you should start one and/or keep a diary to help other people through it.

It can be very frustrating at first, but all good transmitters are changing over to Open Tx, so bear with it in the knowledge that you're developing a vital skill for RC flying. Actually, it's not ithat difficult once you get you head around it, but it's like it's all written in Chinese at first.

Good luck. You can ask for specific help hee if you get stuck.

I have the current version of the 9X and checking the hobbyking site it's certainly not OpenTX as supplied. I didn't fancy flashing my only transmitter in case in 'bricked' it, so got the Jumper T8SG V2.
I may have a go at flashing the 9X just so see how difficult it is

 

[d8veh]

OK, here's what I'd do, assuming it's not Open Tx when delivered. Use it as it is until you've been flying for a while so you get to know all about what the settings are and how they affect the plane. When you feel that you're ready for the benefits that Open Tx offers at some time in the future, you can update it.

 

[FDS]

There’s a strong argument for keeping things simple until you have a couple of planes airborne. I have found that hard enough without having to completely reprogram a transmitter.
All you need to do is bind with an RX, set rates, stops, reverses and expo. Everything else isn’t necessary to fly. Getting off the ground will be complicated enough on first flight day, I had everything pre set on my RTf Sport Cub and I still bricked it.

 

[PoorManRC]

There’s a strong argument for keeping things simple until you have a couple of planes airborne. I have found that hard enough without having to completely reprogram a transmitter.
All you need to do is bind with an RX, set rates, stops, reverses and expo. Everything else isn’t necessary to fly. Getting off the ground will be complicated enough on first flight day, I had everything pre set on my RTf Sport Cub and I still bricked it.

I have to agree. Flying is hard enough - even though some people make it look easy!!
I'm just trying to get up in the Air....
I started out, being me - overcomplicating things to the point of CONFUSION!!! I had to be reminded to K.I.S.S.!!!

I've got a Flysky GT-T6..... Which is barely half as good as yours. I'm going to teach myself to FLY, before I start messing with technology!
You should too.... But that's just a suggestion.

Best of luck!

 

[Merv]

. EXCEPT it's Open TX and the instructions are horrible.

Just to be clear the stock firmware on the 9x is NOT openTx. The 9x can run openTx but you’ve got to hack it to make it happen. I also found the stock firmware difficult but once you figure it out it is very capable. The 9x firmware is no more difficult than Spectrum, I find it much easier. My buddies all use Spectrum, they scratch their heads trying to figure it out.

 

[donalson]

for basic info on flashing open tx... or other firmwares... http://mrickert.com/2015/05/20/flashing-opentx-on-a-flysky-th9x-transmitter/

that being said... I managed to fry a board doing it wrong... completely my fault and had to do with some dislexic issues that get worse with some other medical things in my life... lol...

when I get around to it I'll pick up this guy to flash... no soldering to mess up and gives a clean USB port to use the computer to adjust things...... http://smartieparts.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=3&products_id=383

 

[CarolineTyler]

for basic info on flashing open tx... or other firmwares... http://mrickert.com/2015/05/20/flashing-opentx-on-a-flysky-th9x-transmitter/

that being said... I managed to fry a board doing it wrong... completely my fault and had to do with some dislexic issues that get worse with some other medical things in my life... lol...

when I get around to it I'll pick up this guy to flash... no soldering to mess up and gives a clean USB port to use the computer to adjust things...... http://smartieparts.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=3&products_id=383

Ordered a smartiepants programmer board - That looks sport on for getting OpenTX on my 9X - cheers for the link!!!

 

[Merv]

Ordered a smartiepants programmer board - That looks sport on for getting OpenTX on my 9X - cheers for the link!!!

Be careful there is more than one version of the mother board for the 9x. I'm not sure how many, but you need to take your Tx apart and look at het board, then see if is matches the one smartiepants is build for.

I used the stock firmware for years, it would do any thing I wanted. It will work just fine for 99% of the pilots out there.

 

[CarolineTyler]

Be careful there is more than one version of the mother board for the 9x. I'm not sure how many, but you need to take your Tx apart and look at het board, then see if is matches the one smartiepants is build for.

I used the stock firmware for years, it would do any thing I wanted. It will work just fine for 99% of the pilots out there.

I bought my 9x less than a year ago and hated it almost from the start - if it works to get OpenTX on it, super, if it bricks it, I still have my Jumper T8SG V2 Pro which is far superior in my view - I've even added the voice option to the Jumper

 

[Merv]

I managed to fry a board doing it wrong...

Both Hobby King and Banggood sell replacement boards for cheap. The HK board comes hacked to accept the firmware but will not work in the FlySky Tx, at least not in mine. If you can use it your welcome to it, just pay the shipping.

The Banggood board works in the FlySky Tx, but does not have the hack done.