what receiver to use

stew64

Member
I am relatively new to the hobby and after crashing many expensive foam planes I decided to try these DIY planes from flitetest. They are super fun to build but I am just basically scabbing together the stuff from other broken planes and i am wondering what receivers to use. I am mostly using AR620 spektrum without as3x and hope this is sufficient for a good learning experience. any thoughts. I also have one with a lemon 6 channel and some spektrum receivers from broken models. Any thoughts would be appreciated.
 

The Hangar

Fly harder!
Mentor
Any of those recievers will work great! The As3x recievers will make it more stable when flying though. What FT planes have you built so far? The scout is a great plane!
 

speedbirdted

Legendary member
I really like Lemon receivers. The higher end ones are a bit expensive but I've never had a signal go out on me while using one.

Other recievers I've had similar results with are Redcon (Chinese brand mostly on Banggood) and the various copies of Spektrum recievers that you can find on Ebay for usually $20 or less whereas the genuine spektrum equivalent is twice that. However I can't totally recommend them for the same reason I take a grain of salt when buying any chinese product: The quality control and customer support are nonexistent. I have had Redcon & fake Spektrum receivers that have worked perfectly from the moment I have taken them out of the box while I have had other ones of exactly the same model that outright would not bind at all. It's very much a gamble, and there's a very real chance you'll get screwed.

On the other end of the spectrum is brands I absolutely cannot recommend whatsoever and the only current occupant of this category is Orangerx. I have only ever bought two, and what do you know, both planes I had them mounted in are now worthless piles of scrap foam and balsa due to signal losses. Very few of their products happen to be satellite compatible, and in an airplane where you have very large masses of metal that can screw with your signal (like an engine) you are just begging to get dead spots in your signal range without one. Boo!
 

stew64

Member
I really like Lemon receivers. The higher end ones are a bit expensive but I've never had a signal go out on me while using one.

Other recievers I've had similar results with are Redcon (Chinese brand mostly on Banggood) and the various copies of Spektrum recievers that you can find on Ebay for usually $20 or less whereas the genuine spektrum equivalent is twice that. However I can't totally recommend them for the same reason I take a grain of salt when buying any chinese product: The quality control and customer support are nonexistent. I have had Redcon & fake Spektrum receivers that have worked perfectly from the moment I have taken them out of the box while I have had other ones of exactly the same model that outright would not bind at all. It's very much a gamble, and there's a very real chance you'll get screwed.

On the other end of the spectrum is brands I absolutely cannot recommend whatsoever and the only current occupant of this category is Orangerx. I have only ever bought two, and what do you know, both planes I had them mounted in are now worthless piles of scrap foam and balsa due to signal losses. Very few of their products happen to be satellite compatible, and in an airplane where you have very large masses of metal that can screw with your signal (like an engine) you are just begging to get dead spots in your signal range without one. Boo!
That is excellent information and i will consider it thoroughly. I am tired of making scrap foam myself. I have certainly filled the landfill and emptied the bank account learning to fly.
 
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The Hangar

Fly harder!
Mentor
I really like Lemon receivers. The higher end ones are a bit expensive but I've never had a signal go out on me while using one.

Other recievers I've had similar results with are Redcon (Chinese brand mostly on Banggood) and the various copies of Spektrum recievers that you can find on Ebay for usually $20 or less whereas the genuine spektrum equivalent is twice that. However I can't totally recommend them for the same reason I take a grain of salt when buying any chinese product: The quality control and customer support are nonexistent. I have had Redcon & fake Spektrum receivers that have worked perfectly from the moment I have taken them out of the box while I have had other ones of exactly the same model that outright would not bind at all. It's very much a gamble, and there's a very real chance you'll get screwed.

On the other end of the spectrum is brands I absolutely cannot recommend whatsoever and the only current occupant of this category is Orangerx. I have only ever bought two, and what do you know, both planes I had them mounted in are now worthless piles of scrap foam and balsa due to signal losses. Very few of their products happen to be satellite compatible, and in an airplane where you have very large masses of metal that can screw with your signal (like an engine) you are just begging to get dead spots in your signal range without one. Boo!
I’ve had pretty good luck with the orangerx ones. In fact I bought another one today.
 

Apple Pie

Elite member
I have built the explorer, the simple cub, the storch and the bushwhacker. The others I would like to build are the scout and the sportster.
Welcome to the addiction 😁
I have a DX6e and use the AR 620 without any issues so far. For me it’s worth a few extra bucks for the piece of mind knowing it just works (for me). Love the storch! I put some large floats on it and flew it off the water for a summer. I fly my cub a lot too since it tends to take a beating and keep flying. There are so so many great planes to build!
 

stew64

Member
Welcome to the addiction 😁
I have a DX6e and use the AR 620 without any issues so far. For me it’s worth a few extra bucks for the piece of mind knowing it just works (for me). Love the storch! I put some large floats on it and flew it off the water for a summer. I fly my cub a lot too since it tends to take a beating and keep flying. There are so so many great planes to build!
I agree and have put three AR620 rx in planes and 1 lemon, trying to do some comparisons. only 620 issue is on maiden flight of the cub the elevator channel quit and when i bench tested later there was no signal. not sure if i did something wrong or just bad luck, so had a crash on the maiden flight but it is ready to go when the wyoming wind dies down a bit.
 

sprzout

Knower of useless information
Mentor
The AR620s are pretty solid receivers. I know there are people who have a love/hate relationship with them because they're antenna-less, but I've not had a problem with them yet.

Lemon RX receivers, I really like. They've been rock solid for me, and i use one in my Nano Goblin that I like to fly at a pretty decent speed out at my field.

Orange receivers - I've had mixed results. VERY mixed results. I've had one cut in and out on me during a combat event, causing my wing to crash prematurely from a light bump, whereas others were going just fine.

I've also been told that, when i bought them, "Oh, sure! These are DSMX!" That's what HobbyKing had them listed as - and as HobbyKing is the only authorized retailer of Orange receivers, I tended to believe it. When I got the first batch of them, I could only get them to bind with DSM2, the older, 2 channel max binding. I only paid $5/receiver for these things, so i wasn't too upset, but once I lost the last one in a good crash, I decided not to go back to them (also because they ONLY seem to carry them in the Hong Kong shipping warehouse, and now that COVID-19 has really stopped us up from getting products quickly from China, I've kind of stepped back from the HobbyKing products - I would rather pay a little more than wait for months, AND get better reliability.
 

Bricks

Master member
The early Orange receivers could be iffy but it looks like the newer Gen 2 receivers are much better we have many guys at the feild using them in Nitros and gasers and not a glitch. Lemons have always been a solid receiver.
 

dahacker

Member
I am relatively new to the hobby and after crashing many expensive foam planes I decided to try these DIY planes from flitetest.

Did you crash them because you are not experienced at flying, or were you just enjoying taking heavy risks with your models? I heavily recommend a good simulator to improve your flying skills.