Spektrum? Futaba? Hitec? JR? or XXXXX for £63

[Steve W-O]

Chris, I think I must just be lucky. I have made several repeat orders, the last one just today for 8 digital servos.

 

I have had two parcels take 6 weeks, both posted on the same day, but I did not ask for recorded airmail, now I ask for recorded airmail ($1 more), most things take three weeks, some two and some four.

 

I tend to order more than I need, so I have ended up with a small suitcase of propellers for example, but I never need one I haven't got   I often lend people at the field things like propellers or servos etc. 

 

I will try to buy local, but in the same way I don't expect the local people to give it to me and make a loss, their money, I don't think they can expect me to buy it and make a huge loss either (my money)

 

There are some people I deal with on a regular basis, I get good service, and what I consider a fair price.

 

The problem comes in supply, government diligence and rules, and the greedy middle man, which until someone proves me wrong, I am convinced is the problem here.

 

I very nearly bought a model shop here a few years ago, but to be honest, i thought I could look after my family better by keeping my not very well paying job, and investing the cash i had in property. Turned out to be the right decision. I looked at it again about ten months ago (the shop went out of business) thinking that potential buying contacts I had might help. Decided against it again, as we had a baby on the way (now 4 months old).  I thought the capital investment didn't offer a promising return, and for a one man band I would be looking at a minimum of 100k to start up, maybe more. Again, property looks better.

 

 

I don't know how Rob can make a living in today's climate, but I can see how the suppliers do.

 

To my mind, the only reason you go into business is to make a profit, but to do that you also have to make people happy, I don't think it will work if you make people happy and hope it makes a profit along the way.

 

 

The figures I mentioned are obviously not real figures, a public forum is t the place for that

 

 

I don't think this discussion of the challenges of businesses is off topic, it is a real aspect of what people buy.

[Ed Anderson]

Posted by Chris Bott on 21/12/2010 10:10:18:
I would suggest that if you have to have spare transmitters in case something goes wrong then some of the economy is lost already. 

 I am a competition pilot.  I have two Futaba 9C Supers, just incase something goes wrong at a contest.   Radio has never failed but I dropped one and broke it during a contest.  Glad I had a spare.

 

 

As for this radio, when it first came out it was just loaded with problems.  Over time they have been addressed, but I am not sure it is at a maturity level that I would trust my high end competition gliders on it.  For now I will stay with the name brand radios.  I pay more, but I am happy. 

 

 

Edited By Ed Anderson on 22/12/2010 00:07:17

[Chris Bott - Moderator]

Posted by Ed Anderson on 22/12/2010 00:05:16:

 I am a competition pilot.  I have two Futaba 9C Supers, just incase something goes wrong at a contest.   Radio has never failed but I dropped one and broke it during a contest.  Glad I had a spare. 

 

  

That makes perfect sense Ed, but I would hazard to guess that this isn't typical of the average modeller. I have a number of transmitters. Bought as upgrades as my modelling career advanced. The one before my latest one was a Spekky Dx6i  bought new for £50 at the time. That served my needs perfectly well for about 18 months as a "club" modeller. 

[Lee Smalley]

I am  club moddeler and no way would a DX6 do for me, i suppose its what you want to fly and how you want to fly it that dictates the TX purchase, the nub of this thread is that the writer thinks that this TX is as good as anything out there, well its not! the build quality is not as good the programming is not as good and im not sure about the legality of the unit (CE marking) i fly some expensive models and i would not trust the unit with them, there are bits the unit just does not offer me and combine that with the fact that it looks cheap and nasty to me then i would not contemplate it, the writer seems to think the 11xzero looks like its given away free!  yeah ok mate whatever!

I am sure for others this TX is fine and it will suit their needs for a long time i choose to pay extra safe in the knowledge i have a JR radio and none have ever let me down, its my choice !! 

[Steve W-O]

Yes Lee, it for each of us to make a choice. My flying needs are fairly modest, but I do want a lot of flexibility in my programming and mixes.

 

I certainly did not say this was a good as anything out there, it does for me what anything else would do, probably more, my point was the value for money. Nowhere have I criticised any other makes performance.

 

The receivers and the TX is CE marked, and they are sold quite a lot in Germany under a different name, so I have no reason to doubt it.

 

Reading up yesterday, I see that the 11Xzero is styled after a Japanese robot, and I could not get used to its appearance. On the other hand, I think the JR DSX9 looks great. (I see it is advertised as having a throttle activated timer, mine has that, and the ability to slow the timer on less than full throttle)

 

I think Ed Anderson's post was very valid.  He seems to know about the TH9X.

 

To be honest, I would not expect someone to use the TH9X on a £1000 pound model without trying it and using it extensively first. Many people have become that confident (Imax reports), but they did just start off giving it a go to see if it was any good, and were pleasantly surprised.

 

I bought my first one to try, having decided to go 2.4, and wanted a feel for it without spending much. I am glad I did not spend more, it is comfortable to hold, the quality feels good in my hands, the controls are nice, not at all like a cheap set.

 

I wouldn't buy certain makes of car, because I don't like the looks, no matter how good they may be, so I can fully understand you would never want to buy one. One day I hope you might get the opportunity to hold one and see how it feels (without looking at it of course )

[Tony Smith 7]

Posted by Lee Smalley on 22/12/2010 13:32:54:

... there are bits the unit just does not offer me ...

 

I'd still be interested to know what bits it doesn't do for you.  

 

Really just for my own interest because I've been playing around on the emulator to see what it can do that my existing set can't.  (For example its easy to put power and brakes both on the throttle stick which would be brilliant for my electric glider).   However I run out of ideas once I've exhausted the things that my own models need.

[Lee Smalley]

Flight modes is a big loss and the unit seems to lack the ability to have seperate diff for ailerons and flaps on the same mix, i think Jamara market that particular transmitter as well so it must have CE approval somewhere, as i said if it suits you thats brill but i will pay the extra every time the flexability it offers me is all i will ever want, the looks on the 11x are a bit marmite but i like odd looking things so it was a no brainer for me

[Steve W-O]

Posted by Lee Smalley on 23/12/2010 16:31:53:

Flight modes is a big loss and the unit seems to lack the ability to have seperate diff for ailerons and flaps on the same mix, i think Jamara market that particular transmitter as well so it must have CE approval somewhere, as i said if it suits you thats brill but i will pay the extra every time the flexability it offers me is all i will ever want, the looks on the 11x are a bit marmite but i like odd looking things so it was a no brainer for me

 

 

Lee, that is what we all look for, and different things suit different people.

 

JR is a good make, I think are miles better than Spektrum and even Futaba, but those are my personal feelings, based on experiences I have had.

 

One of the attraction of the TH9X was the fact that it accepted JR transmitter modules, and I have a JR synthesised 35mHz module for it .

 

In its standard form, it probably does not have the mixes you are looking for, but with the ER9X firmware, it will certainly be more flexible than most other systems on the market, and I can't see why it wouldn't d anything a person could think up.

 

It has to be said that this is an enthusiasts radio, for someone who is prepared to go beyond black-box operating to gain its full potential, and for those people, its features have almost no limit.

 

In its standard form, it is very capable for normal requirements, but probably would not meet yours. But in terms of clout for pound, I find it an exiting radio.

 

My enthusiasm is only for what it can do for a very modest outlay, which I find exceptional

 I have not seen anything that offers so much for so little, and does it with what I see as good quality.

 

 

Maybe in the future, when more people have given it a go, it may become more accepted, I don't know

[Steve W-O]

It may seem a very silly question, but what exactly doe the flight mode selection do, to be honest, I don't know.

[Ultymate]

Is it exciting or "exiting", if the latter it's on it's way out

[Tony Smith 7]

Posted by Steve W-O on 23/12/2010 16:52:06:
It may seem a very silly question, but what exactly doe the flight mode selection do, to be honest, I don't know.

 

I saw discussion about this among the developers.  The only omission from flight modes is that it doesn't retain separate front panel trim settings for each mode.   See post #2963 onwards here : ER9X Thread  

[Lee Smalley]

i think the best way to explain flight modes is to use a serious aerobatic model as an example 

for take of i use flight mode 1 (called take off) all controls are set up to allow a smooth take of ie dual rates and exponential and throttle curve is set to allow smooth response at the low end

 

when in the air and ready for some smooth aerobatics i flick one switch to move into flight mode 2 (smooth) here the control deflections are increased on all surfaces and the expos decreased or increased depending on preference and throttle curve is set to have the most response in the middle of the throttle range 

 

when i want to go mad i flick the switch to flight mode 3 (called wild) and i get full deflections and little expo and the throttle curve is  up near the top so i get more response in the high range where i need it 

 

flight modes can be set for scale aircraft or moulded gliders where only when you select landing flight mode does retracts or crow brakes become active,

 

the beautiful bit of flight modes is that they can remember seperate trims for each flight mode  amongst many other things 

[Steve W-O]

Posted by Lee Smalley on 23/12/2010 20:50:14:

i think the best way to explain flight modes is to use a serious aerobatic model as an example 

for take of i use flight mode 1 (called take off) all controls are set up to allow a smooth take of ie dual rates and exponential and throttle curve is set to allow smooth response at the low end

 

when in the air and ready for some smooth aerobatics i flick one switch to move into flight mode 2 (smooth) here the control deflections are increased on all surfaces and the expos decreased or increased depending on preference and throttle curve is set to have the most response in the middle of the throttle range 

 

when i want to go mad i flick the switch to flight mode 3 (called wild) and i get full deflections and little expo and the throttle curve is  up near the top so i get more response in the high range where i need it 

 

flight modes can be set for scale aircraft or moulded gliders where only when you select landing flight mode does retracts or crow brakes become active,

 

the beautiful bit of flight modes is that they can remember seperate trims for each flight mode  amongst many other things 

 

 

Thanks, clear explanation.

 

I use that without knowing what others call it. The TH9X has a three way switch, labelled Nor, 1, and 2. I can set everything up for take off, including trims, and store that in 1, normal flight in Nor, and flaps, ele, and everything else in 2 for landing.

 

As I use only one rate switch all three axis I could effectively have 9 "flight modes" by using the other rate switches to change all the settings in each of the 3 way switch positions. I haven't done that, but do use one of them to over ride everything to instantly give me 25% flaps, 75% throttle and slight up elevator in case I have to make a sudden go around near touch down (If you open the throttle with full flap it would loop!)  I suppose that could be called emergency recovery mode

 

As you can see, I play around with settings, and I enjoy the flexibility of being able to do anything I can think of.

[Tony Smith 7]

Posted by Lee Smalley on 23/12/2010 20:50:14: 

the beautiful bit of flight modes is that they can remember seperate trims for each flight mode  amongst many other things 

 

That's probably a good example of the niche that the TH9X with third-party firmware is aimed at.   In the discussions about flight modes, some users specifically do not want separate trims for each mode.

 

For myself my current set has about 20 functions, most of which I will never use, but doesn't have one I actually want.   Should I buy a £400 set just to get that one function?  Or £60 for one that can be customised?  If I add the Frsky module for £30 I'll have the best 2.4Ghz link (superior to DSM2) and integrated telemetry as well.  

Edited By Tony Smith 7 on 24/12/2010 08:33:46