transmitters bang for bucks

[bouncebounce crunch]

found these and was starting to wonder why the big brands aren't bringing their prices down a bit, as there seems to be more radios on the market than ever before with lots of features that were priced out of reach for most of us but not any more.

**LINK**

[Ernie]

Hi Guys,

I just wouldn't take a chance with cheap radio gear. There just has to be inferior materials/technology in there somewhere. I suppose it's all to do with the ready to go toy planes that are available. There is no investment in time and effort, so it doesn't matter much if they get broken. Also, I'm certainly not going to risk a potentially lethal missile with radio gear that I havent got total faith in

Finally, I'm not going to spend thousands of pounds either

ernie

[Dave Bran]

Because the big manufacturers don't need to, sales are still sufficient not to bother.

Because people are rightly wary of locking into what might be a lot of gear ultimately in terms of both reliability, long term availability and support/repair down the road apiece.

I have WFly (35MHz), loads of Planet (mostly 5Ch back modded for cars), and a fair bit of various dedicateds from Minium to Shuang Ma, but I'm not about to put expensive models on them!

[Daithi O Buitigh]

So lonmg as people are willing to pay over the top for 'name' brands, the big names will continue to sell at very high prices.

That's not to say the cheaper stuff isn't every bit as good. I've a Turnigy TR-9X with the 'smartieparts' add on board, flashed to ER9X and it works perfectly - no glitches, good range and, above all, cheap

That's not to say I don't crash, but that's usually down to a digital error (the pilot's digits are all thumbs and went the wrong way )

[Garry Pollard]

I am old enough to remember the British motorcycle top brass say that these Japanese bikes are just a flash in the pan. Look where it got them !!

Garry

[Ernie]

Hi Guys, You may well be right, but I'm just not prepared to take that chance

It would be very interesting for RCM&E to have an electronics techie make an in depth technical comparison between various brands

ernie

[Ronaldo]

All through my modeling I've been a JR disciple, I loved the DSX9 .... but not anymore. When I wanted to upgrade to theJR DSX12, the ridiculous price tag of £1600 put me right off ! So then I started looking at the Spektrum DX18 ... read the reviews etc, they are not the cheap sets I once thought they were ! They are good sets at an affordable price. I went and bought the DX18 + Rx for £550 and so far does everything I would expect from the £1600 DSX12. Very user friendly programming and a decent roller button that my thumb doesn't slip on when tying to roll it. Does everything I want from it and more, and never missed a beat ! All for £1050 less than the JR. In fact the cash I've saved would fully kit me out with a new petrol jobby ready to fly in the new year

[SkippyUK]

I quess there's a fair few of us that have used the 'OrangeRX' recievers but has anybody tried the Orange Transmitter yet?

For £40 it seems a bargain for basic use.

I've got a few OrangeRX recievers and had no problems that I haven't had with original Spektrum rx's costing 5 times as much.

Specs seem similar to DX6i but seeing is believing.

[Daithi O Buitigh]

<- retired tech

Edited By Daithi O Buitigh on 16/12/2012 16:49:15

[Tony Smith 7]

That "Devo" set has third-party software available to make it emulate Flysky and DSM2/X transmitters. It's an interesting project, very appealing to think that maybe one day a single transmitter can support different proprietory receivers without swapping modules.

[Mark R]

Wonder who remembers all those years ago when you could build your own TX and then fly!! Does cheap mean naff? Is big brand the only 'safe' route.....hmm ask spectrum!! (and yes personal experience and NOT brand bashing) I also wonder how many blame the equipment after having dumb thumbs or battery charging forgetfullness.... The Devo is a good radio and so is the TH9X, and they are cheap.

And if the Far East stuff is naff/not well made, ermm why does HK and others do so well selling those naff/lousy made aircraft that are subsequently controlled by top brands only for that cheap made aircraft to crash, is that dumb thumbs/radio problems/lousy build quality?

 

Ernie....just a thought, but if you bought top range stuff etc, does that preclude you from having dumb thumbs and losing control of the lethal missile?

Just a thought.

 

Mark

Edited By Mark R on 16/12/2012 19:59:12

[TheFlyingCrust]

I just found this for sale in the UK. Hitec Optic 5. A basic set with full compatibility with its more expensive brethren.

Top brand that gets good reviews.

BTW I have an Aurora and I love it.

Mark. It was an RCM&E 35mhz set that was available as a kit from, IIRC, Micron RC. 25 years ago I did toy with building one.

Ian

Edited By Rentman on 16/12/2012 23:28:57

Edited By Rentman on 16/12/2012 23:29:37

[Mark R]

Hi Rentman, the one i was thinking of was even older than that...name escapes me, but i was 14 y/o so it was back in 1980...arghhh i am old!!! lol

[Bob Cotsford]

Radio Modeller did a system, was it the Digicon? Lots of shift registers and gates in it. I think Viking did kits for that one. The rx had an FET buffer on the aerial supposed to make it work with any length aerial wire. I had problems with drift and cross channel interference, probably my home-etched PCB to blame for that though. Earlier than that one of the mags published a circuit using discreet transistors on a massive PCB attached to the back of the stick units.