DX9 Owners thread

[Pete B]

I'm not usually the self-indulgent type but a summer of squinting down at the display on the DX8 convinced me that I should make the most of the telemetry functions, so back in August I bit the bullet and pre-ordered a DX9 from TJD Models.

Sure enough, a box arrived Tuesday morning as promised, and I'm now the proud owner of an all-singing (nearly) and dancing (sometimes) Spektrum DX9

I haven't been able to have more than a bit of a drool and a wiggle of the sticks so far as, truth be told, I'm living out of a suitcase and on an airbed in deepest Devon, having made the Channel dash to sort out my Mum's installation in a nursing home and giving my old Dad a bit of support.

As you'll understand, my priorities aren't with aeromodelling right now but I'm looking forward to getting back and giving it a good testing.

Early observations: The rubberised roller is a huge improvement, the 'sticky-out' aerial only looks half as daft as I expected and after 3 years of familiarising myself with the DX8, I've got it all to learn again!

There seems to be a slight issue over registration numbers missing from the database, which involves returning the Tx for replacement, so I thought I'd better get mine registered before I head south. Fortunately, all went without a hitch, although I've yet to install the sound file update which means I'll be listening to an English Rose rather than a Brooklyn Broad.....

Anyone else a proud owner yet?

Pete

[Colin Carpenter]

Hi all ! The last radio I bought was my Hitec Eclipse 7 which has been in service since 2000 and converted to 2.4 at Xmas . Despite all the Spektrum worries I have been impressed by the ergonomics of the DX9 as I fly fingers and thumbs so I persuaded SWMBO it was time for me to have a Xmas pressie early and splashed out !!

Well, it had its first flights today on my Acrowot Foam E and I felt at home with it at once. Extremely comfortable and all switches fall easily to hand (fingers really !!) . Love the voice alerts and rubber sides which help with sweaty hands . No probs so far apart from getting to grips with the programming but I`m getting there !! Tomorrow going to try wireless binding to clubmates DX6i so we can carry on with his flying training .

Fingers xd for the long term !!

Colin

[perry atkins]

Bought a DX9 from Kings Lynn Model Shop last week it arrived on the Friday. I got round to opening the box on Saturday morning. It ceased to function a few hours later. What happened? Well I used it! I was getting on fine with it during the first hour or so including installing the latest s/w version and the update for the UK voice. I added a "test" model to set different wings etc and all was fine. Before I went to copy over the models from my DX7, I thought I would delete the "test" model...and this is where it went wrong. As soon as I hit the delete confirmation the tx froze. It would not power off until I removed the battery. Then each time I switched it on the screen would light up but with no text on the screen and the Spektrum logo remained off.

Kings Lynn have now had my TX for exactly one week with no contact from them. I have now called them twice to be told it is being dealt. with and I will be contacted shortly. How long do they need to replace it or refund me???

[chris larkins]

I have just upgraded to a DX9 from my DX8 which I have been very happy with, the main reason for upgrading was the voice alerts and the wireless trainer function. I received the DX9 last week and set up my 2 favourite models to try it out and my first impressions are very favourable, its like a DX8 'with benefits'. I have 2 very slight negatives so far, firstly it would be nice to be able to add or create your own sound files as the pre-loaded sounds will cover most but not all situations, secondly you cannot transfer model settings from the DX8 onto the DX9 using the SD card. I imagine most people buying a DX9 will be upgrading from a DX6/7/8 and it would be nice if Spektrum made some sort of programme available to convert the files and transfer them onto the DX9, although it doesn't take too long to set up a model transferring 20 odd models will be a bit of a pain in the ***. My other gripe is more general and not related to the DX9, why oh why is there no vario telemetry sensor available for spektrum systems? Just about every other established 2.4ghz system has one available and it seems to me that Spektrum are missing a trick here.

[Colin Carpenter]

Hi all and a further little update on new tx. Had about 10 flights now on a mix of Spektrum and Orange (full range) rx`s. So far all ok and no range problems have arisen. Also tried the wireless buddy system which was straightforward to set up and rebinds as advertised when in use. Only slight niggle is you have to release sticks before pressing trainer button when using the Master system or it cylces back to instructor . More practice needed .

Cheers Colin

[Romeo Whisky]

I'm seriously thinking of getting one of these but have been put off buying one up to now by the stories of ones which could not be registered online and had to be exchanged (see mention of this in previous posts above). Why didn't Horizon do a complete stock recall instead of leaving their customers to put up with the hassle and worry of having to exchange the units after just spending close to £300 on a shiny new "toy"?

A question please to those who've got one ... I've seen on YouTube how you can have a verbal timer count-down of the last ten seconds, which seems completely pointless! I'd like to be reminded when I've got a minute left - what use is 10 seconds? Much more useful would be a verbal count-down by the minute. At present I've got a DX7 and I really miss the minute-by-minute signals on my old Sanwa. Can the DX9 do this?

[chris larkins]

I have had about half a dozen flights with the DX9, so far I am very pleased (with the exception of a few minor niggles listed in my previous post), I have the count down timer set at 6 minutes and you get a 1 minute warning as well as the last 10 seconds count down.

[Pete B]

Posted by Romeo Whisky on 11/11/2013 10:34:00:

I'm seriously thinking of getting one of these but have been put off buying one up to now by the stories of ones which could not be registered online and had to be exchanged (see mention of this in previous posts above).

A question please to those who've got one ... I've seen on YouTube how you can have a verbal timer count-down of the last ten seconds, which seems completely pointless! I'd like to be reminded when I've got a minute left - what use is 10 seconds? Much more useful would be a verbal count-down by the minute. At present I've got a DX7 and I really miss the minute-by-minute signals on my old Sanwa. Can the DX9 do this?

Mine registered first time and, as usual, the software update was a non-event, RW. I would think the chance of you having a problem are vanishingly small, so I wouldn't be put off by that.

Yes, you can have a minute-by-minute countdown, or countup (as the software update provided a second timer) as you wish. I've yet to fly with mine, due to numerous very valid reasons, but on the one model I've set up so far I've programmed in a countdown timer for the motor run and a countup timer as a stopwatch for flight time. Both give me minute warnings - I've yet to find out out whether it confuses me or not....

Pete

[YakMad]

I've had mine for a few weeks, no problems with it, the programming is different to the DX8 but fairly easy to use once I got used to it. I set-up a "step-event" as they call it on the bind button so when its pressed the radio speaks how much time is left on the timer. Being able to re-map the RX channels is very useful as I wanted to use dual ailerons and dual elevators on a new model but only had a 7 channels rx, the DX9 second elevator channel defaults to channel 9, on other radios I have had to resort to mixing to sort this but its just a simple matter to change the second elevator to channel 7 on the tx and everything works correctly.

[Romeo Whisky]

OK - thanks for the comments - You've convinced me (actually, to be fair I'd already pretty much convinced myself!)

I've ordered one, to arrive today. I'll give my user feedback in due course.

[Romeo Whisky]

It arrived an hour ago. Registered OK and downloaded new AirWare and Voice Files, but haven't installed them yet.

So far so good. Looks a lovely peice of kit but could be a long learning curve ahead - just what I need so I don't get bored on these winter unflyable days!

[WolstonFlyer]

Just had a crazy moment and ordered a DX9 from Kings Lynn Model Shop. I just could not resist the voice function and the wireless buddy option

[chris larkins]

Make sure you download the latest firmware and the English voice update, the pre-loaded voice is a very annoying american voice but the 'English Rose' update is much nicer to listen to.

[WolstonFlyer]

Thanks for the tip, are the downloads from **LINK** after the radio is registered?

[chris larkins]

Yes, once you register the TX you will be able to download the latest software (Spektrum™ DX9 AirWare™ Version 1.01A), once you have updated this onto the TX you can download the DX9 audio file load it onto the TX, its soooo much nicer to listen to

[WolstonFlyer]

Thanks

[Romeo Whisky]

I've downloaded the new Airware and the "English language voice files", but nowhere does it indicate that the voice files are truly English or American English. (There are no "American English" or "English Rose" options that I could see). As I haven't loaded it yet, how do I know the voice file isn't just the american one I've already got? I'd like to know before wasting time installing it.

[WolstonFlyer]

If anybody is interested there is a "Hack" that seems to work with the DX9 to change the default model pictures shown on screen.

There is more info here on 'the other forum' , one of the contributors on the thread is a software engineer for Horizon Hobby so as long as you are careful editing the text files I think it should work OK

[Pete B]

Posted by Romeo Whisky on 14/11/2013 11:34:08:

I've downloaded the new Airware and the "English language voice files", but nowhere does it indicate that the voice files are truly English or American English. (There are no "American English" or "English Rose" options that I could see). As I haven't loaded it yet, how do I know the voice file isn't just the american one I've already got? I'd like to know before wasting time installing it.

Not necessary to differentiate, RW - the English version is the 'English Rose' and it only takes a few minutes.

To be honest I was expecting something rather more Roedean. She's more 'Essex Girl', unfortunately.... although the Septics seem to like her!

Pete

[Romeo Whisky]

Thanks Pete - all done and worked exactly as you said. I'm really enjoying playing with all the new gizmos on it.

But, I have some more questions (and I expect there'll be more), so I'd be grateful if you could help ...

In the box there's an L-shaped piece of rubber. It doesn't appear in the manual contents list and isn't documented - so what's it for?

I like the twin timers, but can't see how you can stop them. I can reset them, but I want to just stop them so I can read off the flight duration back at the pits. I don't want to do this on the throttle stick as sometimes I take the model up high and glide for a bit and then restart the motor and repeat the process. I guess what I'm saying is that I want to record flight duration as well as motor run time using the two timers, so I need to be able to just stop or freeze the timers manually on landing, and clear them when I've jotted down the flight time.

[Pete B]

The 'L'-shaped foam is a filler for the battery compartment if you decide to use, IIRC, a 4-cell NIMh pack. I recall taking mine out of the DX8 when I fitted a Li-Po, anyway.

It's been a while since I had a play with my DX9 but ISTR wondering how to stop the stopwatch for the same reason. . I'll have another look ......

Pete

[Pete B]

Sussed it, RW. I have my throttle timer, counting down, on Timer 1 and the stopwatch, counting up, on Timer 2. The stopwatch is started and stopped using the Bind button (Switch I for India).

Go to the Timer screen on the menu, select Timer 2.

Mode: Stopwatch

Start: Switch I

One time: Inhibit.

A press on the Bind button starts the stopwatch. Romford Rosie then announces Timer Stop when I press the Bind button. It can be paused and continue on the Bind button, using the Clear button to reset it, of course.

Pete

[Romeo Whisky]

Thanks Pete. What a star. That Bind Button seems to have all sorts of uses on this TX. I just hope I don't go and inadvertently unbind something! So it looks as though if you want to manually stop the timer, you have to manually start it. OK, I can live with that - my old DX7 timer had to be manually started every time, and it only had one timer!

I wonder if Romford Rosie is really Harlow Hattie since I suspect Horizon UK may have been involved ????

Cheers, Richard

[Nev Haycox]

Hi RW, The L-shaped piece of foam in the DX8 box is used for packing the battery compartment when using lipo batteries, I guess it has the same use in the DX9.

Nev.

[YakMad]

You can use any button, switch or stick to control the timer on the DX9, I am now using the "BACK" button beside the display to start and stop the timer on my IC models and the throttle stick to start and stop the timer on my Electric models.