What's the main radio brand you fly?

[An Engineer]

Wee McGregors in control, of course, but he uses a variety of modules in my Pcm9x depending upon what I am flying...

Mainly I fly frsky and orangerx/spektrum in my lehis although I also have 35Mhz in one aeroplane, and it's only a matter of time before the 433Mhz module gets its chance to prove itself...

[kenmar]

I think flyers tend to stick with set that they started with,

im new to flying (4 years) and started on spektrum dx61 ,now on dx9 ,but I found the back up from horizon hobby to be 100% support.

broke ariel on dx8 tried to fit replacement and broke pin on rf mod, spoke to the support dept and told to send to them ,,sent back at my cost returned 3 days later new rf mod/uprated gimbals/ and updated software and check over

and all done free of charge,so this why I will stay with spektrum

[simpson j]

Hi JR tx dx9 &spekrtum rx &oranger rx

[Michael Adams 3]

To me nothing compares to Futaba use it all the time no problems,

So easy to operate. .

Mike.

[Colin Rogers 1]

I started in the 70's with Simprop on 27 mhz and the TX as well as the on board batteries were Di Acs does anyone remember them? Look at the price of Radio gear in those times (three or four weeks wages for a four channel) Last week I bought a new 6 channel 2.4 ghz TX & RX mode 1 set direct from China at a sale price of £8 needless to say all the stock went in a couple of days so don't ask me where I got it from!

I am getting into FPV now and in this country an FY 41AP Lite autopilot is around £145 on Ebay, I got one for £83 direct from China. There will be some import duty but it's still cheap. You people don't know you are born these days as far as cost goes.

[Peter Gascoine]

I bought a DX7 system when they first became available, it has provided me with exceptional service, just 1 problem when the RF section in the Tx failed causing a model right off . Horizon Hobbies provided superb service, repairing the Tx and supplying two replacement receivers free of charge. I have also used JR 3820 transmitters fitted with FRsky modules and receivers, no problems at all and great prices. I have recently purchased a Taranis Tx as it provides all the features I need, I'm still learning how to set it up, it's not hard, just different. Fitted to 3 models to date without any problems. I'm still using Spektrum DX7 where limited Tx features are not an issue. I suspect Futaba and Spektrum will lower their prices when Taranis becomes more popular, but Frsky have suffered from a lack of after sales service facilities that may put buyers off. Regards.....

[Erfolg]

There does seem to be a current theme emerging, with Futaba, the FASST Rxs to expensive, I also think the multitude of systems is incoherent.

It has been observed that there is a suspicion that Bind n Fly gets some on the Spektrum path. Defiantly true, yet once on the path, they can see a ladder of ever more advanced Txs available to them. Yes, we all say our gear is rock solid, so why change.

I am beginning to see bar chart as I would expect from personal experiences and general observations.

As a Futaba user, not what I like to see.

[Ed Anderson]

It is interesting to see how many are flying multiple brands of radios and how many are using receivers that do not match the radio.

 

In the 72 MHZ/35 MHz days compatible FM receivers were pretty common.  I have had Futaba as my main radio for close to 10 years but my 72 MHz receivers were mostly Hitec and Berg. 

 

In the beginning of the 2.4 GHz revolution you were tied to the same brand receiver as radio. Now compatible receivers are becoming common again so it only makes sense that we have people flying one brand of radio but other brands of receivers.

 

Bind and fly, TX-R, Hitec-to-Go, Tactic AnyLInk have all created new levels of brand loyalty.   And modules allow you to have a mix of RF systems in the same radio.   Some have a radio for one set of models and another for these packages that include a receiver.

I guess variety is still the spice of life.

 

Edited By Ed Anderson on 23/04/2014 22:21:10

[Former Member]

[This posting has been removed]

[ian ludwell]

I kept with Futaba as I had a few FASST rx,.

purchased the 8FG Super.

Very pleased with it.

[James Fuller]

I am from the US. I flew Airtronics for years until they seemed to cheapen up the product with the introduction of the 2.4 ghz product. I switched to the new 9 ch Hitek and think that it is a fine radio in all respects. After reading about the Taranis and considering the price I bought one a couple of months ago. 210 dollars for the TX & RX. I have spent a lot of time with it and believe that if I were one of the three major brands here in the US I would be very worried. You can't touch the capability of the Taranis from the three for under $1000.00, maybe &1500.00. And it is getting better each day as modeler/programmers add features and abilities to the TX. Face it. All of the features you buy are in the TX. Receivers that work just fine are getting cheaper by the day. So far reliability has been very good. I think FrSky has hit a home run.

extra300

[Stephen Jones]

I voted Futaba as i have used it for many years with good service however due to the high price of the receivers i use Frsky receivers and modules in my FF7 , also converted my challenger using a hack module .

I am also tempted in buying the new taranis .

Steve ,

 

Edited By Stephen Jones on 23/04/2014 22:58:09

[Kevin Wilson]

For the amount of stick they get there seem to be a lot of DX6i in service.

I bought mine because of the micro bind n fly planes, but after fitting a backlight and changing the throttle cut button for a switch (I only fly electric) it should see me OK for a while.

I wish I still had the Skyleader courier that I learnt to fly with. Yellow and chrome looks good through rose tinted glasses

[Ben Pettit]

I tend to use Futaba and genuine FASST rx's in my special (petrol powered) planes x3 and frsky FASST compatible receivers in foamies, fun fly, electrics and gliders etc 10 or so models

Hitec optic 6 with frsky module and frsky v8 rx's in most of my glow planes x6 or so

Voted for Futaba though as I trust it more with the bigger planes, a psychological decision maybe?

I've not had any issues with reliability of the frsky equipment.

The Futaba FASST RX prices have driven me towards frsky for cheaper airframes/"hacks".

[Peter Roberts]

I love my JR 9 with its synth 35mhz module and a spectrum module which gives me 2.4 reliably. I have no wish to change and use both happily. I think the JR set feels wonderful in my hand which is why I changed from Futaba which I started with and liked until I handled the JR. Lovely....

[Terry Whiting 1]

Since the day we were were virtually forced off 27 Mhz by the CBers, I purchased Futaba , and have flown on 35Mhz ever since.

Terry

[Cuban8]

Posted by Peter Gascoine on 23/04/2014 20:42:37: I suspect Futaba and Spektrum will lower their prices when Taranis becomes more popular, but Frsky have suffered from a lack of after sales service facilities that may put buyers off. Regards.....

Yes, hopefully a bit of true price competition between the brands will come about again as it did when 2.4 first got going - BOGOF offers on RXs from Spektrum and cheaper ones from Futaba if you recall. Agree that FrSky are the dark horses that could stir the others up, although not with Taranis as it stands now IMHO. At present their gear is very well priced so their RXs and modules are throw away items and uneconomic to repair.

Having said that, take a standard RX from one of the other big names costing say £60 or £80 - how can that be economic to repair when one factors in postage, say an hours labour to test and repair and then check for correct operation, generate an invoice etc quite apart from the cost of spares? Modern surface mount PCBs do not lend themselves to easy manual repair techniques that were common in the past and such low value items today generate little revenue for the repairer. Unless it's under guarantee or worth more than £100, faulty or suspect gear is, sadly, best in the bin.

[Anthony Dicks]

Has anyone else experience of FlySky (not FrSky)?

[Bob Hann]

I still use jr 35mhz in some of my models but I use jr2.4 and spectrum dx7s equally as well and have had no problems with any of them

[Erfolg]

I really do think that is one of the most interesting polls undertaken by the forum. I also accept it is not definitive, for a number of reasons, more than adequately covered by BEB.

Although I did ask at the 400 mark somewhat tongue in cheek if it was a adequate sample. This was on the basis that the penetration of Spektrum was not as significant as I would have thought. Now at the 1,500 mark, the histogram is much more as i would have expected. I did suspect that graph is showing to a some extent the historic buying patterns, the older 3 year results, help in accessing trends.

Not wishing to upset BEB, particularly as this is a discussion, where hypothesis is put forward and then examined, he did suggest that perhaps that Spektrum would be slightly disappointed at the lack of further growth. The current results do point towards a steady advancement of Spektrum at about 40%. This has acted as a stimulus to ponder, what is the maximum realistic market share that is possible in a free market? I do believe that the sales in this past year that share of sales is much higher, possibly as high as 70%. The same is probably true for Frsky could they have 20%?

I started to look and think of numbers. I am using my numbers, not because I believe they are correct (in a absolute sense), mainly on the basis that they are easy to use, and act as a pointer to what is probably broadly happening. I am guessing ther are about 30,000 of us, and that we buy a new set on average every 10 years. On that basis we can expect that 3,000 sets are sold aprox. each year. On that basis 1% is in the region 30 sets. What actually is 1% as presented in the poll? Could it be > than say 0.5% and < 1.5%?

More importantly, does it make sense for any distributor to stock such low numbers, without a significant mark up?

It has been pointed out, that some will always want a so called upper end item. I guess alluding to Rolex watches, or Bentley or Lamborghini. I am not convinced however that the performance of RC Txs is in any way comparable. Most of the mainstream manufacturers can match the requirements today of the most demanding niche. When I think of gliders, it is probably the servo that is now the defining items. Given that accurate centring, and then accurate control of reflex and droop for the glide conditions. Most upper end mainstream manufacturers Txs will mix everything that is needed, from the ailerons and elevator etc to your most demanding requirements. Could the days of the niche producer be over, as is the case of TVR, Lotus, some clinging on like Morgan and Marcos? Offering a hand made bespoke service. Not quite as competent as a Vauxhall or BMW etc., different and nice to have, like the wife with the right label?.

I have also come to the conclusion (as suggested above), that repairs to Txs are probably not worthwhile. Maybe whipping out a plug in board is viable, but is much else? When I think of most electronic consumer goods such as televisions and radios, no one expects a problem in less than 5 years. If there is a problem it seems increasingly the item is either replaced on guarantee or sent to the dump. So why should RC txs be any differen?

[MattyB]

Very interesting poll and results - it seems new entrants such as FrSky have caused a fair bit of disruption already, and I'm sure that's going to continue.

Based on the numbers it doesn't look like good news for Futaba - their users have historically been vocal and loyal supporters of the brand (as can be seen from the comments in this thread), but I am seeing a lot less of their sets at the field and the slope nowadays, and very few of their newest models. Many users I talk to seem confused and disenfranchised by the "protocol soup" they've created, and the adoption of DSM2 as as the de facto standard for BNF models gives Spektrum a big edge. They are almost certainly too big to disappear completely, but they do need to pull their socks up, simplify their line up and reduce prices to remain a compelling competitor to Spektrum and FrSky. Put simply they need to remember what they did to Kraft etc when they were the disruptors back in the 70s.

Multiplex have issues too. Their market share has dropped from 4% to 3%, but I suspect it's worse than that - nearly all the people I know who's primary TX is Multiplex (which used to be a lot as I'm a glider guider, including myself until recently) use a FrSky or other 2.4 module, not M-Link. Why? M-link is extremely reliable and the telemetry implementation is great, but it came late and the sensor and RX prices are eye watering. Couple that with the poor reception the Profi has received in the UK, the absence of software updates and the market share Jeti took whilst it was delayed (there are only so many people who will pay £1k for a TX) and I'm not sure Multiplex will even be distributed here in the UK in 2 years time. I love the brand, but the sad thing is that whilst their software was almost certainly the inspiration for open source firmwares such as OpenTX, it's that software that could may kill them off in the long term. A lot will depends on their EU sales and whether their owner (who also owns Hitec) wants to persist with them as a truly independent radio manufacturer.

JR though are probably the most interesting. They still have that reputation for the best physical quality (gimbals etc) and their market share doesn't seem to have shrunk hugely (from 10 to 9%), but from the comments here and the evidence at the field it appears most of their users are using their older 35MHz or DSM2 2.4 sets. I've no idea how they are sellingglobally, but have seen precisely none of their DMSS sets here; given the steep UK pricing that's not exactly surprising. On paper DMSS looks great (combining DSSS and FHSS a la Spektrum's DSMX), but for 99.99% of people it won't offer anything over any other straight FHSS implementation. Their biggest problem is getting JR users with DSM2 sets to move - why would they change out all their RXs at great expense if they can just buy a well priced, well featured DX9 instead? Unless they sort out their pricing I suspect they will become a rarer and rarer site; good as the tech is I would not invest in it right for fear they might not be distributed here in the medium term.

All in all only one thing is certain - there will be winning and losing brands in the medium term, and a few are going to go by the wayside completely, so be cautious before you invest a huge amount in any system. Interesting times!

Edited By MattyB on 24/04/2014 17:44:50

Edited By MattyB on 24/04/2014 17:48:27

[Biggles' Elder Brother - Moderator]

You won't upset me at all Erf!

You are right, it is interesting to see that with pushing 1500 responses (a huge, huge number in sampling terms!) the gap between Spektrum and Futaba does seem to be opening wider. Regarding your question how big a market share can one company get? Well bear in mind that even now Specktrum are not where Futaba were just three years ago when they had 41%.

Spektrum must be very pleased with how its going at the moment. But I think they need to remember, Futaba have gone from 41% market share in 2011 to just 30% today - who'd have predicted that three years ago!? So, while Spekky currently reign supreme - who can say what will happen next?

BEB

[MattyB]

Posted by Erfolg on 24/04/2014 17:04:41:

Not wishing to upset BEB, particularly as this is a discussion, where hypothesis is put forward and then examined, he did suggest that perhaps that Spektrum would be slightly disappointed at the lack of further growth. The current results do point towards a steady advancement of Spektrum at about 40%. This has acted as a stimulus to ponder, what is the maximum realistic market share that is possible in a free market? I do believe that the sales in this past year that share of sales is much higher, possibly as high as 70%. The same is probably true for Frsky could they have 20%?

I started to look and think of numbers. I am using my numbers, not because I believe they are correct (in a absolute sense), mainly on the basis that they are easy to use, and act as a pointer to what is probably broadly happening. I am guessing there are about 30,000 of us, and that we buy a new set on average every 10 years. On that basis we can expect that 3,000 sets are sold aprox. each year. On that basis 1% is in the region 30 sets. What actually is 1% as presented in the poll? Could it be > than say 0.5% and < 1.5%?

More importantly, does it make sense for any distributor to stock such low numbers, without a significant mark up?

Very good points. Two comments...

• In a market with this many players 70% is probably unrealistic, but that is based on the current model where for the vast majority of TXs the hardware and software aren't separable. I'm certain in 10 years time we will see far fewer but much more capable software which can be used on variety of TX hardware, much like mobile phones or PCs. After all, in this age our TXs are just small handheld computers like anything else; they just have an RF transmission stage tacked on the back. When that happens though I can't imagine there will be room for as many manufacturers as today.
• I agree one set every 10 years was probably the average, but with costs dropping and capabilites rising quickly I wonder if that will continue to be true? I bought my Taranis knowing the hardware probably won't last as long as it's predecessor the Mpx Evo, but then it cost less than half the price and has dramatically more capability. I also know it will get more throughout its life at regular intervals. Is that a good thing? Not sure really; it's just different. Some will like it and others definitely won't!

Edited By MattyB on 24/04/2014 17:57:39

[MattyB]

One other thought... Would it be worth running a slightly different poll in a few months asking what TXs people have bought in the last 12 or 24 months? I have a strong suspicion the results for that might be quite different to the percentages in this poll...

[Erfolg]

I did not mean to suggest that you would be upset really, the lines I was thinking along, is that a question or query can easily be misconstrued as an attack, rather than part of discussion.

It is easy to see that Futaba, really did not think things through, or something just as muddled headed. It is hard to believe that the Fasst system is that much more expensive to produce, that the path they have chosen could make sense. It must be much more sensible to have thought about maximising the economies of scale, that creating a range with a basic product, that made use of at least some of the capability, right through to premium product. Instead they have a complex and probably much more expensive multiple capability set up.

JR has to be about re-establishing themselves as a brand. I can imagine that they never envisaged the turn of events as Spektrum have gone on to pursue, with tremendous success.

I have also established that most of, no, that is all Futaba and JR users, in my two clubs, have purchased their equipment a year or two in the past.

Edited By Erfolg on 24/04/2014 18:05:21