Radiomaster

[Graham Davies 3]

Hi Jeff,

In my 'real job' I had Banggood as a supplier for Eachine products. Eachine is owned by Banggood. I needed CE compliance information for an Eachine product, and Banggood were worse than useless. As such I have discontinued the product and will resource. My advice? If you want to buy a Radiomaster product, buy it from Radiomaster. and preferably from a UK supplier. You stand a chance of some support, which has to be worth a lot more than the £40 you will save.

Graham

[MattyB]

3 hours ago, Jeffrey Cottrell 2 said:

Hi Guys

Slightly off topic, but I thought I'd like your thoughts.

E-mail from Bangood. Among the usual rubbish I noticed this. Looks like the Radiomaster under the Eachine name, but £40 or so cheaper than name brand.

So, what do you think?

Jeff

 

 

At $170 it is actually more expensive than BG sell the Hall effect version of the RM TX16S, so unless you are swayed by them moving the 6 push buttons lower down the case there is no reason to buy it. As commented by Graham I would recommend you buy from a UK supplier anyway, the small theoretical savings are not worth the risk (especially given you will have to add import duties/VAT onto the cost from BG anyway).

Edited April 21, 2021 by MattyB

[Jeffrey Cottrell 2]

Hi Matty, thanks for the quick reply.

Don't know why, but I had £165 in mind for the hall effect version. You're quite right, even Hobbyrc have it at £128.

Does raise a question.

Given the 6 buttons are in a different position, Eachine must have had at least the front facia made to their specs. Doing that then selling it only a couple of quid cheaper than the name brand doesn't make sense to me.

Ho hum

Jeff

[MattyB]

13 hours ago, Jeffrey Cottrell 2 said:

Hi Matty, thanks for the quick reply.

Don't know why, but I had £165 in mind for the hall effect version. You're quite right, even Hobbyrc have it at £128.

Does raise a question.

Given the 6 buttons are in a different position, Eachine must have had at least the front facia made to their specs. Doing that then selling it only a couple of quid cheaper than the name brand doesn't make sense to me.

Ho hum

Jeff

I suspect they have made these primarily to go into “RTF” packages with some of their multirotors or fixed wing foamies, hence they want them differentiated from RM with the Eachine (not a real company, just a Banggood brand) logo. They will come from the same factory as the Radiomaster or Radioking TXs though I am sure..

Edited April 22, 2021 by MattyB

[ken anderson.]

2nd outing with my T16s today,job's still a goodin....i see they have released an update for the MPModule,mentions something in the reading file about Hitec...

 

ken anderson...ne..1....hitec dept.

[MattyB]

11 hours ago, MattyB said:

I suspect they have made these primarily to go into “RTF” packages with some of their multirotors or fixed wing foamies, hence they want them differentiated from RM with the Eachine (not a real company, just a Banggood brand) logo. They will come from the same factory as the Radiomaster or Radioking TXs though I am sure..

 

Update - Yes, it appears these are being made primarily for the RTF Eachine models; from the description... 

 

"Features:

Hot airplane model presets available for Eachine"

 

There is also a thread on RCGroups that has just been started for anyone interested...

 

Edited April 22, 2021 by MattyB

[ken anderson.]

i now have 3 models programmed in to the T16,i can program dual rates,add a photo of my model,add voices for most stuff,set the throttle safety switch,program a flying wing...yee gazzooks i hear you all think...the lad can use Open TX.....still loads i cant do mind....?

 

Ken anderson......open TX dept.

[Brian Dorricott 1]

I'm with Ken i suspect we are not using 10% of its capabilities !  Still begs the question after owning mine for a few months how the big names are asking 3 times more for their products which in some cases are not as capable .

[FlyinBrian]

4 minutes ago, Brian Dorricott 1 said:

I'm with Ken i suspect we are not using 10% of its capabilities !  Still begs the question after owning mine for a few months how the big names are asking 3 times more for their products which in some cases are not as capable .

I think the more experienced modellers (read old like me) don't believe that high quality is available at such a reasonable price.

However having seen some of the FRSky and other less expensive kit available I think my Futaba T14SG was overpriced when I bought it 2 years ago.

But when I look at a Jetti Tx I really want one - only thing stopping me is price.

 

 

[Andy48]

7 hours ago, Brian Dorricott 1 said:

I'm with Ken i suspect we are not using 10% of its capabilities !  Still begs the question after owning mine for a few months how the big names are asking 3 times more for their products which in some cases are not as capable .

I'll be generous, 12%. ?

 

The answer is simple. It costs a lot of money to have a bunch of programmers working away developing a system. OpenTX is free.

[MattyB]

1 hour ago, Andy48 said:

I'll be generous, 12%. ?

 

The answer is simple. It costs a lot of money to have a bunch of programmers working away developing a system. OpenTX is free.

True, but don’t forget RM, Jumper and to a certain extent Frsky have also done away with the traditional in-country distributor model and sell the majority of sets direct. They have also successfully relied on largely free forms of advertising (social media and word of mouth) to sell their sets to date.

 

This model works well for lower priced sets bought by a (generally) younger demographic, but I don’t think they play so well with more long standing aeromodellers who want to grab the set before buying and purchase from a local shop they trust. In part this is why Frsky have struggled to break into the higher end of the market with sets like the X12 and X10, though their own goals on software and hardware haven’t helped here either. 

Edited April 27, 2021 by MattyB

[Frank Skilbeck]

1 hour ago, Andy48 said:

I'll be generous, 12%. ?

 

The answer is simple. It costs a lot of money to have a bunch of programmers working away developing a system. OpenTX is free.

Don't forget as well that the Multi Protocol Module transmission protocols were also reverse engineered by enthusiasts for free too, so no programming software or transmission protocols to develop or maintain. 

[PatMc]

What Andy & Matty said but also these three manufacturers seem to be popular the burgeoning multi rotor flier market. 

A market that perhaps is here today gone tomorrow ? Who knows.

[Capt Kremen]

A popular online Radiomaster demonstrator posts that R161 and R168 Rx future availability have been scuppered by FrSky issues. Anyone heard more on this?

[MattyB]

21 minutes ago, Capt Kremen said:

A popular online Radiomaster demonstrator posts that R161 and R168 Rx future availability have been scuppered by FrSky issues. Anyone heard more on this?

 

Yes, sounds like Frsky have threatened tem with a copyright/patent infringement litigation - Bardwell did a session that covered it last night (start from ~11 mins)...

 

 

[Mike T]

The irony of Chinese companies getting precious over copyright infringement...

[MattyB]

19 minutes ago, Mike T said:

The irony of Chinese companies getting precious over copyright infringement...

... especially given they themselves have been happy to use open source and reverse engineered solutions to drive their own growth. In this instance though it does sound like it was somewhat more than that (I.e employees leaving the company with IP which they then used to generate cloned products).

[Mike Chantler]

I bought a TX16S and am transferring models from an X9D+ using the cloning feature which is great ?

 

I like the TX16S but one problem I encountered when flying with it in a TX muff is that I found it quite difficult to locate the trims by feel, and as they are black on black on mine I also can't really see them through the Tx muff window!

 

Anyone had similar problems and is there an easy fix?

[MattyB]

1 hour ago, Mike Chantler said:

I bought a TX16S and am transferring models from an X9D+ using the cloning feature which is great ?

 

I like the TX16S but one problem I encountered when flying with it in a TX muff is that I found it quite difficult to locate the trims by feel, and as they are black on black on mine I also can't really see them through the Tx muff window!

 

Anyone had similar problems and is there an easy fix?

Not as yet, but then my TX16 has only been used for multirotors so far (so no real need to use the trims) and I rarely if ever use a muff on any of my TXs. I do find the menu buttons annoyingly difficult to read in anything less than optimum light though, so may May gash up some labels for those in the near future.

[Mike Chantler]

Aye, maybe the Tx muff is just specialist for Scottish winter slope soaring ? ?  I'm getting more of a feel for them now without the muff. Stupidly I did not calibrate the X9D sticks, so the trims need tweaking. And yes, i find the buttons and the the display difficult when wearing sun glasses. 

[Graham Davies 3]

This might seem like a "how long's a piece of string" question, but bear with me...

 

Given recent FASST revelations, I feel that it's time to push the button and go with a TX16. I'm too vulnerable at the moment; my Futaba TX dies and I could be Donald Ducked! 

 

So, given that I only have FASST compatible receivers, mostly FrSky, so am happy with non branded gear, what receivers should I buy when I buy my TX16? The world, Rodney, is my lobster, but that tends to lead to option anxiety crises. I'm the same in the breakfast cereal aisle...

 

So, what would you buy if you were me?

 

Thanks all, you're too patient...

 

Graham

[john stones 1 - Moderator]

I would go with Cornflakes Graham, if sold out Weetabix, can't help re the tx/rx soz.

[Graham Davies 3]

A conservative suggestion John, but a safe, nay, SOLID one.

 

I'll consider that a banker/ fall back option.

 

?

 

[Mike Chantler]

I've just converted from FrSky to Radiomaster. So far all the ACCST Rx that I have connected have worked fine (using v1 of the firmware). I'm tempted to try RadioMaster Rx.

[Andy Gates]

Graham,

 

With receiver choice, try and decide what you want out of it before you buy. How many channels, do you want an inbuilt stabiliser (similar to Spektrum AS3X)?

If you want telemetry, again decide what you want. Do you want height, vertical speed, pack voltage, GPS?

 

Personally I would expect to be buying a 8 channel unit with S.port for telemetry.

If I want height info I would be buying a FrSky G-RX8 unit, I find these are great little units and have a few. Very worth doing the V2 firmware upgrade too. I would avoid the G-RX6 as the S.port wiring needs soldering on which is very fiddly.

For a plain receiver the Radiomaster R-168 is pretty good and has an inbuilt voltage sensor to provide pack voltage in flight up to 4s requiring a single extra wire from the pack / ESC +ve connection.