Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by James on November 30, 2010 at 6:41am

I think the main recommendation is one of the Spektrum series with six more more channels... DX6i or DX7i. Certainly that's what I'm going to be going for once I've trialled my airframe with a loaner radio system from a friend.

I'd initially wanted a Futaba system (used to have one waaaaaaay back in the past on my old nitro plane), but the cost of a similar system to the Spektrums is much higher. I don't know whether that translates into better range, reliability or features, but it made me open my eyes a little!

The other one I saw at the lower end of the pricing spectrum was on hobbyking.

http://hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idProduct=10173

Cheap is the key word here. I have no idea what the quality is like.

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ModeratorPermalink Reply by Sgt Ric on November 30, 2010 at 6:44pm

For the same price as the HK branded 7 channel linked to by James above, HobbyKing also has the Turnigy 9 channel 9X.
Again this is el cheapo but still recommended by many, especially for the ArduCopter.

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Permalink Reply by brakar on November 30, 2010 at 6:51am

Any thoughts about the Hitec Eclipse 7ch, 35MHz?

(I was at my local RC store for buying a new Futaba RX. They had none, but were changing supplier of radio equipment and were selling out their Hitec radiosets at great discounts).

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Permalink Reply by Nicholas Tilbury on November 30, 2010 at 6:30pm

Does the Spektrum DX6i have the 3 toggle switch which I hear is required for a UAV setup?

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Permalink Reply by Joel on November 30, 2010 at 6:39pm

I'm also curious how to set up the flight modes with the dx6i. i have experimented with a 2 way toggle, for manual/stabilize(works great), but I haven't looked into how to add more flight modes. I've seen hints of how to do it but no directions. do we need another APM control input?(for a second switch) or is it handeled another way?

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Permalink Reply by Michael Brown on March 2, 2011 at 6:47am

Any reply to the spektrum setup?

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Permalink Reply by Paul Feely on March 2, 2011 at 1:11pm

The DX6i only has a two way switches on channel 5 & 6.

 

I use it with Arducopter with mode (Acro/Stable) on one channel and GPS hold on the other. You can mix the two switches together to get four positions/values on a single channel.

 

I'd like more channels now for camera control so I'm finding the DX6i a bit limiting and saving up or a DX8. The Spekturm quality is really good and good range of receivers.

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Permalink Reply by Michael Brown on March 2, 2011 at 1:33pm

Thanks for the reply. I just ordered the completed model to save time and trouble. Hmmm, maybe I should get a 8 channel rx and upgrade my tx from dx7. Scotland? How's the weather there?

Any special things to do in the tx to get it setup right other than binding? To set up the switches you just go into the program and set things up the way you want, correct?

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Permalink Reply by Paul Feely on March 2, 2011 at 4:48pm

Weather not too bad today, dry, sunny, no wind but cold - sure to change soon and probably be blowing a gale by the weekend!

Set up of tx was nothing special, I'm using ArducopterNG and didn't have to change anything in the code for tx/rx. Tx is set to normal aircraft mode (Spectrum call it ACRO for some reason, not to be confused with the ACRObatic mode on the quad) I had to reverse a couple of channels but that is easy on the dx6 from the main menu.

I think the Ardupirates code is slightly different setup but I'm sure it's straight forward and just ask if you get stuck.

I've put a sonar on my quad now and I'm looking to add a camera with tilt so running out of channels now - if you have a dx7 I would work with that and see how you get on, if you're just wanting the basic flying machine 6 channels fine.

I currently use a 6 channel spektrum parkflyer receiver, the quad doesn't have a massive range so quite comfortable with cheapish park receiver.

Paul

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Permalink Reply by Hopper on March 2, 2011 at 9:06pm

I was about to settle on the Spektrum DX7 until I did a bit of research on Airtronics. It's been around a long time, has a loyal fan base, costs less than $200 for 8ch tx and rx (RDS8000), and has the 3 position switch. I got mine at www.radicalrc.com.

I like the Turnigy 9ch 9x because it's super cheap ($50?), based on the popular Arduino microprocessor and has an open source firmware project (http://diydrones.com/forum/topics/turnigyimax-9x-now-with-custom?co...) that has upgraded the feature set as well as made it more stable.

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