In case you've missed this, HobbyKing is now selling a RC transmitter designed for APM/Pixhawk, with all the flight modes mapped to knob settings with mode LED indicators. Just $58!
The Quanum i8 8ch 2.4GHZ transmitter has primarily been designed for the popular multi-rotor market, and has been mapped and matched to APM and PX4 flight controllers, bringing ease of use and programming to a normally complex product. It can however also be used with helicopters, fixed wing aircraft and gliders.
The Quanum i8 transmitter has 8 channels, the first 4 channels being the 2 dual axis sticks. The 5th channel is a 6 position rotary knob which is perfect for different flight modes on a multi-copter, the position of this switch knob is shown by the 6 LED's on the front of the transmitter. Channel 6 is a 3 position switch and channels 7 and 8 are slide switches. The stock radio programing is matched to APM and PX4 flight systems in channel mapping, direction, Aux channels and the 6 flight modes via the detent rotary knob for a plug and play solution. The i8 is a fantastic radio for other Multirotor FC systems with map able Aux channels, channel reverse and other custom features. Included with the system is a set of labels for labelling the various flight mode LED's.
Comments
Cool!
Not that I have a lot to say about Quantum products, but they built this for the low end consumer not the majority of geeks like myself. What I'm more interested in is range quality and what receivers can be used with this radio? Time to research more on this unit.
Looks duplicate blog
Is 8 channels enough for anyone these days? I use more than that on my racer.. and could use more than 16 on my camera drone.
In this price range I would rather buy a good old T9X with opentx firmware or ER9X. I wouldn't trust the RF part or would need to be modded for using a FrSky TX.
I took one apart a few month ago:
http://diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/hk-quanum-i8-dissected
I like the simple setup, the rotary knob, and the leds, but why are we still using 40 year old PWM/PPM technology when we know this is going to be connected to a digital flight controller? Wouldn't a direct, bi-directional serial link be better, with telemetry back to the Tx? And why no telemetry? At a very minimum sending battery status to the Tx would be very useful.
Also, what type of receivers are used? Is there only the one receiver available?
To me this seems like a step back in technology, not a step forward.
@Chris, When that radio came out there was a lot of confusion, because everyone wanted the six discrete buttons :)
Thanks for the catch. I've corrected to "all the flight modes mapped to knob settings with mode LED indicators"
Nice, I might do a hardware hack with an Arduino mini to put buttons on there for flight mode, since I agree that a pos switch is no good.
Does anyone know if this thing gets respectable range? I am used to flying on Spektrum which has excellect range but tons of features which I do not use.