"Welcome to Taranis!" And that's exactly what my new $200 radio said to me when I powered it on. Awesome. Over the coming weeks I will post a number of blogs on how to configure the new FrSky Taranis radio for use with your drone.
Audio is a the killer application IMHO. No more sticky tape labels to remember which mode you selected, just configure the radio to tell you on throwing a switch. And it has plenty of those switches. A total of six 3 position switches + the T-CUT and the trainer switch. It has 4 pots, two on the face place, and two "sliders" which using for camera pitch and roll will be great.
For styling, its not any different than the classic JR radio, it even has a compatible JR Module Bay in the back so you can plug in your favourite MHz/UHF or other manufacture module to be compatible with any older kit you may have.
Internally it has a FrSky ACCST 2.4GHz D16 system that supports up to 16 channels. It also backwards compatible with older FrSky receivers.
The power requirements standard is 7.2V 260mA. It's supplied with a NiMH 7.2V 800mAh pack and charger, but can take 2S or 3S LiPo and LiFE packs (I'm using a 1800mAh LiFe pack). If you have an 8 cell AA NiMh pack 2400mAh you can even charge it even in the radio!
If all that isn't great enough, it's completely updateable as the firmware is a custom version of OpenTX
It comes standard with a ratchet on the throttle control, which I am not a fan, but no problem, just remove the six screws from the back and you can disengage that with a few turns of a conveniently placed screw. You can also change from MODE1 to MODE2 config as well, if required.
The build quality is excellent, and I am really happy with this purchase. (Thanks Dany @ candadrones.com)
All in all, I don't think you can go wrong with this budget radio with features found on radios costing in excess of $1000
Look out for the future post on how to make this radio really work for you, and maybe just boss you about a bit "Please land now your battery is flat!" ;-)
Bill
Comments
I think we're looking at different manuals. The opentx one seems to be more informative. Oh well.
I also got the 1800 LiFePO4 battery but will have to get some sort of adapter or a 2s balance plug to solder on. I had an adapter for servo plug to 2s and didn't notice that this battery didn't have the servo plug like most other TX batteries. So now I'm back to rethinking my battery plan.
If I use normal sized AA from eneloop I can get the lid on if I take the foam off. Unfortunately they don't seem to charge right, so I figured if I'll have to take my NIMH's out to charge I might as well just use a lipo or lifepo4. Wish they had just added a 3s and 2s balance port or something standard from jr or futaba. Then batteries would have been easy.
Anyway I freaking love this transmitter despite the fact that it came with a battery that would have been woahfully underpowered even in the NiCad days. Not even sure where they found 800mah AA sized batteries to solder into that pack lol.
@Isaac Sloan: The whole text is
The statement is confusing, but since the 8xAA pack doesn't fit (damm i shoudl ahve checked the cover could be put on!) i have just using the 1800 LiFe battery. I just pull it out to charge, so no biggy for me. I keep my 6 cell NiMH pack as a backup, if my in case my tx batt gets low ( Yet, the only pack that I always charge before leaving the house to go fly is my transmitter pack ;) )
try asking here for more information http://www.frsky-rc.com/support/fqa.php Hope you get some answers.
Are you sure that 9.6v packs can be charged in the Taranis? In my experiment they only ended up charging to 1.357v per cell. Versus 1.453v that the same cells charge to in an Eneloop charger.
From the Taranis Manual:
PLEASE NOTE: The radio has an integrated Ni-MH charge circuitry designed to charge the supplied 6-cell battery.
Do not connect a smart charger to the charge plug. It should only be supplied with 12V DC, polarity however doesn't matter.
Do not use the charge plug if you have replaced the battery with a different type (chemistry or cell count).
Jani,
I was hoping that the default antenna can be unplugged/removed if and when needed without much fuss for extended external/directional antenna. Can you confirm the default antenna cable lead is soldered to main Tx board or does it use some sort of micro MCX connector? thanks
You loose the telemetry as external module cannot feed telemetry data to mainboard where cpu is. Main cpu is hardwired to internal rx module and its telemetry port. Thats one thing we try to solve with frsky as thry overlooked this issue during hardware design.
sure we can hack it like always but that doesnot work for all peiple. Also internal module is hardwired to that small rubber antenna so you cannot connect external antennas easily on it like you can on external module.
Jani,
Do you loose telemetry because there is a module active in the radio, or is it simply because you are no longer using the FRsky rx?
AlljDrones RTF kits are now shipping with Taranis radios and also IOBoards are included on installations.
I have been talking a lot with FrSky about few modifications for the taranis radio. So let's see how they listen now. Currently we will loose telemetry if using external module which is a bit bad. There are some changes going to be on main pcb in future but when, i don't know yet. Let's hope soon :)
@Iskess: I had the AAx8 pack as the backup, but I hadn't tried putting to cover on D'oh. It won't fit. I think I need a different 8xAA battery holder, or a 8xAA NiMH pack that held together with shrink wrap for it to fit, it's just marginally smaller than the 9x, though the 9x battery cover also fits. Very strange, but my 3S 1800mAh LiFePo4 batts fits well , so I'm good for long flight times,
Thanks Bill for the photos.
Yep, Lipo or LiFe batts will fit with modified/right plugs as required. And off course "Don't charge using regular NiCd chargers & don't charge LiPo batts inside the Tx " caution applies.
@Iskess, you are correct, that the foam pad needs to be removed when using 8xAA battery holder.
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