"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
@Justin: The Taranis comes with a new receiver X8R which with this adapter can support PPM sum. The advantage over the D4R-II is that the X8R has a new failsafe setting feature and you can see on the Transmitter the outputs that will be applied on signal loss by the receiver. Hopefully FrSky will launch a smaller X4R as well with PPM sum out
jdrones has written firmware for their IO board, which also works on an arduino pro mini that will translate mavlink over to the same protocol used by frsky sensor hub. This lets you get your mavlink information back to your transmitter and give you prompts based on that. Also the D4R-II 4 channel reciever will give you 8 channels of CPPM out of one port, which the ardupilot takes easily.
I got mine about a month ago and I love it. Programming it takes a different approach, but not difficult. The programming possibilities are endless. I am used to a JR10SX, and this weighs nothing compared to what I am used to, but I will get used to it soon enough. Quality wise internally I would say it is on par with JR and Futaba. Externally, not quite as polished as the bigger brands, but still a very nice Tx. Gimbals are smooth but don't feel quite as good as my JR, but still very good. The voice alerts are great, and the RSSI telemetry you get with their Rx is an awesome feature. I think it will definitely make JR and Futaba take notice and rethink some things.
I've had a pre-order in at Aloft for months.
It would be nice if they could actually manufacture these in significant numbers.
Glad to hear your initial impression is so good.
@Jason: I will cover the steps on how to setup the radio for use with APM:Copter & APM:Plane as example of how to apply the features, since this is what I will be doing anyway ;)
Will you be doing something different vs R. Scott Page and Mark Harrision's videos on youtube?
My only nag with this one is "DC 7.2V 6 cell Nickel–metal hydride battery" , they could have included a 2S or 3S Batt.
But can't complain as the 2.4 spectrum module for my JR alone costed me >200$ back then :)
I will watch this with interest as well, also rocking older JR gear with FR Sky modules here currently.
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