ORIGINAL: rctom
I proposed to Hitec that instead of having different transmitters with different numbers they should have available different software modules that can be purchased by the consumer to make the transmitter into whatever is needed. The same A9 box could have different levels of functionality based on what software you are using.
But Hitec seemed to think that this was something the consumer's would not accept, that the idea of having different levels of performance software available at differing prices would confuse and possibly offend the user (these are my words, not theirs).
I look at it like buying software for a PC, if you want the good stuff you pay more. Radios/transmitters nowadays are really just integrated computers and I think the public would readily accept and endorse this idea.
What do you say?
TF
I totally agree and don't understand how you could get that response from Hitec unless the company is pupulated by a bunch of fuddy-duddies born in the middle of the last century.
Your analogy to computers is spot-on. In "the old days" when we had Futaba 7FGK's running around, you had just one radio for one airplane and the hardware WAS the radio.
Now with computers having taken over the hobby, the hardware isn't what makes a radio, it's the software that does.
If you think about it, when people complain (or rave) about the various radios in use today, it's almost never about a radio's hardware, it's about how good or bad the software works.
If you're correct (I'll assume you are) that it's the software that determines the number of channels in a computer radio, then selling a software upgrade to convert an A9 to an A12 makes a whole lot of sense.
I'll bet that what the Hitec company is most fearful of is if someone (with the knowledge) writes a renegade software upgrade that will do exactly that to the A9 and make it a 12 channel, or even a 14 channel radio. It certainly has enough controls on it to support such.
And let's face it, every manufacturer of radios is in trouble once someone comes up with a full voice interface for programming. Of course it will be called the "Hal 9000" R/C transmitter, and will even be able to make an argument that a crash was, in fact, your own fault.
Sorry, going a bit off the reservation here... [X(]