bruceal

I've seen so many people have problems with Spektrum. I've seen controls reverse, brown outs and just plain "oh crap I ain't got it." People can argue back and forth all day about what is best, but all I know is that my Futaba never let me down. Sure, nothing is perfect and anything man made can fail at any time, but for my money and the welfare of my planes and the life and limb of those in the vicinity I want to go with equipment that has a good track record. That being said Airtronics is also a fine radio. The one thing Spektrum does offer as a lot of nice BNF planes. But what good is it if the radio craps out?

BaldEagel

To be fair to Spektrum and JR I think the main problem with both is their need for a very good installation in accordance with the manufactures instruction, the satellite Rx's need positioning carefully to prevent blanking out the aerial by the fuel tank and any carbon, for so long any old installation has worked for most and going 2.4Ghz has meant previous experience does not count for much, I have never had a problem with my JR or Spektrum but others on my site have, normally its battery oriented problems and not the gear, but then all my jets have A123's in them and FASST.

Mike

bruceal

If installation is so crucial to Spektrum I think that they should spell it out to their users. Obviously something is wrong. I know people with 42% planes on Futaba with one reciever, no power box. Just saying.....

stoney1451

try futaba>

after having many many many( did i say many?) probs with jr and spektrum dsm. moved to futaba

a year later...no glitches , probs, drop outs. its a no brainer,,, easy is best.



keep 'em flyin



woohoo!








lawndart out

Selleri

I also know people with 40% planes with one reciever and no powerbox... on JR/Spektrum!

madmodelman

Despite the temptation to turn this into a manufacturer bashing war from obvious goading from Futaba freaks I'll stick with my JR DSX9 with both Spektrum and JR receivers which have been working perfectly for three years with no problems whatsoever.

If it's good enough for AM and DW it's certainly good enough for me!

BaldEagel

Then why goad them?

Mike

Eplane65

My Feedback: (16)

I have two JR 9303 radios. One a 72 mhz with a Spectrum conversion kit and on a dedicated 2.4 ghz. They are good, reliable radios, but I hate them because they are difficult to program. Nothing is intuitive. For a sport flyer, I can't see why you need anything more than 7 channels. In my estimation, any brand radio is a good choice. All of them have had problems which are magnified on these forums, probably due to the operator. Pick one that tickles your fancy.

BaldEagel

Now wait for the comments about Futaba programming being worse.

Mike

madmodelman

Spot on!

luv2flyrc

My Feedback: (6)

I am convinced that 99% of these control loss problems are not radio related at all but, are stalls. This summer one of our "experienced" pilots took off with his big corsair controlled by JR 9503, yanked her off the ground, she pitched up, banked left , level for a touch and snapped in. He swears to this day that his ailerons some how reversed as he was putting in right stick but, she was banking left. At the crash site controls all checked out ok so, he's decided that the "reversal" was intermittent.

I suggested he was stalled; his response was "no way, he's flown the airplane many times before". It happen to be at our warbirds event and someone caught the whole thing on video; you could clearly see the ailerons moving in the opposite direction of the airplanes roll ( ie. in the direction of his stick input so, no problem), the elevator at full up thus, the aircraft clearly stalled and not responding to stick inputs. BTW, the pilot is still convinced it was a problem with his JR radio.

Same thing again with another guy and his Aurora A9, yelling the proverbial " oh crap, I ain't got it" implying a radio hit when, again his aircraft was clearly stalled.

I've been flying JR/Spektrum 2.4 since it was introduced without a single hiccup.

Mike

Dr Honda

My Feedback: (4)

I was a die-hard Futaba flyer for +20 years. (and still have a few old radios on the shelf) I wouldn't even consider a different brand because my Futaba radios were always rock solid. BUT... when 2.4 started showing up... I wanted it BAD. Futaba kept moving their release date, so I said "F"-it, and bought a DX6, then a DX7, and then a DX6i to replace the original DX6, and now a JR9303 for my Jets.

I would have personally gone back to Futaba before buying my JR9303, but I couldn't justify the pricing on the small park flyer Rx units. Originally, they wanted $99 for a basic 4 Ch Rx. I also think the super 8 is a nice radio... but I'm not fan of the S.Bus system. (for reasons I won't get into)

I know the OP has gotten his radio... but I'm getting tired of the brand bashing. the Futaba/JR/Spektrum/Airtronics/Multiplex debate is just like the old Ford/Chevy/Mopar debate. They are all good, and you can find bad things about all of them if you look.

As said before, buy what the local guys are using so you get good support, and let's stop bashing the brands.

BaldEagel

When I first started in RC there wern't any manufactures available in the UK, articles used to appear in model mags on how to make a pc board and put together some radio control gear, my first was a ground based valve radio with acumalator power and a tank aerial, the control was a micro switch you pushed once for left and twice for right, unless you wanted left again in wich case you pushed it three times, the escapement (servo) was rubber band powered and controled the rudder only, these used to work for about 50% of the time, things have improved since then.

Mike

zmcougar

I recently purchased a Airtronics SD-10G per the recommendation of a friend of mine who has been flying large scale, 3D, 50-200cc aircraft for over 20 years. I have to say that I have been nothing but impressed with the radio, its functions, ease of programming, and impressive price at under $450 for a 10 channel radio. I know Airtronics doesn't have the name that Futaba, JR, and some of the others have, but they have been around a long time and have really done their homework on this radio. Highly recommend! I was previously with Futaba, my buddy previously with JR.

2001x5

Actual words heard one time.... yes, this was said once. [8D]
DSM(X) user : "I crashed 5 times this year due to radio glitches, I won't change brands due to the fact that I LOVE the ease of programming and superior customer service."

Please, no bashing, as this was one pilot's comment 2 years ago at the field.

Gary Arthur

My Feedback: (29)

Mike I agree with you 100%. Many times a poor instalation or a bad flight condition (ie: stall) gets blamed on a radio problem. I am sure that when your first Hawk had a high speed stall, you may have thought "radio". It was only after a proper investigation, that the you understood the real cause of the loss of control for that brief moment.

In some on my large gasser's I have had a servo fail in flight likley due to getting bumped during transport then failing under load. This could have ended up as someone thinking a radio problem. Only becasue I was able to land it by giving a lot of opossite control, did I know it was a servo. I now put a finger on each control surface and with slight pressure, use the radio to move the surface. I feel the gear train throughout the full movement. This is a great surface check and can detect the begining of a single tooth problem on any servo.

I have to say, my 14 mz has been 100% since I purchased it. With over 1100 flights on one jet and numerous on other jets. I really like my 14mz.

I see many people switching from JR to Futaba in the past few years and only a handfull switching the other way. In Europe, Futaba seems to be way more popular than JR, unlike the USA where It seems to be an even split. Maybe the Euro's know something we dont?

rrragmanliam

My Feedback: (1)

More blame the radio MFG BS! My reply from a previous thread on this.

You have no solid evidence to back up this statement. Hightec radios are fine, so are Futaba and JR. To often when a crash occurs, a pilots first instinct is to throw the radio mfg under the bus. Go ahead and swich to Futaba, it's what I fly. You will crash again with their equipment on board, then it will be "Futaba's fault". Right?[X(]
rrragman



I still stand by this

Rrragman

lopflyers

My Feedback: (12)

Radios are like any   other electronic equipment, most are great but there is going to be some bad apples.

bruceal

I don't like to bash peoples equipment because it's all bought with hard earned money. Like I tell people, these are the things I see, I can't tell you why these things happen. Yes it's true that a lot of problems go back to the user. I always tell noobies to come on forums like this and see for themselves what others expierience. But it's sort of like seeing a UFO, if just one sighting is real then, that proves the case.

airborne2.4

LOL

ericrcpilot

My Feedback: (145)

11X all day over the 9503. DSMX is solid.

Aussie Bart

The problem I see is that JR is NOT spectrum and Spectrum is NOT JR. JR no longer supports DSM2 but instead has their own system, so when you say JR versus Aitronics, Futaba etc, which JR are you talking about and will it be supported in 12 months..... You might as well buy XPS if you are happy with no future

ericrcpilot

My Feedback: (145)

Umm, JR supports DSM2.

rhklenke

My Feedback: (24)

The problem for US folks is that they *are* the same, and you can not buy JR without the (still Spektrum) DSMX system. We've seen glimpses of JR-native 2.4 equipment, but they are not available in the US. I have read that this a because of a decision by the US distributor of JR to stick with only the JR/Spektrum stuff, but I do not know that as a fact...

Bob