nonstoprc

My Feedback: (90)

Interesting.

The discontinued Futaba 12Z also allows 8 flight conditions.

ww2birds

My Feedback: (14)

? The 18MZ (like the 14MZ and the 9Z) have flight conditions in airplane mode...

Dave

Truckracer

My Feedback: (19)

I think the point is that people want flight conditions on the new 18SZ. Many felt sort of cheated when the 14sg didn't have flight modes in airplane mode.

xgchxt

FrSky Taranis has it all for $200.00. Why play catch up with the turtle when you can run with the hare?

mattnew

My Feedback: (2)

Taranis programming is there. The radio can do everything you can possibly think of... its stupid hard to program though and its built to a pricepoint, which means the hardware quality of the Taranis is nowhere near the other radios we are talking about here. My feelings on it are great, I can program my supercomplicated jet and setup 20,000 configurations for it, but it is just as hard to setup a 4 channel trainer.... I like it but I don't love it.

lest you think I'm just a futaba fanboy... here is my two main radios currently. I have the Taranis setup on 3 planes and fly with it regularly.


I commented on this thread in the beginning and said no... then I thought about it a bit longer and have really kinda done an about face in the last 2 weeks...

My next radio is likely going to be the stealth dx18 when it is released. I've been flying Futaba since the early 90's. So why the switch? I want to brown out more...

kidding obviously... but the reality is I bought the 14SG 2 years ago, and since then there has been 2 total receivers thats been released for it... 1 is all SBUS basically and then the 8 channel SBUS with telemetry. $150 bucks a receiver basically... which I don't mind for my bigger planes, but what about that $30 foamy I just put together....... I'm finishing up a 30% cap232 that I have no problems putting a $150 dollar receiver in... but I don't need that for smaller planes or cheaper ARFs... my receiver shouldn't cost more than the plane. And yes, I can use FASST or FHSS receivers, but then I don't get the telemetry or other capabilities. I'm still torn on MOST telemetry and its usefulness, but I do like battery voltages and being able to set alarms for that. So they didn't come out with many receiver options for it, and then they seemingly moved on to T-FHSS, and they have released 1 receiver for that... albeit the price of that receiver is pretty decent... but I can't use that with my 14sg.

Add to that the 10CAG costs more than the 14SG.. and well... I'll admit it... I'm just confused. I love my 14sg.. I'll keep it and fly with it... but I don't know what they are doing with the product line and I don't like all the incompatibility that limits my setup options even though I have a radio that is one of their most flexible.

mattnew

My Feedback: (2)

one more thing... their servos...

love futaba servos... but they keep discontinuing good servos and replacing them with new S.BUS compatible servos that cost $20 more than the old servo. For any plane with less than 8 servos.. I don't need or want SBUS.. so if I want Futaba servos I'm forced into paying another $100-$150 or so per plane for servos with functionality I don't need or want.

I think that irks me more than the radios...

Truckracer

My Feedback: (19)

Good comments mattnew! You're right on with your comments on the receivers and servos.

Rob2160

I alway thought voice alerts were nothing more than a gimmick, but changed my tune very quickly after using the Taranis for a month.

Bottom line, I will keep my current Futaba radios but will never buy another radio without spoken voice alerts - through a Speaker… not headphones like the 14SG,

xghgh

Does anyone have insight as to why Futaba doesn't offer a radio between the 14sg and the 18mz? It is such a huge jump in the radio's and the cost!

757Driver

My Feedback: (90)

Both systems offer virtually the same capability. My guess is the way the user interfaces with the tx is the reason for the added cost.
I love my 18 every time I go setup a new model.
Camera, speaker, nice big color selectable touch screen, sd card, USB mouse interface,ect.

Truckracer

My Feedback: (19)

The 18SZ is reported to be available later this year. I'm interested and will be watching for it. I have to say some of the recent offerings from JR and even Spektrum have my interest though!

mattnew

My Feedback: (2)

I read that rumor too.. though I haven't seen anything official on it... just 2 or 3 mentioned in forum threads like you just posted above me. In fact there is so little about it ( nothing ) outside of similar statements to yours I'm wondering if it isn't made up at this point.... we know the jr 28x is coming out, we know the stealth dx18 is coming out... 18SZ...???

Would be interested to see what they do with it...

Truckracer

My Feedback: (19)

Futaba is always tight lipped about new products until just before they are released. Generally their products show up within a few months after the rumors start flying around ........ very unlike some other brands. I'd put a check mark in Futata's column for that practice.

dhal22

A great discussion here guys. I use a 14sg and love it. I keep my 9 Cap Super with a Spektrum module for foamies and am pretty happy. But the airspeed and voice alerts comments are interesting. Please continue the discussion.

Pork Chop

My Feedback: (5)

Xghgh,

Strange that your question is exactly the same word for word as my question was back on post #19!!!

mattnew

My Feedback: (2)

In general I agree. Weatronic announcing the BAT60 3 years ago, JR announcing the 28x over a year ago... I'm not 100% but I don't believe you can get either of those yet in the U.S... if I'm wrong it has only very recently changed. I'm sure the initial announcement was to quell anybody debating on jumping ship or buying another brand, but after the wait I think it probably hurts those companies more than it helps.

Futaba is a little bit different though right? They have the radios, they have announced the protocols (SBUS2, FASSTEST, T-FHSS etc ) now where are all the producfs that complete my system? Instead of building out FASSTEST and adding on all these telemetry sensors we expected they seem to have moved on to T-FHSS. Or maybe they haven't and the two are going to be developed in parallel? Being tight lipped in this case seems to tell me that they may not be planning on doing much more with FASSTEST than what is out there... its been out for ~2 years now...

While Futaba does need a next gen telemetry radio to compete with the other guys, they also need the product portfolio to go along with whatever the transmitter ends up being. Having a new T18SZ is no good if they have 3 telemetry sensors, 2 SBUS cables, and 1 receiver that can take advantage of its features. I think what goes with the radio for Futaba may be more important than the radio itself, since the radios they have now are pretty impressive

mattnew

My Feedback: (2)

This thread has been funny for me.

3 weeks ago I was about to plunk down the $2400 for an 18MZ
Then I read this thread, and I thought "sh*t no you guys are stupid..."
Then thought about it some more..

I have a 14SG. I love it, no intentions of parting with it... what do I get moving to the 18MZ?
I wanted a "pro" transmitter, but in reality outside of the touchscreen and color screen, the two are basically the same, ok yeah.. 4 channels, but I can't use 14, my B-17 doesn't use 14 channels... And yes flight conditions... but I can do everything I need to with mixes in the 14....

So the more I thought about it, the dumber it sounded to consider the 18MZ outside of the "because I can and its bling" argument... which I wasn't buying myself.

So now I'm not buying an 18mz... I blame the OP....

Rob2160

I have a 14SG and it is a great radio, if they released a 14SG super (like they did with the 8FG) which included programmable voice alerts and a built in speaker it would be a winner IMHO.

049flyer

My Feedback: (18)

I have a FrSky Taranis and it does anything one can imagine. The Taranis is stupid easy to program for most airplanes when using the wizard built into the radio OS or the wizard that is included with the computer side programming software that runs on Windows or Macintosh computers and is free to download and use even if you don't have the Taranis. It is a transmitter simulator and programmer so that you can try out any setting or programming feature before sending it to the transmitter.

The shear power of this radio is the fact that anything can be programmed to do anything. This power is available to those that want to get into the nitty gritty of setting it up. This part of the programming is easier done on the Taranis transmitter simulator software and can be much more involved, but not necessary for 90% of us as the wizard handles most routine tasks.

The real power however is the fact that the Transmitter software is OPEN SOURCE and runs on a variety of platforms which means that you can take your programming and settings from one radio to the next when you upgrade or even if you change between radio manufacturers.

The features of this radio are incredible, reliability is at least as good as any other mainstream radio and ALL parts are readily available, from switches to gimbals, screens and circuit boards. Best of all, receivers are 1/2 the price of the top brands and airborne telemetry modules are about $20 each. Telemetry for the airborne receiver battery voltage is built in to the system and doesn't require a module. Voice announcements for any transmitter setting, value from telemetry sensors or warnings are built in and can be easily changed, modified or customized.

Perhaps the most interesting feature is the fact that the radio has an empty and unused slot for a transmitter module on the back cover. It's purpose is to allow the use of a Futaba or Spektrum module if you wish to use their systems, i.e. Bind N Fly. The interesting thing is that the radio can transmit via the module or the built in FrSky transmitter or BOTH AT THE SAME TIME. This gives you a total of 16 channels and incredible redundancy. Think 1/2 of your plane is a Spektrum system and the other is FrSky. Two different signals from two different RF modules to two different receivers.

If you really want to know if Futaba IS OR IS NOT stuck in the RC stone age then you would be wise to spend $200 and give the Taranis a try. Even if you don't like it they usually sell for almost full price on the used market so you risk very little.

mattnew

My Feedback: (2)

I don't mind having multiple radios, hell 10 years ago it used to be a radio per plane...

I bought the Taranis b/c I liked the concept, supported the idea of Open Source... loved the cost of the telemetry and receivers........I put my money where my mouth was if you will because I wanted to see that continue.
I have it in 3 planes....
its hardware is ok, not great, its programming is powerful... and the telemetry options are pretty complete.. and affordable.
... ease of use though is not in its repertoire ... even FrSky wouldn't claim that :-)

I like it, at $200 it is a great deal... you do see the price point come into play though with it and it is sacrificed in the hardware. They are coming out with the Horus, but its not running on the same OpenSource OS... so that "one radio to the next portability" is likely a nice idea that doesn't materialize the way we'd like.

AndyKunz

It would have if you had chosen Spektrum! We have 8 radios that share files between one another (DX6, DX7, DX9, DX10T, DX18, DX18QQ, DX18G2, and DX18T) , have the same interface, with a feature set and price point for everybody.

Andy

049flyer

My Feedback: (18)

FrSky is a very good example of what can be done by combining the power of open source software with a capable transmitter platform. It is far from perfect but perfectly usable by anyone with a modicum of computer radio programming. To get the maximum out of the Taranis requires much more effort but for most of us is not necessary.

The OP asked if Futaba is being left behind. Comparing Futaba or Spektrum to Taranis and the Open TX software that powers it will show that the big boys better start pedaling faster or the likes of FrSky will bury them.

Yes, some may say that FrSky may be somewhat behind in build quality when comparing a $200 FrSky to a $2000 Futaba, but the truth is that at $200 it is a fine piece of sport level equipment. Unless Futaba and Spektrum are willing to relinquish the sport flyer market to the likes of FrSky they better get busy.

049flyer

My Feedback: (18)

Which of the Spektrum offerings has a similar feature set as the Taranis at a similar price point? And don't forget the computer side programmer/simulator that runs on both Windows and Macintosh computers.

Truckracer

My Feedback: (19)

Strange how these kind of threads migrate towards a brand discussion (war if you will) and I don't think that was the intent of the OP. Seems that most of us knowledgeable Futaba users are quite up to speed as to the "other" offerings out there. That's the point of this thread ... getting Futaba up to speed and competitive in today's demanding RC market as we already know about most of the other offerings.

Clearly there are many high quality, highly featured radios out there these days. Come on Futaba, get up to speed in some of the areas you are lacking. Brand loyalty only goes so far when the product becomes dated in competitive features.

049flyer

My Feedback: (18)

Not a brand war. Just an example of what one of the more innovative manufacturers are offering. Like other technology endeavors it's often the small young "start ups" that are the ones to raise the bar while the larger traditional manufacturers are slow to change and end up playing "catch up". It wasn't that long ago when Spektrum changed the RC world with 2.4 ghz and once again Futaba played "catch up".

Anyone see a trend developing on the Futaba R&D side?

There was a time when Futaba was the innovator.