PlaneHeli

I see the Futaba 9C and other Txs have a Campac to store more models.

They appear to be a small circuit boards.

I would rather see an SD or Compact Flash card slot. These small memory cards could hold a lot of data and be easy to transfer model setups between different Txs. They are very cheap now too.
It would be great to be able to backup the card on your computer.

I cannot find any info on whether new Txs have / or will have this rather than the old Campacs.

Is there any reason why they could not replace the Campac with an SD card slot on new Txs.

Are they planning on doing this.

Campgems

The Campac and sd cards are two completely different things. The Campac is a serial storage device with a very small capacity, IE 16K. There is a company that has a USB port to read and write CamPac cards, but it is still in beta test and they are having some problems yet. I checked on it a couple days back and they said it was going to be $100 when finished. I'm not sure, but I think you have to take the Campac out and put it in this reader. That is going to be about as close as you are going to get. The 9C supper series is all but old iron now. It's a shame as they are more than enough radio for 99% of the people flying. Easy conversion to 2.4 also if one feels the need to spend the bucks for a conversion project. I've got 9 receivers and I'm not about to shell out another grand + to go 2.4. So, I'll stick with my old iron, Campac and all.

Don

PlaneHeli

Agree. A 12 or 14 Ch Tx is way more than I need so cannot justify the price.

Why do they require to use a Campac though. Why cant they use an SD or CF slot on new models and change the software to make it work. A 32mb SD or CF are only a few dollars and could store way more models than you would need.

Would anyone pay $100 for a USB Campac reader. Most people already have a memory card reader at home.

Just wondering why they cannot use the new SD or CF technology instead of these old Campacs.

4*60

My Feedback: (41)

The manufacturers do not believe you make money by using standard off-the-shelf accessories. Keep it proprietary and the money will roll in! I think they are changin slowly. It can't be worth redesigning the 9C when the customer just has to shell out to get the new 12 or 14 channel for "not much more" dough (joke!).

vicman

My Feedback: (10)

I am in complete agreement with the comments about the 9C meeting 99%of our needs and not wanting to upgrade for a while. I bought the Hansen 132K board for mine and plan to pass the radio on to my grandchildren (my kids are 8&4). Using USB would be pretty cool for a new radio design.

Silent-AV8R

When the 9Z and 9C first were designed there were not SD or CF cards in wide use. This was actually a really cool feature when first introduced. I'm certain that when and if the 9 channel range of radios is re-vamped that the memory storage type will be updated.

vicman

My Feedback: (10)

I agree with you SA. With the seeming success of 2.4 and the 6X radios, it would be logical that a 9X type radio would be on the horizon.
For some time I have thought about a "Pimp your Tx" thread to see what others have done with their radios. Personally I think I have finished with mine.
I have the big Hanson board, 2500 Mah NiMh battery, and most recently a spiffy looking yellow ducky antenna. All thats left is some custom gimble grips

pilotpete2

I also agree, and it's very encouraging to see Futaba go to this popular industry standard by using SD with the new 12FG. If they were to "update" the 9C with G3 2048 PCM to make it "native" FASST when used with a 2.4Ghz RF module (not a conversion module such as the TM-8), switch to SD memory card and still keep the RF stage modular (this is a high end radio after all) you would have a "killer" competition to the X9303.
My 9Cs meets more than the capabilities that I think I'll ever need, but an updated version down the road would be very nice indeed[8D]
Pete.
Pete

Gulliver

See this link for acource for expanded memory for the 9C:

http://www.dynmodel.com/ultrapac.html

Campgems

Gulliver, if you read the page, they are no longer marketing the UltraPacs and only had one left as of Sept.

Checkout the Hanson Pacs.

Don

Bad_Daddy

[link=http://cgi.ebay.com/256k-Memory-Module-Futaba-Radios-Campac_W0QQitemZ270183448055QQihZ017QQcategoryZ340 56QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem]CamPac on Ebay[/link] (Hanson Hobbies). I got one last month and it works great! That is, unless you have more than 96 model setups you need to store.

PlaneHeli

pilotpete2,

I didnt realise the 12FG did already have an SD card slot. Once I saw the price of the 12, I didnt look to closely at its features.
So its easily possible to incorporate SD in new models.
1GB and 512MB SD cards are quite cheap now and can be bought anywhere. The website says a 1GB SD card can store 1882 models in memory. That SHOULD be enough for most modellers.

Personally I think the 9C is as good as many of us require. But having a 7C, - 7 channel, then a 9C, 8 ch is a bit close. They need to make the 9C a true 9Ch Tx.

I am considering getting a 9C for the programming features. I have a 7C now, so only one extra channel is not a big upgrade. However $1500 for a 12FG or 14xx is way over the top for me.

Im still waiting on how the SS competition plays out. May still go DX7 or JR if Futaba dont have what im after. There is no club where I fly. Yet just over a small hill guys fly Trex 450s, over the road others fly electric planes. Also nearby ive seen boats on a small lake. Only a matter of time until im shot down. So need to go SS. But which one?

I think a revamp of the 9C is required, with 9 usable channels, SD memory and possibly built in Fasst. (if it does truly slow the system down by using a module), or a native Fasst module as previously mentioned.
The 9C was nine channels in PCM mode and only eight channels in PPM mode. With everyone converting them to SS. It really is only an eight channel radio.

The module system now, is only advantageous if there is a new technology on the horizon we may all want to change to later. (eg; a new improved SS for example).

Those Campacs look very 70s. LOL. Also difficult to find in Asia.

vicman

My Feedback: (10)

My Hansen pack does 132[8D]. It has worked perfectly for over a year now. Strange how worried I was when I thought about buying one, when it came it turned out to be a complete non-event. It just worked the way they said it would.[sm=thumbup.gif][sm=thumbup.gif][sm=wink_smile.gif]