ORIGINAL: DaleD
I have been following this and other threads on the three radios being discussed and I am yet to see what I could consider an unbiased and objective comparison of the three. While I appreciate that owners of each radio will have a tendency to defend their investment, it would really be good to read a post from someone who has had the opportunity to play with each radio over a period of time with information on how each stacks up against the others over a specific set of parameters.
Don’t get me wrong guys, your posts and contributions to date have all been informative. Maybe I am just a tad bit lazy and just wish to see all the info in one easy and convenient place. I crave your forgiveness.
DaleD
You really need to own all three to do a Side by Side comparison. You can read all you want, but it takes weeks of working with these radios to fully understand the Strengths and Weaknesses of the programming. If, for example, you have been using Futaba 2.4 for a while and you pick up the Latest and Greatest model, there are some aspects of the programming that will look familiar, but there may be many more additions to the programming that are new.
When I bought the 9CAP, I thought I had 9 channels that were all equivalent. I later found out that the 9th channel was only a Switch, not Proportional, and only worked with Futaba's 9ch PCM receiver. I had a jet with Wheel Brakes and Retracts and bought a MiniHobbies Retract Valve and Brake Valve which just required an On/Off Switch to operate. The Brake Valve was on Ch9. One day, at a meet, the Brake Valve failed and I had to install a Brake Valve that was operated by a servo and needed a Proportional channel to operate. I could not use Ch9 anymore. I spent a considerable amount of time trying to figure out which channel I could use for the Brake Valve and what I could switch to Ch9, as I needed all 9 channels for the jet.
What is important to me as far as features in a Tx may not be important to you.
If you bought a DX7 radio with the express purpose of training someone on a Buddy Box, you would find that the Trainer Switch is in a nasty spot and hard to hold and easily jump to Rudder/Throttle if you need to.
Some buy a particular Tx just because of the Look and Feel. You need to go to a big Trade show or to a local Flying Field to really understand the differences. You should make a list of all the features you need and ask how they would be implemented.
You won't find too many people here that bought Tx's from 3 different manufacturers, in the same time frame.