Originally Posted by
Desertrat99
I currently have a few Tamiya tanks and will have some Taigen tanks with Clark or IBU electronics I am looking at a TK22 and TK60's from Clark and I might have a IBU3 system for just one tank.
As of right now for the Tamiya tanks that I have running they are both using 75Mhz transmitters and I have then configured to drive and turn with left stick and gun and turret is right stick. Right stick also fires the gun and machine gun. This setup is not the best thing for our use as when firing main gun you have to flip the stick up to the to and sometimes it does not fire but move the elevation up instead, and I have already gone through calibrations several times on the sticks.
As you can already tell I know a tiny bit about radios and that is why I still have not pulled the trigger on a model as of yet. I do have a opportunity to get a bunch of receivers, which I believe will be the Orange ones you can get from Hobby King. (not confirmed as of yet) That would save me some funds to put toward a better radio system.
I am going to need at least two radios one for myself and one for the wifi who also wants to play with the tanks. I am looking for something in what I would call a radio that is easy to use, program and if required troubleshoot issues. However i am not looking for the cheapest one as I will be keeping it for a while and want to make the right choice. I was looking at at least 6 channels as a minimum amount as it would allow for growth. Usually, I buy things by looking out long term and not what I would need right now.
For the Tamiya system you can move operation of functions to a different channel on the RX, no programming is needed. This is the same for the aftermarket systems out and even the new Taigen motherboard. Unfortunately I can't help much on the Tamiya systems, one of mine was DoA and the other responds to no commands so both are useless. Luckily there are tons of people here that have lots of experience with the boards and will be able to help with that and programming as well. Also, do yourself a favor and spend just a few bucks more and do NOT run Turnigy stuff on your expensive tanks. I mean do you really want to possibly failsafe and cause an issue over an extra $5 saved? HK/Turnigy stuff is ok if you are on a budget or are using non-essential electronics in your models but I wouldn't trust them as far as I could throw them.
I would suggest the FlySky i6 radio. They are cheap ($40-45 for TX and RX), have a pretty solid RF link, super easy to use, have cheap and reliable receivers, and there is a patch/update to gain an extra 4 channels and turn it into a 10 channel radio if you wanted. The form factor is nice and it does have telemetry options as well as PWM/PPM/IBUS output.
If you want to keep your transmitter for a long time then FRSky is the way to go. Other brands in the past few years have really failed to offer such a good deal as FRSky and even FlySky. Futaba, Spektrum, JR, and all the other older brands I would recommend to anyone anymore. They have fallen WAY behind on features for the money and prices. FlySky does have one small disadvantage and that is parts availability. Sometimes you must call a dealer to get one of the extra self centering sticks but they are usually pretty cheap. I would just call who you plan on ordering the i6 from first to see if they have extra gimbals.