Hi-


I have been in the hobby for about 6 months and am just transitioning over to my second plane. It is an ultra stick with 7 servos. I have been told that while I may not use all the features of the plane, it would be a good learning experience to be able to "play" with all of them.

I have an "older" 8 channel Futaba 72 MHZ radio and have noticed that Spectrum sells a 2.4 GHZ module for this radio, 8 channel, with receiver for about $100 +/-.

Is this worth doing? Am I just better off waiting a while until I can afford another radio and buy a 2.4 GHZ radio?

I noticed that Airtronics has a 2.4 GHZ for about $150, but since I just learned how to program the Futaba, I am hesitant to get a brand new radio with a new plane to learn on.

Any comments?

Larry

$110 for the module, then $100 for the receiver, and you are stuck with a 7 channel radio with no trainer port. Also you would be stuck buying Spektrum receivers for the module.

I have an older 7UAF radio and I was thinking on the add on module last year. Futaba has the 7 channel setup for about $250, and the 8 channel for a little more. For about $50 more you can get a brand new radio with a set of servo's and receiver battery pack.

There are no savings on add ons.

You just missed a good sale about 2 months ago from Tower Hobbies where they had the 7C radio with digital servo's on sale for $300. Then they had an email coupon for $50 off of your 300 dollar order making the price of the radio $250.00.

I just received a Futaba TM-8 2.4 Ghz FASST module to review. I'm using it to upgrade my Futaba 9TCAP radio. I'm glad that they made this available as it extends the life of a good radio. The TM-8 Module lets you control either 7 or 8 channel FASST receivers.

I'm not saying anything bad about the Spektrum technology because I also own a JR X9303, but in this instance I would recommend to stay with the Futaba module for your radio.

Whether you upgrade your radio or not is up to you to decide. These modules were designed in order to prolong the life of some of the higher end radios that Futaba produced. For those that spent $500 and up on a radio aren't going to be in a hurry to get rid of it. So many will buy the modules in order to extend the life of their radio. Another factor to consider is that they want to stay with a radio that they are familiar with. Using an upgrade module allows them to keep the radio they know the programming on.

In your case. If you are looking at a 7 or 8 channel radio I would probably say that you would be better served by saving your money and purchasing a true 2.4 Ghz radio. The currently radio you have is not going to quit working tomorrow, so there's probably no huge hurry to upgrade it. In fact, as more pilots move to 2.4 Ghz the 72 Mhz channels are quickly becoming less crowded. Many pilots that have stayed on 72 Mhz are finding that they are almost as free to fly as those that moved up to 2.4 ghz. When you are ready there are lots of good deals on 2.4 Ghz radios. If you watch the sales on Tower there are lots of opportunities to get a Futaba on sale. If you aren't brand specific you can get a fantastic deal on an Airtronics RDS 8000 8 channel 2.4 Ghz radio (I own one of these two and it's probably my favorite radio). You can pick a RDS 8000 up for $229, and that comes with 2 eight channel receivers. When it comes time to buy more receivers the Airtronics 8 channel receivers cost $80, whereas the Futaba 8 channels cost ~$139. So it might be something to look at. If you are interested I did a review of this radio for RCU, which you can find here: [link]http://www.rcuniverse.com/magazine/article_display.cfm?article_id=995[/link]

Hope this helps

Ken

That's incorrect information. It's $110 for the module and the receiver. If you're a Futaba flier, there's no cheaper way to get your feet wet with 2.4ghz.

phakur, do you have an 8U Super system? If so, then you have everything you need to make the most of your Ultrastick. I'm not sure if the vanilla 8U has the necessary "crow" programming, but I know that the Super does. The instructions for programming it should be in the back of your Ultrastick manual. They make it pretty easy.

If you want to try 2.4ghz, go for it. There's very little to lose. If you find at some point that you'd like to switch brands or stick to 72mhz, you'd have little trouble recouping your investment. Used AR7000 receivers go for about $75 to $80 on RCG, and move quickly. You could probably get $30-$40 for the Spektrum module. There's really no way to lose financially, which is pretty darn rare in this hobby!

What pushed me to Spektrum last year was the wide variety of receivers they have available, at price points that made the switch to 2.4ghz affordable for me. Futaba has a range of receivers that is almost as diverse, but their price points are higher. Airtronics is just starting, and has only one receiver available right now. Most of my planes are 4 or 5 channel models, so I've been putting Spektrum AR500s in them at a price of about $50. Those are the very best deal in 2.4ghz right now. My models that require more channels get more expensive receivers, and I'm never buying more features than I need. I like that!

You really can't lose with your line of thinking. Give it a shot!

Hi All-

Thanks for the info-

I do have a Futaba 8U super and therefore can do all I want on the Ultra stick-still finishing it up but can't wait to move on from my Arrow trainer which has been a great plane.

I have seen the Spektrum module with 7 channel receiver for as low as $100 but typically its like $109 so I agree with Mike L although i really have a huge trust for anything that RCKen says-he is super-

Mike L/or anyoneperhaps you can answer one question for meMy existing recievers are considered 8 channel but one slot is taken up with the receiver battery, leaving 7 open for servos. When I look at he picture of the AR7000, I see only 7 slots, so ifI have 7 servos a la the ultra stik, what do I do?


My thanks to all you guys.

Larry

I maybe wrong on this brand of rec., but plug y harness into rec. and hook battery to one lead and servo to other.

Yes, that is absolutely correct. You don't lose that last channel for the battery. Simply plug in a Y-harness to that channel and plug your servo in to one side and the battery into the other side.

Ken

Futaba is having a sale on all their 2.4. You get a second receiver for free. Example is the 10C at 599.99 minus $25 and get a 7 ch. receiver free. Dennis

There's no need for a Y-harness. There's a battery/data logger slot that runs horizontal just below the slots for the seven channels. It's a nice design, and a small touch that I really like. If you ever get an AR500, you'll notice a somewhat similar touch in that it has an additional slot for the aileron channel, so that with a two-servo wing you don't have to use a Y-harness. Kinda nice! It's not as though these are huge innovations, but it just seems that someone who actually flies RC is designing this stuff.

I know this is about another type of transmitter but if i get a Spektrum DX5e 5 channel radio with reciever and decide to get another PNP plane, can i buy another reciever and use the same transmitter to use with more than one plane?

The DX5 has no memory and will only fly one plane. Look at the 6 ch. I's $199 and will hold 10 planes. Dennis

It will fly it yes, but you would have to do a retrim on the planes everytime you switched back to a different plane. The dx5e has no model memory except the current settings that it is on.

i wouldn't mind retrimming them cause all i do is fly park-flyers but i wanted to know if it is possible to use more than one receiver with the same transmitter?

I understand that it doesn't seem like a big deal to you right now to do this. But I can assure you that in practice it is a total nightmare, even for a park flyer sized plane. The problem is that every time you switch the receiver you are going to have do a new maiden flight. Each time you will have to reset control throws, end points, sub-trims, or any other setting you have dialed in to a plane. Then you will have to fly the plane and re-trim it. Every time you switch out a receiver you will run the chance of trying to fly the plane with a control throw reversed because you forgot to change it. It's easy to sit here and say that you won't do that, but I can tell you from experience that it is very likely to happen.

While it is possible to do this, it really isn't practical.

Ken