AC2

My Feedback: (34)

Curious how this stacks up- Dymond FASST receiver and their servos. Also curious about the other brand of servos like tower pro digital servos.

jetmech05

IMHO radio gear and servos are the last place to go cheap. I know nothing of the Dymond products. But make sure the receiver is compatible with your transmitter. Tower servos are supposed to be ok Futaba knock offs I believe.

AC2

My Feedback: (34)

I hear ya and I agree but at same time I remember when Hitec was considered a less expensive option for of Futaba, JR, Airtronics.

http://dymondusa.com/cgi-bin/commerc...ction&key=1435

Sad thing is knowing MFG the way I do, a lot of things we buy are same items with a different label or case and we end up paying for a brand name. I am not against that if it's what someone wants to do but having options is always better.

JollyPopper

My Feedback: (6)

They all have to start somewhere. It was not too long ago that FrSky was unheard of but now they are probably considered one of the really good brands. I first became acquainted with them when they came out with FASST compatible receivers at 1/3 the cost of Futaba. I bought a couple and used them in planes that I would not have been devastated if I had lost, but it did not happen. Gradually I worked them into better air frames and now have roughly 15 to 20 of them with no glitches at all. Then they came out with a receiver that is compatible with Hitec Aurora 9 transmitters, I bought one and it was the same story--rock solid. Also their Taranis radio is said to be one of the best. Same story with Tactic radios. Seems to be a really good product at a decent cost. Both were considered "off brand" not so long ago. So you pays your money and you takes your chances.

AC2

My Feedback: (34)

well said

Hydro Junkie

If I remember right, Tower servos weren't knock offs, they were made in the same plant as Futaba servos. Tactic radio gear was also made at Futaba production plants for use in the various ARF boats and planes being manufactured for Horizon Hobby, the company that owns Futaba

TFF

I think you meant Hobbico. Futaba is this https://www.futaba.co.jp/en/corporat...cts/index.html Hobbico is just a distributer that has a lock on the US. Hitec made its name as as the BFGoodrich or RC radios. No OEM sales but offered best alternative for something not OEM. I have had some of the older ones and use plenty of servos.
If you can design electronics on a computer, it is easy to have it manufactured. As the quality control gets better all the radios get better, you just dont want to get THAT radio. How they are weeded out is really the important part. Most of these off brand radios are reversed engineered. Not that is bad. Just not forward thinking.

Hydro Junkie

When you really think about it, all it takes to reverse engineer anything electronic is a wiring diagram, many of which are readily available on the internet. The rest is just getting in and making the parts. Then again, if you go back to the late 1940s, the Soviet Union reverse engineered the B-29 bomber from three that they seized after they landed in Vladivostock with battle damage after a raid on Japan. When they were done, the planes they produced were so authentic the engines even had replicated Pratt & Whitney ID plates on them

jester_s1

Frysky is not considered by anyone but the "buy today fly tomorrow" drone crowd as being one of the better brands. They make cheap stuff that usually works, not high quality stuff. Where they cut corners is in the case, gimbals, switches, etc. Their Taranis radio is not nearly as durable as comparable units from the 4 big brands, but for half the cost you can't expect it to be.

I'll respond to the comment too that most cheap stuff is made in the same factory as the big brands. Sometimes that's true. But with the big brands, you are paying for more than just the manufacturing. You are paying for quality control, documentation, phone service after the sale, and warranties. All of those things cost money. So sure, maybe you can save a few dollars by buying off brand stuff. But if it turns out to be defective, it's all up to you to fix it.

Steve Percifield

My Feedback: (14)

I've been at this long enough to remember when Futaba entered the US market. At that time there was still hard feelings over Japanese merchandise. Futaba was considered junk,. I remember the first few I saw at our field. Plastic transmitter cases, and they really didn't work. Took them a while to catch up.

AC2

My Feedback: (34)

You mean plastic compared to the Kraft sheet metal cases? LOL, looong time ago?? How are they doing nowadays?

Kraft and ACE were the big dogs when I first go into RC. Futaba was the hitec but my first radio purchase was a Tower Hobbies which at that time was a fairly new company about 7 years or so. Hobby shack is where I bought my first .15 glow engine and trainer wood kit.. then Bud Nosen trainer with a .61 Webra...lol..then Balsa USA smoothie and on and on..funny how you look back and see who survived.

I really think due to the Chinese labor its so easy to have these farmed out but QC if not kept tight in the begining will take time to catch up if left loose, but by then the brand is tarnished so I would think and hope that one of the primary factors would be QC first. Quality is only as good as the Quality control.

Back to Dymond I never heard of them until my recent edition of Model aviation. That Futaba compatible FASST RX caught my eye.

blvdbuzzard

I too remember those cheap plastic radio's from japan of all places. Futaba was a curse word back then. Then another radio came on the scene, it too was cursed at, Hitec. They were all junk.

I have flown Airtronics for a long long time. They have never given me any trouble. Great range, never issues with signals. Totally reliable. Yet when I started fling the Dollar store foam planes I had issues with paying $80.00 for an 8 channel Rx for a plane ready to fly less Rx was less than $30.00. So I bought a 9x. It was $55.00 to the door, extra 8 channel Rx's were $12.00. Been flying that for i guess 5 years. Never had a brown out, Rx reset in the air, never have to re bind, has been 100% reliable. I started using it for the cheap throw away planes. Well ow I use it for nay plane I have and never worry about it. New this year is a Flysky i10 radio. Has a ton of features, color touch screen, programmable sound, telemetry, for less than $200.00. I only have about 50 hours on it so far, but no issues with it.

It is always brought up about warranty and after the sale service. The only Futaba I owned went back in for service 3 times and they never did fix it. As it was not a question if I would get hit but how many times I got hit per flight. This was at the "OLD" hitec shop in Santee, I had my Super7 worked on, 4 times and never did fix it. My luck with warranty work is not that good. Only Airtronics radio I sent inVG6DR. I dropped it, pushed the throttle gimbal in and broke the D/R switch. Got it back in a week, no charge.

I buy based on my budget and if the product will do what I need it to. When I did construction I used Dewalt tools, 4 times the cost of Ryobi, but Ryobi would not last being abused like that. Since I am a crippled old fart now, I use B&D power tools. If I flew R/C for a living, or I used it everyday, I may see a difference in the Flysky i10 and a $1200.00 Futaba or JR.


I have bought some cheap stuff that really surprised me in how good it was. I too have bought cheap stuff and it too surprised me in how bad it was.


Buzz.

DavidAgar

My Feedback: (108)

I agree. Your radio is not the place to cheap out. I do know that these orange receivers have been a problem at our field with Spectrum radios. I am one of only a few at our field that uses Futaba. I only use the Fast receivers and to date I have not had any radio problems at all. As for servo's, I do use Futaba and Hitec with no problems at all. Good Luck, Dave

AC2

My Feedback: (34)

Just for giggles I took some old servos and compared them to a tower pro digital. Looks like they resemble Hitec the most. You can tell which servos are in the same family. Also tower hobbies sells a servo that looks just like the tower pro.
http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...8&I=LXELZN&P=K

just makes a guy wonder because if you switch the sticker the RC gear shop and tower pro look identical and if you change the gear to gold it would resemble the Hitec and Hobbico.
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