propstryker

My Feedback: (2)

A shout out to Hitec! I damaged this radio by shorting out the molex plug. The radio is 10 years old. I sent it in and Hitec fixed it under warranty! Unheard of! I have always supported Hitec and will continue to do so. Well done Hitec! Thank you!

SwampFlier-RCU

I love my 9X... too bad the Multiplex side of radios won ,,,
Will use until it breaks, have Graupner 24mz to take the place
HItec servos are still my favorite

Lightspeed1551

My Feedback: (4)

What sucks @#$ about this is there isn't going to be a bigger better "9XL" that will work with the optama recevers. The whole line is just dead.

04corsair

I have both the aurora 9 and 9x and had others as well like the flash 8. Now I was in love with Hitec systems, it's all I have been using along with servo's ect. I just bought the 9x in the fall of last year from Tower Hobbies so it's brand new, I had 6 giant scale warbirds and a 3d plane all programmed and ready to go for this years flying season. I get out to the field today and get things set up. I started out with my 3d slick 580 to get some stick time before the maidens on 3 of my newest warbirds. I range checked the 3d bird like I always do, especially since it was a new radio. Checks out fine, walked out about 50 yards or so. Come back fire her up and a way we go, about 60 flights on this plane, nothings changed except for the radio, plane got out about a 100 yards and I lose all signal, engine throttles down and she piles in. GRRRR. I get all the balsa sticks back to the flight line, checked it for power, nothing. So I plug the battery into the rec, everything works. I chalk it up to a bad switch or extension. Pulled everything out and trash the plane. I decided to plug everything in again and see if it truly was the switch, nope everything works, wiggling wires, you name it and I don't lose power. Hmmm scratching my head. Not sure now what happend.
ok so I settle down and pull my zero out and set it up and range check ect all good to go. Take off and a 100 yards out it does the same dam thing the 3d plane did and she piles in. Well F### now at that moment I knew what was wrong, this brand spanking new aurora 9x radio is flat out junk!!!!! And has issues.
I go out and pick up my brand new $800 never flown 1st flight giant scale Zero after sceaming F### several times, bring all I could find for a possible rebuild (not sure it can be) and when I got there the it still had power on because I can here the servos buzzing. I get back to the flight line and start to investigate just to be certain it was the radios fault of destroying 2 planes. The dam thing needed to be rebound first then I did the normal range check, get out about 35, 40 yards and lose all control to the surfaces that are left able to move, I walk back up 5 yards and it starts to work slightly with hesitation walk a little more and it works fine. I check my Hellcat that was sitting there on the flightline waiting to be maidened and it needed to be rebound as well. FLIPPN PISSED OFF MF RIGHT NOW!!!!!

Sitting there discussing what everyone witnessed with both crashes and how they were identically the same and how a brand new radio would be like this. Well let me tell you at that moment I had just about lost confidence in hitec radio's. Oh yeah and 1 time of turning the radio back on in that mix the screen just stayed black, nothing till I turned it back off then on again.

At this time I'll be sending the radio back for warranty repair but I am undecided if I will continue to use it when I get it back. Just so damm pissed off right now.
I suppose I can use the aurora 9 I still have but there was a time or 2 when I powered that one on as well the screen stayed black, it was a used radio and thats why I went and bought the 9x. I do like it but dam I'm gun shy now especially after losing about 1500 bucks in airframes today, good thing everything eles is reusable. Or it would be about 4/5000$ lost.

Now what also pisses me off is I find out this radio is now discontinued. But from what I read it can still be serviced and warranty repair done. Good dam thing I went on hitecrc.com cause I had previously downloaded a warranty paper last year sometime for a servo that I had go bad, printed it first without looking at the website and had it ready to ship then I look on the website and see they moved and there is a new address. Grrrrr. Dowloaded the new paper to print.

I just just needed to vent after today and reading all the coments made me feel the need to give my experience with the 9x.

Thanks to all for reading..lol.

04corsair

And yes for anyone wondering, both planes had their own batteries and were fully charged and I use 3 batteries per plane, 2 2300 lifes on recievers and 1 2200 lipo on my retracts. No lipo in the 3d bird. And batteries were load checked after the crashes and were fine. Both planes to do the exact same thing before piling in leaves 1 thing. Radio..

Xpress

Sorry to hear about the problem. Unfortunately these things do happen, get the transmitter to us and we will check it out and see what's going on.

propstryker

My Feedback: (2)

Agreed! Fine line, not so sure! Lol!

propstryker

My Feedback: (2)

I sent it in and Hitec fixed it under warranty, no charge! Who does that! A 10 year old transmitter, with an issue that was caused by me. Outstanding! Hitec, a first class company!

rcpilotny

As I look at my original Hitec Aurora 9 and gear (which are rock solid) to prepare early for another flying season, I thought about the Hitec A9s radios being discontinued and things just don't add up. The company is not going to tell us the reason so guys, I would like to hear theories you think or have heard as to why it was actually discontinued / cut off from production.

propstryker

My Feedback: (2)

The official response from Hitec is that the A9 is "No longer compliant on manufacturing level. " We will never understand what this statement means. Perhaps they are putting their R & D energies elsewhere. There a lot of other powerful radios on the market at this price point. I liked Windows 7 but hate Windows 10, so it goes. We change as the product changes. Not compliant on an ISO standard? A statement that means nothing and tells us nothing. It does mean something in the manufacturing world, but we will never be told what. Bottom line, it is no longer available. I was programming my A9 today for another airplane. I have three planes flying with it and three more spare receivers. I will keep flying it until it dies or Hitec can no longer work on it. Hitec is an outstanding company. I use all Hitec servos and chargers, etc. I shorted out the molex plug on this radio, Hitec asked me to send it back, and they repaired what was then a 10 year old radio under warranty. Amazing. I have nothing but good things to say about Hitec. This radio is now 11 years old and I have gotten my money's worth. It was my first 2.4 radio and I bought it to fly at Joe Nall when they went to all 2.4 It has been rock solid. It was one of the first radios with telemetry and the easiest, and still remains one of the easiest, radio to program. I bought it when it first came out. I still love this radio. I have a Spektrum DX18 that I will use next.

Truckracer

My Feedback: (19)

My guess would be that some parts were no longer easily sourced ..... or ...... the radio was no longer profitable. If it was a profit center for the company, I'm sure it would still be around. Like it or not the A9 series of radios have been around over a decade now and are getting dated. It was time for a new design and it probably wasn't practical to produce a new radio in a declining market.

I flew an A9 for years and enjoyed it very much. A few years back, I moved on when it no longer met my needs.

propstryker

My Feedback: (2)

You make some very good points Truckracer.

rcpilotny

Don't know if transitioning into the commercial drone market had anything to do with it as well. They have a bunch of drones on the market that run in the $10-20k range now.