I have owned the Taranis since July 2013. I will not consider another transmitter available today. I just recently purchased the plus model.
There are two things it will do that the most expensive tranmitters will not do that are not even mentioned here that I consider essential:
1) Instant trim.
2) Telemetry logging and recording.

Instant trim. If your new bird is out of trim you get it flying straight and level then push a switch and your stick positions are copied into your trims and your aircraft is trimmed
Telemetry logging. I think telemetry is useless if it is not logged.I( crash a lot. I like to know what happened.) Taranis logs everything- and I mean everything.
I just load it into a spreadsheet and I can plot it from there.

Some of the more interesting things I have it doing.
It starts logging when I advance the throttle. Below 50% it samples once/sec. Above 50% it samples once/0,,1sec
I have a non linear curve on the throttle to balance out the non linear response of the throttle of a gas motor.
All three controls have triple rates.
My GPS sensor records position,altitude and speed
We have a first day flying session on Jan 1. It plays Ald Lyngs zyne.Sorry I dont know how to spell it.
Instead of yelling "on the field" when I taxi out I just push a switch it honks "OOGA"
And when I crash it plays Chopans Funeral March.

Thanks for that Info, Dirtybird. Every time I read about the Taranis I learn something new.
Can you explain how you set up your instant trims please? I want to use this feature very much so.
Thanks!

Its a special function.
Go to the special function menu and select an open line.
Click the line with ent and move to the first position and press ent again. Use the +.- buttons to select the switch you want to use and its position.
push ent then - and move to the next position. again push ent and scroll to instant trim
Push ent again
You will see a box on the end of the line. Check that. After you use instant trim uncheck that box to prevent inadvertent operation of it

Awesome! Very easily done. I cant wait to fly something with my Taranis... I have 2 planes in progress and am updating my beloved Hobbyzone Super Cub... The first rc plane I have ever owned... the upgrade is the X9R receiver, motor and esc. I could have flown it today because the weather permitted finally, but not enough time to do so.
From now on , only one project at a time. Three at once means nothing (or not enough) gets done!

I would just like to point out that all the Jeti transmitters have instant trim and telemetry logging, Weatronic modules and receivers and their new Tx have much more logging than even Taranis does.
Not dissing Taranis, I have one and the OpenTx firmware is the most powerful firmware available, but instant trim and data logging are not unique to it!

Instant trim has been around for a LONG time. The first computer radio, the Ace Micropro from the early 1980's had it. They called it "Auto Trim". Interesting how all the manufacturers ignored the feature until recently.

Please note that I said most expensive transmitters do not have that feature- I didn't say all of them did not.
Also please elaberate what Wheatronics logs that Taranis does not.
I am aware of Auto trim on Ace. I have one. Also Graupner had one.Again read what I said.
BTW how much does Jeti or Wheatronics cost?

Yes you did. You did not say as you now claim "most expensive transmitters do not" , you said "the most expensive transmitters do not". The addition of "the" completely changes the meaning. I did read what you said, perhaps you should too!

OK Henry I wont argue that point. But then again Jeti is not the most expensive transmitter. As far as I know a Futaba is. Does it have instant trim?
Again I ask what does Wheatronics log that Taranis dont?
BTW if you want to argue about grammar I can put you in touch with my granddaughter. She is an English teacher a university.
I think you knew what I meant

The FrSky Taranis sure is in demand. Wayne at Aloft Hobbies got a shipment in and I think they were sold out in less than a day, but luckily snagged one. I think the impact of open source is having a huge impact on radio systems. When I bought my Futaba 12FG a few years ago I think it cost well over $1,200 plus the 2.4 module. It is a great radio, but now seems pretty limited compared to the Taranis. It's going to be interesting to explore the Taranis.

8178

You are in for a treat my friend.

Telemetry and voice notifications are a game changer if you've never had a radio with the capability. I suggest you download the computer side software/simulator now and start playing along with a few of Wayne's videos on youtube.

Once you get your mind around the basic concepts it really isn't very hard at all to get it set up for the average sport airplane. It will probably be a little different than what you are used to but once you "get it" it seems logical. It's the massive capability that makes it seem overly complex early on.

It is pretty neat stuff for sure. I have the Open TX Companion and have been working with it while I'm waiting for FEDX to deliver the radio. So far I'm finding that the Taranis documentation is really great.


I'm not a fan of Chinese made stuff, but when I noticed that some of my new Futaba stuff had a "Made in China" stickers on them I decided that "Chinese" is "Chinese" even if it has the Futaba name on it. So Futaba prompted me to try some FrSky FASST receivers with my Futaba 12FG and then I converted my 9C to FrSky. That worked well so on to the Taranis!! It is all Futaba's fault! :-)

I would be interested to hear what type of models each of you are flying with the Taranis and what receiver are you using?

I have 3ea X8R receivers and they are in the following:
Shoestring 60 powered glow with Airspeed Sensor
FMS P-47 electric power
Sig 1/4 Scale J-3 Cub OS 160 Twin with vario for Altitude reporting.

Using X8R's in a 50 CC Pilot Yak 54, a 1/4 scale BUSA Cub and a RC Guys 30 CC Decathlon. Have a X6R in a small electric Yak and a small electric Spitfire. Telemetry is Rx battery only, no sensors.

I have a total of 14 D series receivers, both 6 channel and 4 channel, installed in a variety of scratch built and kit built planes .40 size and smaller. One is a 2 meter glider with the precision vario for altitude and rate of climb telemetry data.

Using it mainly on Multicopters as these are my latest builds.

Receivers are
2 x X8Rs - each with GPS and cell voltage sensors
1 x X6R
1 x Delta 8
3 x D4R-II

All are connected to the fight controllers by either S.Bus or PPM (less wires) and working flawlessly.

As I said earlier, I'm currently "testing" my Taranis on my scratch built giant Stik. I have one of my X8R receivers in the Stik using 6 channels. Servos are old Hitec HS 645s. The engine is a MVVS 26 cc gasser with MVVS ignition. I have an Rcexcel ignition electronic cut-off switch installed on one of those channels for the ignition. I'm powering the radio with a 2 cell 2600mah A123 battery pack through an Electrodynamics Super Switch. I have some voice stuff set up on the dual rates and am only using the receiver battery voltage telemetry.

The system is working perfectly.

I just installed an X8R in my old buddy, a Hobbyzone Super Cub.

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/arf-...r-upgrade.html

Everything works great! I would like to get the battery voltage telemetry to work. Can someone tell me how to get this set up?

I also have a nearly completed Cessna 182 that has an X8R and a spad Stik with the same receiver. The cub is the only one that is ready to fly... hopefully tomorrow. :)

On a glow, gas or electric plane with a dedicated receiver battery, the Telemetry function on your receiver will report the voltage as well as received signal strength (RSSI) as these two functions are "built in". However, on an electric plane without a dedicated flight pack battery, the receiver will be powered by the BEC function of your ESC, therefore the voltage reported will be the BEC voltage delivered to the receiver. If you want to know the voltage of your motor battery on your electric plane you will need an additional sensor called a Lipo Voltage Sensor. See pic below.

Which type of plane are you wanting to set up with voltage reporting?

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049's suggestion will work. Another solutions is to run a separate battery for the receiver/servos. In my P-47 I am using a LIFE 700mah pack I bought from Hobby King for $2.99ea. It is approx. 1.3oz and has the advantage of not relying on the electric motor battery for the receiver and servos. The Taranis reports this battery as A1 voltage on the telemetry screen and you can get audio warning of low battery.

Thanks for the replies. I did purchase two voltage sensors for my flight batteries but those are slated for my Stik and Cessna, as I will be using separate receiver batteries because these planes have 6 servos each, and the cub only has two... rud and ele.
I did not realize that the receiver voltage reports to A1. Ill go from there and see if I can get a voice alert set up for low voltage.
I have already created a "voice" library.
Ill let you know how that works out.
Thanks again!

All is good. I am using the Open TX Companion and got a little "tripped up" while setting the offset. I wound up having to set the offset on the transmitter then uploading the file to the laptop. That is understandable as the software is not actually online with the transmitter and it cannot see the telemetry data.
I also set up a low RSS voice alert but was unsure what my cut off number should be, so I used 30 for the alert trip point. Does this number sound to high or low to you?
The next thing I need to figure out is how to log data. I'll mess around a bit first before asking some questions.

Thanks for all your help. With a little "nudge" in the right direction, I seem to be doing very well with my Taranis.

I believe the RSSI low point should be set at 45. Mine came with it already set.
Again the SDlogs are available as a special function.
Are you aware that there is an online manual?
I dont know the link but I think others can tell you.
You might want to watch some of Scott Page's videos on ytube

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Under Telemetry I have RSSI set at "Low Alarm" is 45, "Critical Alarm" is 42. I think this is suggested default.

Under Special Functions I set SF3 on switch SE(up) to "SD Logs" ever .5seconds. When SE is in back(down) position the log is active.