Futaba or Hitec or who?? Need HELP picking a radio to support GPS RETURN TO HOME NAZA

[helloman1976]

I need some advice on picking a radio. Right now I have invested a lot of money in my multicopter, as many or all of you have too lol I want to make sure my investment is as safe as possible which is the idea behind this post etc. I want to be able to fly out of "range" and have my copter return to my location and I have the Naza stuff to support that or will anyway once I get this radio. I have had my eyes on a brand new Futaba 8FGH for $299 I found with no receiver. I also found a brand new Aurora Hitec for $249. I like that the Hitec has battery and telemetry data and also supports failsafe or RTH for Naza. The question is, which one is better over the long run and/or for UHF? I'm eventually moving to Ez UHF for UHF or a long range system for that matter in the future so keep that in mind. Anyone who's owned both? Your help is appreciated as I'm about to make a major purchase that I'll be stuck with for a long time. For reference I currently use a ANCIENT 6EX Futaba that I love but does not support failsafe other than the crappy throttle hold failsafe. Thanks!

 

[OneStopRC]

Futaba is probably your best bet, I know little about other radios, I have been a futaba guy for as long as I can remember... Is there a reason your going with the "H" or helicopter version of the radio? DJI states not to use helicopter mode, but saying that, some will say they have seen no issues running in either mode.

All you really need, is a radio with at least 2 x 3 positions switches, of which something like the T8J's have. The Futaba 8FGH also should have them, but as I said, stay clear of the "H" versions, you're probably looking for the "A" version of the radio.

 

[Tomstoy2]

My personal favorite, Futaba t8fg. S-bus is the way to go, eliminates a lot of wires. The rest of the open ports on the recviever you can then use to power led's.
I used several Spectrum radios on my heli's, but when I went to multi, Futaba was my choice.

 

[helloman1976]

Futaba is probably your best bet, I know little about other radios, I have been a futaba guy for as long as I can remember... Is there a reason your going with the "H" or helicopter version of the radio? DJI states not to use helicopter mode, but saying that, some will say they have seen no issues running in either mode.

All you really need, is a radio with at least 2 x 3 positions switches, of which something like the T8J's have. The Futaba 8FGH also should have them, but as I said, stay clear of the "H" versions, you're probably looking for the "A" version of the radio.

Very good that you noticed that but I use the H version specifically in airplane mode because in the H version you have the ratchet action on the throttle whereas the airplane version the throttle has no resistance. I, like probably most of us, are X heli pilots so we fall back on old habits I guess. But yes, do not use your radio in Heli mode but you can use a Heli controller in airplane mode

 

[helloman1976]

My personal favorite, Futaba t8fg. S-bus is the way to go, eliminates a lot of wires. The rest of the open ports on the recviever you can then use to power led's.
I used several Spectrum radios on my heli's, but when I went to multi, Futaba was my choice.

Thanks for the advice! I was probably going to end up with the Futaba so that's good to know. I have no idea what S-bus is, can you give me a brief run down of what you can/can't do with it? What is it? I'll try to read about it as well.. Thanks again!

 

[mbsteed]

I use a DX 10t and love it. The only issue is that it doesn't have S-bus but that is not an issue unless you have an octo and plan on using the camera gimbal controls from the DJI flight controller.

 

[helloman1976]

I use a DX 10t and love it. The only issue is that it doesn't have S-bus but that is not an issue unless you have an octo and plan on using the camera gimbal controls from the DJI flight controller.

Dang! That's quite a radio you have there, let me know when you're gonna sell it lol j/k. Looks like there is lots of love for either Futaba or Spectrum which is cool I guess. Not much love for Hitec though, maybe because they're smaller? Oh well, I'm going to go ahead with the 8FG by Futaba. Thanks to all!

 

[PeterLester]

IMHO - The Futaba 8FG Super is an excellent choice..... Configuration using s.bus is easy with the R6208SB Futaba receiver..... see Jon DesJardins Youtube videos on that.
But if you go with less than an 8 channnel receiver you might face some extra challenges with configuring failsafe modes as I did with a 6 channel R617. (7 channels might work out though)
There are also some FrSky receivers that claim to be Futaba FASST compatible and s.bus compatible at better pricing but binding to Transmitter is different and might not be possible with some of the receiver models.

 

[OneStopRC]

Very good that you noticed that but I use the H version specifically in airplane mode because in the H version you have the ratchet action on the throttle whereas the airplane version the throttle has no resistance. I, like probably most of us, are X heli pilots so we fall back on old habits I guess. But yes, do not use your radio in Heli mode but you can use a Heli controller in airplane mode

My Throttle stick is a ratchet already, it is a T8JA

Futaba sporting the S-Bus which can be used for Heli if needed. Anyway, I think you will be fine with the Futaba, easy to use, easy to set up, not too many gimmicks.​

 

[helloman1976]

My Throttle stick is a ratchet already, it is a T8JA

Futaba sporting the S-Bus which can be used for Heli if needed. Anyway, I think you will be fine with the Futaba, easy to use, easy to set up, not too many gimmicks.​

Oh ok, I had heard that the aircraft version had no ratchet action...doesn't matter honestly they are exactly the same radio.

 

[FerdinandK]

I would go for the Aurora9 ... native Telemetry (the receiver can be connected to the main battery pack, and you see it´s voltage on your Transmitter without any "sensor"). Now there is a voice module which can not only show, but tell you the voltage (and other data), the receivers have a good price, the range is ok, but of course you cannot say, that you have a Futaba. You can also have telemetry info on Laptop or I-Phone if you like (with specific addon modules (not connected to the Transmitter))

I am flying all kinds of rc-aircraft with the Aurora (Glider, Jet, Helicopter, Multirotor).

best regards

Ferdinand

 

[linter]

My personal favorite, Futaba t8fg. S-bus is the way to go, eliminates a lot of wires. The rest of the open ports on the recviever you can then use to power led's.
I used several Spectrum radios on my heli's, but when I went to multi, Futaba was my choice.

what? that's true about the open rx ports being able to power leds? if so, i just ordered a bunch of balance lead connectors to make splitters for voltage alarm / led connection. crap! but they weren't expensive, so it's no big loss. i'm using sbus now and would love to power the leds with the rx.

 

[OneStopRC]

Oh ok, I had heard that the aircraft version had no ratchet action...doesn't matter honestly they are exactly the same radio.

I thought it was the other way... lol. I am probably wrong, but mine was default to Acrobatic mode. Yeah, it don't really matter..

 

[Tomstoy2]

Ok, here's the deal about powering up led's when using s-bus. The buss inside, both positive and negative are active, has to be. So, you can, as I have done, plug your led's into these unused ports to power on the led's. However, you can not control them with switches, as that function is now routed to the s-bus.
When powering on the battery you will also always power on the led's.

 

[OneStopRC]

Ok, here's the deal about powering up led's when using s-bus. The buss inside, both positive and negative are active, has to be. So, you can, as I have done, plug your led's into these unused ports to power on the led's. However, you can not control them with switches, as that function is now routed to the s-bus.
When powering on the battery you will also always power on the led's.

I installed led strips on my arms, the LED strips are just under a meter long and wrap continuous white on the front white arms! I also did the same with red LED on the rear red arms. I took the power switch that came with my futaba radio, the one that connects the battery and has the charge port, I cut off the charge port and used the connector and soldered it to my main battery connection on the 450 board, connected my LEDs in parallel and installed another connector. The switch is mounted through the top plate where my battery strap used to be, so I have a way of turning them on and off if needed.
Later on, I intend on buying the turnigy switch that plugs into the receiver, and will assign it a channel to turn them on remotely, might need an S-Bus decoder to do this, but it will work out.

New to S-Bus? read all about it here and watch some YouTube videos, just to show what S-Bus can really do! http://www.futaba-rc.com/sbus/index.html

 

[Bluerex]

The thing I love most about my Aurora is the built in telemetry. No worries about using a BEC to power the receiver - just straight off the main power and the voltage magically appears on the Tx screen :frog:
Oh and programming the Fail-safe was easy - I then added a switch to force Fail-safe mode without having to turn off the transmitter (shudder)

C

 

[Mr. Ty Winters]

I need some advice on picking a radio. Right now I have invested a lot of money in my multicopter, as many or all of you have too lol I want to make sure my investment is as safe as possible which is the idea behind this post etc. I want to be able to fly out of "range" and have my copter return to my location and I have the Naza stuff to support that or will anyway once I get this radio. I have had my eyes on a brand new Futaba 8FGH for $299 I found with no receiver. I also found a brand new Aurora Hitec for $249. I like that the Hitec has battery and telemetry data and also supports failsafe or RTH for Naza. The question is, which one is better over the long run and/or for UHF? I'm eventually moving to Ez UHF for UHF or a long range system for that matter in the future so keep that in mind. Anyone who's owned both? Your help is appreciated as I'm about to make a major purchase that I'll be stuck with for a long time. For reference I currently use a ANCIENT 6EX Futaba that I love but does not support failsafe other than the crappy throttle hold failsafe. Thanks![/QUO

Futaba Unfortunately they are terribly expensive. However the newer DJI FLIGHT controllers (A2, A3, N3) come with built in Receivers that only respond to the Futaba T14SG AND FUTABA T8FG transmitters. I think it's absolute crap that no one made me aware of this Monopoly prior to me investing in (3)A2 flight controllers. Fyi, what a disappointment the A2 flight controllers are. I've had to replace (4)LED BT modules already. 1 worked great, I have 2 complete A2 controller set ups that I can't get to work and DJI'S response," Hmmm, sorry, we don't have a response for that. Feel free to ship your DJI S900 with flight controller and transmitter, to DJI and at my cost they will look into what the issue is. Because according to them they have never ever, ever seen my issue before.
The issue I'm having is with my compass calibration . When I perform the 2 step calibration, the 1st part, horizontal 360°works just fine, light on L.E.D. switches from blue to green. Then I put the S900 nose down and begin turning clock wise at about 40°, i get the red blinking light of death. When this happens im no longer able to get the purple light back and the system is simply dead. Ive gone back into the assistant to try to find the problem and it shows nothing. I do the assistant IMU calibration ,but nothing fixes the compass calibration. Ive purchased 2 brand new GPS/Compasses from Amazon(not cheap @ $200 each) with no success. Ive swapped out the Mimi's, the pmu's, actual flight controller, GPS, IOSD MARKII and the DJIAV54 video transmitters. It is going to cost me a small fortune to ship these massive crafts but in the meantime, I have well over $10,000 sitting around collecting dust. I'm located in So Cal if anyone has any suggestions. I'm a small custom drone business and this is a substantial hit to me and my pocket book. Please HELP! THANKS