Spektrum Transmitters

[daveimi]

Guten tag. I wanted to ask a bit about Spektrum Transmitters, I'm aware they're arguably the best and probably the most common in the robot community. In building a heavy I need something to fail-safe and have been looking at the options from around the DX4e through to the DX7 and they range from around £100 to about £200 for a posh DX7 Along the way is the DX5 and DX6 which seem to sit in the middle price wise. I'm looking for something to fail safe on all channels with a high quality receiver, and wondered how far up the model range you have to go to get this. At AWS at the weekend noticed people using the whole range, and saw how easily they bind to most receivers and was pretty sold.

A lot of the heavy people seem to use the DX6i with an orange Rx, and have seen threads like this before but they don't seem to contain the info I'm looking for. I wondered if someone in the know could just point me to where I need to be. If something like a DX4 is still current and will bind and fully fail safe with all the modern receivers I will go for one of those. But if it will take a certain way up the model range to achieve that I will happily spend the money. Just looking to see how far along I need to go...if that makes any sense at all lol.

[Shakey]

The failsafing is handled solely by the receiver and for some of them the positions the TX was in when they were bound.

A DX6i is probably the fanciest before it just starts becoming useless features. A DX6i has a nice model memory to control multiple bots, onboard mixing options and stuff like throttle cut/hold which are useful when it comes to controlling flippers.

[Niels - Team K.a.L.M.]

The orange receivers I know that will failsafe on ALL channels are the r620 and the r800.
Both will work fine with a spektrum TX.

As pointed out by Alex the DX6I is a versatile controller with nice features and I currently use one of them with either of the above mentioned receivers without problems.

I used a DX5e before, but the lack of modelmemory and the limited mixing functions made me move one up.

[Eventorizon]

Just a point of thought... You are spending hundreds, possible thousands of pounds on a heavyweight and now you want to stick the cheapest TX and RX in it that you can... that is just asking for trouble.
Do it properly and get a DX6i with a proper Spektrum receiver like a AR610.
It baffles me that people skimp out on the one thing that A: you can reuse for years and years and more importantly B: Is your only link to that massive investment in the arena.
Going the Orange route with a heavy is like buying a £5000 car and then spending £50 on a cheap plug and Play steering wheel set from Argos.

Going back to normailty, the DX6i's features far outweigh the initial higher cost. They are on ebay right now, brand new for £70: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SPEKTRUM-D...item27ee979437

And here is the receiver: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SPEKTRUM-A...item35dd99bef8

Look after them and they will last years.

Conker 3 is running the same receiver that Conker 1 did 3.5 years ago, a AR6110 Satellite receiver, and the same transmitter.

[Mouldy]

I wouldn't suggest a DX6i... I've done a lot of tech checks... and seen a lot of people have fail-safe issues with them. At the cheap end of the market the DX5 failsafe's pretty well... I've used a dx7 with good success, i now run a dx8, which is a real good TX... if i was to upgrade now id probably go for a DX9.

Also, I've not had a problem with orange RX's so far.

[daveimi]

"It baffles me that people skimp"

Lol do you feel better for a rant? Didn't mention anything about putting the cheapest receiver in, asked for advice on where I need to be with the better quality stuff. If I can fail safe with a DX6 great, if I need DX9 then that's ok too, I'll spend the money.

[adz600]

My dx6i is great also used fir my planes and model boat, the latest orange rx work and bind well and failsafe if bound correctly I use them in no toy and ceros and lent out my spare before so I rate them highly,

[Shakey]

I wouldn't suggest a DX6i... I've done a lot of tech checks... and seen a lot of people have fail-safe issues with them. At the cheap end of the market the DX5 failsafe's pretty well... I've used a dx7 with good success, i now run a dx8, which is a real good TX... if i was to upgrade now id probably go for a DX9.

Also, I've not had a problem with orange RX's so far.

As I said though the TX is irrelevant in failsafing. It is handled by the RX when it stops receiving commands. It's all about binding the robot correctly.

I've run proper spektrum RX's, Orange RX's, Lemon RX's and all sorts with them all failsafing.

[Rapidrory]

I second Shakey's point; when the transmitter turns off it stops broadcasting a signal. It's up to the receiver to decide what to do when the connection is lost. I'd personally happily run a Lemon on a Heavy. You can set their failsafe to what you want when you bind them, and they do exactly what you need from an RX. I've never had one die or lose signal apart from when I've gone and broken one with my dodgy soldering. The chances of your receiver dying or fail safing incorrectly is far below the chances of a wire coming loose or a connector coming undone, often with similar results. So as long as it does control your robot and does fail safe, I wouldn't lose too much sleep over what Rx you're using...

[Eventorizon]

"It baffles me that people skimp"

Lol do you feel better for a rant? Didn't mention anything about putting the cheapest receiver in, asked for advice on where I need to be with the better quality stuff. If I can fail safe with a DX6 great, if I need DX9 then that's ok too, I'll spend the money.

That was aimed at those who throw in a cheap receiver, not you specifically.