I am looking for a good "new" 6 chanel radio for my boys. The radio needs to have end point adjustments. I only need 6 channels as the boats are fastgun. If you have any links to a good radio please link it.
The most popular fastgun radio is the Spektrum DX6i mainly because it was one of the first reliable 2.4gHz radios. Ron Hunt
I have 2 of them, they are my favorite radio by far. http://www.spektrumrc.com/Products/...Id=SPM6610
Johnny, I am somewhat known for using a LOT of HobbyKing stuff. The radios are friggin' awesome and cannot be beaten for the price. Fully programmable, totally intuitive, and I can change any settings I want to while driving it around on the pond (during testing, not during combat, obviously). 9 channels is overkill but for $60 how can you go wrong? I have 2 solid years on one of these, and before that, with it's older 6-channel ancestor. $60. Each. With receiver. There is nothing that a Spektrum can do that this one can't. We've been using one for the loaner boat for a year, as well, and totally newbies have no issues using it. I can see no good reason to spend hundreds of dollars on a radio system when one this good is well under a hundred bucks, including shipping. Full disclosure, I spent like $20 to buy a LiPO transmitter pack, but that's hardly a big deal. If you run it on AAs, one set will easily get you through a battle weekend. Linky: http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/...ware_.html I think you would find them economical and battle-worthy.
I have a spektrum 7 channel and love it, high quality, great service to go with it, etc. However, I have been hearing of the hobbyking 2.4s lately from others, and it seems good. In the end it's your choice, so think closely about your budget and research both thoroughly.
Triple post. On spotty internet right now, sorry, someone please delete as I don't think I can myself.
Hey Tug, how can I tell if this radio has end point adjustments? I am assuming it does. www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/_...de_2_.html
One of the main reasons I started using Spektrum was that other used it.. so spare recievers and transmitters are around. I know many of the folks I pit with use the same radios and we have swapped both recievers and transmitters in the past...so local trends do have an influence on the purchase for sure. Personally I am still not sold on HK quality.. price yes.. stake my 20hr drive on it.... no. It does cost money to drive to Missouri and other places and I don't mind spending a few extra bucks if it means I will have a better chance of no equipment failures. With that said, if this radio had been available before I invested in a set of radios and many recievers..... I may have tried it... I may still and test with cruisers. Im not sure. I am glad we have folks using all this different stuff so we have 'reviews' on many things. J
Was that for me Clark? I wasn't asking I was just offering the Spektrum as an option/opinion. I personally am of the opinion that if new folks get products that are hard to make work properly.. they go to a battle.. nothing works.. it may deter them from further participation. I believe in putting my best foot forward regardless. Experienced Veterans may have both the patience and experience to work around issues related to either limitations OR failures in equipment in the interest of keeping the cost down. For example I tolerate all types of issues with my PC at home that I wouldn't leave un-repaired for a customer/client. I can deal with it and work around it.. the client can't or won't. As far as HK radio equipment, when I went to the Brouhaha and Jeff Lide's conversion modules from Hobby King kept going dead.. leaving him dead in the water.. anytime a spectrum radio came near his... confirmed a few things for me. 1.. They did a poor implementation of the 2.4 (protocol) and as such wasn't sharing frequencies and playing nice with other radios. 2 - They shipped it.. in that condition. In the end it was given away or tossed in the trash. Then he replaced it with Spektrum DX6i.. no problems. If he had just bought Spektrum to start with then he would be ahead in the money game. Do Spektrum have issues.. sure. Not the same that I have seen with others and I only have mine, Jeff's, and others track records to go by. I even waited to upgrade until they had a newer hardware revision to buy mine and like I said, I have 2 radios and I love them. Now as far as 'Tinkering' or 'Experimenting' .. yes its cool to get bleeding edge or newly released products (I do it all the time)...but that is more under the category of electronics/hacking/making etc... but not as much r/c naval combat. While they are related I don't thin new or returning guys should be spending a year experimenting instead of getting their ship ready and putting it on the water. My advice is strictly based on getting battlers on the water and with the best chance of operation possible. I am a firm believer in buying products that are in use in your local or regional area as well so if a Region3/Georgia battler wants a radio .. I would tell them to get what the others are using... that way somebody at the pond will know how to overcome issues and fix problems. However if that person is going to attend battles in other regions or go to Nationals.. they might have a problem...not to mention they risk driving for 12-20 hrs just to sit out and watch. This is also the reason I take 2 radios instead of 1... so if it fails I can still play. I hope that better explains why I recommend this radio and any other type of product for that matter. Battlers on the water! That is number 1! Johnny
LOL Johnny, it wasn't you, it was dummy me misremembering whose thread it was! HAHAHA My bad, totally. I don't know why I thought it was you asking, must've been brain-farting. I don't think of myself as bleeding-edge but I guess over the years I've kind of gotten there. I agree on commonality of parts, that's why Brian K and I compare notes, and a couple other people. I don't know SQUAT about radios with swappable modules, so I have no opinion on those, although someone as knowledgable as Jeff having trouble means that for me, I will continue to not use anything with swappable modules. Agreed that the radios' Rev. 1 firmware had some issues, but the Rev.2 has been out for a couple of years now and it's solid. My complaint against Spektrum is that I had the previous model (before the 6i) and I had a receiver decide to lose binding and never accept another bind. The company doesn't support the old ones, and while I could get one for 60 bucks on ebay, I could get a whole 9-channel setup for that, and replacement receivers are under $20. It's funny about radio interference... I had the same issues with my old Futaba 75MHz whenever a Polk was fired up and in use. I wound up sitting on the bench whenever Peter Kunisch drove up for a battle because that's all he had. So yeah, my comment was me for some reason thinking that it was your thread (not Spudsy's) and thinking 'why's he asking for suggestions if he likes Spektrum?'. I blame it on no coffee in the morning before posting. Sorry! Didn't mean to sound down on you and battlers on the water is always #1
Mwah Yes the binding issue was related to a brownout/drop in voltage so the big capacitor fixed it. However it is also an issue with r/c cars and vendors like Novak sell big caps for Car usage to prevent issues with voltage sag. So AT LEAST I could fix it. But I didn't like that radio all that much but once I got a capacitor it worked. Like I said they are not perfect.. and the local guys told me what to do to fix it. I wanted to put out more info, not as a response to you so much, but so folks would get a better understanding as to the WhY of recommendations. I think low cost products are very attractive to new folks and in some cases may be the way to go. I also wanted to bring attention to the local/regional product usage. I personally ran into that a bit when I first went to the Springfield MO battle and I was using products that the guys in my area used.. but folks in Minnesota didn't use. So if you travel out of your area you need spares OR you need to know your product very well. Johnny
No, my receiver lost the ability to bind, not dropping on voltage I was very sad because that transmitter was the best button install I'd ever done.
Gotcha! I have also had that happen to receivers with both radios (DX6 and DX6i). I don't take receiver failures quite as seriously as Transmitters as the receivers are in the boat.. in the water.. in the copper sulfate so often that I have labeled them 'disposable'. However I found the park receiver I like for $30 and if it last 2 seasons I got my moneys worth out of it.
Hey, Tuggy, does the radio that you suggested have end point adjustment? I can't find anything about it in the description.
The 9-channel from Hobby King? Yes, just about anything you want to adjust, is adjustable, on the fly. That's how I change speed when doing speed runs during testing. Just go into the menu and use the arrow keys to go to endpoint adjust.
I've had excellent luck with my Futaba FASST. My favorite radio, however was my old 75mhz Skysport 6, I just liked the way it fit my hand, so lately I've bought the anylink adapter and a used skysport 6 for cheap off ebay, and it works fantastic.
