Been waiting a while for one of these to make a appearance and at last I ordered and received mine from RC Supplies for £61.00 including delivery.
Inside you get a CD disk, and serial lead, receiver and transmitter module and 2bi aerial.
For me the reason I wanted these was to upgrade my Futaba 35mhz radios was because of the 2 way communication features.
And there are already a few people working on making programs and hardware to work with these which really sounds interesting to me.
To be able to see how much is left in the lipos while you are flying or speed or gps postion etc ands playing back the logs etc, really adds another great angle for me in the world of Radio Controlled models.
You can be sure in the future a lot of radio systems will come with the 2 way comms option for sure already built in.
Definitely one of the people working on making hardware and the software to work with these is Rc Model Reviews
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Out of the box
On the CD that comes with the system are the doc files and firmware and drivers and telemetry utils etc, which is great.
Note:-The lead supplied to update the firmware or to monitor the 2 way comms is a serial one and not the usb type, which means you are going have to get a usb to serial convertor.
Why they are shipping a serial type when hardly any pc’s or laptops have a serial port on the back is crazy to me, although I do have a usb to serial lead, but that yet another wire and cable to have hanging around and would be so much easier just supplying a usb type, but I guess its all down to cost and to be fair, I am sure most would not of expected a lead to come with it anyway.
The other thing I noticed and probably not that much of a big deal for most is on the Futaba module I have the aerial connector overhangs one of the clips that hold it in place, hence trying to take the module out of my Futaba to either put it in another TX or for some reason I might need to use my other pcm1024 35 MHz module is going to be tricky to get it out and can see a few breaking the clip myself.
But at least the whip aerial now will go up in between the handle on the Futaba, which is def better.
Have to say the QA control and some of the plastic moulding is poor, and what I said above about being careful with the clips was before I actually had a close look at my TX module!!
On mine where at the bottom of the TX module around the clips there are cracks , and thats straight out of the box.
Hard to see in the photo above, but I am sure this clip will snap in no time at all, the moulding for this run at least seems below par.
Also at first the module would not fit into the Transmitter, and below is why. One of the wires from inside the module is jammed in-between the sides and causing the plastic to bulge.
So I had to unscrew the 2 screws on the back and put the module apart slightly to get the wire back in and then it went in okay.
Thus far I have only had a chance to insert the TX module in my Futaba T9CP and it all lights up okay.
Due to a lack of time for me right now, I wont have a chance to test this out for some time, but for a full tech review then pop along to Rc Model Reviews , who is doing a full shake down of the system and how the electronics performs.
I think if FrSky are a bit more careful in there quality control, this will sell very well as I think a system priced at around where it is now coupled with the features is a great deal!
I am looking forward when time permits to check this out flying, and also building some of the add on hardware that will work with the 2way serial system that a few are already are working on.
Great bit of kit, but it just feels a bit like a pre production system and hopefully the small issues will be sorted in time.
Have fun, Graham.
