NEW- Spektrum DX7s - What do we know about this radio?

[rcers]

Originally Posted by road king 97

My first futaba 5 channel back then was 500 bucks ,1970,s So the price of the radios is alot cheaper now. Rocken robben what are you flying now and what kind of radios do you have now so maybe you can help us rich dummys pick a good cheap gear To put into my my 100 inch four engine seaplane i am just finishing. joe

That was my "second" radio. NEVER worked right. My first was a Cirrus system!

I was a young kid and saved and saved for that high dollar 5ch Futaba. Sent that in to them many times and still never worked right. I left Futaba in frustration and went to Airtronics.

I bet we have a few on here that built their own too back in the vacuum tube era!

Now we pay $299 for a system that is 10 times more reliable and has more capability that most of us will ever use.

Life is good indeed.

[kenchiroalpha]

Originally Posted by rcers

That was my "second" radio. NEVER worked right. My first was a Cirrus system!

I was a young kid and saved and saved for that high dollar 5ch Futaba. Sent that in to them many times and still never worked right. I left Futaba in frustration and went to Airtronics.

I bet we have a few on here that built their own too back in the vacuum tube era!

Now we pay $299 for a system that is 10 times more reliable and has more capability that most of us will ever use.

Life is good indeed.

Hi Mike
Guilty as charged
Heres my collection of Vintage TXs and Rxs
Assembled my first System 37 years ago
Do enjoy
Take care dear friend
Yours Hank

[rcers]

Dude - I recognize and have used several of those.

[Figure.N9ne]

Originally Posted by road king 97

Lol thats funny,lets see i have flown ace radios ,Kraft radios then futaba and now dx7,s Does that make me a pioneer.I dont buy a 99 buck arf foam plane i build mine for a year or so from plans and i want decent radio to go in it. As far as programing iam not much into all the bells and whistles as i competed in patern and pylon most of my youth and can fly with my fingers alone with out gyros and such things, I dont need a button for a decent snaproll.lol My first futaba 5 channel back then was 500 bucks ,1970,s So the price of the radios is alot cheaper now. Rocken robben what are you flying now and what kind of radios do you have now so maybe you can help us rich dummys pick a good cheap gear To put into my my 100 inch four engine seaplane i am just finishing. joe

lets all compare "shoe" size!

No need to get snippy. He had a good point and for the most part it seems like it was directed at Dereck not you, since Dereck is the one that has a problem with people discussing new gear.

[road king 97]

Originally Posted by Yaniel

lets all compare "shoe" size!

No need to get snippy. He had a good point and for the most part it seems like it was directed at Dereck not you, since Dereck is the one that has a problem with people discussing new gear.

Iam not getting snippy but if he thinks he is on topic then he is wrong .He probobly doesent own a dx radio just trolling to speak them big words. I checked his profile and he is new to the hobby and might get his ama card . I have been a member of ama for 35 years and When you say that he might have to join to fly some where in fl i guess. I say, keep your money annd please fly in the park some where . If you say you want to join a great org and help it and your club be all that it can be then fine join us and welcome . Well iam done punnish me if any one wants but this hobby to some of us is not just some kind of game to play on line. joe

[kyleservicetech]

Originally Posted by rcers

Now we pay $299 for a system that is 10 times more reliable and has more capability that most of us will ever use.

LOL
That old Microavionics radio I had in the mid 1960's averaged about 10 flights or so before something in it quit. Like capacitors falling off the circuit board inside the servos. That gave full throw on the servo, and instant crash. That happened three times in one flying season.

Think I spent more time fixing it, then flying with it.

Folks nowdays don't know what they are missing.

[road king 97]

Originally Posted by kyleservicetech

LOL
That old Microavionics radio I had in the mid 1960's averaged about 10 flights or so before something in it quit. Like capacitors falling off the circuit board inside the servos. That gave full throw on the servo, and instant crash. That happened three times in one flying season.

Think I spent more time fixing it, then flying with it.

Folks nowdays don't know what they are missing.

My oldest radio is a orbit with tubes in it .bump the botton to the right once plane goes right, bump it twice to the left plane goes left no elev or ail just rudder only . The men that flew thos were real model builders. joe

[kyleservicetech]

Originally Posted by road king 97

My oldest radio is a orbit with tubes in it .bump the botton to the right once plane goes right, bump it twice to the left plane goes left no elev or ail just rudder only . The men that flew thos were real model builders. joe

LOL
Back around 1963 or so, an old co-worker had a radio with the reed system. Got it to work, most of the time. Then he had me hold the transmitter while he hand launched the 35 sized model. Forgot to tell me he had the elevator stick backwards.

Good thing it was launched over a swamp with 5 feet high grass.

[road king 97]

Originally Posted by Gohmer

Try reading the manual. You can download one from Horizon's website if you lost yours. If there is a RC club in your area maybe one of the members with computer radio experience can help you.

Lmao I can program my dx7 i said it was not easy for a newbe .They could have and they did change it for the new radios. Rockin robin what do you recomend for this plane ,maybe some 4 buck servos and a hobby king 2.4 50 buck transmitter.Gohmer how do you get from me talking about my batteries going bad and me agreeing with wrong way about being friendly to new users ,to i cant program my own transmitter. I think that stretching the post a little. ps. Iam one of the club instructors at my club field .lol joe

[Figure.N9ne]

Originally Posted by road king 97

Lmao I can program my dx7 i said it was not easy for a newbe .They could have and they did change it for the new radios. Rockin robin what do you recomend for this plane ,maybe some 4 buck servos and a hobby king 2.4 50 buck transmitter.Gohmer how do you get from me talking about my batteries going bad and me agreeing with wrong way about being friendly to new users ,to i cant program my own transmitter. I think that stretching the post a little. ps. Iam one of the club instructors at my club field .lol joe

where do you get from rockin robins post that you should use 4 buck servos and a hobby king radio? I think that's stretching the post a little.

maybe if the "old timers" didn't act like snobs around the new guys, he'd actually WANT to join the ama and a club, versus just doing it out of necessity.

[Rockin Robbins]

Originally Posted by road king 97

Rocken robben what are you flying now and what kind of radios do you have now so maybe you can help us rich dummys pick a good cheap gear To put into my my 100 inch four engine seaplane i am just finishing. joe

Rockin robin what do you recomend for this plane ,maybe some 4 buck servos and a hobby king 2.4 50 buck transmitter.

Hmmmmm. I'm readin' my posts to see where that came from. Beats me! Outer space maybe. Getting defensive about being able to use whatever you choose is as irrational as the stupid prejudiced person who attacks your ability to do so. I certainly never said that $50 radios and $3 servos were always the way to go.

I'm perfectly happy with $1.60 servos and an $8 receiver in my Slow Stick so far but I'm nowhere near ready to recommend them for a scratch-built scale job that took a year to build. Maybe experience will show that some of those components are perfectly appropriate, but the burden of proof is on the cheap stuff. I'm a pioneer there, and willing to put up with the arrows. It's fun!

But your post sounds like you aren't having much fun. I don't understand why someone would persist in an activity where they are irritated at the people who engage in it. Yeah, we all get prickly sometimes. Reread my posts and convince yourself that I didn't recommend cheap equipment for expensive, multi-engined scale planes.

People are a lot happier when they quit expecting everyone else to be just like themselves. (Actually that would outlaw women and get someone in REAL trouble) Everything isn't for everybody!

Heck, roadking, I just read both of the posts again and I honestly can't see where you're coming from. If anything I was saying the opposite! Spend what you can on what you want and make no apologies is my position. That is one beautiful plane you're building!

[Rockin Robbins]

Originally Posted by road king 97

My oldest radio is a orbit with tubes in it .bump the botton to the right once plane goes right, bump it twice to the left plane goes left no elev or ail just rudder only . The men that flew thos were real model builders. joe

And the planes were real planes! Radio assist free flight is what you were doing and it warn't for sissies. It took real experience and knowledge but the results were poetic. One day I plan on building a Playboy Senior pylon model and sampling the flavor of those days. It was a whole different mode of flying from the boring holes in the sky and 3d world of today. Salute!

[kenchiroalpha]

[QUOTE=Rockin Robbins;808296]And the planes were real planes! Radio assist free flight is what you were doing and it warn't for sissies. It took real experience and knowledge but the results were poetic. One day I plan on building a Playboy Senior pylon model and sampling the flavor of those days. It was a whole different mode of flying from the boring holes in the sky and 3d world of today. Salute![/QUOTE]
Hi
Splendid idea
When your ready and if you feel inclined let me know and ill send you one of my Vintage Tx and Rx systems so you can really get the feel of those wonderful days
Take care dear friend
Yours Hank

[constantCrash]

Wow this thread has degenerated guys. I feel like i'm on that other site.

It has been confirmed elsewhere that the DX7s will share the same software foundation as the DX8. So if you want a taste of how it will be for feel/programming, go to LHS and test out a DX8.

If you already have a DX7, no reason to upgrade and re-learn what you've already learned. I think, that had I known this was coming I would have opted for it instead of the DX8 since I don't need 8 channels, or a backlight, and could have purchased another plane with the extra $100.00.

Having said that, i'm very very pleased with my DX8. it's very comfortable, balances nicely on the strap, the backlight IS nice even in the daylight, and having a 3 way switch and trims for the aux channels is a plus.

[kyleservicetech]

Originally Posted by Rockin Robbins

"cheap equipment for expensive, multi-engined scale planes."

Spend what you can on what you want and make no apologies is my position. That is one beautiful plane you're building!

H'mmm
So what should a person spend on a radio for his RC airplanes

Maybe a simple rule of thumb as a minumum, perhaps 20-30% of the value of your model should go for the radio system.

So if you're flying a $500 or a $1000 airplane, you're looking at a Spektrum DX7 (or equivalent) as a minumum. Or if you're flying a little back yard foamie, the cheapest radio that will do the job.

Bottom line, if you're a new RC'r, ask around your local clubs and buy what they are using. FYI, my local club in SE Wisconsin is 99% Spektrum/JR for the 2.4 Ghz radio systems.

[road king 97]

Roccin robben my rant was about the way it sounded in your post .It made it seem that we who buy the top radios first are some kind of test bed for the rest of the hobby and we do it because of keeping up with the jones.I should have asked and made clear first . If i buy the the latest radio or gadget iam trying to fly my planes with more safty . I have big planes and dont want it to crash or even worse hit some one and hurt them or myself. Your post made me feel that i was wasting my ,hard erned money to find all of the flaws in the product that the rest will not have to be cause i bought it first. I probobly went over board and iam sorry .I think i will stay away from these forums and just build my planes in piece. joe

[road king 97]

Originally Posted by Rockin Robbins

Well, this is two threads in one. I'll jump on the anti-early adopter part. You know, it's fun to pick on early adopters. After all their thought processes are wholly irrational and they risk a lot in purchasing the unproven products out there. But their heartaches are what makes it possible for sensible people to buy excellent quality cheap products.

Being an early adopter can actually be a lot of fun. You'll notice that they don't have rose colored glasses on and they assume there will be problems to overcome. When the Radian 2 came out lots of early adopters jumped on board this pig in a poke and rode it for all they were worth.

They had a fabulous time exchanging information about how to get it and the radios to work together to get all the mixes they wanted for advanced flying. Yeah, there was some cursing at the whole thing but the overall feeling of the posts were of discovery: being a pioneer going where no one has gone before. And paying too much to go there. But that comes with the territory. You don't get the thrill of being first without paying the piper.

So it's kind of irrational to volunteer for all those inevitable headaches and pay too much for the product. Everything you buy for peanuts: DVD players, computers, hybrid cars, flat screen monitors, fill in the blank was financed by people we sometimes like to make fun of: early adopters who were perfectly willing to pay a crazy high price and put up with the troubles of an unfinished product. But if they didn't buy we would never get the chance.

So we should celebrate the early adopters, especially the rich ones. We need more rich people with a sense of adventure. Then we'd get more really neat products for peanuts. Bully for rich irrational people with "more money than sense!" Every one of us rides their coattails.

This is the one about early adopters that put me over the edge .joe

[Rockin Robbins]

Originally Posted by constantCrash

Wow this thread has degenerated guys. I feel like i'm on that other site.

Naw! We're just being friendly in a kind of prickly sort of way. You know how easy it is to misread someone on a forum? As far as I'm concerned road king brought up the exact same kind of issues as I would have. He was direct but civil and didn't call me any names like they like to "over there." And it turns out we were thinking exactly the same way to begin with!

Sometimes we (and I include myself) take ourselves far too seriously when we're engaged in a hobby that's supposed to be fun. If you're buying the latest equipment, you're doing it for fun. Sure, there's some prestige from having the latest and greatest as well they should be for the headaches that sometimes come from being on the cutting edge.

Joe, you're NOT an early adopter. You buy the best quality, already proven equipment you can because your craftsmanship can't be valued in money. And you do what you do for valid reasons that I respect.

I'm a pioneer with my Slow Stick. Having lost my Radian, and having a spare fuselage and tail feathers, I'm pointed at rebuilding it with non-Parkzone equipment. Why? Fun.

But I'm interested in checking out some of this absurdly cheap Chinese equipment that apparently has the potential of being of great quality. I'm not about to do that on the Radian. I built a Slow Stick as a test bed and I'm having a great time with it, collecting arrows. Nothing glamorous or impressive about a Slow Stick, a Turnigy 2217-20 motor, a Hobby King Super Brain ESC or a couple of their new $1.69 10-gram servos. But I've heard they're potentially really decent equipment. I plan to find out on an expendable airframe.

In the meantime I've taught myself lots of new lessons on how to select a motor, esc, battery and prop for a given airframe. I've learned that manufacturers love to overstate their specs. I've learned to respect the advice of those who have built similar airplanes. I've learned how to fly like a drunken squirrel!

Joe, I'm in your corner any time! Stick around and continue to share your wisdom and thoughts. I value them and you.

[Rockin Robbins]

Dennis, depending on the plane, I wouldn't feel bashful about flying a $500 or $1000 airplane with my DX5e, which can be bought for $50.00. Of course, you'd have to establish that you didn't need any control mixing or exponential rates, but there are lots of planes it would be appropriate for and lots that it wouldn't.

But in principle I agree that sometimes with additional cost you don't just get additional features. You also receive added quality. But I've never seen a single post saying that the quality of the DX5e was any worse than Spektrum's more expensive radios.

20 years ago I had a conversation with an engineer from General Electric when I was having a problem with one of their products. I asked if I would have had better luck with a higher model and he said, "No, all our products are the same quality. If you spend more you get more features, but not more quality. They are all first quality." I think Spektrum is like that.

[kyleservicetech]

Originally Posted by Rockin Robbins

Dennis, depending on the plane, I wouldn't feel bashful about flying a $500 or $1000 airplane with my DX5e, which can be bought for $50.00. Of course, you'd have to establish that you didn't need any control mixing or exponential rates, but there are lots of planes it would be appropriate for and lots that it wouldn't.

But in principle I agree that sometimes with additional cost you don't just get additional features. You also receive added quality. But I've never seen a single post saying that the quality of the DX5e was any worse than Spektrum's more expensive radios.

20 years ago I had a conversation with an engineer from General Electric when I was having a problem with one of their products. I asked if I would have had better luck with a higher model and he said, "No, all our products are the same quality. If you spend more you get more features, but not more quality. They are all first quality." I think Spektrum is like that.

Agreed:
If you buy Spektrum/JR or similar radios, and not those cheap imports or counterfeits from "C***a". (Which is where I was going with that.)

Last year, one of the visitors to our clubs fun fly was flying a wet turbine model with a Spektrum DX6i radio, had zero problems with the setup. The only thing that scares me on the real low cost radios is when the transmitter uses loose cells in a cheap plastic battery holder for their battery pack, rather than the soldered and spot welded Nih batteries. (How often do you have to shake your flashlight to make it work??)

[Figure.N9ne]

Originally Posted by road king 97

This is the one about early adopters that put me over the edge .joe

He was saying how needed early adopters are and how they are the ones that move the hobby forward. If you consider yourself an early adopter, then he was thanking you.

[Figure.N9ne]

Originally Posted by kyleservicetech

H'mmm
So what should a person spend on a radio for his RC airplanes

Maybe a simple rule of thumb as a minumum, perhaps 20-30% of the value of your model should go for the radio system.

So if you're flying a $500 or a $1000 airplane, you're looking at a Spektrum DX7 (or equivalent) as a minumum. Or if you're flying a little back yard foamie, the cheapest radio that will do the job.

Bottom line, if you're a new RC'r, ask around your local clubs and buy what they are using. FYI, my local club in SE Wisconsin is 99% Spektrum/JR for the 2.4 Ghz radio systems.

this rule assumes you only have one model. You should buy the best radio you can comfortably afford. A lot of people buy a dx6i because they think short term, then in a few months they already used up every model memory or need more mixes and now they needed a new radio. They buy a dx7 and in 2 years realize they need more than what that offers, and now need a 3rd radio. Hopefully by that time they learned their lesson that it would've been cheaper to buy the best radio you can afford the first time around. Even a $100 foamie would be better served by a radio that costs 300% or more of it's price. ou can program mixes, throttle curves, better expo curves, etc that will make it fly better than a bottom of the line radio.

[road king 97]

To tell you the truth i did not buy my dx7 for almost a year to make shure the new 2.4 worked. I did buy my first one and put it in a top flight at-6 i was building ,once i new it worked i started to sell of all of my old radios because i new soon they would be worth alot less than i paid for them. I have the two dx7,s and one futaba fasst 2.4 -6 channel and 2 futaba older 6 channels that i use in other sea planes. I have gone from 8 or 9 radios to mostly using my dx7,s now. The futaba fassst 2.4 recievers for a while where 119 bucks and i refused to buy them but they have come down in price now too and i might use it in my new plane. Roccin robbin no hard feelings and i should have just sad nothing like i normaly do and it would have not started. I am getting cranky in my old age and i am sorry for being a ars. Oh, they have the orange 2.4 dx recievers on hobby king for 4.95 sale now. I have a friend in ga ,the paulding park flyers , jack has bought these orange recievers and had no luck in getting it to work and his plane ended up in a tree twice. lol sorry jack . joe

[road king 97]

Originally Posted by Yaniel

He was saying how needed early adopters are and how they are the ones that move the hobby forward. If you consider yourself an early adopter, then he was thanking you.

Iam a early adopter ,i had 4 of my own kids i was raising and adopted another son so then i had 5.lmao joe

[Dereck]

And how many 'early adopters' bought Spektrum's first 2.4 and then saw them drop it for its 'better' successor?

If I said I lean to letting someone else pay for R & D and just want the stuff I buy to work, would anyone be surprised?

As to the Chinese rip-off stuff, someone I know pretty well got one of Hobby King's nine channel trannies. It felt like what it was - cheap junk - and didn't have any kind of manual, thus stimying any 'RTFM'.

Which didn't really matter, as it didn't work anyway.

Seriously - who would spend the hours - or maybe just the minutes required to fill out the order form and wait for some five-minute epoxy to dry - required to put even a fairly simple sports model out on the runway with a $4.95 rip-off receiver and servos of similar price and reliability between it and a total loss?

Am I missing something?

Whatever the cost of my seven channel Spektrum was on a radio, that's the most I've spent. The ability to have the likes of a channnel mix that will allow my phone to look for a coffee shop and then link through my tranny to point my model at said coffee shop has never made my list of needs.

Perhaps I'm doing this hobby all wrong?

D