Fsky Taranis X9D Plus

I have had another flight with the 3 meter Fox Glider on the Taranis today with no issues. Have previously flown the Fox very high and a long way out the log file does not show any signal loss that would trigger a warning from the radio.

I have noticed too that the Open TX receivers lock on instantly when initially turned on compared to my DSM2 Spektrums and JR receivers which sometimes take several seconds or more.

Brian, I asked a friend who has been using his x9d for several years. His response is...

"I don’t think there is much to gain in the antennas but more how the antenna is installed. You can make things worse considerably and even wreck the board. The connector where you screw on the antenna also gives losses. The biggest reason why people started messing with it was when we had the 2015 EU firmware and lost 3/4 of the range! Since the LBT firmware the range is back to full and only if you have a dodgy one is it worth “fixing” it. You could then also consider getting the distributor to fix it."

I've fitted M9 gimbals to my X9D. The job was easy, I watched it on YouTube first. They have a good "feel" to them. The spring pressure is a bit firmer than the originals. There have been comments about gaps around the sticks, perhaps mine are different, the gaps are no worse than the original sticks.

All starting to sound like "Triggers Broom", it seems like everything from the gimballs to the antenna to the software to the firmware needs replacing routinely?

Oh John, It all depends on the spin you want to put on it.

The original gimbals are fine, but FrSky developed hall sensor gimbals (M9) and offered these as an optional upgrade for those that want them, they also put them in a "posh' version of the radio for those that like all the bells and whistles. They also developed a shorter throw gimbal for quad pilots. You could say they produced what the market wanted, or you could say they produced poor potentiometer based gimbals just like every other manufacture and made new versions because they could

OpenTX doesn't update all that frequently, it just happens that there has been a new substantial update recently. And you don't have to upgrade.

Firmware updates for TX and RX seem very infrequent, in fact the X8R firmware was changed in 2015 because of EU regulations and the Listen Before Talk protocol was introduced. I see the receiver now has a new firmware to take advantage of a new feature in the latest transmitter... I'm not sure how that's a bad thing?

I'm not suggesting OpenTX and FrSky are for everyone, but I do think post that suggest it's incredibly hard to use, or that they are forever changing things might put people off even considering it. I don't know when the X9D came out but I've seen the whole Spektrum line up change in that time and the X9D is still selling.

I'm off me soap box now

And after all this customising Brian, it is time to actually use it and drop a RX into a plane and fly it.......