Radio link transmitters

Has anyone seen ,purchased or used one of these transmitters, i am thinking of purchasing one of their AT10 transmitters to replace my now defunct Futaba transmitter, they seem to have a high spec. for the money, but you know the old saying something that seems to good to be true usually is. I have looked at loads of you tube "experts" extolling the vertue of these radios, but if you are given one for nothing are you going to rubbish it ? any help would be appreciated

hello Geoff,dont know about the radio link tx's but before you decide, check out the radiomaster t16s...another reasonable priced TX that seem's to be getting a lot of good response's….you should be able to use your Futaba rx's with it.

ken anderson...ne..1...radiomaster dept.

Edited By ken anderson. on 26/08/2020 17:19:37

I have a Radiomaster T16S great radio at a good price. An added bonus of a multi-protocol RF unit which will bind to most receivers.

Steve B

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I have one Geoff, It's great. Easy to set up and has loads of good features. I bought it after I dropped my JR DX9, mainly due to the price. no complaints so far.

Got it controlling my Cessna.

D.D.

The TGYi10 which I have and the AT10 are both made by FlySky who have been at it for a long time. Posted elsewhere on here, but out of curiosity I looked at the AT10 at a local shop. The proprietor knew that I was not in the market for any more Tx`s but told me that in all honesty they are only fit for land vehicles which do not suffer too much when they crash. Make up your own mind.

All that "proves" is that the proprietor of that particular shop either a) doesn't know how spread spectrum 2.4GHz works, b) had another brand to sell on which his margins were higher, or c) both! Any current system including Flysky will work great for LOS flying if installed and powered correctly. There's lots of differences between brands in terms of features, ergonomics, physical quality, pricing etc. but all the radio links are now based on FHSS and are therefore very reliable unless you are in an incredibly noisy RF environment.

Edited By MattyB on 27/08/2020 19:20:37

Matty, I can assure you that he is one of the most knowledgible and longest established dealers in this country. It was just an honest opinion for a change from experience of the product and not simply reading test reviews.

Thanks for all your input, i am swaying from the Radiolink AT10 and Kens. suggested radiomasterTX16s. I have been in touch with Hobbyrc and asked if i can use my Futaba Faast receivers with the radiomaster tranny , the bad news is they dont think i can, so my final question is - is there any one out there who uses the radiomaster TX16s with Futaba receivers , again many thanks for the replies, regards Geoff.

Radiomaster, Jumper etc. all use the MPM RF system and for Futaba that current only supports the SFHSS protocol..

The full list of supported protocols is here.

Dick

The Multimodule used in it is a pretty much standard piece of kit the same as the 4-in-1 plug in units and only appears to have an option for SFHSS, not FAST.

Dick beat me to it while I was double-checking

Edited By Bob Cotsford on 28/08/2020 11:32:33

It wont physically plug-in directly but if you need FASST and you're up for a small mod, Futaba TM7's are still available

Again many thanks for all you replies, looks as like me going for the Radio masterTX16s, keeping the Futaba receivers for my other 7 chan. Futaba tranny.and buying compatable receivers for the 16s. regards all.

If you don't have lots of other types of receivers (it sounds like you don't) or a need to bind to the many RTF small quadcopters/helis/indoor planes that tend to come with their own cheapie TX then I would probably recommend one of the Frsky TXs over the Radiomaster. The reason is that they are great once setup, but getting the RF tuned and operational on the multimodule radios is initially quite fiddly. If you are technically minded then it won't be an issue - just settle down with a brew and a YouTube video showing you how to do it step by step - but if you prefer to fly with minimal setup then I don't think in your specific situation you will be missing anything with going with a Q7, Taranis or Horus. Remember they all have module bays too, so if you want you could fit a Futaba FASST module into the JR bay if you can find one secondhand.

If you are happy to believe him then fine, but there are plenty of videos online of these being used for flights in the 2-4km range* without modifications so range is unlikely to be an issue. Radiomaster use a combination of DSSS and FHSS so they should have one of the most resilient links out there - that's the combination used in DSMX, Futaba FASST and Jeti to name but 3, though obviously the underlying software code is different for all protocols. In practice sets that use FHSS alone (Frsky ACCST, Hitec AFHSS, Futaba FHSS etc) are still incredibly resilient in real world use, so unless you regularly fly with 15+ people or in an environment with known RF crowding (for instance an urban area with a lot of wifi around or a site with masts etc in a corner) any current 2.4 set on sale in the UK should be fine for LOS flying.

Personally a bricks and mortar shop is the last place I'd go to get advice on a radio purchase, especially a beginner set - they always want to sell you their personal favourite that is in stock, normally an established big brand with high margins that they can then sell expensive RXs for. When I was looking to go 2.4 every shop I went into to look at TXs told me Frsky was rubbish and would crash my planes... 9 years later I'm yet to have a single issue, and the inbuilt RSSI telemetry saved a number of models early on when I made errors in my RX and aerial positioning. Besides, how many model shop owners still use entry level gear anyway? I doubt he had any practical experience with this TX beyond switching it on an browsing the menus. Of course he could have had had a disgruntled punter return one, but that in itself is not enough to come to that conclusion - we all know beginners are by far the most likely to have radio issues as they won't necessarily read the manual to understand how to install and power their gear correctly (plus they do sometimes dumb thumb and blame it on the gear!).

* - Yes I know 4km flights are not legal in the UK and do not condone that kind of use, I'm just using it as an example that this radio has more than enough range for LOS flying.

I have had a Radiolink AT9S for about 18 months and haven't got any complaints. It works fine and the 9 or 10 channel receivers can be bought for around £13. Great value.

Matty, I was just stating what a top dealer said after seeing the results from many of these sets. As I said above I have a couple of sets from the same manufacturer which apart from s/w issues work well as far as the radio link itself is concerned and have all the bells and whistles of gear costing many times as much. Initially purchased for quads which are very demanding, I now use them occasionally on f/w models.

Most of my other stuff is on JR or FrSky.

I have looked again via Google and it doesn't appear as if Flysky (founded 2006) and Radiolink (founded 2003) are the same company - they have different physical addresses and quite different styles to their websites, though their HQs are located within a few kms of each other in Shenzhen. The RF protocols also look different from what I can see, though I suppose that doesn't mean they don't come out of the same factory somewhere else. Where did you find out they were the same under the covers?

Might not be the same factory but on some other forums it's been reported that some of the newer brands have been formed either by or using some ex-employees of the established brands.

Frank, might you be thinking of Radiomaster and Jumper reportedly being started by ex-FrSky employees? I remember RadioLink as being crude Futaba knock-offs back in the GiantCod days.