Surface vs Air Receivers & looking for 6+ channels?

[HumboldtEF]

In my search for more Aux channels I've hit a bit of a dead end. I'm looking for 6-7 channels or 4-5 Aux channels.

This lead me to look at the Spectrum DX6R but reviews are very, very poor due to touch screen and Android issues and I really dont like the idea of a touch screen anyway, but at least spectrum offers a 6 channel surface receiver to go with it.

The other option I looked into was the Futaba 7PX which is intended for surface RC but (and this is a fairly big one) they dont offer a 7 channel surface receiver. They do however offer a 7 and 8 channel air receiver but they note that these will not work well with the vibrations from surface RC vehicles.

Does anyone have any insight into whether using a air receiver is a bad idea or not, anyone use one already?

I'm wondering if the vibrations they have in mind might be from high speed basher type RCs?

I reached out to Futaba a few weeks back and they have not responded at all. Another thing that confused me was how Futaba uses a bunch of different 'modes' for their receivers (FSHH FASST FASSTest SFSHH TFSHH) and depending on which one used you may or may not get full use of all of the channels advertised on the receiver. I assume I can just select the mode I need to get all of the channels and this is likely to only matter to racers who need low latency/fast responses, does that sound right?

If anyone has any other suggestions for getting 6+ channels I'd love to hear them.


EDIT: Awe shoot, I think I may have found a Futaba receiver after all, the R2008SB its still a bit confusing though as they dont list it as surface on the product page but when I search for surface it comes up.

 

[Ditchrat]

flysky 6 and 8 channel work fine for me with a hacked gt3c. Plus some of them handle 7.4v

The hack is easy and cost $3.00. Programming takes some reading but has lots of flexibility. An added plus is since you need to take the transmitter apart, you can waterproof it at the same time.

If you don't want to deal I believe flysky has a newer 6 channel receiver.

 

[Jboucher]

There are some high channel low cost receivers for surface.

I know the Radiolink RC6GS is like 75$, 6 channels, full programability and very solid.

The only downside i would say is the comfort, it's a little heavy and bulky but it works.

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[GA Dawg]

I use the R2106GF receivers with my Futaba 4PLS. Never an issue.

 

[Jim85IROC]

There are some high channel low cost receivers for surface.

I know the Radiolink RC6GS is like 75$, 6 channels, full programability and very solid.

The only downside i would say is the comfort, it's a little heavy and bulky but it works.

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

The radiolink is heavy? My Radiolinks are the lightest controllers I have except for a couple of the super cheap throw-away controllers that came with my chinese RCs.

 

[Jboucher]

It may be just the weight distribution. I feel it's heavier than my tactic radio.

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[svt923]

A 7PX with a R2106GF receiver would be my ideal 6 channel setup but throwing down $700 on the radio isn't going to happen anytime soon.

The hacked GT3C is the way to go for a reasonably priced 6+ channel radio setup. The ability to map the various functions of the 4-6 aux channels to whatever button fits your need puts it way ahead of the other low end radios with more than 4 channels. The extra 2 channels on the Radiolink RC6GS and Flysky GT5 seem like they were thrown in just to put "6 channel radio" on the feature sheet with little thought to how the channels would actually be used.

 

[Jboucher]

Re: Surface vs Air Receivers & looking for 6+ channels?

The RC6GS works quite well.
Full channel mixing if you want, otherwise they are toggle switches.
On/Off lights, 2-speed trans, remote diffs, sound system, Mamba X AUX wire etc...

It's not pretty but sometimes basic functions that actually work without any bling is the best design.

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[svt923]

Re: Surface vs Air Receivers & looking for 6+ channels?

The RC6GS works quite well.
Full channel mixing if you want, otherwise they are toggle switches.
On/Off lights, 2-speed trans, remote diffs, sound system, Mamba X AUX wire etc...

It's not pretty but sometimes basic functions that actually work without any bling is the best design.

That's fine if you only need 2 points of control but not so much for things like independent 4 wheel steering, winch control, dig, Tamiya 3 speed transmissions, etc. The Mamba X AUX function also gives you range of adjustment with more points on the channel.

Not everything is on or off and that is where a lot of low end radios fall short. The hacked Flysky, despite the rather cheap hardware, has firmware designed for the needs of crawlers so it covers a wide range of functions.

 

[Jim85IROC]

The radiolink has one variable knob in addition to the switches. I believe that you can also replace those toggle switches with potentiometers and utilize those channels for variable control as well. I'm not sure about this, but a while back I remember there being a discussion about it and I recall somebody determining that the signal paths on the circuit boards were all the same.

 

[HumboldtEF]

Thanks for all the feedback guys. I dont like the idea of having to throw so much money at a nice radio but I will. I've just run up against the the limitations of all of my radios at one point or another, I always need more channels and more adjustability and I tend to agree with svt923 on needing more points of control and flexibility.

I guess my other option might be to sit tight and hope some new magical radio comes out soon. Either way I'm definitely not going to rush this decision.

I use the R2106GF receivers with my Futaba 4PLS. Never an issue.

Awesome, thanks for the feedback. I suppose Futaba has to include the notes about not working well with surface RC just incase. The R2106GF receiver is meant for short range indoor and park fliers, so its an air receiver for anyone else interested.

 

[Jboucher]

It's your money but in my opinion, there is absolutly no reason to pay several hundreds $$ for a radio... The cheap ones cover 95% of the functions.
Plus i feel better running through the woods, rocks, mud and water with a 50$ radio than a 300$ work of art.

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