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As some may, or may not, know I've been a religous JR radio user for the past 20 years and in all that time I have to say it has served me superbly well and I don't have a single complaint with any of the JR gear I've used, trasnmitters, receivers, gyros, servos.. the lot. The quality has been superb and I've only had 1 non user attributable failure in all that time.
I've recently come into the position of needing a second transmitter. No longer being a factory backed pilot means I can't just get my hands on a spare transmitter.. and you need 2 transmitters when you attend the F3C World Championships as your main tx gets impounded every day which will stop you from practising off site.
The problem arose that I fly a 10x with a Spektrum module and JR no longer make the 10x which means getting my hands on one from the second hand market.. something I was loathe to do as I generally like to buy my contest stuff factory fresh with warranty.
This left me looking at the 12x which would double the resolution and halve the latency of my modular 10x setup and give some nice new features. However the price... even the best friend of a friend through the trade price would have left 2 of them at over the value of my car!.. money I don't have to be spending on a hobby.. if I did I'd buy a new car!
This left me in a bit of a dilemma of what to do.. either a) bankrupt myself or b) go second hand.
This is when I had a quick peek at "The dark side"..
Now I've never had an "issue" with Futaba gear.. it comes out of Japan like JR and is of decent quality.. but.. I did find the programming hideously complex and non logical on their earlier sets compared to JR and also found that my fingers wouldn't fit between the switches as they were too close together.
Having seen some good reviews on the 10C and watching finless bob's videos I decided to get Trevor at Midlands to send one down to me for a play. It retails at such a good price it wasn't the end of the world if I didn't like it.. I could always eBay it and I wouldn't be massively out of pocket.
Well.. I have to say I'm blown away with how good it is. Ok the sticks could be a little nicer and the whole system could have a bit more weight to it to help improve the feel.. integrated aerial too (but I know how to do my own for that).. but the basics are all sound.
It's easy to program, very flexible, has all the features I need and the backlit screen looks fantastic! Futaba's programming has come a long way from the dark days of the 9z and FF7.. I used to dread helping people set up their models on those sets if they hadn't brought the manual with them.. and even then it was a battle not to be enraged by the horrid software!
The most telling bit is the speed though.. there is no delay from failsafe to recovery at all and the servos respond amazingly fast. The 10c has an average latecny of 18ms.. the 12x 32.5ms and the top end Futaba sets also around 35ms. My old 10x with Spektrum module was up in the 50's!
I think for the money it is a fantastic bit of kit and I can actually afford to get 2 of them to take to the World Champs which was the whole reason for looking at it in the first place.
The most interesting fact I found is that Hashimoto (3 x World Champion and Futaba sponsored pilot) flies with the 10C and not the 12Z of 14MZ... I'm presuming it's down to the speed of the system.
I never thought I'd hear myself say this.. but I've bought a Futaba transmitter.. and I like it!
Thanks to Trevor at Midlands who got much grief from his packing department when I added one to my order causing them to have to rebox everything late at night and in a rush to make the post in time!
Cheers
Mark
I've recently come into the position of needing a second transmitter. No longer being a factory backed pilot means I can't just get my hands on a spare transmitter.. and you need 2 transmitters when you attend the F3C World Championships as your main tx gets impounded every day which will stop you from practising off site.
The problem arose that I fly a 10x with a Spektrum module and JR no longer make the 10x which means getting my hands on one from the second hand market.. something I was loathe to do as I generally like to buy my contest stuff factory fresh with warranty.
This left me looking at the 12x which would double the resolution and halve the latency of my modular 10x setup and give some nice new features. However the price... even the best friend of a friend through the trade price would have left 2 of them at over the value of my car!.. money I don't have to be spending on a hobby.. if I did I'd buy a new car!
This left me in a bit of a dilemma of what to do.. either a) bankrupt myself or b) go second hand.
This is when I had a quick peek at "The dark side"..
Now I've never had an "issue" with Futaba gear.. it comes out of Japan like JR and is of decent quality.. but.. I did find the programming hideously complex and non logical on their earlier sets compared to JR and also found that my fingers wouldn't fit between the switches as they were too close together.
Having seen some good reviews on the 10C and watching finless bob's videos I decided to get Trevor at Midlands to send one down to me for a play. It retails at such a good price it wasn't the end of the world if I didn't like it.. I could always eBay it and I wouldn't be massively out of pocket.
Well.. I have to say I'm blown away with how good it is. Ok the sticks could be a little nicer and the whole system could have a bit more weight to it to help improve the feel.. integrated aerial too (but I know how to do my own for that).. but the basics are all sound.
It's easy to program, very flexible, has all the features I need and the backlit screen looks fantastic! Futaba's programming has come a long way from the dark days of the 9z and FF7.. I used to dread helping people set up their models on those sets if they hadn't brought the manual with them.. and even then it was a battle not to be enraged by the horrid software!
The most telling bit is the speed though.. there is no delay from failsafe to recovery at all and the servos respond amazingly fast. The 10c has an average latecny of 18ms.. the 12x 32.5ms and the top end Futaba sets also around 35ms. My old 10x with Spektrum module was up in the 50's!
I think for the money it is a fantastic bit of kit and I can actually afford to get 2 of them to take to the World Champs which was the whole reason for looking at it in the first place.
The most interesting fact I found is that Hashimoto (3 x World Champion and Futaba sponsored pilot) flies with the 10C and not the 12Z of 14MZ... I'm presuming it's down to the speed of the system.
I never thought I'd hear myself say this.. but I've bought a Futaba transmitter.. and I like it!
Thanks to Trevor at Midlands who got much grief from his packing department when I added one to my order causing them to have to rebox everything late at night and in a rush to make the post in time!
Cheers
Mark
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