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[Champdriver]

Hello Everyone


I have done a lot of poking around and and have not found much on the forums about Frsky Tandem XE radio perhaps its to new, hence the following.

I'm building a Fairmount Alpine Tug and am wanting to put lots of little extras on it and yes Mark T's build has given me lots of inspiration. I need to purchase a radio that can accommodate these little extra's( yes I have the wardens approval) as the radio I have now is only 5 channels(Spektrum DX 5 Rugged) and not sufficient to accommodate my idea's. I had originally looked at the Spektrum IX 14 and NX 20 because of there simple plug and play features but there price point is out of my range. Now I was pointed to the Frsky units by a fellow by the name of Westwind but was a little leery as they are open source and I just didn't know enough about them. I have literally spent hours on You Tube learning about Frsky and the Ethos operating system and it seems to be user friendly and straight forward. I was first drawn to the Tandem X 20 S as it seemed to do everything that I wanted at a reasonable price but last night I came across the Tandem XE and it has the same operating system Ethos as the X 20S BUT "this is the kicker" it has an option for 3D stick gimbals. When I look at that option my first thoughts were Throttle on left stick, rudder on left stick, bow thruster on left stick 3d gimble and stern thruster on right stick 3d gimble. It seems this radio is much more suited to the non aviation group and I am looking for peoples thoughts and feedback on this transmitter and Ethos operating system.

Cheers,

Michael

Mod add: https://youtu.be/tdwGNP3Qq1Y
 
 

[tsenecal]

Champdriver,

I have one on order, with the "4d" gimbals.  I will let you know when it arrives, and will hopefully be able to answer any questions.

[Champdriver]

Sounds good, looking forward to your review.
If this radio is what i think it is it may be the one radio I have for the next 10-15 years fingers crossed.

[tsenecal]

Michael,

Just an FYI... the Tandem XE arrived today.  I have taken it out of the box and tested to make sure everything survived the shipping.   First thing of note is that Ethos is NOT openTX.  the basic functionality is the same, but vast differences in the details.  It will take me a few days to figure out how it all works.  the radio itself is much nicer to handle than the Taranis X9E...  (the XE's spiritual predecessor, i owned one for about a month, and hated it)

I do not know if you have any history with the FrSky radios, and am curious what are your biggest questions/concerns regarding the XE?  I am pretty sure your ideas of what you will be using the XE for and mine differ.  I want to use it for submarines, commercial ships, and construction vehicles.

[Champdriver]

Hi tsencal nice to see you received the new radio you must be happy.
My history with Frsky is zero but the endless hours of YouTube searching and learning has helped understand Frysky I think. My only experience with radio’s dates back forty years to the old Kraft and Futaba systems on 72 mhz from rc flying days of younger years. My current radio is a Spektrum dx 5 rugged. I was looking into upgrading and staying with the Spektrum kit but you start getting above 8 channels and it becomes very apparent that the price soars and the radios are very geared to aviation. Hence the search for other operating systems ie open source and such. I think the full open source stuff might be taxing my limits of understanding the operating system, however the ethos system has intrigued me in that a lot of it is plug and play yet there are some open source capabilities as well (kinda a hybrid system if you will). With the introduction of the new radios on dual bands adds a nice touch of redundancy however it is geared for aviation but easy adaption to boats and surface users. The other factor that I like is a YouTuber by the name of Jan Fabri and how he has modified the Frsky x 20 for his marine purposes there’s a lot of potential going forward with this kit. Although to many on this forum it may seem pricey for there needs, I think the operating system, number of channels to be had and the physical adaptability of the transmitter for the cost leaves a lot of opportunity to be had going forward.
Cheers!

[tsenecal]

I basically bought it because it was the most cost beneficial.

I looked at three different transmitters:
1) Graupner MC28 3d
2) Flysky PL18ev
3) Frsky tandem XE

of the three, all have the extended 3d sticks.  Only the XE has support for 3d party rf modules, the others only output PPM.  All 3 support advanced ground vehicle mixes, although the tandem really has no pre-defined "wizards" for ground vehicles.  the PL18ev has tons of support for ground vehicles.

for me, due to shipping costs, the XE ended up being about $150 cheaper than the PL18ev, and about $500 cheaper than the MC28 3d.   The ability to use either TBS crossfire or ExpressLRS modules for my submarines was also mandatory.  I have used three different models of the Frsky radios, as well as two different Radiomaster models.  the radiomaster and 2 of the 3 Frsky radios use opentx/edgetx, so they are programmed identically, and everyone says that Ethos should be easy to understand if you are familiar with opentx/edgetx.   I am afraid that i do not have the ambitions that Mr. Fabri has regarding hardware customization, but i do want to setup advanced mixes for a couple of my tanks and submarines.

[tsenecal]

So,  I have been able to spend a little more time with the XE.   Luckily there is a downloadable Ethos manual.

As i said before, if you have used an OpenTX transmitter before, all the functionality of that firmware is in this firmware, just in different places.  the manual pretty much covers what is where, and some of it is, in my opinion, in weird places, especially if you are accustomed to the OpenTX way.  FrSky claims that the Ethos way is "easier" than the OpenTX way, but it is still very complicated.  the concept of everything being a mix is still there. 

If you have never dealt with a radio like this (such as the spektrum pistol radios) you will definitely benefit from looking through the manual.

https://www.frsky-rc.com/wp-content/uploads/Downloads/Manual/TANDEM%20X20S/X20%20and%20Ethos%20User%20Manual_1.1.1_rev2.pdf

[Subculture]

Curious about what you disliked so much about the Taranis X9E. Firmware is largely the same between open TX transmitters I thought? Not used that set but do have an x-lite- I tend to prefer small transmitters.

[Colin Bishop]

I'm a bit curious as to why people need multiple channels on model boats over and above the 8 or so offered on coventional sets.

What are you doing with all those extra functions?

Colin

[Subculture]

I don't think many do, but some might if they have lots of auxiliary items working on their models. It's easier to implement with modern radios than the old sets, where the basic PPM standard limited channels to eight or so, perhaps nine could be wrung out if the spacing between channels was minimised.

[tsenecal]

Curious about what you disliked so much about the Taranis X9E. Firmware is largely the same between open TX transmitters I thought? Not used that set but do have an x-lite- I tend to prefer small transmitters.

The thing that caused me to sell it was the physical design.  I was hoping for a modern robbe f28c, and it wasn't.  The external module for things like openlrs/expresslrs/tbs crossfire was not external, you had to open up the case to get to it. (6 screws). The optional switch bays at the top of the case were too closely positioned, 9 times out of ten, i would knock a second switch into a different position when trying to move only one.  The secondary screen at the top between the switch panels was an oled that could not be seen in daylight, and was hard coded to display specific telemetry, so if you did not have one or more of those specific sensors, that portion of that screen was useless.  finally, if you used a lipo battery instead of the nimh it came with, you had to remove the battery from the case to charge it...  same problem as the "external" module socket...  you had to remove six screws to get to the battery.    these are all issues that do not exist on the Tandem XE, its almost as if FrSky listened to the complaints about the x9e.

[tsenecal]

I'm a bit curious as to why people need multiple channels on model boats over and above the 8 or so offered on coventional sets.

What are you doing with all those extra functions?

Colin

I have a couple sailboats that benefit from having several extra knobs for extra sails, as well as the throttle.  I also have several tugboats that have several lights and thrusters, as well as a submarine that uses 11 channels.

I also have a couple Tamiya 1/14 semi tractors with trailers that use as many as 14 channels for all the functions that the truck and trailer have.

[Circlip]

Have to side with Colin on this one. Lights? How many sail after dark, Anchors? Even the shallowest pond won't allow an anchor to bite with the chain length storage. Sounds? At a distance of about fifteen feet, only sounds discernible are the screams of modern out/in runners. Like everything else in life, products are market driven, as mentioned on another thread, my 'Sanwa Mini Two' is more than adequate for my needs.


 Regards  Ian.

[tsenecal]

Have to side with Colin on this one. Lights? How many sail after dark, Anchors? Even the shallowest pond won't allow an anchor to bite with the chain length storage. Sounds? At a distance of about fifteen feet, only sounds discernible are the screams of modern out/in runners. Like everything else in life, products are market driven, as mentioned on another thread, my 'Sanwa Mini Two' is more than adequate for my needs.


 Regards  Ian.

glad to hear that a two channel radio works for you.  some of us wish to animate more functions on our boats.  and on our trucks.  and on our tanks.  and on our airplanes.  and on our helicopters.  and on our submarines.  and prefer to have one or two radios capable of controlling all 80+ models in our collection, instead of having 80 separate radios.

[Subculture]

It's easy to use up eight channels on a model submarine, especially if it's got forward and rear hydroplanes twin drives, static pitch shifting and a ballast system that allows proportional trim. Some of the latter can use up three channels alone.

Then you may wish to be able to switch out automatic pitch and depth control, not to mention the ability to mix controls in a non-linear fashion. Then some want controllable periscopes, functioning torpedoes etc.

Most of these large multi-channel systems are squarely aimed at model flyers, but they do have some crossover into the marine hobby.

The nice thing these days is that a decent multi-channel system can be had for less than the price of two channel system forty years ago.