RadioMaster TX16S Revelations
Posted: Mon Jan 11, 2021 8:29 pm
Well fellas, after a thousand years resting in Mississauga, My TX16S has arrived in East Dover!
FIRST IMPRESSIONS
This is a large radio and quite heavily built. The sticks feel almost fluid dampened. Very nice.
GETTING STARTED
I popped two $4 18650 LiIon cells into the provided tray and got right to work on setting up a model.
I started with my new Lemon RX 0052 7ch receiver with integrated variometer.
Binding was simple. The transmitter has a built in OpenTX Wizard that provides you with a great starting point.
Within a few hours I has it set up mostly as I wanted:
Left slider controls the throttle, with a switch providing throttle lockout. The transmitter will not arm until that switch is in the correct position. Rudder is, as with most gliders, on the right stick that you might call “Aileron”. The throttle stick controls my flaps (1 servo per channel in my case). The elevator stick controls the elevator with some small modifications depending on flight mode, which I’ll get to shortly.
FLIGHT MODES
The transmitter has up to 8 flight modes, but I have 3 set up as follows.
Cruise: the computer lady tells me in a calming alto that I’m in cruise mode. The flaps are centred when the throttle stick is all the way down for neutral flight.
Thermal: the flaps add a bit of down offset (I did this using a Global Variable) to provide a bit more lift. In thermal mode, in addition to the 100% elevator throw provided at all times by the elevator stick, the right slider provides me with 20% throw and buzzes when I hit neutral in the middle. This way I can set the elevator when I’m in a thermal without adjusting my global trim. I expect this to be very helpful. The right slider ONLY takes effect when I’m in thermal mode.
Speed: the flaps crank up for a little bit of reflex. Note that the throttle stick still gives me full flap control in all flight modes just in case.
That describes the flight modes.
PROGRAMMY STUFF
By setting the flap offsets using a flight-mode dependant global variable, I never need to mess with trims for that purpose and I can easily make changes to each flight mode’s offset.
I also set up a 3 position switch to control my variometer. Down is “HEFA MODE” in full silence. Only the screaming of tiny props to be heard, no beeping.
Middle is “altitude announce” every ten seconds.
Top is FULL NOOB MODE with constant variometer beeping indicating lift and sink and an altitude announce every 30 seconds.
Finally, I have a few logical variables and special functions set.
For one, if I ever put the throttle slider above zero but have the throttle interlock active, the radio will tell me I’m disarmed so I don’t get any wrong ideas.
Secondly, a timer will count down only while the throttle is above 0%. Another timer counts up for the entire flight duration and can be reset with a momentary switch.
Finally there are a few low voltage alarms based on telemetry from the receiver.
CONCLUSIONS
I had been worrying that this would be a nightmare to set up, but understanding a few very general principles of how openTX works, mainly around mapping physical interfaces to software IDs. , followed by mixing, followed by mapping mixed channels to outputs, really makes it a joy to set up. You can do anything your bored, winter-locked, sun-deprived mind can imagine with those logical functions. You could make this thing play “Stairway to Heaven” any time the vertical acceleration exceeds 5m/s.
Next steps are to get John to record a bunch of voice clips of him announcing flight modes to replace the stock voice, and then we should be off to the races.
This thing cost $180 shipped and so far has entertained me at least $90 worth so we’re halfway there.
FIRST IMPRESSIONS
This is a large radio and quite heavily built. The sticks feel almost fluid dampened. Very nice.
GETTING STARTED
I popped two $4 18650 LiIon cells into the provided tray and got right to work on setting up a model.
I started with my new Lemon RX 0052 7ch receiver with integrated variometer.
Binding was simple. The transmitter has a built in OpenTX Wizard that provides you with a great starting point.
Within a few hours I has it set up mostly as I wanted:
Left slider controls the throttle, with a switch providing throttle lockout. The transmitter will not arm until that switch is in the correct position. Rudder is, as with most gliders, on the right stick that you might call “Aileron”. The throttle stick controls my flaps (1 servo per channel in my case). The elevator stick controls the elevator with some small modifications depending on flight mode, which I’ll get to shortly.
FLIGHT MODES
The transmitter has up to 8 flight modes, but I have 3 set up as follows.
Cruise: the computer lady tells me in a calming alto that I’m in cruise mode. The flaps are centred when the throttle stick is all the way down for neutral flight.
Thermal: the flaps add a bit of down offset (I did this using a Global Variable) to provide a bit more lift. In thermal mode, in addition to the 100% elevator throw provided at all times by the elevator stick, the right slider provides me with 20% throw and buzzes when I hit neutral in the middle. This way I can set the elevator when I’m in a thermal without adjusting my global trim. I expect this to be very helpful. The right slider ONLY takes effect when I’m in thermal mode.
Speed: the flaps crank up for a little bit of reflex. Note that the throttle stick still gives me full flap control in all flight modes just in case.
That describes the flight modes.
PROGRAMMY STUFF
By setting the flap offsets using a flight-mode dependant global variable, I never need to mess with trims for that purpose and I can easily make changes to each flight mode’s offset.
I also set up a 3 position switch to control my variometer. Down is “HEFA MODE” in full silence. Only the screaming of tiny props to be heard, no beeping.
Middle is “altitude announce” every ten seconds.
Top is FULL NOOB MODE with constant variometer beeping indicating lift and sink and an altitude announce every 30 seconds.
Finally, I have a few logical variables and special functions set.
For one, if I ever put the throttle slider above zero but have the throttle interlock active, the radio will tell me I’m disarmed so I don’t get any wrong ideas.
Secondly, a timer will count down only while the throttle is above 0%. Another timer counts up for the entire flight duration and can be reset with a momentary switch.
Finally there are a few low voltage alarms based on telemetry from the receiver.
CONCLUSIONS
I had been worrying that this would be a nightmare to set up, but understanding a few very general principles of how openTX works, mainly around mapping physical interfaces to software IDs. , followed by mixing, followed by mapping mixed channels to outputs, really makes it a joy to set up. You can do anything your bored, winter-locked, sun-deprived mind can imagine with those logical functions. You could make this thing play “Stairway to Heaven” any time the vertical acceleration exceeds 5m/s.
Next steps are to get John to record a bunch of voice clips of him announcing flight modes to replace the stock voice, and then we should be off to the races.
This thing cost $180 shipped and so far has entertained me at least $90 worth so we’re halfway there.