TBS Tango Radio

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OctavioS
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TBS Tango Radio

Post by OctavioS »

What do you think? It will cost around £230 and its available for pre-porder. They also say its directed for quad racer pilots.
It has a JR module bay, in which you can use Frsky modules, etc, etc! Check the info below
TBS-Tango-2-350x233.jpg
TBS-Tango-2-350x233.jpg (15.1 KiB) Viewed 9340 times
TBS-TANGO-7-350x233.jpg
TBS-TANGO-7-350x233.jpg (11.53 KiB) Viewed 9340 times
Link here.
Video here.
2x - Turnigy 9X with 9xtreme board;
2x - Turnigy 9XRpro ;
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bob195558
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Re: TBS Tango Radio

Post by bob195558 »

You can NOT compare that thing to any 9x radios.
Its a toy radio, with an under size FPV monitor.

Bob B.
Er9x on 9x radio, with Smartieparts Programmer and TelemetrEZ Board.
ErSky9x on Taranis, Sky9x, 9Xtreme radios.
3D-Printing: (https://openrcforums.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=129).
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jhsa
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Re: TBS Tango Radio

Post by jhsa »

Hmm, not my favourite shape. They could have placed some sliders in the middle for example. That space was completely wasted, unless the hole is there for us beer drinkers to rest it against out fat bellies of course :mrgreen:
I think that for example it might be a bit difficult to hold while programming, but I would have actually to hold one to afirm this ;)
Where is the speaker?
I like the screen. Let's see how it behaves in the Sun.
Not enough switches? But I also didn't see a picture of the back yet.
It will not balance on the strap unless the battery(ies) is/are in the 2 handles (whatever you call it).
Would have to try the trims to comment about them.
They might actually be easier to operate than the conventional trims, but it could be also easier to hit the wrong one.

In my opinion, it looks modern but it might only please a few. In other hand, the RC world is changing (unfortunately not going in a good direction ) so, it might sell well in my opinion

Would I get it?
At first glance, no. Even if it had Ersky9x installed. :D
But I don't think it is a toy radio. It is perhaps just too specific. I know that the electronics will have good quality for sure

João
EDIT: As I am on my phone I didn't see the link to the video when I first read the first post. There are 2 sliders at the top, but self centering? :o
I guess this could be changed though. Only good for thumb flyiers I guess.
Speaker is on the back? :o
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Kilrah
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Re: TBS Tango Radio

Post by Kilrah »

I liked the shape thinking it would be a nice small portable unit - but now seeing it next to the Taranis it's actually bigger it seems, so no...
I also don't fly thumbs so couldn't really use it in the first place, doubt it can held for pinching.
OctavioS wrote:They also say its directed for quad racer pilots.
That's the next problem, it's meant ONLY for that use, i.e. it doesn't have any programming capabilities whatsoever.
The screen is mostly a gimmick since you wouldn't fly using that, if anything it's just convenient to look at for checks and adjustments or have a quick look at what others are doing without putting your goggles on, but then a separate $30 screen does that job well too.

If it was full featured with the screen as a bonus then why not.
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jhsa
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Re: TBS Tango Radio

Post by jhsa »

The words "Playstation Controller" comes to mind :mrgreen:

João
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duststorm
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Re: TBS Tango Radio

Post by duststorm »

What firmware does that thing run? If it doesn't run something opensource, then to me it's not even worth considering.
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bob195558
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Re: TBS Tango Radio

Post by bob195558 »

I believe this has its own firmware and there is no opensource firmware for it.
The 9x radio's can do a lot more stuff. :D
View this you-tube review for it may help you to understand what it is: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExGvY0sFSyg).

Bob B.
Er9x on 9x radio, with Smartieparts Programmer and TelemetrEZ Board.
ErSky9x on Taranis, Sky9x, 9Xtreme radios.
3D-Printing: (https://openrcforums.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=129).
lrvick
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Re: TBS Tango Radio

Post by lrvick »

I quite like the form factor actually. I only fly quads and travel by motorcycle and like saving all the backpack space I can get. Being able to do pre-goggles video reception testing without needing a separate screen would be nice.

That said, I have no desire to use something with closed firmware, so decided to go down the firmware inspection path to investigate custom firmware possibilities.

First I fired up TBS Agent in a Windows VM and extracted the stock firmware file from the updater, hosted here: https://lrvick.net/dump/0x0001A0xx_0x0103.bin

Initial analysis:
  • 93K filesize
  • 'strings' returns only garbage
  • binwalk reports high entropy
From this I assume it is encrypted.

The only teardown shots I could find were in the manual for the device found here: https://team-blacksheep.com/tbs-tango-manual.pdf
Small microcontrollers, but can't tell what type.

Still I would expect/hope they didn't ship this with dedicated hardware to decrypt the firmware, and that the TBS Agent software contains the secret key and decrypts it on the fly just before writing.

Need someone with an actual device to run USBPcap while running a firmware update to capture what I hope will be a decrypted firmware dump.

Then the real fun can begin :D

(Or if someone from TBS can just open their firmware and save us a lot of trouble re-inventing the wheel that would be cool too)
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Kilrah
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Re: TBS Tango Radio

Post by Kilrah »

lrvick wrote: Still I would expect/hope they didn't ship this with dedicated hardware to decrypt the firmware, and that the TBS Agent software contains the secret key and decrypts it on the fly just before writing.
Nobody with an ounce of sense would do it that way, the common technique is to have a custom bootloader in the MCU that does the decryption on the fly before writing to the flash.

Note that while the "console controller" looks of the radio may make you think it's small it's actually bigger than e.g. a Taranis.

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