Upgrade or whole new TX

[boowho]

Can someone maybe tell me advantages of fitting this board to an original V2 TX as opposed to just buying a complete 9X transmitter (whole new unit)??

TIA Boowho??

[s_mack]

I'm either confused on the question or you're confused on the concept.

If you have a 9X already ("original V2 TX") and buy a new 9X ("just buying a complete 9X transmitter")... you then have two 9X's, right? That hasn't really gotten you anywhere. A 9X sold today is virtually identical to one sold 6 or 7 years ago or whenever it was they started selling V2 9X's.

The point of the 9Xtreme is to modify an existing 9X to give it vastly superior processing power, vastly increased model memory, simple telemetry integration, voice capability, and an RGB backlight.

[Kilrah]

If you were to look for the features the 9xtreme gives in a whole new radio you'd be looking at a Taranis or 9XR-Pro, but of course not another 9x...

[boowho]

I'm either confused on the question or you're confused on the concept.

If you have a 9X already ("original V2 TX") and buy a new 9X ("just buying a complete 9X transmitter")... you then have two 9X's, right? That hasn't really gotten you anywhere. A 9X sold today is virtually identical to one sold 6 or 7 years ago or whenever it was they started selling V2 9X's.

The point of the 9Xtreme is to modify an existing 9X to give it vastly superior processing power, vastly increased model memory, simple telemetry integration, voice capability, and an RGB backlight.

Sorry I guess I meant the 9XR (or the 9XR Pro??) Whatever the latest and greatest Turnigy TX is??

[boowho]

If you were to look for the features the 9xtreme gives in a whole new radio you'd be looking at a Taranis or 9XR-Pro, but of course not another 9x...

So, now that I have my "stuff" together a bit better..... Same question. Comparison of 9xtreme on my V2 against a 9XR-Pro??

Which would be the better way to go? I know that SmartieParts stuff is really well engineered/manufactured.

Boowho??

[s_mack]

Ok, well you should know that there's really no relation between the 9X and the 9XR. I'm still a bit miffed at HobbyKing for creating this confusion.

Hobbyking is a division (or whatever) of a company called (something like) Hexatronics. HobbyKing sells a lot of products - most of which they do not design - under the brand "Turnigy".

FlySky is a completely different company that designed the 9X many years ago.

At some point, HobbyKing licensed the 9X from FlySky and sold it under the Turnigy name. This is literally nothing more than sticking a name plate on the unit and selling it as their own. No problem there.

The problem is when they decided to make their own radio (opening up the 9XR you see "made by Hexatronics" or whatever) and call it very similarly named "9XR", and still under the Turnigy brand, which implies to the world that it is an improvement over "their" previous design. it is not.

The 9XR is not an upgraded 9X. It is simply a different radio. The fact they are both called "Turnigy 9X" is, in my opinion, a deliberate attempt at consumer confusion.


In my opinion, you shouldn't even consider the 9XR. Your choice would be the 9X (upgraded) vs. the Taranis... another completely different radio but to me those are the two to choose between.


I would suggest that you stick with your 9X because then you're paying the incremental difference to upgrade it rather than starting over with the Taranis at full cost, thereby "wasting" your current investment in what you already own.


The Taranis and the 9Xtreme offer very similar performance. The Taranis has built-in haptic capability (vibration) while with the 9Xtreme that's something you have to add. The 9Xtreme has an RGB backlight while that's not possible with the Taranis. The Taranis arguably has a nicer screen and many say nicer gimbals. Beyond that, they are both pretty awesome.

The 9XR is a step down, in my opinion... but I'm biased because I hate how they went out of their way to confuse customers.

[jhsa]

S_Mack, while I agree with you on the 9XR subject, the OP was asking about the 9XR-PRO which is a big improvement compared to the 9XR.
Actually the electronics of the PRO were very well engineered by another user of this forum. It was only a shame that HK didn't take notice of some of the recommendations the beta testers suggested, like better gimbals for example. It could have been a much better radio than it is. But it isn't at all bad. I flew with one for about 2 years as my main radio and now I am planning to use my 9xtreme radio and another one as may main systems.
Some people don't like the way the 9XR-PRO feels in their hands. I did.. But I also like the feel of my 9x radios. I didn't like the feel of the Taranis radio even if it was built very similar to the 9x, which is very similar to some JR radios.

So, I think his question of comparing the 9XR-PRO to the 9xtreme is valid.

9Xtreme has a faster processor, much more flash memory and I think larger eeprom.
9xtreme is a solderless addon for the 9x radio, That means you screw it on top of the 9x mainboard, connect some cables, and you should be good to go. If you have a 9x and it is not broken, you do not need to buy another radio to have a better system. The 9xtreme does all that..

No, I do not work for S_Mack and I'm not making publicity for his board.
I'm saying what i think, and I think it is a good system.. So is the 9XR-PRO, and some others..

João

[Daedalus66]

The 9XR was discontinued nearly a year ago, so is really not part of the discussion. The 9XR Pro is much better value anyway, so no loss.

To oversimplify things a bit, you could say that the 9Xtreme board transforms the 9x into the approximate equivalent of a 9XR Pro (or Taranis). Better in some respects, as João points out, but for most users pretty much equivalent in functional terms.

So the choice becomes one of personal preferences. Which looks better and feels better in your hands? Which has better sticks?

I don't agree with s_mack that the 9XR Pro is a step down, though I can see where he's coming from. The features and quality issues make it a mixed situation. Choosing is not easy, but in the end I think that like João I will pick the 9Xtreme as my day-to-day transmitter.

I also have a Taranis to choose from (and unlike João, like its feel very much).

So several ways to go with something to recommend each of them. The good news is that all these transmitters will do the job very well.

A more difficult issue these days is what to do about an RF module, given the problems with one of the obvious choices, the OrangeRX DSMX/DSM2. But don't get me started on that.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[s_mack]

9XR or 9XR-Pro... my distaste for it isn't the equipment... its the naming. Pick something familiar... let's say the Apple iPhone. Let's say that Apple was crazy enough in the early days to allow Samsung to sell their product as the Samsung iPhone. Everyone knows they're the same device... whatever. But then a few years later Samsung decides to make a totally different product and instead of calling it the Galaxy, they call it the iPhone Pro. That's consumer confusion.

I admit, however, that when I was placing the relative scale with the 9XR being below the 9Xtreme and Taranis, I was meaning the 9XR, not the 9XR-Pro... of which I have zero experience with. I guess I ignorantly figured HobbyKing was continuing their ways and slapping "pro" onto it because they wanted to bump sales. Again, if the 9XR-Pro is materially different than the 9XR... why not CLEARLY deliniate it? Call it something entirely different, like Taranis did. You don't see FrSky calling their unit the 9X-better-plus-most-greatest-R-Pro.

Sorry for the rant. I just got a bug up my arse over this issue when the 9XR first came out.

[jhsa]

If it makes you feel better the 9XR-PRO externally looks exactly the same as the 9XR. If you don't read the small words near the display, you wouldn't know which is which until you open the back to see the internals, or turn the radio ON

João

[bob195558]

Some more comparing info between radios:

Sky9x Radio (Turnigy case), weighs: 864g

Turnigy 9x Radio with er9x firmware, weighs: 878g

9Xtreme Radio with two XJT transmitters installed, weighs: 952g

My Taranis-x9d Radio with erSky9x firmware and two XJT transmitters installed, weighs: 904g

Note: All my 9x radios have the same 3S battery with Taranis Gimbals Upgrade.
My Taranis radio uses the FrSky Taranis 2500mah Battery.
The different between the 9x radio case and the Taranis radio case is about 89% the same.
When I measure the out side where we normally hold these radios, the measurements are identical.
The top part of the Taranis case is thicker, making it have more room inside for the hardware to fit there.
What may make a different feel between the Taranis and 9x radios is the length of the Gimbal control sticks,
and the weight of the radios.

9Xtreme upgrade board is a good option, but to be closer to the Taranis you would need to upgrade and add more hardware.
If you are not OK with upgrading some of the hardware then 9XR-Pro a good option.
But over all I like my Taranis best with it being flashed to erSky9x and it comes with the hardware upgrades already installed in it.
Also the Taranis comes with a larger display screen and comes with an internal XJT transmitter.

Bob B.

[MikeB]

if the 9XR-Pro is materially different than the 9XR... why not CLEARLY deliniate it?

I agree it is not obvious how much better it is. I believe they wanted to continue using the same case as they spent a lot on getting the moulding done.
The 9XR-PRO has completely new electronics. It is basically a SKY board (Brent(SkyNorth) did the design), although we did fit the larger flash (512K) and RAM (64K) processor compared to the SKY board. So it does have an ARM processor (Atmel).

Mike.

[boowho]

Thanks EVERYBODY for sharing some great info. I will read it all in detail several times and then make my decision.

Best regards

Boowho??

[silversurfer48]

Oh yeah I would invest in the smartie board before buying a new trans.perferable the large kitor complete kit 9XTREME