openrcforums

Sorry if this topic has been discused earlier but a quick search did not give the answer.

I was looking the Rcgroups thread on the OrangeTX ORX t-Six DSM2 transmitter from Hobby KIng and found out that it has the ATMEGA 128 chip, in addition it's got a nice LCD, a roller type rotary encoder and ultra cheap receivers are available from HK. The original firmware looks rather primitive though.

So I was wondering if it is possible to port er9x/open9x easily for this system to get a cheap and flexible radio for foamies and park flyers with minimal modifications to the TX?

Certainly possible. It didn't spark much interest probably the fact that it's more expensive than a 9X/9XR, has no pots, is limited to 6CH, would need quite some work reverse-engineering the schematics, etc...

Well, the pots are missing but otherwise 6ch is enough for the foamies and things like elevator and differential adjusting can be done with the roller. Original firmware is good enough for 2 servo wing with conventional tail altough adjusting possibilities are limited. However, looks like very limited for flying wings and 4 servo wing.

so, they put an atmega 128 on this radio and an atmega 64 in the 9XR?? Veeeery clever

HK didn't design it, they just took an existing DX6i clone and changed the case color.

ahh ok.. I don't think HK designed the electronics of the 9XR either.

for this transmitter, which types or kinds of receivers work with it

All DSM2 receivers.

hpihl wrote:Sorry if this topic has been discused earlier but a quick search did not give the answer.

I was looking the Rcgroups thread on the OrangeTX ORX t-Six DSM2 transmitter from Hobby KIng and found out that it has the ATMEGA 128 chip, in addition it's got a nice LCD, a roller type rotary encoder and ultra cheap receivers are available from HK. The original firmware looks rather primitive though.

So I was wondering if it is possible to port er9x/open9x easily for this system to get a cheap and flexible radio for foamies and park flyers with minimal modifications to the TX?

Guess "easy" is relative.

Looking at the effort required to properly port, debug and support the firmware to the Taranus and Sky9X boards.... 6 months of effort?

Quite allot for little gain.

I'd rather see opensource firmwares for the orange RX stabilizers.

Rob Thomson wrote: Guess "easy" is relative.

Looking at the effort required to properly port, debug and support the firmware to the Taranus and Sky9X boards.... 6 months of effort?

Quite allot for little gain.

Given that the ATMEGA 128 is already supported and directly related to ATMEGA 64, I don't think that porting requires as much work as was needed for completely new processor like in the case of the Sky9X/Taranis. The pin use is probably quite bit different and difficult/time consuming to reverse engineer though.

I had a ORX T-Six here for a while before passing it to a local heli guy. Overall I was quite impressed; build quality is better than I've seen on any FlySky TX but not quite level of the name brands, the LCD is by far the best I've seen on any cheap TX, roller type ecoder works nicely, the sticks were about as good as in my best 9x but not as good as Aurora or Futaba sticks and the software was ok for the foamies/small helis. IMHO definately a better TX than the DX6i assuming that hardware sustains use (there has been reports about failing LCDs) and definately not a copy or clone of the DX6i.

Anyway, It's well usable with the original firmware and apparently there is no interest for porting so there is no reason to go further...

tilmanb wrote:I'd rather see opensource firmwares for the orange RX stabilizers.

This already exists:

Open Flight Stabilizer

I thought about this, too. I don't want to spend the $65 + shipping + tax at the moment, but i might have a weak moment on a late evening browsing HK in the near future
I DO NOT have any useful programming expertise, I'm just confident enough with Arduinos and MSP430s to run some basic sketches and to configure / tweak my MultiWii pocket quad, so my input on this is only theoretical and probably quite naive. However given that the processor is already supported and the integrated DSM2 module might use the original X1TXN protocol that is already implemented in openTX aswell, the main challenge remaining to get at least started on the T SIX would be to write a driver for the LCD. This might be tricky, depending on how well if at all the display protocol is documented, e.g. availability of datasheets, yada yada..
The question asked is clearly not if porting openTX to the T SIX is possible, but if it is worth the effort. If hobbyking would flash these with openTX by default if it was available for this radio, this could spark some interest. If this would be likely to happen is up to anybody's imagination
First step would be to find out which display is used and how it is driven, if this information is not available one would have to probe the display with a logic analyzer and reverse engineer the protocol. Somebody with the required motivation and skills would have to write a display driver based on the gathered information. At this point the hardest part should be done (remember, I have no idea how complex all the other required changes to the code might be) and others might become interested in testing and contributing to this port. This would be reason enough for me to buy the thing at least.
I would be interested in beta testing and giving input and reverse-engineering hardware, but I definitely lack the programming skill to achieve a nearly stable and usable port of openTX to this radio.

I know that it's 6 years after latest post, but... I reverse the dx6i schematic and it's pretty easy and otx or other open software should fit (currently working on it), but LCD is pain... no part number, no datasheet - nothing... By schematic it has 5 control bits and 8 data. I tried logic analyzer on control lines but it looks like 3 lines always hi and 2 always low. Have no idea what controller used in this display. As I know dx6i display is the same as in t-six and micron t6i.

If somebody can give an idea how to find any info about this lcd - I'll try my best with lcd driver. Really love this TX, but for now only solution I see is swap display with known one