9Xtreme Upgrade Board for 9x Radios

[jhsa]

I have to make sure mine isn't flashed so I can see the light show..

João

[lancaster]

Hi Steve,
I think also we will need to purchase a Micro SD card too.

Bob B.

For making use of voice or other things that may need removable and/or large-scale storage... yes, that's correct. It actually didn't even occur to me to include one. I didn't think any device, be it for rc transmitters or cameras or gps or tablets or phones or whatever... included a memory card but someone pointed out to me that the 9xr does. I'm not sure why. Mike suggested there might be a good reason for us to include it (the unit could have a pre-installed voice message to let you know what's going on before the screen could show anything since the firmware was not yet on the 9x), but by that time I already announced a price given the costs I was already aware of. Besides, the user can still achieve that by downloading the file and putting it on their own card if they wanted.

I looked into it in case I could buy memory cards in bulk for pennies, but it isn't the case. They are such a cut-throat item that you can buy one from China at the same price as I can buy 1000 so there's not a ton of benefit to including them, cost wise. I hope people can accept that anyway

I'm quite happy to buy the sd card and replace the battery when it finally dies as long as I know how and when is the appropriate time for the change

[MikeB]

I haven't bothered but I see it is possible to measure the battery voltage from within the processor. If I add that in, it should be possible to detect the battery is getting low. I may not need to add it for a few months/years though!

It shouldn't be measured very often as there is a load applied to the battery while measuring it. Probably I'll just measure it once on power on.

Mike.

[MikeB]

I did have the idea of allowing the backlight brightnesses (R, G and B) to be controlled by a GVAR. Then you could program your own light shows! It could be interesting, but I decided my time is better spent on other things at present.

Mike.

[jhsa]

I think we will need and RGB backlight control in the voice alarms menu Like this we can have different colors for different situations..
Also Radio Setup/Display could have a RGB control so we could define the color of the Backlight.
João

[MikeB]

Individual control of R, G and B brightness is already in. Fairly easy to add as the Taranis plus supports a 2 colour backlight so I only had to add one more.

Mike.

[jhsa]

Good to know, thanks

João

[OctavioS]

Can you please leave some for other people?

heheh

[pencorco]

Great! Thanks Mike. Pre-Order Submitted!

[JAmrich]

I'm sure this may have been asked already but will this board work with the frsky diy kit installed?

[MikeB]

Yes, although you might want to reroute the PPM signal as this board has a separate internal PPM signal available in addition to the one going to the module bay. Also there are module power switches available so you can have both an internal module and an external mopdule and have the required one selected on a per model basis.

Mike.

[Albertdcc]

You believe necessary to change the radio circuit 9x?

When Tgy 9XR is priced at $ 50 and $ 100 the Tgy 9XR Pro ... .

Radio complete, just missing RF module ....

Albert

[callipso]

You believe necessary to change the radio circuit 9x?

When Tgy 9XR is priced at $ 50 and $ 100 the Tgy 9XR Pro ... .

Radio complete, just missing RF module ....

Albert

Have you ever held a 9XR PRO? It's night and day compared to the classic 9X

[jhsa]

That depends on who is using it and the personal taste. I have both radios and the PRO feels better.
I also thought I would dislike it because of the way it looks but I was wrong.
I did shorten the gimbal shafts on one of my 9x to make the sticks smaller and now it feels nearly as good as the 9XR-PRO. For me, they are both great.
With the 9xtreme board the 9x will become a bit more powerful than the PRO, depending on the firmware taking advantage of the extra power or not
As far as I know, none of the more powerful boards is limited by the hardware. They all have more power than needed. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.
João

[magnetus]

I have both 9X and 9XR (non-Pro). and I like the 9XR better. it feels better too.

[s_mack]

As far as I know, none of the more powerful boards is limited by the hardware. They all have more power than needed. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.
João

The 9XR isn't in the same class as the Taranis/Sky9X/9Xtreme, but no you're not wrong. It seems everyone wants to compare this to the 9xr pro or the Taranis, but that was never the intention.

The point of the 9Xtreme was to improve the 9x you already own. For someone with a 9X, it gives them a great and inexpensive option vs. throwing away what they have and buying something else. For someone that doesn't... it is just another option to choose from. It is a little less expensive than the Taranis and a little better (and a whole lot more original) than the 9XR. It also offers an RGB backlight, which isn't available in either of the other two. Perhaps most significantly, it offers vastly superior hackability vs the others, with included available serial ports and other available inputs/outputs for your hacking pleasure. The benefits of that will be seen in the future as ideas start flowing and the community develops "stuff" to take advantage of it.

[s_mack]

I have both 9X and 9XR (non-Pro). and I like the 9XR better. it feels better too.

I had the 9XR (not pro) briefly a year or so ago. I hated it. First and foremost, I hated how Hexatronix (HobbyKing) straight up ripped off FlySky's design and had the balls to print "made by Hexatronix" on the circuit board. They didn't "make" it (some PCB factory did) and they certainly didn't design it! And then calling their toy a "9XR" specifically to fool people to think it was an upgraded 9X... that was underhanded BS in my opinion. Totally different company, made even more confusing by the fact they previously licensed the 9X under the Turnigy name and branded their "new" radio as a Turnigy too. So you have the Turnigy 9X and the Turnigy 9XR, what are people supposed to think? But really you have a FlySky 9X (legally branded as a Turnigy) and a HobbyKing 9XR (copied). Beyond that, I hated the feel of it. The plastic felt "greasy" to me (fitting, given the nature of the company that made it) and, in my hands, didn't have the controls in the right places. But that's just personal opinion.

[jhsa]

That's why I said it depended on whom was using it. For some feel good and for others feel bad.
I wasn't talking about the electronics of the 9XR. Just the feel. The electronics of the 9XR PRO are excellent and reliable. I heard/read that very few had problems. The board was designed by Brent (Skynorth).

João

[s_mack]

The Pro, yeah. I'm just sour on their non-Pro ripping off FlySky unabashedly. I suppose that's what we expect from the Chinese, but I guess I'd hoped an Australian running a company in China would have slightly higher self-imposed standards.

Anyway, we're off topic.

[jhsa]

The Pro, yeah. I'm just sour on their non-Pro ripping off FlySky unabashedly.

I always thought the 9XR boards were made by flysky, even if they said they were made by hextronic.

João

[Kilrah]

I'd hoped an Australian running a company in China would have slightly higher self-imposed standards.

The "standards" he's known for are unfortunately closer to "buy QC rejects that were so bad they were just going to end up in the trash for pennies and sell them as the new big thing".

[bob195558]

Hi,
New progress update from Steven with an updated ETA estimate.

It is time for an update regarding your pre-ordered 9Xtreme or SP Basic boards!
I have to report our first hiccup, which is pretty good considering how these things normally go!
Production is underway for both boards and I'm told the boards themselves could be ready as early as September 9th (although I have to admit that seems extremely optimistic).
Unfortunately, the factory reported there's a supply issue with the cables that go along with them.
In particular, the "ZH" style connectors are backordered from the manufacturer and there is an estimated delay of 2 to 4 weeks.
I know at least some of you are going to say, "cables, shmables... send the board" but they are required and all the kits have to leave the factory at the same time.
I can't send some to those of you that think you can make your own connections, sorry.
I previously said my guess would be "October to December", and despite this bump in the road it looks like we'll be able to hit the early side of that guess.
It was briefly looking like September delivery might have been possible, but that's looking unlikely in light of this news.

I'm pleased to confirm the 9Xtreme kits will definitely come complete with the RGB backlight, and I'm fairly certain the speaker as well.
Both of those were always a bit of a "maybe" for the initial discounted pre-orders because I wasn't sure if they could be produced in time.
Thanks in part to the above mentioned cable delay, the kits should include all the accessories.
I am doing my best! Thanks as always for your continued patience.
[you can stop reading here if you're only looking for a status update. The following is not critical info regarding logistics]

Since all the design work was finished and I handed it off to production, the last week or two has been a little slow for me (thankfully), and it gave me some time to think about logistics a little.
In the past, I've always had the goods shipped to me (10 to 20 days) and then I send them out, one at a time, to customers from Canada (7 to 10 more days).
For the SP Rev 2.4 and TelemetrEZ boards, this was OK because they were so thin they could go using an inexpensive service called Light Packet.
The 9Xtreme is right at the limit, size-wise, for this service. To use it, it would mean sending in a bubble envelope, which I fear will not offer the protection necessary to get them to you safely.
Using proper packaging makes it too large for the Light Packet service, and that threatens to dramatically increase shipping costs to any customer not in Canada (which is 97% of you).
Of course, if you're getting this email then you've already paid for shipping and I'm not going to ask for more money from you... but the point is that Canada
has some of the most expensive shipping services in the world and they aren't particularly fast (they are extremely reliable though, I'll give them that).
It got me thinking about options, and once I looked outside of Canada I found some. Of course, there are trade-offs for everything.
What I currently plan to do is pay the factory to do a little more work and make sure each kit is fully ready to ship.
This eliminates my ability to personally inspect the kits (there's the trade-off), but it gives my customers far more and better shipping options.
From here in Canada, the choice is expensive and slow, or extremely expensive and not as slow. By using an overseas order fulfillment company (fancy words for "shipper"),
I'll be able to offer customers a wide range of options ranging from very cheap and very slow with no tracking (we've all experienced the "slow-boat-from-China" shipping
that can take from 1 week to 2 months depending on which way the wind is blowing) to fairly inexpensive and reasonably quick (similar to what I offer now, but with tracking)
to quite fast and reasonably priced express options that simply aren't available from here.
For example, a customer in France could choose DHL service and receive in 2-4 days for about US$25 to $30. Compare that to 3-5 days service from Canada costing $103!
I expect there to be an increase in uncaught defects or kitting mistakes, but it should be minor and worth the overall time and cost benefits.
I want to stress that this isn't the same thing as "drop-shipping", which you may hear in a negative tone. Drop shipping is the practice of selling stuff you don't actually own,
and having the manufacturer (or some Nth layer of middle-man) ship it as though it was your product.
For example, you go on eBay and find that neat-o key chain in blue and you order it and it shows up in red because the seller really has no idea what is being sold.
That's drop shipping. This is different. These are our products which we designed and outright paid for.
Everything from the board to the accessories to the box it shows up in will all be our direct product.
Drop shipping is done because it is cheaper for the seller.
Order fulfillment actually raises my costs, but decreases my customers' costs (and wait time) and I see that as a very good thing.
I'm also running the math on splitting the stock and sending a portion to a similar service based in the USA. One downside to the Chinese fulfillment company vs. sending from Canada,
is the shipping time to the US. It is slightly slower than shipping from here.
If I use a service based in the US, however, the shipping times are improved significantly with similar postage costs, although the handling costs more than offset the postage savings.
So it isn't a "no-brainer".
I've given this quite a bit of thought and I'm happy to hear your thoughts on this if you have any opinions, ideas, or concerns to share on the matter.
Again, this won't affect your shipping cost as you've already paid for it, but your input might help me provide better service going forward.
[email protected]

[ShowMaster]

Yes, got it. Sorry to read that it's going great, but shipping is looking like a headache. Fortunately the flying wx in LA is almost good year round. As interested as I am, I'd be ok with shipping first to places with wx closing in on them soon. I'm not sure it matters?

[s_mack]

That's a nice thought, but once shipping begins I can clear the whole backorder in a matter of 48 hours.

[flybabo]

Does this board has extra ports available for direct LCD interface?
Parallel LCD needs 14 ports (5 control + 8 data + 1 backlight control).
Serial LCD needs 6 ports (4 control + 1 data + 1 backlight control).

[MikeB]

No, we don't even have a 'normal' LCD interface on it. It uses the AVR processor already on the main board to drive the LCD.
We are using a serial port, running at 200kbaud, to transfer the display data to the AVR.

Mike.

[flybabo]

Is this project got affected by AR9X project?
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2479552
All of a sudden, there're multiple products for this niche market

[MikeB]

I don't think so. The 9Xtreme includes things like the RTC and power switching for the, two, possible module connections, and comes with a RGB backlight. It also has SmartieParts legendary support!
The processor also includes much more RAM.

Mike.

[s_mack]

To be perfectly honest, I've been so busy I missed that project. If you're going to post here to draw people's attention there, one might think its only fair to do the same there, but maybe that's just me.

I don't mind the competition. Having multiple choices in the market is, in general, a good thing. That's what the economics textbooks tell us, anyway. But you make a good point when you say "for this niche market". It is possible that splitting up an already small pie will, in the end, make it unpalatable for some.

I personally think my own 9Xtreme is late to the party. The 9X has already lost a lot of ground to things like the Taranis and that's only going to increase with newer products arriving on the market so it would have been better had this started 2 years earlier. The math told me I probably shouldn't bother at this point. But I have a particular love for the 9X. If I was late, then this AR9X is even later. At this point, is there enough to sustain both projects? Probably not. Am I happy there's another project vying for the exact same dollars as my project? No, of course not. But I'm not particularly bothered by it either. I know the 9Xtreme represents excellent value for the 9X user.

[jhsa]

I know the 9Xtreme represents excellent value for the 9X user.

No doubt about that.. It has everything needed onboard, plus some nice extra goodies
Can't wait to put my hands on one.. I have reserved my first 9x to receive it. Gotta buy some taranis gimbals for it. After all it is over 5 years old now, and I have a special care for it

João