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burkefj

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I got a new DX-8gen2 radio to replace my aging but still functional DX-7 radios I had, I had exceeded the 40 model memory on both of them and I wanted something with a li-ion battery for longer life and faster charging than the dated nimh batteries the dx-7 could use, and I wanted to have all models on one radio. The DX-8gen2 also has a memory card slot for software upgrades and storing model settings so it will be much easier to swap settings to a new radio in the future. I have all my DX-7 settings on an xls spreadsheet in case something got clobbered and I thought it was going to be a simple matter of just entering in the settings. However the DX-8 changed the granularity of the sub-trims, the trims and changed to a % of movement of the elevator flap trim that I use for my boost and glide settings. Old radio used +-200us pw as the +- values or approx 40% movement, new radio uses +-100%. so my old setting of 160 mapped to around 32% etc. But the pw setting was much finer granularity. So I had to map everything, then power up on the old radio, look at where my zero settings on subtrim were, then bind to the new radio and adjust from there.

Took me several days to get all 48 models bound and programmed, but due to little differences in the settings in the new radio they all needed to be re-maidened for perfect trim. I got my 11 electric models re-flown last week and today got out and flew 15 of my rocket gliders, still have 18 or so left to do as I get time. These are the ones I fly most at launches and school demos so wanted to be sure they were good before I flew them in front of people. For the most part, boost settings were perfect, one or two needed a slight tweak to the glide trim setting. One of my Wolverine models, the one in russian colors did a strange sudden roll movement on landing that I thought was a wind gust, but turned out that one of my servos is moving on its own, I assume the servo is just going bad, I do some stick movements and the servo sits there like it is trying to catch up to what I just did, very strange. Was pretty warm, high 80's, but wind was pretty calm so good trimming weather. Flew the Buran twice, once on an E-6 and once on an E-12 since the E-12 boost is much faster and boost trim is more critical, it was just fine. That little 24/40 RC casing got HOT, was using two soggy wet wipes to hold it while I took out the old load and re-filled it....That particular casing has around 350 flights on it.

It had been a while since i had flown some of these and I was pretty pleased with how well they all flew, the Jayhawk was just a floater, the Pegasus and Bomarc were very stable on boost and had a better than expected glide, all the rest were just easy peasy...All had been sold as kits except the Buran, two are still in production.

Took a family photo when I got home.

The DX-8 is nice, I like the auto start for the timer function that starts when you throttle up, I like the voice indications of time remaining, the radio links immediately to the models now, the DX-7 used to take 10-20 seconds, and I like the faster charging of the radio.

Turned out to not be too expensive an upgrade, my lhs had the radio plus receiver for $350 with a 10% off coupon, sold the receiver for $50, and sold the two DX-7
s for $50 each, so am only into the radio about $160.

Frank

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