Newbee Advice on Multirotor and controler

[Mr. T]

Hello everyone,
I want to start flying multirotors. I have been recommended when starting, to begin with a cheap multirotor like the Blade MQX BNF and spend the money on a great controller like Spektrum DX8 or 9 because then you will have options when one progresses. I just want to stay with multirotors and eventually progress to AP and AV for commercial use. What say you all?

Also I see the description:
DX8 System with AR8000 + TM1000

what does the AR8000 and TM1000 mean?


Thank you very much for taking the time to answer these questions.


-Terry

[GLM308]

Ar8000 is a 8 channel receiver
tm1000 is a telemetry receiver

Greg

[ArchmageAU]

mQX is a good starting multi-rotor. What do you want to get into? (FPV flying, aerial photography, flying automation, orientation familiarization?)

Blade also has a new 350 QX designed for aerial photography (http://www.bladehelis.com/350qx/) with stability and GPS return home. This can be flown with a 5ch transmitter (DX5e), but personally I would want a better transmitter than this.

DX8 is a good 8 channel transmitter/reciever. It will only recieve telemetry (not audio or images). Same with DX9.

The AR8000 is a receiver getting instructions from the DX8 (or DX9). The TM1000 is a telemetry transmitter, sending status numbers (battery voltage, airspeed, motor temperature, motor RPM, etc...) back to the DX8 (or DX9).

The AR8000 and TM1000 are to be used when building up a new aircraft (plane, helicopter, multi-copter). The AR8000 recieves transmission of 8 control channels. For a standard quad copter, you only need four channels (power, go left/right, go forward/back, turn left/right) or to use aviation names (throttle, aileron, elevator, rudder). The extra channels can be used to control other things (stability, camera shutter, camera direction, lights, etc..).

As you can see, if eventually building an FPV or photography multi-copter you may want the extra channels. You will also want to add a separate transmitter (outside of telemetry) to transmit a video signal back to you.

Multi-rotor FPV/video copters like the AR Drone set up a wi-fi link to a tablet (ipad) to receive and transmit instructions. This is fine for short distances, but for longer ranges you require more powerful equipment.

How deep are you looking to explore this rabbit hole?