DC-16 is here. First impressions!

[Kiba]

My DC-16 arrived today. Hopefully the PPM receiver firmware comes out shortly-- I'd love to have my R9s by this weekend so I can install them and fly! If the receivers came with the TX I'd probably take tomorrow off work so I could set up one of my helis and go flying.


First impressions:

The DC is larger than I thought but with the tray and Jeti 4-point harness it's extremely comfortable-- with the harness you don't even notice the weight. I'm very glad I changed my order from a neckstrap to the harness, the TX has enough heft that it would take a toll on the neck after a while. It takes a couple more seconds to slip the harness on and "clip in" but it's far more comfortable than a neckstrap.

The optional tray has two tabs that pinch and hold the TX so it doesn't slide around or fall out. I may still add a couple velcro patches on the bottom "just in case" to further secure the TX to the tray. Also, if you do buy the optional tray it comes with the folding brackets so you don't need to buy a set of those separately.

Build quality and feel is fantastic, the gimbals are the smoothest I've ever felt and they have a very wide range of adjustability. Being able to rotate the gimbals is a nice touch, after trying it I found a very slight rotation seems to feel more natural for how I hold my arms/wrists/hands. I'll fine tune the gimbal rotations more after flying to see if I give unintended inputs.

Display is large and easy to read.

The speaker is loud enough that you should be able to hear alerts & beeps even at a noisy field. Some of my previous radios had feeble beepers that were easily missed if there was too much background noise. Assigning sounds to system events and alerts is easy as is adding custom sounds.

The menu layouts are clear and intuitive. Without having receivers in-hand I haven't programmed any models yet but it looks like it will be an easy task. Plenty of programming options, mixes, and logical switches/conditions available.

Switch layout is very good, I can reach almost all of them without having to move my hands from their resting spots on the tray. Switches SA and SJ which are the furthest from the gimbals in the upper corners of the TX are rotated slightly so the pull is in the natural direction of an outstretched finger.

Adding a the optional 3-position switch in the left stick and a momentary pushbutton switch in the right stick was quick & easy. You can set up the momentary pushbutton in the software to function as a momentary on/off switch or a "latching" switch that is push on, push again for off. While I had the back off to solder the switches in it was very obvious Jeti put a lot of though into the board layout; compared to other transmitters that I've had apart there are a minimum of jumper harnesses and the harnesses that are present have very short runs and have plenty of wire supports / organizers. Also, the rotary switch (which will probably take the brunt of the wear & tear in programming) isn't directly soldered to a board but is mounted on standoffs with interconnects. If the rotary selector were to ever wear out it could be easily replaced by the end user with only a couple of screws.


And now for suggestions:

Jeti should include the special socket or spanner for loosening and tightening the switch nuts if you choose to move the switches around. This saves from having to make your own tool or worse yet using the wrong tool for the job and damaging the nuts or slipping and scratching the face of the TX.

When the language is set to English, in several menus it says "Kanal" instead of "Channel"

That's it for now, I'm sure there will be plenty more to fiddle with once I have the receivers. I'm *really* looking forward to flying with it!

[brw0513]

Originally Posted by Kiba

........You can set up the momentary pushbutton in the software to function as a momentary on/off switch or a "latching" switch that is push on, push again for off.

That is great news. Thanks for the tip.

Is there some indication on the screen the push button is latched on or off? Perhaps the better alternative is to program a beep-beep when the switch is on.

[Kiba]

Originally Posted by brw0513

That is great news. Thanks for the tip.

Is there some indication on the screen the push button is latched on or off? Perhaps the better alternative is to program a beep-beep when the switch is on.

The same goes for the movable spring loaded toggle switches-- you can set them up in the software to be either momentary or latching.

I'll look for an option to show switch status on the display, but as far as the sounds go it appears you can assign a sound to each switch and switch condition using the sounds that are already on the TX or you can save your own sounds on the SD card and use those.

As far as system sounds, some of the parameters you can assign sounds for are system startup, low telemetry signal, loss of telemetry signal, low battery (with adjustable voltage level), switch sounds (individual), timer sounds, telemetry sounds, etc. On top of that you can choose simple sounds or the synthesized voice for certain alerts/alarms. You can even assign the priority of alerts so if multiple alarm/alert conditions are met simultaneously you can choose the priority in which the TX will notify you.

I've been playing with the radio yet again for the last 30 minutes or so doing a mockup model setup and I'm very impressed with how open ended the programming is; there are enough options, switch locations, and logical / sequential functions to do almost anything that I can think of, and all of those options can be made either global (applies to all flight modes) or on a per-flight mode basis. It's very apparent Jeti really did their homework on this TX.

Once I have it up and running on my Goblin with the telemetry from the voltage/current sensor it will be nice to hear the TX speak out the actual mah consumed out of the battery packs and then alarm when 75% capacity is consumed; that's far more useful than just voltage. The TX will also either display the high/low voltage & amperage telemetry data after the flight or you can log the data to the internal SD card and download it later. I even bought a 30A voltage/current sensor for my 36" 3D foamy so I can have battery capacity telemetry & alarm on it.

A couple of other features I've noticed which are nice:

Two button sequence required for power up and power down. You have to press and hold the power button for a moment and then confirm power-up or power-down with one of the display buttons. If you don't confirm the power up in 5 seconds the TX shuts off. If you don't confirm the power down, it stays on. This makes it very hard to accidentally switch the TX on while in the case or accidentally switch it off while flying.

A "throttle lock" feature; you can set one of the buttons under the display to lock the throttle channel to prevent an accidental spool up. This is a safety in addition to your throttle hold switch. I also think I saw an option where you could have the "lock" button freeze multiple channels when activated.

[brw0513]

Thanks for the reply. This has certainly whet my appetite for the DC-16.

[Kiba]

Regarding a wrench / spanner to loosen the switch nuts, a user on RC Groups pointed out that Jeti does make one:

http://www.hacker-motor-shop.com/e-v...&c=6135&p=6135

I didn't receive one with my TX; I don't know if they were supposed to be included and I didn't receive one, these were overlooked in the first US-bound batch, or they really are an option to be purchase separately. Being that the movable switches are a standard feature of the TX it would make sense if the spanner wrench to loosen the switch nuts was included with the TX.

[brw0513]

That tool also looks like the Elevated RC offering:

http://www.amainhobbies.com/product_...en-8-Futaba-9C

http://www.bigskycnc.com/accessories.asp

[Kiba]

Another good piece of info... the supplied wall charger is rather fast for a wall charger and is capable of 2A output; it charged the TX battery from the as-delivered 20% to 100% in about 2 hours.

When you first plug in the charger the display momentarily turns on to confirm the TX battery voltage level, the charge status, and confirms the charger is connected and working; at that time the display also asks if you want to power up the TX, you can run the TX off the wall charger to do programming/setup while the battery is charging.

[F1 Rocket]

Switch tools are on the way from Jeti. They should be here in a week or so.

Danny

[lperagallo]

Originally Posted by Kiba

Another good piece of info... the supplied wall charger is rather fast for a wall charger and is capable of 2A output; it charged the TX battery from the as-delivered 20% to 100% in about 2 hours.

When you first plug in the charger the display momentarily turns on to confirm the TX battery voltage level, the charge status, and confirms the charger is connected and working; at that time the display also asks if you want to power up the TX, you can run the TX off the wall charger to do programming/setup while the battery is charging.

If you display the TX voltage screen on the display and double size it you can see current voltage, current draw and total MAHs used. If you are charging at the time you can see what you are putting back in.

Lou

[Kiba]

Originally Posted by lperagallo

If you display the TX voltage screen on the display and double size it you can see current voltage, current draw and total MAHs used. If you are charging at the time you can see what you are putting back in.

Lou

Nice! I put the radio on the charger at about 1:45am last night so at that point things were starting to get a little fuzzy.

[im4711]

sounds cool - thanks for the updates and information. I did hold it at funfly's a couple of times and played a bit with it. However since I am waiting for the DS-16 I still have to be patient.

Still a question since you ordered the DC-16 -> how do the gimbals feel like since they are a bit longer with switches on top? I only ask since I pinch myself currently using a DX10 and had to change the gimbals since they did not feel natural to me.

[Kiba]

I'm running the sticks as short as they will adjust which feels about perfect when I grip them at about the mid-point of the knurled portion.

You can get the sticks down about 0.200" lower if you remove the tapered sleeves below the knurled grips and install only the knurled grips. I tried that and it was just too low; it didn't feel comfortable. With the sleeves installed and everything bottomed out it feels very good to me. If the sticks were taller it would be difficult to achieve the full range of movement without stretching my fingers or sliding my hands on the tray.

The DS-16 looks to have shorter sticks than the DC-16 as the DS is intended for handheld use and oriented more for thumbers & pinchers. If it's like the DC-16 I would expect about 1/2" of height adjustment available.

The overall height of the included knurled sticks is the same height as the optional switch/button sticks. Right now my plan is to use the 3-position switch on the left stick for flight modes and the momentary pushbutton on the right stick for "Captain Rescue" on the HC3SX. I'll probably also map switch A (upper left corner, a spring loaded 2 position switch) for Captain Rescue.

[itbvolks]

Really!?

[Kiba]

Originally Posted by itbvolks

Really!?

My DC-16 looks the same as in all the promotional shots... maybe a little worse actually as I only have a point-and-shoot camera.

I'll get some pics tonight of the TX and also how I reworked the factory carrying case & foam insert. The factory case is nice and the foam insert works fine if you don't use the optional tray (or detach it after every use)-- but if you leave the TX in the tray the foam insert no longer fits. The TX and tray will fit in the case just fine but if you want to store the charger brick, USB cable, and shoulder strap in the case and not have things bounce around and scratch up the TX it requires some fresh foam and trimming.

[im4711]

My issue with ray radio DX10 was that it shocked me no first flight since I had much longer ways to move with long gimbals. So I had to swap to short gimbals and now I am OK.

I was holding the DC-16 at IRCHA and PSL fun fly and decided that even they feel better the way is to long for my flying. I think they can be changed and short once could be installed. However I am OK waiting another possibly 2 month for the new radio.
Both of those are the best radios I have seen so far.

[Kiba]

As requested, here are a couple of pics of the TX & tray.

I also included pics of the new foam inserts I made for the carry case so you can easily fit the TX, tray, charger, USB cord, and the 4 point harness in the case while still providing plenty of protection to the TX.







I'm still eagerly awaiting the arrival of the receivers, they were delayed a couple of days because of needing new firmware to enable single line PPM out.

[itbvolks]

Looks great! Thanks for sharing!

How's the comfort for you in the tray?! Looks great!

[Kiba]

Originally Posted by itbvolks

Looks great! Thanks for sharing!

How's the comfort for you in the tray?! Looks great!

Very good. Without the tray and only the TX brackets my hands rest on the edge of the TX and that edge creates a pressure point. It's not bad for a few minutes but would probably be uncomfortable after repeated flights; this might be comfortable for some but not for me. For me, the tray serves as a nice smooth palm/handrest free of any pressure points and it's far more comfy to use.

[flymustangs]

I'm using just the brackets without the full tray and it works for me. Before the DC-16 I was using this tray, http://www.espritmodel.com/transmitter-tray.aspx. It allowed my hands to wrap around the transmitter. I thought the DS-16 would be a better fit because of this, but I'm liking the feel of the DC-16 so far. Just need to fly with it some to decide for sure.