turnigy evolution (review)

[shawdreamer]

this things been around for a bit now but no one on here has really made to much effort to have a good look at it afaik, soooooo....

a quick review....

only arrived an hour or so ago so this will literally be "first impressions"

straight out the box Im loving the form factor, feels solid and stable in the hand.

doesnt bother some people but I like my TX to feel balanced in my hands, not to top heavy not to arse heavy, this little fella pulls it off quite well, doesnt feel like it wants to tip out your hands even when holding it lightly(plus its atleast half the weight of my 9x)

immediately set about scrolling through its various settings which are surprisingly comprehensive for something I wouldnt on first impression consider a "full TX" like its bigger brother the 9x or Taranis.

Has pretty much everything your average flyer would want in a TX (even more so with the newer firmware of which came pre-installed in the HK unit)

Along with all the usual settings like channel reversing, end points, custom aux channels (of which there 8 when using switch combo's), subtrim, failsafe, output modes (PWM,PPM,Sbus & Ibus) and timers (there's 2 for some bizarre reason....maybe so you can use one as a lap-timer?) etc

the newer firmware gives you

telemetry screen (you can now check your Rssi signal strength instead of doing the usual "leave it on the floor walk away" test)
auto S&Ibus endpoint adjustment
RX battery alarm delay (so you battery alarm doesnt keep going off when you have punchout voltage sag)
flight mode visual indicator
and my personal favourite a auto throttle timer which only kicks in when you give your frame the level of throttle youve set on the TX, also stops when you drop beneath that level again (will be useful for myself when testing new frame flight times without having to stop and start a timer)

there's probably more to be discovered but tbh I havnt really delved right in yet, Ill save that till I get some flying time out of it.

pre flight though theres still plenty to be pleased with.

as said I love the form factor but I also like the lack of bulky batteries needed, this thing runs on a pair of 18650's iirc (charged via a usb socket that also lets you use the tx for sims over a usb connection) which are hidden away in the two lower palm grips (which also aids the balance), like the backlit touch screen too, nice and responsive throughout the UI, while on the topic of the UI though I generally find it good  for what Im after but my one and only gripe would be its continued need to ask you "are you sure" whenever you change even the most unimportant setting..... its like it thinks its owner is senile

as for the gripes Ive heard and seen online...

Toy like gimbals

dunno what toys people are referring to but they must be pretty decent toy gimbals?, these actually feel quite nice, there smooth and responsive and have a pretty good solid feel to them (which tbf even I wasnt expecting given their made out of semi transparent material so this TX's song and dance LEDS can glow through (they can be turned off or set to a single colour btw)

Bad TX for "pinch" flyers

dunno about this one either, I personally use both methods of stick control depending on what frame Im flying (pinch for my faster frames and thumb for my slower cam ships), whether that be thumb or pinch I cant really see using this TX being an issue, well atleast no more than my 9x is, infact its probably gonna be more comfortable to use the pinch method on this TX than my larger 9x due to the lesser weight and better balance of this tx.
Some have said its harder to pinch with it because your fingers can strike the top of the gimbal when you full throttle up or full pitch forward..... the sticks are adjustable..... lift them :huh and more importantly just how bad a set of sausage fingers do these people have? are they trying to fly using hands like a rack of pork cutlets??

Signal strength isnt as good as the Taranis

well of course it bloody isnt!, its a £30 tx..... the Taranis is £180 and has obviously better hardware.
obviously until I can test it I cant really comment to greatly but from the walk away tests people have done its range is not half bad, Ill test it myself when I get a chance out at my flying field spot, that way I can try it with a long direct LOS across the fields and then with some trees between too to see how its penetration fairs.

It only has 5 model save space

I kinda understand this one as Ive got atleast 8 frames in flying condition right now but then it struck me (and others going by a quick google search), the RX bind technique for this tx and the 1A6c RX it comes with is so fast and pain free that Im likely only ever gonna use one maybe two of the model saves (one for my cc3d's the other for the Naze's).
All Ill have to do is literally power the frame, hit "RX bind" on the Evo and its done, your ready to fly....... apart from the slight channel mapping differences between cc3ds and naze's there's no issue, Id just need 2 models

well thats pretty much about all I can say about it till Ive got it flying something and had some time on it.


Ill update this post as I go I suppose

[Bajadre]

Great little min review there SD 

Think next year am gonna change from speccy and venture into something different 

[shawdreamer]

Ive only linked it up with PPM to a cc3d I had knocking about but it couldnt have been easier, will probably give the Ibus and sbus option a go at a later date, been told the Sbus on the evo is spot on but Ill be honest I generally use PWM setups and only rarely use PPM setups so Ive not touched either Ibus or Sbus before.... Im literally a dinosaur in a jungle full of airbourne primates

[Saleem]

Only 5 rx can be bound at max?

If so its not for me for sure,i had a look other day and thought for a while but passed.

[shawdreamer]

Only 5 rx can be bound at max?

If so its not for me for sure,i had a look other day and thought for a while but passed.

normally Id agree, given my "habit" of immediately beginning my next design after just finishing one you can imagine just how many models I can have at any given time (think my record was four separate models (designing, prototyping, building and flying) in one month, so a 5 model limit was a definite no go but like I mentioned and others are already doing, you can use one model for multiple frames when using similar fc's (like the various cc3d's or nazes).

the Rx binding is so fast and clean its no different than plugging a lipo into your frame and your away, its the easiest binding Ive used, no RX button pressing or jumper pin placing (so you dont need access to the RX) and the actual time it takes to bind is literally the time it takes to press the "Bind rx" button on the tx and plug in your frames flight battery.

[shawdreamer]

swapped out the frsky pwm receiver in my twinboard cf250 design for the 1A6b that came with the evo and Im all ready for some test runs tomorrow (weather allowing)


The cf250 is a bit of a tank so it should survive any whoopsies once I inevitably get overconfident with this new tx <mental notes to fly as far from the rugby posts as possble so he isnt tempted again>

ps. cos Gaza sent em, figured I should use em....

[shawdreamer]

first flight this morning (bit to cold for it really but just wanted to get an initial idea how it felt)

again I found myself pleasantly surprised, has a very locked-in feel to the tx, works very well with the supplied rx, was very comfortable to hold and as suspected it felt fine in both the thumbs and pinch approach.

stock gimbal tightness actually suits me quite well (it can be adjusted in the usual way at the back of the gimbals if you want more tight or loose feeling), the battery telemetry works almost spot on too, the tx alarm went off mere seconds before the frames onboard fired off (again the low level alarm can be adjusted in the TX), pushed it a little after the initial alarm and the TX went from a simple beeping to flashing gimbals and screen as the battery dropped further (a nice feature if your not using goggles), a few have mentioned the Evo's alarm beeper is too quiet but personally I think its quite audible and would probably be more annoying than anything if it was any louder (suppose it might be hard to hear if your at a meet and there's alsorts of frames and glow engines zipping about but then again a standard alarm beeper would probably get drowned out too)

Only used my testing spot (not the field) so obviously couldnt push the signal range yet and the Rssi indicator on the telemetry screen didnt even budge so cant confirm the accuracy or even functionality of that yet either till I can send it out to some kind of reasonable distance.

all-in-all though a nice comfortable first flight experience with a totally new to me TX

[shawdreamer]

yep, didnt take me long......



I carry my TX cowboy style bitches

Forgot to mention about the included gimbal/screen cover that comes with this tx, again nice touch but it'd be annoying when out in the field as you'd have to put it somewhere whenever you took it off, thought maybe some form of lanyard hanger might have worked but thatd get annoying too, so made use of it in a kinda dual fashion, protects my gimbals, frees up my hands so I dont need to carry it.  Now snaps in and out of the "holster" with ease .

oh and made a matching wall hanger to obviously.

that all done, I flew a couple of battery cycles with it and the CF250 earlier once it'd warmed up, only used a closer smaller football field but got a better sense of performance, works excellently with the rather aggressive settings of my cf250's cc3d v2 fc, I get a better feel for the frames movements especially in rate, theres just no slop or hesitation atall with the evo's gimbals, made flying at pace a much sharper exact experience all round.