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My new Tx has arrived - Review now included - The Jeti DC-16

Started by SimonS, Friday,August 16, 2013, 22:53:41

Previous topic - Next topic

SimonS

I have had concerns for a few months that we regularly put £1000 or more into the air and then trust it to a $50 transmitter from China.  I have been looking at other options including the Taranis and the Futaba 14SG but I don';t like the layout of the Futaba and a few hours with the simulator for the er9x firmware convinced me that the Taranis firmware is for computer geeks rather than end users.  None of the developers have ever heard of the term ';user friendly';.

One company that has interested me is Jeti. Their DC-16 and DS16 are quality pieces of kit.  I was lucky and found this on ebay at the right price. Here are a couple of pictures to be going on with showing the Tx and the telemetry data from the Rx and LiPo/




As I said, more to follow soon........

Cozp83

VEry nice dude, had my eye on one of these for a while. hows the weight? thats whats held me back buying one.
If YOU can fly it, I CAN crash it.

philtrum

Many Thanks
Phil
[url="//www.makeitbuildit.co.uk"]www.makeitbuildit.co.uk[/url]

SimonS

The Jeti DC-16 Duplex review.

You may have seen this transmitter on your travels around the internet.  Electricwingman and Puffin motels are the UK stockists.  The Jeti transmitter range consists of two models, the DC-16 and the DS16.  The DC-16 reviewed here follows the Continental 'tray' style which is more suited to those who use a finger and thumb on the sticks.  If you are a thumbs on top then there is the DS-16.

The DC-16 with optional tray


The DS-16


The differences are:-
Dimensions. DC-16 is 180x270x40mm. the DS-16 is 194x172x40
Weight. DC-16 is 1.5kg, the DS-16 is 1.25kg.
Switches.  The DC-16 has 2 extra 3 position switches
Accelerometers.  The DS-16 has built in accelerometers that can be assigned to various functions.
Receiver.  The price of the DS-16 includes an R9 receiver.

Other than the above they are both 16 channel transmitters and run the same firmware.  Jeti seem to be responsive to their customers and have already added a number of requested features.

Duplex.

It is in the name but what is it? it has two meanings.  Firstly there is the two way communication between the Tx & Rx so the Tx can show signal strength for each Rx antenna and the Rx voltage. It will also display telemetry data from a variety of available sensors.  Secondly, Duplex refers to the Tx transmitters.  The Tx has two independent transmitter modules and two separate antennae.  In the default mode the transmitters alternate their transmissions to the Rx to improve reception and redundancy.  For even more redundancy there is 'Double Path' mode.  This is aimed at the jet and large model brigade and allows two Rx's in the model. Each Tx module then links with one Rx and you link each receiver to half the servos (each having 1 aileron and 1 elevator and the rest split between the two).  In this way, even with a Tx or Rx failure the model will still be flyable. The third mode is the trainer mode where one Tx module of the Master Tx talks to the model and the other to the student/slave Tx.  No wires between the two.

The layout

These transmitters are machined from a solid block of aluminium.

Production JETI model DC-16.mpg

Channel numbers are printed next to the various controls 1 to 8 and the switches are labelled Sa through to Sj. As standard there are 3 short 2 way switches. 3 short 3 way. 2 long 3 way. 1 long 2 way and a long 2 way spring loaded.with the aid of a special tool (not included) you can swap the switch positions around or replace or remove them. You can also add buttons, switches or potentiometers to the top of the sticks.  The two sliders on the left and right edge are smooth with a central detent. The two knobs (marked 7& 8) are graduated and would be ideal for adjusting gains, PID's etc.
The sticks are beautifully made, adjustable for length (without needing an allen key) and can be swapped so you can choose mode 1-4.  They use hall sensors so there are no potentiometers so affect the feel or wear out. The sticks can be adjusted for tension and you can choose the throttle to be smooth or ratchet. The sticks can also be angled inwards if you prefer.
The two antennae are hidden in the carrying handle.

Programming is relatively straight forward and on the odd occasion where I had to consult the manual the answer was easy to find - no chinglish here!  You have complete freedom to choose which control is connected to which channel and also with the RX.  If you find that you have plugged your rudder into you elevator channel you can change it from the Tx rather than having to dive into the model and start swapping over servo leads.
If there is a feature on another radio that you use, the chances are that they are here too.  Dual and triple rates and expo can be set globally or varied in different flight modes. Curves, mixes, logical switches, sequencers etc etc are all there.  One lovely feature that I found was the ability to set a time scale for servo movement.  I now have the tilt on my gimbal to take 9 seconds to go from level to looking down.  You can even set different speeds in different directions.

Timers and alarms

You can simultaneously use up to 10 different timers for various functions - motor run times, lap times,flight times etc. They can either run in the background or have sounds/voices attached to them.
Alarms can be set for just about anything that you can sense. Time/Temp/Distance/Height/ Rate of climb or descent/stick or switch positions.  There are a huge number of voice alerts preprogrammed  and you can add you own .wav files to expand this further.

Telemetry

There are sensors available for GPS, voltage, current, temperature, RPM, airspeed and vario. They are easy to setup through the transmitter.  Below are some screen shots from my Tx showing GPS, Lipo volts and temperature.






Memory

Having mentioned .wav's I should mention memory.  The Tx has a micro SD slot inside the case and comes with a 4GB card. Only 65mb is used for all the default files so there is plenty of space available.  Some of this will be taken up by the data logger which keeps a log of operation and telemetry for later playback.  The optional GPS telemetry sensor also has 4mb of onboard storage which it sufficient for 9 hours at a 1 second update rate.  There is also a screen shot facility so you can keep a log of setting etc and you can also put music onto the card to play back while you are flying.

What does it feel like to fly with?

One word. Smooth!  It feels very precise and enables much greater control over you models.  The sticks are really smooth to operate and are quiet long so, compared to Futaba/JR/Spektrum, you have more stick movement to get the same result (up to 60mm travel).  Longer sticks are no help though if the resolution is not sufficient.  The DC-16 has a resolution of 4096 (number of steps from one end of the travel to the other).  The high end Futaba's and JR's have 2048 and the vast majority of budget Tx's are 1024.

Lastly, to prevent you getting board while your LiPo's recharge, you can play Tetris, Snake, Gomoku and Chess on the screen while you wait!





As I said in my earlier post, is it right that we should trust £1000+ (easily the cost of a Disco'; Pro) to a $50 radio?

teslahed

QuoteAs I said in my earlier post, is it right that we should trust £1000+ (easily the cost of a Disco'; Pro) to a $50 radio?

Definitely not - and if that wasn';t enough to convince me, snake, tetris and chess was :

QuoteWhat does it feel like to fly with?

One word. Smooth!  It feels very precise and enables much greater control over you models.  The sticks are really smooth to operate and are quiet long so, compared to Futaba/JR/Spektrum, you have more stick movement to get the same result (up to 60mm travel).  Longer sticks are no help though if the resolution is not sufficient.  The DC-16 has a resolution of 4096 (number of steps from one end of the travel to the other).  The high end Futaba's and JR's have 2048 and the vast majority of budget Tx's are 1024.

I';m quite interested in this side of things, being into stunt flying it seems like more stick resolution will only make my life easier. I am not sure i can afford the JETI though, i have my eye on one of these;

http://www.frsky-rc.co.uk/frsky-news-frsky-taranis-transmitter-2.4g-receivers-telemetry-modules
Frsky Taranis Transmitter

It claims '; Super-low latency (approx 1/3 of current)'; but i can';t work out exactly what that really means.


One circlip short of a quadcopter.
 1 lobe short of an antenna.


amxen


SimonS

I';ve uploaded a quick video to show the gimbal tilt now that I have been able to reduce the speed.  Currently it is set at 10 deg/sec which seems about right.

DC-16 Tilt test on Vimeo

teslahed

Video looks great and you look really pleased - once the quad starts climbing again at the 1 min mark.
One circlip short of a quadcopter.
 1 lobe short of an antenna.

yakjock

Hey Simon,
Glad your liking the Jeti its in a different league to any other controller I have ever seen or used.

Chris.

flybywire

There have always been premium R/C sets across the decades, Kraft were the ';Harrods'; of the R/C world in my formative years, followed by Futaba, then MacGregor.

Not sure if it';s really worth that price tag, spektrum DX8 feels fine to me.
Blog: [url="http://ajwillis303.wix.com/stuff"]http://ajwillis303.wix.com/stuff[/url]
The spiritual home of fpv large
Keep it emax, capiche?
Hardware? sure, I got hardware!

alex2m

Good morning everyone, Alex newbie here from Dublin. There is so much to reply that I don';t know where to start... I remember Kraft as the unattainable premium product closely followed by Multiplex, I just saw one on eBay for 20$ (expensive for a 27Mhz paperweight) and I must admit having considered buying it to use the housing for my Turnigy 9x while waiting for the Smartieparts boards to arrive.

I too had seen the DS16 on my Internet travels, in particular in a customer video for the http://www.quadh2o.com/ another great product (although overpriced) and on paper it gave me a similar feel to 2 other choices I made and did not regret: the Apple Mac and the 3-series BMW.  I notice Simon also drives the latter, I bet you have a Mac too, and you noticed that for example, a Dell laptop may even be faster or have better spec on paper, but Dell saved a couple of quid on the keyboard or the screen hinges, and Apple didn';t. The Jeti seems to have a similar philosophy, each of their Hall effect sticks probably cost the same as 2 Turnigy 9xr with postage and packing from Hong Kong.  Hence the price tag.   Which at the moment I don';t plan either, needing to budget for a decent flight controller (more on this in the correct forum) but definitely if the smoothness of control demonstrated by Simon is in any ways related to the Tx, is worth the investment. 

Simon, did you post any videos with your previous transmitter? 




Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk - now Free
DJI F-450/Opto30A/920Kv
MultiWii 328p
Turnigy 9x/Smartieparts

SimonS

An iMac, a MacbookPro, two iPads (one is work issue) and an iPhone!

Here is the video of the gimbal test wil JR PCM9XII + FrSky module & Rx.

QAV540G Gimbal tilt test on Vimeo

yakjock

A little off topic but ..... ditto on the apple & car products


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

nickyb

Really nice video, well done.

That controller looks fantastic, however I think its way out on what I can afford  :cry

alex2m

It';s difficult to compare the "before and after" since there are dozens of other parameters intervening (weather, ...) but still the stability and smoothness of movement (of the craft, abstracting the gimbal) seems better on the Jeti, although the video taken with the JR is very close indeed.  I can finally see where my Turnigy was copied from (told you I am a newbie). Have you flown, or shall I say bothered with :) anything else than the Naza? I am resisting investing that much dosh on the FC, especially that it seems that once you go the DJI route, all the peripherals will "have to be" from the same family. However, I';m on my second FC (kk2.0 which never flew, then Multiwii, a day of configuring for a couple of flight hours tops) and I have the nagging feeling that if I want to get some flying under my thumbs before the days become too short, I';ll have to go with a FC that makes flying easier and instantly rewarding...


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk - now Free
DJI F-450/Opto30A/920Kv
MultiWii 328p
Turnigy 9x/Smartieparts

SimonS

Those video';s were really just to show the difference in control of the tilt function.

Flight controllers that I have used:

Naza M
Naza V2
CC3D
KK2
APM

APM I used only briefly.  It seemed complex to setup and is susceptible to frame vibration so it was sold on.

KK2 (v1.5) Spawn of the Devil! It seems reasonably easy to setup and flies well, when it flies.  It does however have a habit of powering the motors when supposedly in safe mode (it nearly got my fingers, others were not so lucky) and equally randomly going into safe mode during flight.  The latest FW might be better but I have not tried it.

CC3D is a nice simple little controller with good backup.  The GUI is as user friendly or as techy as you want.  I have this on my TeslaQuad.

Naza M and V2. There is no difference between the two in terms of flight performance.  I have had the Naza M on everything from a QAV400 (1400g) to a CarbonCore Hexa (5750g) and it copes fine with all of them. Setup for the basics is easy but setting up the RTH /failsafe requires a bit of thought with certain transmitters. The choice currently comes down to the Naza Lite or the Naza V2 and depends what you want to add to it.  Personally, I  only added the BTU to my V2 and only while doing the setup.. I don';t use either of the DJI OSD';s. I prefer the EzOSD as it is plug and play with the ImmersionRC Vtx.  It also gives the current consumption which the DJI';s don';t.

If you are going to want to add any of the DJI add ons (gimbal/BTU/iOSD/2.4gHz Ground station) the you will need the V2 otherwise the Lite will give you the same flying experience for half the money.


teslahed

Quote from: SimonS on Sunday,October 06, 2013, 12:13:35 If you are going to want to add any of the DJI add ons (gimbal/BTU/iOSD/2.4gHz Ground station) the you will need the V2 otherwise the Lite will give you the same flying experience for half the money.

A very good list. I will add one more;

OPTIMUS Flight Controller
http://www.goodluckbuy.com/optimus-flight-controller-autopilot-system-for-multi-rotor-aircrafts-multicopters.html
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1953781

The optimus flight controller appears to be a naza lite without GPS or a barometer - so no position hold, altitude hold or return to home failsafes. You';ll still get NAZA like stability, just without all the extra features. Possibly a good option for new fliers on a budget wanting to keep things simple to start with.
One circlip short of a quadcopter.
 1 lobe short of an antenna.