Model Forum / Radio Controlled / Helicopters / June 2008

I've got the 12Z and recently put a TM-14 FASST module in it.  I love this
radio and wouldn't trade it for anything.  The 12Z is basically a 14MZ
without all the bells and whistles, stuff like a color touch screen, the
ability to play MP3 files through a head set, display a picture of your
model on the screen, etc.  The important part, the flight programming, is
totally compatible as far as I've been able to tell with the exception that
the 14MZ will allow model names up to 32 characters and the 12Z limits you
to eight.

As for comparing the 14MZ, or the 12Z for that matter, to a radio like the
X9303, there is no comparison "IF" you need and use the features offered.
If course, if you don't, it makes little difference.  All of the radio
systems mentioned here are fine radios that will work well for everyone from
beginner to hard core 3D flying.  As for paying $1,500 for a 14MZ?  If you
can find one for that price, jump on it.  By flying buddy has the 14 and I'm
not totally sure but I think he paid around $1,500 for his but he's also a
field rep for Futaba and got a break on the price.  For us average Joe's
like me, the best price I've ever found to date was more like $2,100, most
are $2,200.  I paid $1,300 for my synthesized 9Z back in 1995 and swallowed
hard to do that.  I'd pay $1,500 for the 14MZ in a heart beat today but over
$2000 is just too much.  I paid $1,300 for my 12Z and was quite happy with
that especially since I found out the main differences between the 14 and
the 12 is primarily glitz.

Back to the original topic of this post, I was just wondering how things
were going for the rest of the world in weeding out the effected 6EX, 7C,
and TM-7 modules.  I took our two 6EX's into the local shop here in Houston
that was setup to check for effected radios and am happy to report that
we're clean.  :-D  It's a dirt simply test.  All Futaba did was send them a
7ch FASST receiver that's programmed to the "00000000 etc." code.  You power
up the receiver, turn on your radio, and if you get a solid green light,
you're toast and need to send your transmitter back to Futaba.  If you get a
flashing green light, like I did, you're safe and can go fly with no
worries.  Needless to say, I'm happy!  Total time to test two radios?  About
20 seconds!  It's well worth the peace of mind.

Fly Safe,
Steve R.

Thanks Terry!  We've got a couple of 6EX's that were tested and passed with
flying colors.  My personal radio is a Futaba 12Z which I've converted to
2.4 and it's been great but the TM14 modules that I plugged into it weren't
included in the list of effected systems.  I haven't heard much on this
subject for some time so I'd guess that Futaba's got most of it taken care
of by now.

Fly Safe Down Under!  :-)
Steve R..

That doesn't prove it's fine.

The problem is that under some conditions, the unique ID of the TX can
be set to 0, making it no longer unique.  If you bind your TX to it,
it'll work fine, BUT if anybody else also has the same problem and
also has unique ID 0, they'll interfere.

The problem is also that `some conditions' basically means turning it
on, and then turning it off after the right (short) amount of time.
So a TX that's good today might be bad tomorrow.  The problem seems to
be that as part of the initialization, the configuration is
re-written, and if it loses power in the middle of this, things can be
reset.  This seemed to happen at the factory during testing mostly,
but it could happen during normal usage too.

I don't know what they did to fix this.  (It's easy enough to reset
the unique ID, but I don't know what they did to prevent it from
happening again.)  In any event, if your RX works fine one day, but
then stops working the next day until you rebind it, then that would
be the sort of thing I'd expect to happen when this problem manifests.