DX 10t Review

[mbsteed]

View attachment 4650 I was initially attracted to the DX 10t because it was a tray style platform since I use fingers to adjust the sticks and because it had some unique features that looked promising for doing aerial video. Plus I thought it looked cool (there is no accounting for taste). This review will be with a perspective of doing aerial video and photos. I just go my new DX 10t that I am using it with my Hoverfly Pro and a DIY wood frame Octo with a camera gimbal (lifting a Canon Vixia G10). I have had it out once in the field so these are some preliminary experience and impressions - the good, the bad, and the great: You can set the Tx to one of 4 modes through some screws in the back. My 10t came in mode 0 so I had to play for quite a while to get it into mode 2. it wasn't clear from the diagram. I had to use trial and error to figure out which set of screws did what and how to adjust - finally got it working properly but the documentation is poor (as I find most of the Spektrum products to have). For instance, do I need to play with Throttle screw or the Mode screws, ...or both? The documentation should have said, for getting mode 2, adjust ____ screw clockwise so many turns or whatever. I think sometimes companies shot themselves in the foot by making a great product and then confuse users by having poor documentation. There is lots to love about the 10t - I just read another thread where the fellow had accidently left his throttle stick up when he powered up and the multicopter started up immediately - with the 10t it warns you if you have accidentally done that - an incredibly important safety feature. The other feature I love is the the audible beep when the throttle is at 10%. This is a great inidcator when bringing a multicopter in for a landing because it is easy to bring it in too fast and the audible beep reminds a person to provide sufficient throttle for a smooth landing. The menu system seems straight forward (I was already familiar with it through my Dx6i) - I did have trouble getting from one set of menus to another - still working through that but again the documentation might be to blame. You can set the time warnings to be audible beeps or beeps and vibration (love the the vibration because sometimes I am so focused on flying it is easy to ignore a beep but not the vibration). The backlit display is nice. The sticks feel nice - the switches feel a bit flimsy but as long as those are reliable over the long haul that is what counts. It didn't come with a shoulder harness that is required (that probably should have been part of the package) but I took an old Canon Rebel neck strap and another bag strap I had kicking around that goes around my back to secure the Tx to my stomach - that worked great. I like the precise feel I get over the sticks having the Tx attached firmly to my body and with the tray style layout for resting my hands. One of the features that has interesting implications for aerial video is the stick buttons for quickly adjusting the trim - essentially flying by trim. I will experiment with this and report back. Still exploring the other features ...so far I love the 10t Tx. I will continue to report as I gain more experience with the features. Hope that is helpful and I will try to add to this thread as I get more experience with this Tx.

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[yakjock]

Just a question but could the stick buttons be programmed to do gimbal movements & maybe shutter release as that would be useful for AP with out taking your hands off the sticks.

 

[mbsteed]

I think you probably could program those stick tip switches to do that - those can be programmed like any other switch. However, in our case we use a separate transmitter to control camera tilt and the cameras are set to shoot continously - either through CHDK or continuous shooting with a rubber band - or continuous record in video mode. We are up for such short time periods there is no need to manually trigger the shutter. ...just one less thing to worry about when flying.

If you were working alone, you could probably put gimbal movement on a slider (there are two sliders).
View attachment 4668
Update: I recently had an error stating that there was a fatal hardware error but when I reported this on another forum a person told me to hold down the selector wheel for a couple of seconds when that error appeared. This worked and everything returned to normal I hope the error is gone for good. It seems to working fine now.

 

[mbsteed]

It has been a while since I posted anything here. I have been using the 10t with the basic settings necessary to fly my ocotos (Hoverfly Pro and DJI WK-M) over the past 6 months. I love it - the ergonomic layout and the tray fit is so much more comfortable than my DX 6i I also think the layout of the buttons and switches makes it easier to adjust on the fly. Probably personal preference.

In the last week I thought I should go back and see how I can take advantage of the some of the features of 10t.

I have now programmed the pot dials to control the gains so that I can control those in real time so it is easier to dial in the right gain.

I have also setup Flight Modes - so that the current flight mode is a visible descriptions on the LCD of the radio at any time. For instance, I will see the terms Altitude Hold, GPS, Manual, Attitude on the LCD screen if those switches are activated.

I have also setup warnings so that if the flight mode is not setup properly for take off then it will warn me with a vibration and sound alarm and forces me to turn that off before it will startup. For instance, I always like to take off in Atti Mode so I warn the radio to be in that mode when I turn the radio on

I have also mixed the elevator and aileron into the sliders so that I can basically have a cruise control for doing aerial video. I haven't tried this yet but I think it will be work well.

I haven't tried the auto trim (with the stick buttons) because it sounds like from other threads that it might not always catch properly and might result in erratic flight - the idea here is to move the sticks where you want the trim and then press the stick buttons and release the sticks quickly - if you don't time it right it may not work. I don't want to experiment with that on my expensive AP setups but I may try that with my cheap quad.

Another thing I have setup is the trainer mode for doing more flexible camera work (used mono audio cable) (the port is under the antenna - but that is not in the documentation). We use the trainer to daisy chain the 10t to the DX 6i. The trainer option is activated with a toggle switch on the 10t. The 6i will control the camera gimbal and trigger photos but in addition in trainer mode will be able to take control of the rudder of the ship to turn it while the ship is in course lock mode, that way the main flight operator doesn't have to worry about the heading of the ship and the camera operator can rotate the ship to get the desired shot. In the 10t you can program which channels you hand off to the trainer. The cool aspect is that if the ship operator begins to move the rudder control reverts to the ship operator and there is a warning beep. The ship operator can transfer control back to the camera operator by flicking the switch on the 10t. This is all working on the bench - I will report on how it works in the field.