Poor Quality Potentiometers in DX6i: Alternatives?

[treedodger]

I've had a DX6i sitting at Horizon Hobby and have been grounded since January 20 because of a stupid little $0.10 part, a bad potentiometer (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potentiometer) in the cyclic joystick. The roll cyclic signal started jittering around on me after a couple dozen hours' use (mostly on a simulator). My last flight before a $100 rebuild of my Blade 400 ended with an unexpected rush leftward into an unsympathetic hard object, with dramatic results, and I suspect the transmitter had something to do with it.

I looked inside and gently pushed on the pot with my finger. The signal moved all over the place on the monitor, finally getting stuck all the way to one side (the left!) and staying there. It seems clear that the wiper of the pot had been making poor contact with the resistive element and finally lost it entirely.

Obviously, this isn't any way to build a $200+ transmitter that will be controlling a flying lawnmower like the Blade 400.

My question, now that I've gotten this gripe off my chest (and please hurry up with the repair, Horizon), is whether the DX7 or any other Spektrum/JR transmitter has better hardware in the joysticks. Apparently they all use potentiometers as opposed to something better like LVDT (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linear_variable_differential_transformer)s? It seems pretty pointless to pay hundreds of dollars more knowing that the basic elements that sense those delicate little stick movements are still just cheap little problem-prone potentiometers.

[Barney de]

Just wondering if you've received your DX6i back.

Last night I was flying the mCX with the DX6i and suddenly I could no longer bring the throttle back to idle, without resorting to some trim.

Tonight I was running up my Blade 400 in the basement and suddenly it took off. I had in a lot of right rudder so it was interesting to see two or three pirouettes, and a few feet of altitude, all in a heartbeat. Fortunately, I slammed the throttle back quickly enough and was able to keep it from hitting the ceiling. To top off my luck, I escaped any damage to the helicopter, me or the room.

I went on the internet and found there is a recall. I tested mine as suggested and found a problem (no surprise) with the throttle. You can see it really go squirrely on the monitor when you add a lot of rudder and throttle. I have emailed Horizon for the shipping tag, and am now wondering how long I will have to wait before I get it back.

[treedodger]

It took two and a half weeks from the day I mailed it to the day I got it back.