Siming with my DX9 wearing it out?

[jasond1979]

Hi I was told years ago that you should not sim with your main controller because it wears it out. I've been siming about an hour a day with my DX9 because I find it helps prepare me more for the field. My question is, am I wearing out my DX9 prematurely?

Jason

[Bladefx]

It is simply wearing out. The gimbals have limited mileage. Using a cheap tx would be better.
Using a higher quality other than spektrum might have more longevity but everything wears down after time

[curmudgeon]

Assumming 1h/day 365 days/yr of simming, how many years until there is a significant deterioration of the gimbal potentiometers? 10 years? 15 years? 25 years?

[ArchmageAU]

Originally Posted by jasond1979

Hi I was told years ago that you should not sim with your main controller because it wears it out. I've been siming about an hour a day with my DX9 because I find it helps prepare me more for the field. My question is, am I wearing out my DX9 prematurely?

Jason

Prepare for the field with the radio you are going to fly. It is the best form of practice.

If you use it enough to wear it out, then you have gotten value for it and replace it (maybe even with something better).

It takes 100's of hours to active use make the DX9 gimbals even slightly sloppy. Even then what you have learned with them is worth the cost.

A good pilot with an average TX will ALWAYS fly better than an average pilot with a good TX. Use the practice to become a good pilot and not worry about wearing out the DX9.

[jasond1979]

So you think Horizon would fix the radio if I wear it out? For free? For cost?

Jason

[Shonkonray]

Originally Posted by jasond1979

So you think Horizon would fix the radio if I wear it out? For free? For cost?

Jason

Why would they take the cost?
You also wont get a new lipo if the old one is aged and flown too death.
There is no difference if you are using the TX at the sim or with your real heli.

[ArchmageAU]

Originally Posted by jasond1979

So you think Horizon would fix the radio if I wear it out? For free? For cost?

Jason

For cost. But it takes 1000's of flying hours to wear out a quad ball bearing gimbal.

You will almost certainly out-grow the TX before you wear it out.

Even then you may be able to source a fitting hall-effect gimbals for self replacement (smoother and more-reliable than the pot-based gimbals in the DX9).

Ask any of the "pro" pilots how many TX's that have worn out. They fly far more than you or I would fly or sim.

[curmudgeon]

Originally Posted by jasond1979

So you think Horizon would fix the radio if I wear it out?

By the time you significantly "wear out" the radio, HH may not be able to fix the radio mainly because the radio may have been out of production for far too long and replacement parts are not longer made. I honestly would not worry about "wearing out" the radio.

[ronaldst]

I've used my 2 year old DX9 numerous hours on the sim and on the field, and it shows no sign of wearing oit. When it does, I'll buy a new radio.

Dont worry about wear. Use it, take good care of it, and it will last a long time.

[curmudgeon]

VBar offers a Mac/PC software to test any compatible transmitter gimbals centering and drift at pretty high resolution. The Jeti radios offer the option to test gimbal centering and drift at 0.001 resolution. The Spektrum radios have a "monitor" display option, but the resolution of 1% increments is pretty low.

Is there a good way to test Spektrum radio gimbal centering and drift at high resolution other than with the VBar computer software?

[ic-racer]

If you can wear-out a transmitter before it becomes obsolete you are ahead of the game. I have boxes of transmitters that are outdated but not worn out.

[jasond1979]

Yes I'm back to using my dx9 for siming again. I have an old dx8 gen 1 transmitter that I use for buddy boxing students. You guys are right. The odds of me wearing out my transmitter are pretty low, even with an hour of siming a day.

Anyways thanks for the advice. And you were right, more than likely Horizon will stop supporting the transmitter before I wear it out anyways.
I don't think theDX8 gen 1 is supported now anyways.

Best,

Jason

[EndoDusk]

I have a DX9 that I think I've literally worn out ... the throttle gimbal won't go down to 0% anymore and the final say 10% of the stick you have to kind of push harder to get it down ...

I've probably put about 1000 hours on it ... I really want to change out the gimbals, but I could not find a gimbal replacement online that didn't cost a fortune ...

Anybody have a recommend for good gimbal replacement that might fit a DX9?

Thanks!

[Indokast]

You can send it to HH and they will replace the gimbals if you want. I did this a while back and they put in upgraded gimbals at the time. It was a used dx6i I purchased that had issues. Scroll wheel had issues and it wouldnt bind. Came back and they had fixed all that and put new gimbals in.. and was buttery smooth then. They even updated the firmware. You have to pay for it but its fairly priced in my experience. All that was like 50 bucks iirc plus shipping. That was a couple years ago.

[jasond1979]

Originally Posted by Indokast

You can send it to HH and they will replace the gimbals if you want. I did this a while back and they put in upgraded gimbals at the time. It was a used dx6i I purchased that had issues. Scroll wheel had issues and it wouldnt bind. Came back and they had fixed all that and put new gimbals in.. and was buttery smooth then. They even updated the firmware. You have to pay for it but its fairly priced in my experience. All that was like 50 bucks iirc plus shipping. That was a couple years ago.

Thats a very fair price and they calibrate everything too. Now I'm not worried about wearing out my gimbals anymore.