Planning to buy a HiTec Eclipse 7 or Optics 6 Radio.

Please advice which is a better radio to buy in terms of features and reliability.

Is PCM radio much more reliable and glitch-free than FM/PPM radio

Appreciate any feedback.

If you absolutely must have seven channels then the answer is clear -- the Eclipse 7 (E7).

However, if you can get by with six channels then the Optic 6 (O6) is a better transmitter in almost every way.

For the record, I have an E7 and an O6 so my opinion is based on more than just a cursory reading of the brochures.

But... there are firmware bugs with the O6 that may require any O6 purchased today to be returned to Hitec for an upgrade at some time in the near future.

As for the PPM/PCM debate -- you'll get arguments both ways, especially now that there are PPM receivers available that offer virtually all the benefits of PCM (and more) for less money.

Thanks Xjet,

What are the firmware bugs in the Optics 6 ?,
Are they critical enough to affect the flying safety ?
Is Hitec aware of these bugs and are they doing something about it ?, Should I wait for the new sets with the bugs fixed ?

I have 3 Futaba PCM radios for my gas planes and heli, and am planning to buy a 6-channels radio for my electric planes and heli.

HiTec came to mind because of its value for money features but am not sure of its reliability.

There are three reported firmware bugs:

1. Model settings stored in memory location #1 may be randomly over-written and lost. In a few cases this problem has led to other complications.

2. Certain rather unusual settings of the throttle sub-trim and aileron mixes can produce a total lock-up of the transmitter.

3. Aileron trim does not move both aileron servos in some configurations.

None of these are "killer" problems and the vast majority of users never encounter them but they do exist and if you're unlucky enough to bump into them they can be annoying.

I think I might have found another one. I think one of my model memories became corrupt. Some characters of the LCD were not showing up, but it was never the same ones or same screens. If the transmitter was shut off for a few hours it would come back as normal. As soon as I would enter a mixing mode such as turn on elevon mixing or adif parts would disappear. The TX woudl operate normally but you are stuck changing the settings blindly. I seemd to fix the problem by going through and resetting all the model memories. Anyone else encounter this?