I've been flying rc fixed wing on and off for a few years now, using a "hand-me-down" extra TX from my father-in-law. A Spektrum dX6i. It has been good to me, but the limit of 6 channels leaves me wanting more. I want to build and fly more epic planes, do more epic things. But to keep with Spektrum and do that, I'd be shelling out many hundreds just for the TX. Sadly, my money tree is pretty slow on production.
Enter Frsky!
Over the Christmas break I spent a few hours talking with my brother. He works for a company that designs and produces tube launched drones for military uses. Pretty cool stuff! But the key thing here, is that he an just about everyone at his company fly rc planes and such! My brother has the dx6e which serves his purposes well, but leaves more to be desired. Especially for someone that builds as many planes as he does. They get pretty epic!
Now, all of his buddies at work fly with one of the Frsky Taranis radios. My brother has seen the capabilities of these transmitters and many of the cool things you can do in OpenTX.
After talking with my brother, I'm convinced and ready to make the switch! The greater capability, and customizability of the transmitters and how you can program it are amazing! And there is no way you can argue with the price point!

So I've decided on the Taranis X9D Plus 2019. Solid radio, lots of switches, big screen, lots of channels, good price.

Now to the questions.

1) The x9d plus boasts 24 channels... but the biggest receiver only has 9 channels. (don't get me wrong, 9 channels is a lot!) how do you use the rest of the 15 channels??

2) I've read/heard/seen(?) that one could bind 2 receivers to a single transmitter. Not in the config of a main and a back up, but binding two 8's to the tx thus giving you 16 outputs. Have any of you done this? Tips, tricks, suggestions?
See video:

How to bind 2 Frsky receiver together! (5 min 35 sec)

3) Things like the RB-20 and Sky Redundancy Bus -10. In the video found below, you bind two receivers to the bus and get to use the capabilities of the bus. So, if I understand right, you can bind two X8R receivers to the transmitter, connect to the RB-20 (15 outputs) and then you get a total of 8+8+15= 31 outputs! Is my theory correct? or am I misunderstaning how it works. (if i'm correct here.... Giant B-17 is gonna be EPIC!!!)
See video:

FrSky Redundancy Bus -10 Review (2 min 50 sec)

4) Lets say I have an R8X. channels 1-4 are my control surfaces and motor. This leaves 4-8 outputs available to assign as i want. Could i put a servo for individual flaps in the remaining 4 slots (ex: large glider with multiple flap surfaces) and assign all for output slots to a single switch on the controller? and then control how much each individual servo deflects?

I'm sure i have more questions, and I'll post them as they come up. But if all my theories/understandings here are correct.... This is going to be amazing!
Either way, I wish I had better understood the capabilities and such of Frsky transmitters when I first heard about them. SO much better than Spektrum! Don't get me wrong, I've enjoyed my spektrum radio, but its time for more!

Originally Posted by SavageX89

1) The x9d plus boasts 24 channels... but the biggest receiver only has 9 channels. (don't get me wrong, 9 channels is a lot!) how do you use the rest of the 15 channels??

Well, you may use them also as auxiliary channels e.g. for pre-mixing or calculation function and then use them as input channels for your actively connected channels. And there are still bigger Rx to come (up to 10 channels) => https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/show...cher-Receivers

Originally Posted by SavageX89

2) I've read/heard/seen(?) that one could bind 2 receivers to a single transmitter. Not in the config of a main and a back up, but binding two 8's to the tx thus giving you 16 outputs. Have any of you done this? Tips, tricks, suggestions?

There are no tricks necessary to do it. Just care for proper power distribution. Alternatively use an RB20 or one of the new RBs which are announced to come.

Originally Posted by SavageX89

3) Things like the RB-20 and Sky Redundancy Bus -10. In the video found below, you bind two receivers to the bus and get to use the capabilities of the bus. So, if I understand right, you can bind two X8R receivers to the transmitter, connect to the RB-20 (15 outputs) and then you get a total of 8+8+15= 31 outputs! Is my theory correct? or am I misunderstaning how it works. (if i'm correct here.... Giant B-17 is gonna be EPIC!!!)

All you need are two Rx with just SBus output, thus no PWM outputs needed. And no, you (actually) just get 15 PWM outputs from the RB20. These are identical with the PWM outputs for channels 1 to 15 which you may have on your two Rx.

Originally Posted by SavageX89

4) Lets say I have an R8X. channels 1-4 are my control surfaces and motor. This leaves 4-8 outputs available to assign as i want. Could i put a servo for individual flaps in the remaining 4 slots (ex: large glider with multiple flap surfaces) and assign all for output slots to a single switch on the controller? and then control how much each individual servo deflects?

Yes you can do this, or even better you may control it by one of the rotary pots on the side of the Taranis.

Here is a very interesting link which you may have a look at => https://rc-soar.com/opentx/

Originally Posted by SavageX89

Now to the questions.

1) The x9d plus boasts 24 channels... but the biggest receiver only has 9 channels. (don't get me wrong, 9 channels is a lot!) how do you use the rest of the 15 channels??

With FrSky ACCESS your can register and then bind three receivers to one model with 24 channels. Then ACCESS provides the ability to remap the receiver pins so receiver 1 has channels 1 - 8, receiver 2 has 9 - 16 and receiver 3 has channels 17 - 24.

Mike

Awesome! Thanks guys! I'm so excited to make the switch to FrSky Taranis! So many epic things to come!!

Originally Posted by FJH

All you need are two Rx with just SBus output, thus no PWM outputs needed. And no, you (actually) just get 15 PWM outputs from the RB20. These are identical with the PWM outputs for channels 1 to 15 which you may have on your two Rx.

So, could you use one of the small receivers designed for a quad with one of the RB products to get lots of PWM outputs without wasting the weight and outputs of a standard receiver? So long as the small receivers has the sbus output?

Correct, for RB operation you just need Rx with SBus ouput.

Originally Posted by FJH

Correct, for RB operation you just need Rx with SBus ouput.

So let's talk the RB modules. Are they simply designed to make power distribution and servo control easier?
If I were to put one in a electric plane, where would I connect the esc for the motor? I assume the servo connection would plug into the RB module, but would I connect the battery lead to it's own battery or somewhere else? I don't remember seeing a battery output on them.

Maybe you should have a look at e.g. RB20 and its manual first => https://www.frsky-rc.com/product/rb-20/

You connect ESC same as servos to the RB.

And as a very general advise, you should always look at the FrSky download page whether there is a firmware update for whatever you have bought and from whereever you bought it. And if there's a firmware update, then you should flash it to the new part (RB, Rx) before first use. That's the only way by which you really know what firmware it has.

That's some good advice. I'll be sure to update all my hardware when I get it.
I've looked over the manual for the RB things, don't remember it mentioning details for the electric motor setup.

Originally Posted by SavageX89

So let's talk the RB modules. Are they simply designed to make power distribution and servo control easier?
If I were to put one in a electric plane, where would I connect the esc for the motor? I assume the servo connection would plug into the RB module, but would I connect the battery lead to it's own battery or somewhere else? I don't remember seeing a battery output on them.

Seems that I missed the point. The RB basically is designed and used for providing an increase in safe power supply and signal link. That's why you can connect two batteries and two Rx, thus redundancy for both. Mostly it's installed in more expensive or more valuable models or if higher power demands are expected by connected servos like e.g. probably are in 3-d-flying models. Thus mostly bigger models with enough space. So if you just use same battery for power supply of RB and electric motor, that will be your own decision on basis of your own considerations, I would not do this.

Gotcha. That makes sense. I have one plane I hope to build in the future that would benefit from the use of an RB-20. But that is years away yet.

The manual is always a good place to start. The great thing about FrSky, in addition to all the features and price, is the support found on forums here at RCGroups and OpenTx University.

The FrSky Taranis X9D+ has been a solid radio for my electric planes. It took my 95" Extra 330SCE to first place in scale aerobatics contests (IMAC) over the past two years. You can see my setup below.

Originally Posted by rclad

The manual is always a good place to start. The great thing about FrSky, in addition to all the features and price, is the support found on forums here at RCGroups and OpenTx University.

The FrSky Taranis X9D+ has been a solid radio for my electric planes. It took my 95" Extra 330SCE to first place in scale aerobatics contests (IMAC) over the past two years. You can see my setup below.

Awesome! The schematic is a great help! Seeing how other people use a product and set it up is how I'm able to figure it out and make it work for me.