New toy, FrSky Tandem XE

Well,

I feel like it is Christmas in July. In my on-going effort to try anything and everything that has 900mhz TX capabilities, i have restarted my Frsky R9 testing, and what better way to do that than to get a new radio. I had owned a FrSky Taranis x9e when they first came out, but got rid of it rather quickly, because it had 3 rather poor design choices... 1) the upper OLED display was hardcoded to display 5 specific telemetry values. if you did not have those sensors, or did not have telemetry on a specific model, that screen was a waste of space. next was the battery, the case had to be opened (6 screws) to replace/charge a lipo battery. Third, and worst for me was that its "external" module bay, which at the time was where i installed several different openlrs modules for testing and use, was not external. you had to both remove the module from its case, open the x9e's case, and then connect the module to both the motherboard and an external antenna, before closing the case back up. something that no-one would want to do out at the field when moving from one module to another.

fast forward 8 years, and FrSky has a much upgraded replacement.

The biggest difference for me is that this radio already has the FrSky 900mhz module built into it... It also has a real battery hatch/cover, so i can remove the battery without taking apart the case... but i don't need to, because this system uses a standard usb-c port to charge any type of battery you want. the radio comes with a 4000mah 2 cell lipo as standard. It still has two LCD panels, but both are configurable to display what ever "widget" or "widgets" you want to show, basically allowing you to break the two displays into 3 quadrants for up to 9 distinct spots for data of any type to be displayed. Finally, the external module bay is a real external module bay, albeit a "nano" style bay, which means you have to be careful what style module you use, but I have other radios that use that same style bay, and have all the modules i need already available for this radio.

The new "Tandem" radios also use a new proprietary firmware named "Ethos" that is not too different from OpenTX/EdgeTX, which is what previous FrSky radios used, and the other radios i also own use. Luckily the Ethos firmware has matured enough that almost all of the third party TX modules are now supported, including all 3 of the 900mhz protocols i use.

As i stated earlier, the transmitter already has a 2.4ghz and a 900mhz module built into it, but these FrSky modules both are using FrSky's new "access" protocol, and not their older "accst" protocol.

I have not really had the radio long enough to really test it out, but future updates to this thread will be coming.

I have a frsky X9E and I agree with your assessment of it. I have done a lot of modifications to mine to get it to the point I can use it as my primary radio.

first main modification was upgrading the battery to 2s2p 6000mah 18650 pack and adding type C port, 2s usb charger and a BMS. That way I don't have to open it for the battery, there is also an extra power socket for powering a fpv screen.

other modification was I have embedded the 5 in 1 module into the radio along with a modified r9 in the module bay. on the top of the radio i have a 3p2p switch that switches voltage, ppm and s.port pins between the module bay and the 5 in 1 module. that way i don't have to physically change modules.

I have a second X9E, its going to be dedicated to my solar rover but its not been modified yet other than the 4d joysticks.


how do you find the strap for it? i would have liked if they also included a regular hoop in the middle of the radio rather than having to wear that strap thing they supply.

The strap they provide is not too bad, but for me it offers no support across the back, i will either find something else, or modify this one to make it better.