Does an R9 module converted to ExpressLRS perform as well as a regular ELRS module?

[@adilsongoliveira]

I've been using my R9 gear with ELRS since pre-1.0 IIRC and works fine in both quads and fixed wings.

[@CurryKitten]

I feel bad for getting into it so late... i like to feel I'm making up for lost time though :)

[@robertp7209]

Are you using the new ERLRS small receivers too?

[@adilsongoliveira]

@@robertp7209 No. All my elrs gear is from the R9 series from frsky. The 915mhz receivers are quite small but not as small as the ones with ceramic antennas of course.

[@robertp7209]

@@adilsongoliveira oh thanks, I recall buying the R9m kit at the cut rate price on Amazon when frsky was trying to crush a competitor, never used it, receivers too, several of them, don’t recall the frequency. The unit is red in color. Never went long range, stayed with easy peasy XM+. The computer stuff even cell phone needed today now especially with ERLRS is way beyond my interest but will keep trying. FPV with just micro quads is becoming more and more, should I say esoteric? Not my interest. At least my remote monster trucks are more mechanical oriented. Products are being sold that are continually being developed with more and more time and knowledge needed on the computer, than actually time flying for someone going out to fly a half to one hour several days a week, when the sun shines😁. Peace.

[@heliharris69]

Another interesting and useful comparison video....I`m just waiting for a new quad to arrive to install the converted Rx r9mini in and give it a go...I was almost at the the point of disposing of my R9M (in the dustbin) as i was getting so frustrated with its constant problems....i hope this will give mine a new lease of life and reliability like its never had before.....Thanks for the video.

[@CurryKitten]

Hope it works well for you. I've a lot more trust in my R9 since it stopped running R9 :D I'm going to convert my other modules over as I don't see any reason I'd move back to it

[@RCinginSC]

As soon as I pick up a resistor, Im doing the conversion. 👍

[@AerialWaviator]

Great datapoint, and good news. Thanks for taking time to do a comparison test and sharing.

[@CurryKitten]

Thanks for watching!

[@robertbobgriffith5292]

The comparison was certainly near identical. That's the pace of things to come. Very Good.

[@AndyRCchannel]

Super vid. Loving the bardwell face thumbnail. Beat me to it haha

[@CurryKitten]

It's what happens when I forget to take a picture at the field and get my daughter to take a picture of me looking "indecisive" between the two :D

[@AndyRCchannel]

I can never do thumbnails

[@jlarson42]

Helpful info, I gave my son in law an R9 module. Definitely worth the conversion.

[@CurryKitten]

I think so - I'm going to convert my other modules and rx's

[@robertp7209]

@@CurryKitten are you using the original r9 receivers too? If so, aren’t they much larger than the newest ones like happy model?

[@ched999uk]

Great to see a comparison. Looks like 100mW is a great power level to get decent distance. I wonder what range you would get using 10mW - just so you could see if there was a difference with lower power over the distance you have available.

[@CurryKitten]

I should have thought about that at the time really :D If I'm out again soon with that setup, I'll give it a test

[@Chilternflyer]

@@CurryKitten I hope that you check the actual power output at the low power settings so that you can make a fair comparision. (We all know how flaky the low power settings are on some transmitters). ;-)

[@thiagosmith3019]

Thank you so much for this film! Id o have R9m and will flash to ELRS :) Regards from Brazil!

[@CurryKitten]

Glad I could help!

[@DavidBarbarine]

Thank you!

[@CurryKitten]

You're welcome!

[@RaynerGS]

I had an R9M (2019 version) and I never did a long range with it because the range was always pretty limited. After a long time I found out why. The version of my module has the values from 6.5 to 13V printed on the side of the external power supply. In reality 3S batteries were never allowed. In the new versions, Frsky fixed the label with correct information, ie from 6.5 to 12V, even in the manual a warning was added not to use 3S batteries. For sure it was a mistake of the version I bought that never mentioned to use 3S.

[@RCOverKill]

Not that it matters but the r9 did hit 99 just after @3:12 and @3:45. It's good to know they perform just as well.

[@CurryKitten]

I didn't notice that - even when editing the footage.... probably because I was concentrating on seeing if they lined up. I don't think the difference is significant enough to be concerning - certainly at this distance.

[@derrogers]

Im really surprised how many people have problems with their r9 stuff. I bought my stuff used to convert it to elrs. I never converted because it just worked perfectly as is.

[@CurryKitten]

If it already does everything you want - then you are golden. Thing is with R9 is it's not (as far as I can see) being developed any longer - whilst ELRS is moving very quickly. That aside, I always hated the R9 RSSI random number generator. It was always really hard to tell exactly what sort of signal I actual had

[@derrogers]

@@CurryKitten i know elrs has some amazing features, that i miss out. but the fancy things like wifi update etc. i cant get without buying new hardware any way. therefore i decided to keep my r9 stuff the way it works and buy cheaper 2.4ghz elrs stuff further down the line. 900mhz elrs seems to outdated anyway and i dont know how much love it gets from the devs anymore.

[@AerialWaviator]

@Aaron Think issue with r9 stuff was firmware updates, and making sure Tx and Rx firmware versions were in-sync. Believe early on, pre-2019 updates there was some issues and confusion. It was really before I was into RC so did not experience personally.

[@ominguti6345]

@Aerial Waviator Here we are in year 2022 and my new R9 lite plus R9 mini are experiencing very bad range results as shown in of previous curry kitten videos. I don't understand how frsky can get away with labelling those as "long range" modules when with stock antennas with telemetry (25mW in EU) things fall out of the sky around 400m mark. This is silly. My cheapo Chinese "2.4ghz no-name (redox) brand" 100mW set gets 1500m in the air with the stock "wifi-style" antenna on the TX and a short piece of wire on tx. The ONLY saving grace of this R9 hardware is its ability to convert it to elrs.

[@kaichristiansen8110]

Once it's flashed to elrs can it be used on non-frsky transmitters?

[@jamiebrunton6696]

Just got back into FPV recently.. The Whiteley field is gone :( This video was really helpful though as I've just recently flashed my R9 with ELRS..

[@CurryKitten]

Yep - sadly, the places to fly in Whiteley no consist of my garden, or around the trees in a toothpick. You certainly could fly fixed wing anywhere :(

[@axljackass]

set to lowest power, use the Attenuator in between RF module and Antenna, then test the range...most probably for few meters LQ will drop then you can see a good result.

[@CurryKitten]

Don't have an attenuator. Some people have mentioned putting the power at 10mw - which is a more usable idea. Although the basic idea of this video is to see how the converted R9 performs against a "native" ELRS module using typical settings - or which I think 100mw is reasonable. Hence the conclusion that at this sort of range, everything is very good.

[@BiKersFury]

Which ELRS receivers can be connected with converted R9M module...??

[@CurryKitten]

Any ELRS rx that works on 868/900Mhz - that's kind of the point, as soon as you convert you aren't limited on the make/model - just the frequency they talk

[@cinemoriahFPV]

I don't understand why you don't have RSSI dbm on the OSD. That's the true metric of signal strength.

[@CurryKitten]

As explained - I can't do the calculation quickly enough in my head to decide what is a good or a bad signal. Perhaps I'll add it for future range tests and analyse it post-flight.

[@clazy9222]

I have a problem, my range is so bad with my r9 2019 900mhz. 400 meters and failsafe. A new reciever and antenna are helping nothing ( other reciever placement too). I flasht both new? My lq is most of the time high but the rssidb is so low i have after 300meters -90 at 50 mw ???? Can someone help me

[@PiotrRgn]

Have the same problem with friend of mine. Both of us noticed exactly the same as you described. Tried with different quads, antenna placement, etc. No any improvement. Lately downgraded mine tx to elrs 2.x soft. Still no any improvement. Have you found any solution? I don't believe that we burned both our tx's the same way, at the same time. Moreover I have good experience of flying kilometers on 10mW at first time I flashed with elrs. Maybe I need to roll back to elrs 1.x to check🤔 Has someone simillar experience?

[@clazy9222]

@@PiotrRgn i don't know its a long time ago... but for me it was just the best solution to buy a set of betafpv elrs module and reciever. It works perfectly...

[@PiotrRgn]

@@clazy9222 actually done the samefew months ago.. But I stilI have some quads on 868 and was hoping that there is some solution for that 😉 thx for reply

[@josh4048]

So can the r9 work with any elrs receiver than?

[@CurryKitten]

Yes - but with a caveat that it needs to be on the same frequency. So a converted r9 module can work with any ELRS RX on 868/915Mhz, but not the 2.4Mhz receivers.... for which you'll need a 2.4Ghz module

[@TWSreviews]

I'm scratching my head and wondering, If you just left it as R9 would there be much difference? What is the key benefit of converting to ELRS if you already have R9? Is it a preference or is there a significant range difference? Not criticising just wondering if it is worth me risking messing up my gear.

[@CurryKitten]

I would always say "if it ain't broken, then don't try and fix it" Whilst there was nothing wrong with my R9 models, I never felt like I had an RSSI value I could actually trust, and with R9 seemingly dead as far as future development goes, it made sense to move mine over. Also if you have models that need more than 4 full range channels (for example something with pan/tilt on pots) then ELRS at this point isn't going to fit your needs - so it would certainly require careful consideration if you already had lots of rx's on lots of models as the conversion of the RX is... while not hard, does uninstalling, resoldering and potentially reinstalling differently.

[@2old4fpv-k8y]

One other downside is you go from single wire (sbus) out, to two wire CRSFR RX/TX. If you use a Kopilot Lite, you're going to be in a pickle. As it only supports sbus or PPM.

[@Xelltickk]

are you running 400k baudrate on R9M? I had R9M converted to elrs and I'm get link disconnection bet TX and RX which does not happen if I use 118K baudrate..any thoughts on that?

[@CurryKitten]

Yes - I'm using 400k baud on R9M. Did you do the mod to the module? (if you have the older one)

[@tomsop]

I saw on the ELRS discord some mention that there is some faulty soldering or connection issues with the Super 8 antennas. May want to research that. Also, I have the r9m lite that I bought for my x-lite years ago - do you have any experience with that particular module and how well it converts to the ELRS system?

[@CurryKitten]

I keep meaning to go back and do the lite. I think it actually needs no mods and you can flash it directly (it's only the Lite Pro that needs flashing with an STLink)

[@rednaxela982]

Hi I am confused between flysky th9x and radiomaster tx12. Which one is better? Your reply will be really helpful. Only these two radios are available at the moment in India.

[@CurryKitten]

If given the option, I would choose the Radiomaster - modern, multiprotocol, up to date operating system. The equivalent of the th9x is what I was using 10 years ago

[@rednaxela982]

@@CurryKitten Thank you for the reply. I will go with the radiomaster then. You just helped me buy my first Radio !

[@gabyguay6990]

ELRS not implemented rigt now to get gps telemetry on radio. For dji users very important

[@CurryKitten]

I'm seeing GPS coordinates on my radio telemetry from ELRS - this is what we're talking about right?

[@gabyguay6990]

Yeah! I just now that. I already updated my qx7 to edgetx for use the one bit instead to put the resistance in the module. Thanks for the information. Now is the time to flash the receiver

[@MrJT270567]

I need to ask what version of elrs you flashed your modules. many people say they have issues with version 2.xx. I am still on version1.xx but I want to try the dynamic Power Feature of the 2.xx version. 🤔

[@CurryKitten]

These are certainly on 2.x (I can't remember which one) as soon as one module is moved up, I do the others as well, and I was on 2.1 to get the support for OLED for the 2.4 BetaFPV modules. No issues with 2 at all, in fact I like it more because the LUA script tells you much more. But I haven't used the dynamic power function at all.

[@Zillawill]

Off topic but how do you rate the X9 lite? I'm trying to decide between it and the Radio master TX12 (which I believe you had the jumper version of), I used to love my old X9D but it always felt too big

[@CurryKitten]

The X9 Lite (I've got the "pro" version) is pretty good. It's smaller than the X9D, but not as small as the TX12 (of which I assume RadioMaster has the same form factor as Jumper) My Jumper has issues at the moment with power, but if it was working I'd choose that one - as it has it's own charge circuit so I just plug it into USB and it charges up. The X9 Lite uses 18650's, but you have to take them out to charge and they are quite a pain to get back out again!

[@Zillawill]

@@CurryKitten so according to frsky the S version supports balance charging over usb, tho it's only micro usb rather then C (which is a shame), so if the onboard charging wasn't a factor would you still pick the jumper?

[@gadgetman404]

Hi buddy can you help on setting up my long range on arming aux one get gps throttle warning in 9nyrs of flying never seen that one Chao got off set it up but his switches range from 2000 my old one was from 0 ton1600 1600 to 2000 beeper on sux 2 works aux 3 and 4bfoevsngle mode horizon. Acro work 5 and 6 for gps don't work but I have set not to arm till get min of 8 left long time still same any ideas his gps switch set to middle using beta flight 4.2 jumper t lite Cheer's

[@CurryKitten]

Not quite getting you about what's going on here. Is it that you can't arm because you aren't getting sat quickly enough ?

[@gadgetman404]

@@CurryKitten no if gps on arm off it arms so put 8 Mon gps says on not arm Ive selected in osd long lat gps sat but don't show in my goggles is gps broke I had it in field over 10 mins still not arm Cheer's

[@gadgetman404]

@@CurryKitten I can send quad to you to look at pay for your time

[@CurryKitten]

@@gadgetman404 Hey, I don't want you to waste your money in postage back and forth, drop me an email at currykittenfpv at gmail dot com and we can take a look at your config in more deatil

[@niloyrun]

If I convert R9 to elrs, can we bind non r9 rx with this ? That will be a huge advantage

[@CurryKitten]

Yes - IIRC in part of the video I use the newly converted module to connect to an existing ELRS rx before I convert the R9 rx over

[@niloyrun]

@@CurryKitten That's great, thank you so much for replying. With so many versions of frsky firmwares, it's a mess and I was using accst firmware so far but new r9 receivers doesn't have a accst supported firmware anymore. This is a huge relief for me

[@Siamect]

Thanks for a nice comparison. The dBm value is very valuable when you fly. I have had 100% LQ with a broken receiver antenna and would probably had failsafed if I didn't notice the bad dBm value. In this comparison you get 100% LQ all the time but without dBm we don't know which one was closer to lose signal. We just know that both were ok at 1.4km.

[@CurryKitten]

Yep - and I guess the main point was to check the both systems would perform ok at that distance, and in that respect - all seems well. As mentioned before, I find it tricky to get my head around the dBm concept, but I'm catching enough flak for it that I'll at least have it on the OSD in future range tests so I can at least look at it post flight to see what's going on

[@ShinyVideoStuff]

Lower power output to get the LQ < 100?

[@CurryKitten]

Next time can you come to the field with me so you can suggest that at the time! Although that said, it was more a kind of "here's your typical power - is there much of a difference" test.

[@ShinyVideoStuff]

@@CurryKitten Hehehe. Either way it's definitely enough for most situations. Range testing is a pain.

[@p1xelman]

Moxon = directional, super8 omni, directional antenna will always perform better than an omni...

[@jdd1777]

It actually performs way better, that is the whole point.

[@CurryKitten]

Way better than what? Better than R9 certainly, but better than a regular ELRS module?

[@quadswithmods]

Wow that face 😍 just watching for that face (the super 8 do seem to have issue from time to time) i been on expresslrs since i think there 3rc and will never turn back, got the tatoo and everything now 😢 this is more for your algorithm and its friday yay😅

[@CurryKitten]

This is what happens when I forget to take a useful picture at the field and get my daughter to take a picture of me looking "torn between the two radios" :)

[@ShinyVideoStuff]

Top quality "youtube thumbnail face"

[@CurryKitten]

Knew you'd appreciate it

[@JakeBullit123]

Sat count was lower with R9

[@CurryKitten]

First flight of the day. I sat there for 3 or 4 minutes waiting for it to get the min 6 sats and then took off. As time went on it got more sats, and by battery 2 (when I was running on the ELRS module) the count increased. That's just a timing thing, I don't think it's relevant to the test. I did note that having telemetry on via the original R9 code could cause interference with the GPS, but I would guess that's down to positioning as well, as we're using the same frequency to send telemetry back.

[@MCsCreations]

Awesome flying, Wayne! Great comparison! 😃 I'm definitely going to do the same with my R9 stuff! (As soon as I can buy a new PC, the prices are too high right now. 😬) Anyway, stay safe there with your family! 🖖😊

[@CurryKitten]

Ouch - new PC. That's big money - hope you can get it done eventually!

[@jirkasvitil2762]

This would be 10x more useful if you had dbm value.

[@CurryKitten]

I can't look at it at a glance and figure anything out - but enough people have moaned that I've started adding it in on future videos