Unboxing?

This is what Wikipedia says about unboxings:

Unboxing is the unpacking of products, especially high tech consumer products, where the process is captured on video and uploaded to the Internet.

Are we doing that? – Our venture certainly does qualify in terms of high tech products. You can’t get much higher tech than a Jeti remote control transmitter. And we are unpacking something.

But you will have noticed by now that you are reading a blog rather than watching a video. Never will there be a Flying Tom entry on YouTube featuring some dude taking the mickey out of himself by opening up a stupid cardboard box. And, Wikipedia doesn’t say so because that goes without saying, the product should be new with the box hitherto unopened. Ours is not.

But first things first.

Do We Need A Change?

Yes, not urgently, but we do. Our Spektrum DX9s have grown very mature if not passed the peak by now. As a successor we put the DX20 on the wish list for Christmas. But we are not sure just how much leading edge technology we would really get for such a hefty price. The new iX12, which is announced to be available in Switzerland in about two months‘ time, seems to be a more sensible option.

 

But then again, maybe it’s the right time and the right place for one of my political statements: Now that America elected to follow Mr Trump time-travelling back to live with the Flintstones in their own age, I’ll suspend buying American products until further notice. I don’t need no stone axes and clubs. My embargo, of course, will not apply to muscle cars from GM, Mopar and Ford, especially ’69 and ’70 Mustangs and Mercury Cougars with 351 Cleveland engines, Harley-Davidson bikes, Weber grills, hamburgers of any kind, beef brisket, Philly cheesesteak and Elvis. This list is not final.

Why A Jeti?

All in all, we have been quite happy using Spektrum RC products, and we still are. The “quite” above, however, implies that there might be some topics on hand for future blog posts. I’ll try not start lamenting again about the unsung demise of DSM2 a few years ago in the course of the tightening of European telecommunication regulation (Version 1.8.1 of ETSI EN 300 328, in effect as of 01.01.2015, see our German blog „Kein DSM2 mehr in Europa?„). Since then we have to put up with the notorious EU-suffix in the product numbers of Spektrum transmitters, such as SPM9900EU for the DX9 Black Edition. Those two letters indicate, that we get less than customers in other parts of the world.

DSM2 is not available on EU devices. Neither is the 11ms frame rate option. This is obvious. We only get the slower 22ms. Not that I would be able to tell the difference in real life flying. But what else might there be missing in hidden areas? A few milliwatts of transmitting power here and there? You just don’t know.

I’m not going to pick a quarrel about which system is best. My eye-opening experience was a very successful slope soaring event on the Hahnenmoos. Standing there among all the Futabas, Jetis, Multiplexes and Graupners, the DX9 suddenly declared: „Flight pack: no data“. The telemetry connection was reproducibly lost before our E-Tomcat was even near the limits of vision. Fortunately, the remote control connection remained as stable as ever. But that day not only left a sunburn on the nose tip but also a vague but festering doubt. As far as I know, none of our fellow pilots encountered similar issues then. Range matters when you are high up there with the big ones.

Jeti is made in the Czech Republic, in Europe that is. These guys know best – at least I hope so – how to get the maximum out of ETSI EN 300 328 for their European customers. It’s worth the effort reading some technical description about their Duplex 2.4GHz EX system. This is what we want.

Why Now?

The Jeti DS-16 is more than three times the price of the DX9 we use. It even tops the DX20 by a blue one (CHF 100). We didn’t want to spend that kind of money on our first Jeti experiments. So we’ve been lying in wait for an affordable used one for quite a while. We lost some auctions on ricardo.ch and our ransacking the bargain bins at the shops never revealed any treasures.

These days we found a one on modellmarkt24.ch. It has been used as a demonstration model for one season. Mode 2. At last! – Deal!

And Now For The Unboxing

It is some kind of a Matryoshka doll experience. You have to make your way through no less than four layers to find the transmitter: First the shipping cardboard box, then some polystyrene foam padding, then the glossy sales packaging and finally the high-quality aluminium transport case padded with foam rubber.

There you go. This is what we got. All you need for a start:

1. transmitter DS-16 containing a 5’200 mAh Li-Ion battery
2. battery charger
3. USB cable
4. manual
5. neck strap
6. some Jeti duplex stickers

What’s Next?

We won’t turn our back on Spektrum RC now. Our models and spares boxes are full of working high quality Spektrum products. And, by the way, the iX12 is still on the wish list. The DS-16 will mainly be deployed when it comes to pushing the transmission range limits with large (and expensive) gliders.

If we already had one of Jeti’s duplex receivers at hand, we would certainly be testing and writing about it right now. Unfortunately, we failed to order it on time. Be patient …