We’ve all gone through this in the hobby, we help someone else get started. All the knowledge and wisdom you share is half-listened to. You tell them to buy a good transmitter so they don’t have to keep rebuying it. Yet, they have planes on their mind. The next thing you know, it’s a few years down the road and they have more than 20 planes, the wrong transmitter, the wrong receivers and now they want to listen to your advice on transmitters? How do we break the cycle?
Thankfully we now offer the FrSky Twin X14. Though it’s a budget friendly radio, it’s a bit demeaning to think of it as a trainer radio or a beginner transmitter. The X14 stands on its own as a very good transmitter. Though it’s affordable, it offers the full Monty, unadulterated Ethos experience for the up and coming RC flying junkies. X14 pilots won’t need to buy a more expensive transmitter to feel that full Ethos love. If a secure link is a must, the X14 is also an insane dual band transmitter with 2.4ghz FSK and 2.4ghz LoRa (Long Range) transmission modules built in. This means you’ll have a secure control link further than you can see! And the antenna on the X14 is something special, more about this later.
Instead of buying transmitters based on channels, the X14 boasts of 24 full resolution channels! As a pilot grows in the hobby, they won’t have to shop for a new radio system and relearn the operating system. No matter if they fly turbine jets, gliders, scale/warbirds, pylon, FPV or whatever they dream up, FrSky can grow with them.
At first glance
Two things that set this radio apart from other FrSky transmitters in the line.
1. It doesn’t have a touch screen
2. The antenna sits outside the transmitter.
No Touch Screen?
I did find that I could figure my way around in Ethos without a touch screen. The thing that slowed me down was naming the models. It’s like the old flip phone scrolling to each letter. The rest of it was very manageable. Still, at some point we’ll have the option to build models on the PC and bring them into the radio. This feature will make the X14 an even better value. You can also share models between radios, so if push comes to shove you can build the model on an X20 or any other Ethos based transmitter and transfer it over to the X14 wirelessly via bluetooth (which is amazing, if I may say so myself).
The Antenna/ Range
The X14 has an antenna that is a handle. What I like about it is that it’s a true omnidirectional antenna. It transmits a true 360 degrees as opposed to the Tandem’s 180 degrees (the screen blocks the signal). I have no way to formally test the range improvement, other than to say that at face value the X14 with the TW GR8 had excellent range. My flights were worry free. It has superior range to the standard 2.4ghz Archer Plus receivers. This means that the transmission capabilities for the X14 may be perhaps even better than the Twin portion of the new Tandem R and RS transmitters. Listen, new pilots are going to crash for their own reasons, let’s help them out by getting them a transmitter that won’t occasionally go radio silent!
The feel
I am six feet tall and have large hands. The radio feels good in my hands though it's a bit small for me. Not like a pair of pants a couple sizes too small, more of transition of going from a large SUV down to a midsize car. If the X14 was my first and only radio I could fly with it for years without issue. But, the moment I picked up an X20 sized I’d want it!
The rubber back is nice to hold onto and it’s quite comfortable to fly. To my surprise, the 4 ball bearing plastic gimbals were fine. About the only thing that was a bit different was that I would hit the button on the back of the transmitter more than I do with my X20S.
I didn’t get fatigued holding it, and the overall feel was very nice. I could hit all the switches easily from my lazy “thumber” grip. I actually really like flying with the transmitter. My test period is over with the plane I have setup with the X14 and I am still flying the X14!
I could see this as an excellent vacation transmitter. You know, those car trip vacations where the wife gives usa tad bit of space for all our RC stuff? Yes, I can fly with this. About the only thing I would change on it are the stick ends. I prefer the crown stick ends on my transmitters.
Somewhere around 2017 FrSky came out with the Taranis QX7. It was a $100 transmitter, and I owned one. Though there were some things I really did like about it, it felt plastic and cheap. It wasn’t on par with the rest of the FrSky line. I can say that the QX7 was influential in the development of other radios in the market. A couple of years ago there was a craze for square radios that many in the race quad area really enjoyed. This isn’t a square transmitter, and the form factor feels better in the hands compared to the square transmitters.
I’ve been chatting with Andrew Newton for a number of years, and he’s an accomplished fixed wing pilot who has a nice YouTube following. He went into retirement after the pandemic and downsized a bit. He’s now in the phase where he wants what he wants. What he wanted was the X14S because he has smaller hands. He had those square radios and they didn’t speak to him quite like the X14S does. Best of all, the X14S spoke to him because it was what he was hoping for, a well made radio that doesn’t feel cheap.
The fine print
The Twin line is a 2.4ghz option only transmitter. There is no module you can put on it to make it Tandem compatible. What will work with this transmitter with the internal module are
1. Twin Receivers
2. Archer Plus receivers (ACCESS)
3. Older ACCST receivers (ACCST V 2.1 )
4. 900mhz only receivers (FrSky R9 series)
Seriously, this should be enough for most pilots. The Twin receivers are dual 2.4ghz normal (FSK) and Long Range (LoRA). They have a flying range similar but not quite the same as 900mhz. There is a stabilized receiver option, and glider receiver options that are small and have built in variometers to keep track of altitude and vertical airspeed. The Archer line has over 20 more receivers with various channel options, from 4 PWM channels to 12 PWM channels with a lot more stabilized receiver options. The older 2.4ghz ACCST receivers, though mostly no longer made, are still found out in the wild, often for insanely low prices.
Module options
The radio will work with four aftermarket modules. The first two are
TBS Crossfire
Ghost
These were popular in the drone community, and not as much in fixed wing.
ELRS
Multiprotocol Module
ELRS seems to be the protocol of choice in the drone race quad community. The X14 may be of some interest to the race quad community. It’s a step up transmitter within two or three fast food meals price difference.
Multiprotocol module
The first thing I have to say about the Multiprotocol module is that it’s not a FrSky product. It’s a third party product. With it, you can bind to receivers made by FrSky (older ones) and ones not made by FrSky. It can bind to Spektrum DSM, DSM2, DSMX, Futaba FHSS (very old), Graupner and the Rage RC small warbirds as well as ancient FrSky receivers.
The MPM actually works well. Many people have reported good success with MPM modules. The MPM module and the X14 can be purchased together for less than $250. Imagine the possibilities.
Uses for the X14.
Well, of course it’s the perfect trainer radio, as well as a great first “big boy” radio. If you are training someone to fly for the first time, the X14 is a no brainer. They can link to your modern FrSky radio via Bluetooth for wireless training.
It’s also a great radio to work your small (UMX, Rage RC) warbirds collection with. Most of those planes need a modest amount of switches and this is the perfect thing to throw in the car with you on those trips where you’re visiting the inlaws. You can always find a school yard to fly your warbirds, and the X14 takes up a very small footprint.
Finally, this is a very nice DLG radio. The momentary switch is on the left side and it fits nicely in your hands for your discus launch.
Why I believe the X14 is the dark horse
I think it’s going to take around a year if not a bit longer for the word to get out about the X14. It was around 18 months for the word to get out about the line of Tandem transmitters. But this market is really targeted to experienced pilots. The X14 is mainly for a different segment of the market, the newer pilot who is busy acquiring planes and views RC transmitters as an expense but not an investment. I am a realist, many of these pilots may just have a superficial relationship with their transmitters. But for the ones who want to dig a bit deeper, they will be very happy. There is plenty of training videos online, and they are getting the full Ethos, not a lite version stripped of features.
It's a frustrating experience for someone to divorce their current radio brand and pull out all their receivers, learn a new radio system, trim their planes once again and get them back to where they were. But, this is far too common in our hobby. With FrSky they aren’t just buying a transmitter that fits their budget for now, but they are buying into the FrSky extended universe. It’s like the Star Wars Extended Universe, except instead of having little known characters and tangent plots you have boatloads of receivers, servos, sensors and redundancy boxes. Far too much good stuff to outgrow.
Is it worth getting the S gimbals?
The one thing I am is a realist. When someone doesn’t want to buy a new transmitter in the first place, asking them to pay 50% more for nicer gimbals is out of the question! That’s why I reviewed the non-S version of the transmitter. I wanted to work with it because I have to have faith in it. And I do. Though I am currently happy with the X20S that I have, I kinda see how this would be nice to have with a multiprotocol module for the toys that I want to fly. So, for me, the X14S is a no brainer. I am attracted to nicer gimbals, though at some point I may get a deal on an X14 that floats my way and be fine with it. Thus I say, if you have the budget, get the X14S. If you’re buying this for your kids to learn how to fly RC, you may also want to get the S because you may end up liking this radio for various tasks.
I love it!
So, there you have it, I am crazy about this radio. I actually enjoy flying the basic X14. It doesn’t feel cheap and it has enough of the FrSky goodness to keep it viable. For those who want to go into full Ethos freak out/geek out mode, it’s ready. Once people figure out how good this transmitter truly is, it will no longer be a dark horse.
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