Taranis X9D Plus SE Review

I purchased my Taranis nearly a month ago, and in this article I am going to talk about all the Pros and cons of this radio.

If you would just like to see how it flies, then here is a video of me flying with the taranis.

Lets get straight into this, when you unbox the Taranis, there is a nice case that comes with it. Inside the case the Taranis is held witin some foam, with gimbal protectors on it it. Also in the foam, there is a charger and a Taranis lanyard with an adapter on it. There is a zipped pocket in the top of the case which holds some stickers, a manual and the screw on 3dbi antenna.

Initial Setup

The initial setup was quite complicated for me as I had never used Taranis before, but I quickly got to know my way around the system after a couple of days. To set up the Taranis properly for my quad, I watched some videos on YouTube such as the Rotor Riot or Joshua Bardwell ones. These were very useful, however there was still a problem in Betaflight, as in the receiver tab none of the bars were moving when I moved the Taranis sticks. I went through the video steps again to make sure I had done everything right, and I had, so I searched YouTube for the problem I was having. I watched lots of videos and none of the solutions worked, but then I finally come to one that worked for me. The video showed that the receiver(R-XSR) was wired up wrong out of the box, and to swap a pin to another slot. After doing this, everything worked and was very simple, but I was just frustrated after looking through many videos and wasting my time.  So, the initial setup can be a bit of a hassle, but the end results are very rewarding after using it for a while.

Switches

I have found that having lots of 3 way switches very useful for my quad, as it allows me to use more advanced features such as turtle mode, 2 arm settings and the beeper. Whereas on my old DX6I, all I could use was, arm and level/acro. The switches also feel nice to move, with a smooth transition between positions. So having lots of switches is very useful, as it allows me to add not only the necessary features such as level/acro, but the newer ones that are helpful if you lose your quad, such as the ESC beeper.

Haptic/voice feedback

Voice feedback is very important to me, because even though I do have my RSSI on my OSD, it means that I don't have to look at that all the time, but actually concentrate on my flying. My RSSI low alarm is set to 35 and my critical one to 30, but I actually haven't had the Taranis say anything while I have been flying, and I gone some distance away from myself. So I am very pleased with the range of the Taranis considering that my receiver only cost £15 compared to most like the crossfire one at £40. There are many other ways in which the voice feedback is helpful, such as battery low, because I just came in to land when it spoke rather than it just dropping out of the sky. Also, when you switch the Taranis on, it tells you whether all the switches are in the correct position before taking off and realizing.

Gimbals

The M9 hall sensor gimbals just feel amazing when maneuvering them about in flight. Out of the box the tension is just right for me, which comes together with the stick endings to create a perfectly feeling quad in the air. When moving them, you can tell that they are quality, rather than some cheap alternative. I am saying this from personal experience, as I have had a cheap radio and you can tell the difference straight away. 

Battery

Before purchasing the Taranis, i had heard mixed reviews about the battery life, and from personal experience, if you are just using it for flying, then it is quite good and lasts for a while. But if you use it on simulators or generally have quite a lot of normal flights, then i have found that the battery runs out fast. SO it really depends on how much use it has.

Price 

I saved up my own money to buy this Taranis, and i would say that it is worth the money, because it just has so may features available that many other radios don't. Also, i picked this over the TBS tango that is a similar price, because I prefer the traditional radio shape to hold in my hands and I liked the hydro- dipped options available. I chose the blazing skull as I liked the orange and black together.

Thanks for reading, Flozone FPV.

This is a video on my channel, hope you enjoy.