I installed my own Servonaut radio and sound (from Der GearDoctor), as Premacon does not offer them. I ordered the excavator equipped with a speaker box and speaker, so all I had to do was tap into the onboard power and plug in the sound board. (The Servonaut sound was $150 cheaper than Premacon's sound, and requires fewer channels to operate.)
For my Transmitter, I chose to go with the Servonaut HS-12 Radio. It won out after considering the following options:
Scaleart Commander 5000: top quality, manual and menus in English, but at $2500+ was just too expensive.
Brixl 20channel: beautiful radio, can be installed by Premacon with a display inside the cab of the excavator with time, volts, temp, etc. Also very expensive, plus the menus and manual only come in German.
Spektrum Dx-18 (my current radio): offers full functionality, but I would have had to control the hydraulic accessory channels with the rear sliders (which are not self centering.)
The HS-12 is the "budget" 3D stick radio. At $700, it's definitely the cheapest. Functionally, I love the radio so far. The sticks work great and programming (English menus) is very simple. BUT, it has a cheap feeling plastic case and doesn't offer the bling of the pricier models. Their receiver only offers 12 channels, but you can add more by "splitting" channels 7 and 8 into 4 simple controls each using the Servonaut MM4. As configured, my excavator uses all 12 channels.
Programming is very simple: you set up each channel using the servo menu, name it, and tell it what type of control it is. The buttons on the face can be set up in various ways, depending on what type of control (simple on/off, three way on-mid-off, slider, hydraulic emulation, pump control, etc.) I was hesitant in that there were not true linear dials and sliders for some channels, but the system actually works quite well. The joysticks can control up to 5 channels each (left/right, Up/DN, 3D rotate left/3D right, and hold the button to access another level of left/right and up/down controls.) Each control can be "mixed" to up to 3channels (that is the limit); however there is no limit on how many mixes a channel can receive. The menu is straightforward and programming is easy. There are even directions on how to control the Tamiya MFU (but I didn't try it.)
Paul
