Migrating setups from Taranis X9D to X9E

The Taranis X9E contains a superset of the X9D's controls, and in theory any setup designed for the X9D will also run on the X9E. In practice, setups which use LS or RS will need modification.

In this post I'll explain the background, and the fix. Or you can jump straight to 'Fix'.

Control IDs

The X9D and X9E each have their own set of hardware IDs which identify the analog controls (sticks, sliders and pots). The IDs are assigned by FrSky, and used by OpenTx.

For setups to be fully compatible between the X9D and X9E, the IDs for corresponding controls should be the same. Unfortunately, this is not the case. In particular, there are four IDs which refer to different controls on the two radios:

  Control ID    X9D   X9E

          A8    LS    F4
          A9    RS    S1

          A5    S1    F1

          A6    S2    F2

This creates the following problems when moving a .EEPE from the X9D to the X9E:

• LS on the X9D maps to F4 on the X9E. Since F4 doesn't exist on a stock X9E, any function which is dependent on LS will not function until corrected.
• The right side-slider RS on the X9D maps to the left front slider S1 on the X9E. This will also require correction.

The pots S1 and S2 are less of an issue; they map to the correct pots on the X9E, though the labels are different ('F1' and 'F2') on the X9E.

The fix

LS and RS are the controls you'll need to fix. After loading an X9D setup into your X9E, go through the programming menus on the transmitter and replace all occurrences of 'F4' and 'S1' with 'LS' and 'RS' respectively. LS and RS should then function as expected. (Note 2 June 2016: if you can't find LS and RS in the picklists on your tx, then select them directly by moving the sliders - see Comments).

X9E support in Companion

Companion 2.1.7 does not properly support for the X9E. In particular, LS and RS are not present in the source pick lists. Consequently, modifications involving these controls must be made directly in the transmitter. (Companion may still be used for other editing tasks, and for backup/restore of your EEPROM.)

Exploring the control ID

Control IDs are shown in the Analog Inputs screen:

Analog Inputs screen for X9D. 'A1' to 'A9' are IDs for sticks, levers and pots

Updated documentation for sailplane setups

The docs for my sailplane setups have now been updated for the X9E. See OpenTx Clinic.