People love new electronics, whether it’s the a new phone or a radio for the RC world. Once a new electronic item is announced, enthusiasts flock to see what new innovations the piece of equipment has to offer. That was exactly the case when the new FutabaT-4PX radio was announced. We posted some of the first available photos of the radio on our website and social media pages and it received some of the biggest traffic we’ve ever seen. We wanted to know more about this radio ourselves and luckily we got our hands on a tour of the 4PX at the recent AMS 5.0 race in Cullman Alabama where Hobbico had it on display. Hobbico’s John Stokes took us on a tour of the radio and explained some of the cool features that set it apart from Futaba’s previous offerings.
The 4PX is an all new cutting edge design that is completely different from prior radios. The steering has been positioned for better balance and an internal aluminum structure frame is set within the case to strengthen the feel of the radio. Even with the internal frame, the 4PX’s weight is 15g lighter than the 4pk.
The large backlight screen is also in color and all of the functions are spelled out instead of the abbreviations used on previous models. Telemetry readouts for RPM, temperature, radio voltage and receiver voltage will be visible on the screen when set up.
This is one of the features we are excited to see on the 4PX, this radio is back compatible with all other Futaba protocalls; FASST, T-FHSS and S-FHSS. It also still offers both normal and high-speed response modes as well.
There are five programmable mixes. Scale and crawler guys will be happy to know there are mixing menus for things like 4-wheel steering mix and ESC mixing.
The 4PX is compatible with S-Bus technology. Take an S-Bus servo, plug into the radio and program the servo to what you want to do. For example, you can change dead-band, read servo setting, servo setup, change its parameters, or reset. It’s a different way of programming a servo from what we are used to in programmable servos. The firmware is still being developed for this so more details will come soon.
You want fast; the 4PX is 30% faster than the 4PKS-R as it now has a higher transmission rate, short frame rate and a higher performance micro controller. Here on the main screen you can see time, and telemetry voltage from the receiver.
An all-in-one transmitter antenna swivels flat or vertical and allows you to access the SD card port. Software can be updated by using an SD card to transfer free program updates from your PC. Futaba suggests a 32GB card for the transfer; you’ll be able to store additional models on the card too.
When you drive, you can have a little voice talking to you. The 4PX is equipped with synthesized voice for telemetry to tell you things like voltage or temperatures. A phone jack is also located on the back of the radio for those who want to use headphones. As you can see here the backing plate can be swapped to the other side so the radio is left or right hand compatible.
Buttons everywhere! The button that caught our eye is the “Belly Button” on the back lower portion of the radio base. A suggested use for this button is to program it for the timer to count laps. When your car comes by simply tap your tummy with the “Belly Button” to keep track of your laps.
A drop down and swivel adapters included for steering with fine tune increments to adjust the radio for a better feel.
Optional rubber grips will be available and we even caught wind that a carbon fiber grip will be an option.
Setting up the radio to be comfortable for the driver is critical so two throttle trigger clips are included for large or small fingers and these can be adjusted forward and back 7mm for fit.
The receiver slated to come with the 4PX is the R304SB with S-Bus and Telemetry compatibility.
Additional info One new thing is a battery will not be included, well so far, but there is a possibility that may change. Futaba has found that many racers upgraded their NiMh packs on the 4PKS-R to a 2S LiFe and feel they would do the same on the 4PX so to reduce cost, they would leave the battery out. The 4PKS LiFe option packs will also fit the 4PX. The radio’s price will be $549.99.
First Impressions While checking the radio out at the AMS, we were quite impressed. It only took several minutes of scrolling through screens and menus to figure out the back end of the radio to find the different areas to tune. There are a lot of things that can be adjusted too, which can seem a little overwhelming at first, but the more we dove into the radio’s options the more we wanted to see what we could do with it. Futaba appears to not have just stepped it up a notch when developing the 4PX, but they stepped up two notches. The $550 price tag might seem a bit steep for some, but drivers that want the latest and greatest with every imaginable bell and whistle won’t think twice about picking up the 4PX.
