Sanwa/Airtronics M17 FH5 4-Channel 2.4GHz Radio System w/RX-493 Receiver

Love the balance and lightweight of the radio. Tons of features and easy to use. Im sure this radio will hold up great for years.

As a long time Futaba user a friend let me try out his M17 with his Exotek F1. 10 laps later and I was ready to buy one and replace my Futaba 7PX. Looking over receiver sizes I went with 5 RX-482 for the small size. The radio came and looks great and feels even better when driving. Some negative things I have found. The battery that came with the radio has a usb charge port built in. Mine was pushed back inside the battery and I was unable to charge the battery without removing it. The battery door is held on with a Philips screw and the tabs on the inside seem brittle. The RC-482 receivers are very small but also very hard to get any plugs into it without sanding them down first. I had one out of the 5 RX-482 bad right out of the box. It would not power up.

Overall I think the quality is not as good as futaba. I do feel more connected to the cars with the Sanwa.

Update: While this transmitter is pretty good, the screen is much too fragile for even light usage. Wiping with a t shirt or microfiber cloth introduce very fine scratches into the surface of the screen. Attempting to remove the scratches with optics cloth just made it worse. This is unacceptable for the price and I’m really tired of cheap crap in this hobby. I’ll continue using it since I’ve invested in receivers at this point. If you get an M17, get a screen protector right away.

If you're on the fence, pull the trigger.

I started out with the NB4+. I'm pretty new to this but I've had lots of problems with the steering in my car and have rebuilt it several times trying to figure out the issue. A lot these problems were my fault, messing with different parts but I never considered the radio as weak link. Prior to getting the M17, I was able to get the steering in a much better shape but still wasn't seeing a great improvement in lap times.

The weekend I put in the M17, I went from struggling to make the B main to bumping from B to A and running very well in A main. As I got used to the radio, I also got faster through the day. Maybe its a coincidence and I just got better. Maybe I just got the setup right or liked the track layout. But, it could be the radio. In general, I felt more connected to the car and was reacting to what was happening on race track, rather than feeling like the car was driving me.

Setup was very easy. The receivers dropped right in and binding was simple. I'd prefer if these came with an RX-492 instead of the RX-493 but that's not a big deal in the end, as I'll find use for the antenna received in the long run.

There is an M17S coming out but I'm not sure about the benefits of waiting. I'm pretty happy with the purchase and wish I went this way sooner. If you're a beginner considering radios and can make the investment, this is a good choice and will last you a long time.

awesome so far. have no idea why i didn't upgrade earlier.

The radio is supposed to great from what I've heard but at a 600.00$ you don't get a charger with or the microsd with it so now im looking everywhere for one that will work for it and not do any damage to the lipo or the remote meanwhile it needs a class6-4(the 4 can be found easier)the class 6 sdhc card (near impossible) to find except on Ebay and the final blow is if you go to Sanwas site you need to do a firmware update required for it to operate but on their secured page it will not download to computer Securely.the.1.01.10 zip file they have a .8,.9 which can be downloaded but I'm unsure if 10 will be needed, and guess what contacting Sanwa is Bogus too because when you try to email them about why this is happening you get an email kick back error saying their email is over quota(full)was hoping this would be bind and ready to drive but because of what is stated above I'm now waiting on a charger and micro sd card in the mail since they do not to include a charger (micro usb) or micro sd card at 600.00 price tag these should have been included considering the charger and micro sd card are cheap so now I don't know if it works or won't work for a week until the other stuff arrives so now I wait will update the review if it works
but for anyone who is thinking on buying one read this review 1st and understand that for the price you pay NO charger or sd card is included to update and charge to bind it so buy those as well and know you CANNOT CONTACT Sanwa currently on their page! Read Carefully or you'll be like me waiting longer.Cannot do anything with it until its fully charged and has the micro sd card in for a firmware update that may be broken so check to see if your cpu will let you attempt to download version8,9,10 before buying this radio!

So far it works very well. The manual needs to be read thoroughly to understand how to use all the functions it has. Like how it feels in the hand and how the steering feels.

Cheap, low quality components. For nearly $600 I expect it to not feel a $50 walmart RC kit.

- The battery barely lasts one day at the track. So I have to spend $50 for a good Protek battery. Why would you not include a quality battery.
- The battery uses micro USB. It's not 2017. Use USBC like every other manufacturer in the world.
- The speaker sounds horrible. Why even bother adding a speaker when it sounds horribly distorted? Where did you even find such a low quality component?
- The vibration mechanism feels broken. Again, if you’re going to put haptic feedback in the device why not splurge for a quality item for your high end device? This feels like something I’d get in a walmart brand RC car package.
- The feature set seems to be the same as my 10 year old transmitter.
- The screen is made from the softest plastic I have ever come across. To clean off some fingerprints before I put the screen protector on I used the same microfiber towel that I've been cleaning my plastic sunglasses with for a year. My glasses have zero scratches. The screen scratched right away with minimal pressure from that super soft towel. Again, where do you even source such inferior components??
- The manual is a horrible english translation. Hire a professional english translator, teach them what the device does and let them translate it. Stop embarrassing your company.

Overall I feel like this company is just ripping off the entire RC community
1. There are no major innovations to justify the price point
2. Every single component seems to be the cheapest item they could possibly source resulting in a cheap feeling product.
3. Pay for an actual professional translator.

Hey Sanwa, maybe have some pride in your top of the line transmitter, lay out a little bit of money and stop ripping off the RC community.

This is an excellent radio, but the one major problem is the lipo battery that comes in this radio is absolute junk. It lasts maybe one day of racing before needing charged. So then I have to buy the Protek 5500 lipo for it after just spending $500 for this radio. The Protek 5500 lipo is excellent and lasts around five days before needing charged.

Loved everything about the fm16 great radio give you all the information and telemetries that you need to go faster the good radio

This is currently, in my opinion the best transmitter in the market right now. I am new to this RC hobby. I started with something cheap that I just got from Amazon. I only paid $60 and I thought it will be ok. Few months later, my wife bought me a Sanwa MT-R which is a lot better than my $60 Radiolink remote. Me and my son enjoy using the MT-R. Later we bought more RC touring car kits and we became more serious. I decided to buy a Sanwa again of course and I ended up getting M17. That was the best decision I made. I learned that remote is one of the most important in RC racing. I disagree with some users saying that the operation of this is hard. That is absolutely very wrong. I found everything very straightforward. I love the colored screen, I also love the feature that you can reset the center of your steering. When you adjust the trim, there is an option that you can set the optimal setting as the new center. This now will no longer affect uneven steering in one side especially if you are using a bigger value on your trim. Another option I like is the “feeling”. This choice is available with both steering and throttle. If you bring the feeling a little lower, the movement will be more calm and less aggressive. This feature works hand in hand with exponential. The lipo battery that comes with thr unit lasts forever. I told myself, why did I not get this before? It is worth every penny. The best thing sbout this remote is the response. It is currently the fastest in the market. At our local racetrack, all the experts use this. So go ahead and buy this. You will never be sorry.

I am coming from an NB4 which is a fantastic Tx especially for the money and I will keep using it for my Talion as I like the INr4 GYB Rx in there. Now I can't say scientifically but it does "feel" very snappy with the cars and while finding some stuff in the menus can be a little challenging here and there, so are all Tx's, and it did actually come with a pdg printed manual. The Sanwa fh5 Rx are a bit pricey compared to FlySky, but I have had great results with a Das Mikro Rx so far (_definitely_ the same case as the FlySky FGr4S the little antennae-less one) for ~$30 direct from him. I think I am subscribing to the M17 "connected to the car" Kool Aid. Convert the battery to Qi imo. It was easy and seems to work very well.