Review: BetaFPV LiteRadio 2 Transmitter

by Oscar

The BetaFPV LiteRadio 2 is a basic and affordable radio. It has almost everything you need to fly a micro quad, yet with all the unnecessary features removed, making it extremely easy to use. It’s a great little radio that you can take everywhere.

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Update (Apr 2022): There’s a new version – LiteRadio 3 Pro.

Where to Buy?

Closer Look at the LiteRadio 2

The LiteRadio 2 has the shape of a gaming controller. It’s comfortable to hold, and the anti-slip texture on the handles allows for a solid grip.

Gimbals and Switches

The small form factor determines how you are going to hold this radio, it works really well for “thumbers”, but perhaps too small for “pinchers”. (Thumbing and pinching, these are two ways of holding the sticks)

The gimbals on the LiteRadio 2 are not the highest quality, not as smooth as the hall gimbals on full size radios, but they get the job done. The stick travel (range of motion) is also not as long as the full size radios, but i don’t think it’s a big deal for micro quads, you don’t need all that precision.

However, I do get some jitter with the the centre stick values jumping between 1496 to 1504 (when I am not touching the sticks). It doesn’t bother me as I am using this radio mostly on micro quads and tiny whoops. I simply set “deadband” value to 5 in Betaflight, and it seems to work fine.

The stick ends can be removed, and you can also adjust the length of the stick.

There are four switches, which are already configured as channel 5, 6, 7 and 8. Two of the switches are 2-position, and the other two are 3-position.

As you can see, you can’t change gimbals tension, but you can change stiffness of the throttle stick.

It’s interesting to see that they added some weight inside the radio, the extra weight does make the radio feel slightly less like a toy.

Battery, Charging, USB Port

It comes with a 2S 350mAh LiPo battery, and you can charge it through the USB port. It’s quite a small battery, lasts about 2-3 hours per charge. Maybe as a DIY hack, we could replace the metal weight inside the radio with more batteries for longer run time :)

Also I think they could use 18650, which might be a bit safer than using a LiPo inside the radio. Although I’ve used LiPo in radio in the past and never had any safety issues.

There is a micro USB port for charging the battery, and you can play FPV simulators as well by connecting it to your computer. For me it was “plug and play”, I didn’t have to mess with drivers at all.

Next to the USB port, is the trainer port, which I don’t normally use.

Protocols and Range

The LiteRadio 2 supports 3 protocols: Frsky D16 FCC, D16 LBT and D8, covers almost all the popular micro FPV drone models.

Range is quite similar to my Radiomaster TX16S (with multiprotocol module) when testing with Beta65X HD which has a built-in Frsky SPI receiver. Note that the LiteRadio has a PCB style antenna inside the radio, it’s not as good as a full size antenna, so don’t expect amazing range from it. With that said, I’ve been flying my tiny whoops in the house without any failsafe.

It doesn’t have a speaker, but it does have haptic feedback (a vibration motor). If you signal gets too low the radio will vibrate.

OpenTX Support

Yes, this tiny little radio runs OpenTX!

Because it doesn’t have a screen, if you want to change radio settings, you’d have to connect it to your computer, and do that through OpenTX Companion. Here is how: https://bit.ly/3cgeHYT

But to be honest, I haven’t had the need to use OpenTX Companion yet :) The LiteRadio works just fine out of the box, but it’s good to know the options are there.

Manual

Conclusion

The BetaFPV LiteRadio 2 is not for everyone, but if you are looking for a cheap, simple and small radio that works well for micro drones, this is indeed a good option. I think it’s also great for beginners as their first radio, because it’s easy to use, and it’s cheap.

You can’t use Crossfire on this radio as it doesn’t have a module bay, and you cannot easily change radio settings without going to your computer.

But hey, It works with Frsky receivers, compatible with FPV simulators, charging through USB, supports OpenTX, ONLY $40, what more can we ask for :D

Get it from:

Pros

  • Decent gimbals, not as good as the ones on full size gimbals, but still much better than the ones on toy grade radios
  • Trainer function
  • Supports FPV Simulator
  • Extremely portable
  • One of the cheapest radios you can buy
  • USB Charging
  • Supports Frsky D8 and D16 – up to 8 channels for flight modes and other functions

Cons

  • The radio has no low battery warning, if you forget to switch off the remote control, you could over discharge LiPo
  • OpenTX features minimal

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17 comments

Allan Jones 19th February 2021 - 1:54 pm

Tried swapping out the gimbals for the jumper T8SG ones but when. I plug them into the board the radio won’t power on but if I unplug them then it powers up. Any ideas on how to get the T8SG gimbals to work on this radio? Since the beta ones are have been no good for me.

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Allan Jones 18th February 2021 - 1:59 pm

Tried swapping out the gimbals for the jumper T8SG ones but when. I plug them into the board the radio won’t power on but if I unplug them then it powers up. Any ideas on how to get the T8SG gimbals to work on this radio?

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Phill 4th January 2021 - 8:42 pm

This is basically a cheaply made POS, my right gimbal has developed an increasingly common fault of the jitters, on betaflight this can be seen on the receiver tab when moving the stick and will go from around 1550 back to 1500 without moving the stick back, this causes bad jitters in flight rendering the transmitter useless, only bought it as my frsky tx doesn’t work with the mobula6 for some reason so my advice is to avoid this poor quality piece of junk like the plague until betafpv up their quality control and use higher quality components, such a shame, I’d happily pay more if the quality was there but sadly it’s not…..avoid.

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Tom 2nd November 2020 - 3:36 am

have a good day sir!
i have a question about TX crossfire. U said “You can’t use Crossfire on this radio as it doesn’t have a module bay”. but i bought it because it tiny & i can bring any where. If i want mod with TBS Crossfire, can i make a connector or something like it ?
I know this is stupid question & hope you can answer it!
many thanks

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Beccakay 23rd October 2020 - 7:32 am

According to the official OpenTX thread on rcgroups, the BetaFPV transmitter doesn’t actually run OpenTX but rather an unsupported custom version of it.

It isnt officially supported by OpenTX, so I would be concerned about future support for it.

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sebastien 13th October 2020 - 10:13 pm

Hi, I have the same problem than Aaron d and KeyserFPV. My Yaw is now blocked around 1900…
Did someone find a solution to that problem ??

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Jordon 12th September 2020 - 5:55 pm

Does anyone know how to factory reset the transmitter? I have fiddled with some of the settings in opentx, now i cannot select D16 EU.

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oermens 2nd August 2020 - 3:21 am

@Benson Try turning off the telemetry functions. I think the issue has something to do with that as the radio can’t utilize it. Also suggested this to others I’ve seen having this problem but I haven’t seen any follow ups on that.

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Aaron d 22nd July 2020 - 10:23 pm

Are you hearing any issues with gimbals? I’ve only had mine a week or 2 and had my quad drop out of the sky. On Betaflight it’s because my yaw spontaneously lost it’s proper centering. Instead of 1500… it was at 1920 and spinning WILDLY! Setting the mid value with OpenTX doesn’t work since that’s too far of a change (leaves no room for proper yaw).

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Benson 7th July 2020 - 9:43 am

Hey Oscar, I recently bought one of this to fly my iflight cinebee 75hd, and got into somewhat of a pickle. The receiver on the quad is a frsky rxsr and I think it doesn’t play nice with the literadio 2. Barely 50m and transmission will get cut, and I could only watch in horror as the quad fell to the ground.
I have seen similar issues on YouTube as well, do you have any suggestions or recommendations to alleviate this issue? Thanks in advance!

Ps: also had the transmitter stopped working suddenly, unable to turn it on. But when connected to the computer, the pc is able to detect it.

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Oscar 8th July 2020 - 11:10 pm

definitely something wrong with the radio if you are only getting 50m. Maybe try asking BetaFPV customer support and see if it’s a faulty unit?

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iwehnern 4th July 2020 - 4:50 pm

Is here anyone who successfully got it bound the Jumper R1F?

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Raketemensch 3rd July 2020 - 8:17 pm

How do you switch models without a screen? I’d love to pick up one of these for the micros, everything fitting into a single tiny bag would be awesome.

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Marek Niedbala 12th June 2020 - 6:39 pm

Hi! I have problem with bind Literadio2 and D4RII. Solid red and green led on D4RII in bidding mode, when im push bind button on Literadio 2, led on D4RII change to flasling red and solid green. It means
should bind together. But after i turn on literadio2 and power up D4RII red led flashing, no connection to radio.
Literadio2 is in D8, D4RII as PPM.

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KeyserFPV 31st May 2020 - 5:08 pm

Hello, I have the radio, I used them for less than an hour but when playing on a simulator (steam), the yaw stopped suddenly during the games. Now, the Yaw also no longer works on BF 4.2 (and FPV drone). But on Betaflight it is blocked on the 1700/200. If you have an answer.

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Oscar 3rd June 2020 - 1:35 am

sounds like something is blocking the gimbal? try to open it and see, maybe the weight came off and got stuck.

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Bary_fpv 31st May 2020 - 10:05 am

Is there a ppm output inside? If So it could be possible to connect some external module, like you can with flysky i6

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