Spektrum iX12 - Never again Spektrum

I have always flown Spektrum. Like religion, for many of us who started without on our own it wasn't a conscious choice, we were born into it. When I went looking for a real transmitter, Spektrum was just there. With my DX6, DX8, and DX7S, I was fine. Simple, efficient, as were my needs. Always seemd to work great (suspicious brown outs and related crashes not withstanding). When I wanted to upgrade several years later, for no particular reason, I again chose Spektrum, and for it being the top of the line at the time, I went all in for the Spektrum iX12. I mean, come on, it was red and came with a hat! 

I would and to this day never fully trust it. I had wierd issues, even had to send it back to Horiizon/Spektrum (top shelf service). It wouldn't always boot from cold and dark, and the only way to get it to when it glitches like this was to pull the battery. This was so common I installed a switch.  (Curiously after side loading the reinstall of Airware I think that has stopped being a problem).

So yesterday it decided that it would not progress past the Airware splash screen. I tried for hours. I finally got to the frustrated notion the nuclear option was required. I had backed up my aircraft files earlier in the week (or HAD I?), so reinstalling Airware was needed and should be easy to do. This would require a rebinding of my entire fleet of aircraft, helicopters and sailboats, but I had no choice.

I found that the Airware software was not available on Google Play as advertised. I went to Spektrum, "MySpektrum" more precisely and learned they don't support it with updates, and that they know there are issues for some getting it from Google Play. But I could download an APK and sideload it. There was a very exact and easy to follow set of instructions on how to do so. It was nice of them to provide this option. 

To insure a clean install I would uninstall Airware. This is where I learned that I wasn't allowed to uninstall Airware. Both the Force Stop and Uninstall icons were grayed out. I have no idea how, but somewhere along the way I went down a rabbit hole trying to unlock it, and when I did it was surprisingly easy, but I have no idea how I got there. I uninstalled it.

Here's a shocker. Following each step by step instruction provided, which was more complex than it should be, I installed the APK. Scratching my head I felt I must have done something wrong. But no, I had actually caught a break: the instructionss matched exactly what my iX12 showed on its screen, and everything just worked. 

It booted perfectly, and has ever since.

This is where I discovered that when I thought I had backed up my model files last week, I, in fact, had not.. crap. I did something wrong and nothing was saved on my dedicated SDcard. I did not want to go through setting up all my models again especially not the MXBach, which has some complex mix I will never do again to get two servo elevators to work.  What I had done several years ago was to accidentally save my files current at that time somewhere internally, and for some reason, those babies loaded! All my helis, my complex mixes, and all but my most recent additions were there. Curiously, for the second time, the Cubby was not though it is one of my oldest planes.

I still need to rebind everything, and make new models for the sailboats, but my now my suffering was avoided. 

Its probably my imagination, but I think the iX12 is working better. I am still going to replace it with a Frsky x18 with a Lite XJT module, and then all my recievers until I die, once I find some joney my wife doesn't know about. Which pretty much means I will die with the iX12 un my hands.