I usually never change a running system but I wanted to play with some new telemetry sensors and all the new LUA scripting features of the openTX 2.0 on my TBS Disco Pro. This is (not yet) an official FrSky firmware. They are stuck at some older, feature restricted  1.x version and they might never offer some of the newer features, as they consider the Taranis a feature complete product. Well, I don’t.

Luckily, upgrading your Taranis with an openTX firmware is really easy.

As it turned out the update was much simpler than I thought.  The whole process is described in the manual. It starts with the installation of the latest Companion software from the download page (2.0.8 at the time of writing). Additionally you need a driver or flash-utility depending on the OS (Windows, Mac, Linux ) you are using.

1. Plug-in the USB in the back of your Taranis (switched off)
2. Start the Companion software
3. Follow the Companion menus as it detects the Taranis
   1. New firmware available message
   2. File dialogue (download and store the firmware on disk)
   3. Flash the new firmware to the Taranis radio (selection of splash screen)
4. After the upload to the radio finishes, unplug the USB cable and power the Taranis on. The radio will show a Eprom install / conversion message if you are upgrading form a 1.x firmware.
5. Done. Your Taranis is running the new firmware. Moldes and settings are (mostly) preserved. See the incompatibility list and check correct operation before you fly.

Thats it. For me it works flawlessly out of the box with my 1.x model files. But keep in mind, the 2.0.x version is still in development.

“OpenTx 2.0 should NOT be considered the standard, rather something pretty advanced users who know what they’re doing do when they either want to test, want to be on the bleeding edge, or are willing to give up some stability because some latest feature is really worth it to them.”
by Kilrah (Firmware developer) on July 23 2014