4 Band Controller = Crap
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- This topic has 20 replies, 2 voices, and was last updated 22 years, 4 months ago by mcojoc.
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May 17, 2002 at 9:52 pm #8927
Ok i just received my 4 band controller and 57 mhz booster set yesterday and i must say it is overall crap. The turbo button is great for racing and it is respecctively faster than ever but the range is so unbearable that it’s not even worth it. I started to read more forums about this car and most people do have problems with the 4 band controller wit hshort range so i would advise anyone out there that plans to get it, DONT. It’s a waste of money, get a good bit with a 2.2 for racing, don’t worry about some turbo button. Just a peice of mind and word to the wise. Dave
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May 17, 2002 at 11:44 pm #13629
… While playing with my 4 band controller, I accidently rubbed the antenna up against my daughter’s metal music stand. I suddenly had all kinds of reception… more than my standard controllers!
Now I’ve heard others on the site say that a solid antenna has not improved reception, and I can’t very well carry around a music stand as an antenna, but what about something like those stick on antenna’s you see for cell phones. Small enough to be installed inside the controller, but will it help reception…
Any science types around have any suggestions?
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May 18, 2002 at 12:31 am #13633
Antennas area pretty tricky thing. Theoretically they are supposed to be of a certian length based on frequency. Generally, the lower the frequency the longer the antenna. However, I don’t think that’s the case with these cars. I think they are such low power that they just rely on a wire to get the signal as high as possible and that’s it. I took the antenna off my regular r/c car (about 1 meter long) and touched it to my antenna and held it up high and got an extra 2 meters out of it.
I unsolderd the antenna from the pc board n the car and soldered on a piece of industiral grade CAT-5 wire. This wire is solid copper (phone wire would work too but it must be solid copper) That almost doubled my range! It used to be 5 to 6 meteres but now it’s 9 meters. I also left the wire a little longer then stock. I’d be willing to be if you left the wire twice as long you’d get a little better range. Also, have you noticed if you hold the antenna straight up with your had you get a little extra something.
I don’t know what phone antennas you’re talking about but if it’s the corkscrew looking ones that might be a good idea. Those are designed to throw the waves up high. You might find that pointing that at the car instead of straight up will help but then again, it’s probably not as long as the original antenna either wich might hurt.
Antennas, at this low of a wattage are kind of a trial and error type thing. You can’t go wrong trying everything you can. You can’t hurt the transmitter by trying all kinds of antennas.
Good luck. Keep us posted on what you find.
-Peter
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May 18, 2002 at 3:36 am #13647
the 4 band controllers are getting a bad rep, but you have to try waiting it out a few charges.
– mine works fine and always worked good. maybe a few feet less reception.
– a guy that races with us got his and it only had 2 feet of reception and sometimes it would’nt even catch at all, BUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! he kept trying it for a few charges and it works way better. not quite as strong as the regular controller, but just enough to reach the end of our big tracks. you gotta remember that the cars have nicad batts that suck and have memory problems. if the car had an on/off switch (hmmm, new idea), the battery would last longer and probably be more consistent. ever notice how the car gets faster as the night/day goes on with every charge? imagine if you had a 1/10 scale rc car and never disconnected the battery and never turned the speedcontrol switch off, it would drain the batt to a bad level. this is probably what is happening to the BCG and is causing weird problems.
just my.05 cents. (i don’t like pennies USD)
ps. anyone know people on the Goldsfields Giants B-Ball team?
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May 18, 2002 at 4:17 am #13649
I totally agree. My Digi-Q has an on/off switch and I don’t see a difference between first time play and warmed up play because I turn it off after use keeping the battery conditioned. I switch is a good idea. I’ll see what I can come up with.
I read somewhere that someome thought a solar cell out of a calculator might make the car last longer. Well, maybe not but I’m sure it would keep the battery from going dangerously dead! I think I’ll check what voltage those things put out.
sounds like I have a lot of playing to do this weekend.
-Peter
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May 18, 2002 at 10:20 pm #13668
See the other thread on the 4 band controller concerning an Antenna swap with an older controller…. Another possibility…
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May 20, 2002 at 10:10 am #13699
Im most likely going to try to open the controller and see what i can do with replacing the old antenna into the new controller. I don’t think it will be hard at all and im almost positive it will help because the bit antenna is almost twice as long and i dont mind that. Dave
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May 20, 2002 at 2:51 pm #13701
okay, i dod the antenna swap. pics and a lame 1 minute summary and pics are up. basically the old antenna is a good deal longer than the multi controllers one. the swap is easy. yank out old dial putit in new controller and use the new antenna tip as it can be split apart and glues together. b
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May 20, 2002 at 10:40 pm #13749
how’d it work. Better? was it worth the time to swap the antenna?
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May 20, 2002 at 10:49 pm #13750
hey mcojoc. never got to test its range yet.i have high hope for the range being way better, but the question is if the antenna or the electronicsin the multi controller were the culprit for the poor range. although my multi was working fine, just a little shorter than the normal controller, i want it to be better of course. peace b
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May 21, 2002 at 1:59 am #13768
b_drift: My 4 band is short range wise… My post above (see the 2nd one from the top) gave me hope that it was antenna, not electronics. Your findings would be appreciated if you have the time. Thanks for posting the mod page. I’m sure we all appreciate the effort. Don’t discount it!
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May 21, 2002 at 2:32 am #13771
hey mcojoc. by electronics being the problem, i was referring to the times when the car doesn’t work well from even 1 foot away. this has happened to my friends multi controllers. anyways, the longer antenna cannot hurt. i’ll post my findings tonight. b
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May 21, 2002 at 2:55 am #13772
With my 4-band I’m getting about 6 foot with a standard booster car. I’m not sure if that is good or bad, but its adequate for the sort of racing I do (we only have enough track for a 12ft circuit).
By unravelling the car antenna from around the circuit board, and removing the knot, I added about an inch and a half to the length (oh! err missus!). This car has a range of about 10 foot before it starts to stutter. I may try tuning the pot on the car as well
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May 21, 2002 at 10:47 pm #13810
hey mcojoc. the antenna switch mod made a noticeable difference in that i have no dead spots at all on the track we race at. it also seemed to give me about 3 feet more of range, so we could make a bigger track and i could still reach. b
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May 21, 2002 at 11:18 pm #13819
EXCELLENT EXCELLENT EXCELLENT. Thanks SO MUCH B_drift
I just put $150.00 out for booster cars and controllers and you just made me feel I didn’t waste that money….I’ll mod the controller and post my results as well. Thanks again man.
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May 21, 2002 at 11:58 pm #13821
You buy all 4 frequency range sets?
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May 22, 2002 at 12:34 am #13827
Well i dont really have a extra controller to swap the antenna but yesterday i did a range check and got 26.5 feet with the standard controller (35 mhz) and then i got 5.8 feet with the 4 band controller. I only use the turbo skyline for racing on my track but otherwise i put my 3.0 in my lancer and im as happy as a pig in mud. Keep posting those great mods though. Dave
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May 22, 2002 at 1:16 am #13834
I wonder if we can find a suitable replacement material (piano wire perhaps?) for the antennas so we don’t have to decrease the range of one controller to increase the range of another.
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May 22, 2002 at 1:28 am #13835
i am sure it would be easy to do. so would a hard antenna mod. all the antenna has to do is touch the split metal peice before it exits the controller. also if you did want to use piano wire, you could by prying the dial apart and changing the wire. hmm. makes more sense than wrecking a controller. maybe next time. b
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May 22, 2002 at 3:50 am #13853
Guitar strings also come in many diffrent gauges and could be easily manipulated w/ wire cutters… I wonder if a thicker/thinner wire would make a diffrence.. or the material itsmade out of.. Ie, steel, copper, etc. ??
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May 22, 2002 at 7:24 pm #13905
I have a spare OEM controller antenna… I am going to try that…
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