ANN : Transmitter range mod photos

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    • #8878
      Admin
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      IMPORTANT CREDIT: This fantastic mod would not have been possible without the informative heads-up provided by fellow member, ChrisR (of Italy) in this thread. In many ways, this post and the accompanying photos are merely an adjunct to ChrisR’s original post – with just a few comments of my own added.

      This is largely a photo-based post. You will find all of the accompanying photos in this gallery in Tech’n’Tips –> Bit Char-G

      The stuff not covered in the pix

      1. BE CAREFUL
      You run the very real risk of damaging your transmitter/controller during this mod. Take your time and take care not to pull on any wiring. If you are notcomfortable with a pair of cutters or a soldering iron either give this mod a miss OR find someone to give you a hand.

      2. DON’T OVERTIGHTEN THE SCREWS
      The self-tapping screws were designed to cut into the plastic body and stay there – NOT to be removed time after time. When you put the screws back in, DON’T overtighten them, or you will strip their mounting holes and you’ll be in all sorts of strife!

      3. IT WORKS
      My test/mod unit is a 45MHz standard controller (with new pair of Duracell batteries), controlling a standard WRX with 1.0 motor. Prior to doing the mod, an assistant stood against the wall with the controller. Working in 1 metre (3.3′) intervals, I moved further away from the controller, with the car sitting on a section of test track. Distance was ‘declared’ at the last stutter-free interval. The test was repeated after the mod for comparisson of the results.

      Maximum distance standard controller-2 metres (6 2/3′)
      Maximum distance modded controller-7 metres (23′)

      If anyone else has a go at this mod, PLEASE post your before and after results in this thread.

      Thank you

      Derek

    • #13378
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      funnily enuff my capacitor in my unit (35mhz)was connected to theresistor next to the one in the fotos.. i dunno.. i pulled it out anyways for similar results oh and the cap had a 22 and a black dot on it, not 10 as i noticed in the pics.. bizzaro..

    • #13389
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      Derek,

      Having done the mod as well, my results are about the same as yours…

      Prior to mod, 3~4 metres, post mod, about 7~9 metres…

      I found, though, that when you got further away, it made a difference if the antenna was up in the air (7m),

      or pointing towards the ground (~9m)…

    • #13395
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      Does this work with the Booster Remote? How does the range of Booster compare with the before/after of the regular remote?

    • #13396
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      Graham

      Yet to try the booster remote. Will give it a go this weekend and advise!

      Cheers

      Derek

    • #13400
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      Dude HUGE improvement in both my subaru and the special ed skyline (45 and 57 mgh) before like 1.5 meters now like7.5 meters need the mod for the booster controller please

    • #13410
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      Thanks for the feedback, DimaY (and welcome, BTW!)

      Will crack open a 4Band controller this weekend and see what magical mods can be found. Keep an eye on the forums for updates/pix!

      Cheers

      Derek

    • #13414
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      Just had a look inside my 4 band controller – all the components are surface mount (ie damn small) and nothing sticks out like the photos you took Derek.

    • #13419
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      This is great! Gonna “MOD” my old controller this weekend.

      ??prays to the gods that there is a solution for the MultiBand controller?? Because mine has absolutely horrid range….

      -Floyd

    • #13424
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      Concur with BiKESEAT. Also, may small non-glued/non-screwed parts to lose on the 4-channel. It took me a while to put it back together.

    • #13425
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      BiKESEAT/Ylexot – thanks, guys. I’ll consider myself duly WARNED with regards to rougue bits flying around in the 4Band controller!

      Very handy to know these things before venturing inside the wonders of Chinese manufacturing

      Derek

    • #13435
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      Ok this is sorta a bummer but i have the lancer evolution which is the g-18 set which came out not too long ago and i opened up by remote to take out this dirty capacitor and looked around and guess what i found……NOTHING. I don’t have one at all. Nothing is connected to my R9 or the L3. And also in your pics derek you have a green sticker that has “Pass 28” which im guessing is the test they have to pass before sale production but on mine i have a yellow sticker that has pass 34. Weird? o well what can you do. Just for all the other lancer owners, don’t waste your time on opening it, it’s not there, lol. Later

      Dave

    • #13436
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      Hey Dave!

      As we’re slowing learning, not ALL standard controllers are fitted with the (now infamous) “cripple capacitor”. It seems to be a hit and miss affair.

      NOTE TO AARON: How hard would it be for us to set up a simple point-and-click survey to work out what packages have crippled controllers? Something along these lines with a series of five simple pull-downs would be good:

      <--- Select One

      onwards><--- Select One <--- Select One <-- Select One <--- Select One

      database – maximum 256 characters – eg owner name, if

      mod was performed, final comments etc etc>

      The “Pass xx” sticker just shows the quality control inspector that handled the final testing/inspection. The lowest number I’ve seen so far is 14 and the highest is 78. But I’m sure there could be more. See idea for the survey above – might be some value in tracking any relationship between the capacitor issue, general build quality and the inspector used.

      Cheers

      Derek

    • #13437
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      Possibly easy – ofcourse I’ll pluck the spare time outa me …… 😉 *laughs* I’ll see what I can do!

    • #13443
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      Anyone make any headway checking out mods for the 4 channel controll yet? I know people were talking it is more complicated ( more parts that can fly where ever) while taking it appart.

      b.

    • #13446
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      The 4Band multi-controller is this weekend’s project

      Just gotta work it around a trip up the coast and mother’s day on Sunday. Busy weekend ahead!

      Derek

    • #13450
      mcojoc
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      • Posts: 51

      Anybody else open their receiver to find no cap between L3 and R9? My transmitter shows no connection on the surface mount between them either. My reception is pretty good (about 20 feet I calculate in a straight line when I’m standing up) so I guess maybe they didn’t put one in… Any thoughts from others who found no cap either when they opened their transmitters?

    • #13452
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      Great to hear Derek.. UPS is saying my stuff will be in monday so you still have some time. hehe..

      Else if my range is as bad as people are saying I might be compelled to look in to it my self. Although I’m sure my pics will not be as good as yours are.

      Thanks..

      b.

    • #13484
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      What if I opened up the controller and there is no compacitor, yet my range is still horrible? The car studders constantly and there seems to be tremendous interference? Can anyone help? I 4 cars and the only one that seems to be having problems is the 57mhz?

    • #13496
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      I just received my first car yesterday (blue Impreza WRX 45 mhz set G-16) and after playing with it for about ten minutes I tore the controller apart to perform the removal of the capacitor. Upon opening the case I found no capacitor between the resisitors. I also have the yellow approval sticker on the chip. I measured the range and I can get between 15-17 feet of distance, not as good as some but much better than others. I boughtthe car off ebay from stella models (which I would recommend, 8 days shipping from HK to Idaho) in Hong Kong and the only numbers on the packaging I can discern are the kit (G-16) and the UPC (4904810 684070) so I doubt these will helpfor identification purposes. Maybe they revised the controller recently?

    • #13763
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      Hey MrDigi,

      I have read that on the 57 mhz cars that the frequency used in the car is also the same frequency used in most baby monitors and childrens walkie talkies. If it’s put out by a toy company and it uses rf freqs then chances are it is 57 mhz.

    • #16178
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      do u know of any mods for the microsizers

    • #16277
      BigKid
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      I have 2 Compact Char-G’s.

      A Blue Skyline GTR 40 MHz and a White Skyline GTR 27MHz.

      The blue one is fine but the white 27MHz has terrible range…around 1 metre before it stutters badly before losing it altogether. I pulled the controller apart, but no capacitor in the posistion indicated (nor on the reverse side of the board, also no PASS sticker on the chip at all).

      Any other mods that can increase range.

    • #16292
      PandaBear
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      Quote:
      Originally posted by BigKid on 29October2002

      A Blue Skyline GTR 40 MHz and a White Skyline GTR 27MHz.

      Same with you here, I’ve bought nearly 10 local Oz cars in both freqs and always the range on the 27s is noticeably less – so much so that the 27s had range problems on our track. I have no trouble with the 40 cars.

      There is no visible cripplecap on any Oz TX nor car.

      Last weekend tried to tune the car, but improvement is not significant. We’re talking going from about 4′ to 5′.

      Your best bet is to always keep fresh AAs in the TX. An extension on the TX antenna might make some improvement, but wouldn’t be much.

    • #16341
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      HI! Ive got a G-04 45MHZ skyline and ive just taken cotroller apart and found no cripple cap?but did finda cap with number 8 just behind L3 and and in front of c4 by the tx chip!Is this anything???Cheers

    • #16348
      PandaBear
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      Quote:
      Originally posted by biggboy on 30October2002

      HI! Ive got a G-04 45MHZ skyline and ive just taken cotroller apart and found no cripple cap?but did finda cap with number 8 just behind L3 and and in front of c4 by the tx chip!Is this anything???Cheers

      Hard to say.

      Is it connected anywhere to anything near the antenna track?

    • #16389
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      YES IT IS!Its connected to the L3 resister which is conected to the antena track!

    • #16420
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      Quote:
      Originally posted by PandaBear on 29October2002

      Same with you here, I’ve bought nearly 10 local Oz cars in both freqs and always the range on the 27s is noticeably less – so much so that the 27s had range problems on our track. I have no trouble with the 40 cars.

      I bought a 40MHz Blue Skyline and a 27MHz Silver S2000 last night and agree, the S2000 has far, far less range than the Skyline. Very disappointing. The S2000 stutters at around 2 metres. The Skyline is fine for around 4-5 easily.

    • #16463
      PandaBear
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      • Posts: 1866
      Quote:
      Originally posted by biggboy on 31October2002

      YES IT IS!Its connected to the L3 resister which is conected to the antena track!

      Well.. you can always try to discover what it does do… :smiley15:

      You don’t have *remove* the item, just snip one of the legs and bend the thing a little bit out of the way. If it does nothing, then just bend it back and put a touch of solder to join the leg back up.

      nb:- you’re 100% responsible for your own actions!!

    • #16546
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      Hi,

      Having just bought a bit-char G recently that had poor range, I opened up the transmitter – and the crippled capacitor was not there (just like some of the others).

      However, after some poking around the web, I learnt that the cap was on the car instead!

      I’ve added a page to my site with fairly complete info about cripple capacitors, with lots of photos and links. It has details on how to deal with new batches of cars where the cripple cap is found on the *car* instead of the transmitter:

      http://www.neutrio.com/bitcharg/bitcharg.shtml

      Thanks,
      Chee Keat

    • #17824
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      Ive got a booster automodelissta 27mhz set the other day and well range sucked so after lookin on net i removed crippler capicitor from car and slight improvement.Next day was lookin on web again and it said that there mite b one in my controller.couldnt find it where it saidbut found one with similar number.snipped a leg off and nothin worked.So dont clip off the thing in controller with no.24 on it coz it not work but i fixed it with some solder.

    • #17825
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      Hello all, ibought a silver s2000 57mhz set about a month ago, and i just bought a 4 band remote, and i agree the range is terrible, it stutters after about 2 metres. there doesnt appear to be any cripple capacitor in there, although i removed the one that was on theboard of thecar. If anyone finds a way to improve range on the 4-band, it would be great. Thanks.

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