BCG massive power range boost!!!

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    • #10867
      micro_Amps
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      • Posts: 1290

      I have found a mod that will boost the rage of the BCG controller to about 200 feet.:shock: Its kinda technical and is not done for the 4B controller. I am going to get into my 4B to boost the output, when I do I will post the results and try to simplify the mod so that anybody can do it.

      Have a read of this, its kinda heavy but contains all the info a techie needs to turn his/her BCG controller into a mega transmitter

      http://members.aol.com/rchelicam/microszr/microszr.htm

      Any of you techies out there have a good look at this.
      I reckon we could make a standard mega range mod out of this. This would solve ALL the cripple cap and range problems we have.
      It does not deal with charging voltage so this would have to be dealt with seperately
      Tell me what you think, we will work together to build a worthwhile mod

      micro_Amps 🙂

    • #41619
      Shypo
      Participant
      • Posts: 2339

      that could make using the japanese frequencys absoultey illegal, as it is now we shouldnt have them but if we boost the range then we are streaming towards the $10,000 fine

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    • #41607
      Barrelll
      Participant
      • Posts: 675

      thats only if the authorities find out 😉

      27MHZ 3.5 Honda Accord (Custom Exhaust and F1 Wing)
      35MHZ 1.0 Battery Modded Castrol Supra
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      Mini Z Blue WRX (Lights, Gold alloys, Exhaust)
      Mini Z Castrol Supra + all mods (Coming)

    • #41604
      Shypo
      Participant
      • Posts: 2339

      with range of 200FT i think its kinda hard not to realise when there equipment is jumping and making strange noises

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    • #41595
      the_bit
      Participant
      • Posts: 108

      Is it illegal?? can some one point this out to me plz.

      👿 LUKE 👿

    • #41591
      Shypo
      Participant
      • Posts: 2339

      some japanese frequencys are illegal in Australia as they Jam some ambulace frequencys. no australian freqnceucys are illegal cos they have been approved. check out the old forum under the BCG FAQ

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    • #41584
      DaveF
      Participant
      • Posts: 1038

      http://www.aca.gov.au are the authorities on frequencies in Australia. 27 and 40 are the only legal RC (for any hobby I think) frequencies. Not overly sure. You wanna know, you do the reading.

      ????????????????????????
      DaveF! 👿
      My track – http://community.webshots.com/album/58669595eliwuK

    • #41583
      Shypo
      Participant
      • Posts: 2339

      does anyone else find it starnge that a Mini Z can run like 12 cars on one freqency. all z’s i beleive are on 27.something where BCG has problems with anything with 45 and 49 mhz… very odd

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    • #41568
      micro_Amps
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      • Posts: 1290

      No its not. It depends how accurate the receiver is. The BCGs have a rudimentary AM receiver, that will be disturbed by just about anything. The Zs must be a higher quality receiver to have 12 different models close to each other on 27MHz.
      Keep in mind that radio stations can be as close to each other as 9KHz (thats 0.009 MHz)and they dont interfere with each other. The BCGs receiver is just not a highly precise device but it is sufficient for the job. The Tx is also VERY weak by transmission standards, and whilst I think that 200 feet of range may be overkill, I can see a 6v~60 feet mod (that is easy to do) becoming commonplace to overcome the various range problems that we all know about. 60 feet will put the BCG just about out of site. If legalities are a concern then concentrate on your 27 MHz models and even use the same mod on a 40 MHz Compact

      Still, it should be developed to overcome a design shortfall – crappy and sometimes unpredictable range
      uA

    • #43898
      Shypo
      Participant
      • Posts: 2339

      its a very good idea, and if you can pull it off on a compact then i will def ask for some pointers on it

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    • #41555
      Crom
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      • Posts: 143

      I’ve gone thru the site and it looks like this could potentially be very easy to do. Under the section Home on the Range, the guy list three things to do to boost the range.

      1) Increase the lenght of the car’s antenna.
      2) Do the “Pots” mod on the car.
      3) Boost the power of the transmitter.

      The first two are relatively “commonplace” mods. While the last one is potentially the most exciting one. I agree with uA that 200 feet is overkill.

      But I would like to point out that to keep the asthetics of the transmitter, a 9V batter would be easiest thing to use. I can’t really figure out how you are going to cram 4AA or even 4AAA batteries into the transmitter casing without some serious cutting and taping.

      Can anyone figure out where the RF Tx Amp is located? We could simply use a voltage regulator on it to lower the power going into it, and thus shorten the range a bit.

      On a side note, you’d want to lower the transmitter power because the Rx on the car (like uA said) isn’t very accurate. There have been cases where a non crip cap 40Mhz Tx has been able to control a 35Mhz and 45 Mhz car, simply because it was more powerful than the “correct” Tx.


      The impossible just takes a little longer

    • #41547
      micro_Amps
      Participant
      • Posts: 1290
      Quote:
      Can anyone figure out where the RF Tx Amp is located? We could simply use a voltage regulator on it to lower the power going into it, and thus shorten the range a bit.

      The RF Tx amp is Q2, and you dont want to drop the power output, you want to increase it from its original, but not by too much. What I’m working on is approx. doubling the range of a standard Tx. That should do us. The power supply is a bit of a sticky one at the moment. A 9v battery would need its voltage cut down to the chip with a zener diode, the charger would need the 9v battery voltage cut down with a zener too, and zeners bleed current. So much so that a Tx modded to run on a 9v battery may only run for a few hours.A 7805 voltage regulator (or 2) would be better, having lower idle currents, but then it starts to become too technical for your average joe to do the mod. The finished modded controller will probably have a small battery pack stuck to the underneith of it (maybe 4 X AAA or AA…so 6V) for transmission power only. The two existing AAs will still run the chip and the charger. This would make the result a mod that is easy enough for people to do. It will probably consist of opening the Tx, cutting a track, soldering the external battery pack wire in place, and closing up the Tx again. I hope so anyway. I am working on both standard and 4B controllers at the moment. 4B is more complicated as it has 4 final RF circuits. Lets see how I go.
      uA:)

    • #41542
      PandaBear
      Participant
      • Posts: 1866

      7805 v-regs are easy to get, but they need to be fed at least 6V if you want stable 5V out. Possibly 6 cells is a minimum if you want to use rechargeables.

    • #41525
      micro_Amps
      Participant
      • Posts: 1290

      Yeh very true, but if I keep the existing 2 AAs to run the chip and charger, then I wouldnt need the 7805s at all. The RF amp part of the circuit will be powered seperately by the external batteries at a slightly higher voltage eg 6V. Its simpler this way. I know that you then have two sources of power but it will keep the mod nice and easy.
      I am still weighing up the pros and cons of doing the mod with a NiMH 9V (or 8.4V) battery, and then just recharging it from time to time. The battery would then fit into the standard (but not 4B) controller with a little dremmelling and the charging voltage could be manipulated to handle multi cell bits as well. I havent fully explored this yet tho. The charging cct may need modifying as well to cope with the higher voltage. I think it may effect the ‘timing’ (R & C delay) of the charging circuit.

    • #41494
      Crom
      Participant
      • Posts: 143
      Quote:
      Quote:
      Can anyone figure out where the RF Tx Amp is located? We could simply use a voltage regulator on it to lower the power going into it, and thus shorten the range a bit.


      The RF Tx amp is Q2, and you dont want to drop the power output, you want to increase it from its original, but not by too much.

      :smiley16: I actually meant putting a voltage regulator on a 9V battery so that you get the 6 volts or so going to the RF Tx amp.

      Hmm… I bow to your greater expertise once again uA & PandaBear. However, for the record, I don’t really want to have a battery pack stuck onto my controller. I like the look and the compactness of the controller atm. So I vote for using a NiMH 8.4V rechargable battery.

      But however you manage to get this done uA, it’d be an awesome mod! 😀


      The impossible just takes a little longer
    • #41493
      micro_Amps
      Participant
      • Posts: 1290

      I’m still working on it at the moment, but I’ve struck a few problems….
      One of which is the inconsistancy in production of the Rxs. I have 2 27MHz cars. One has the Rx cripple cap removed and aerial changed, its range outside with a standard controller is 33 meters!!!:shock::shock::shock:I know, blew me away too. The other car, for some reason, did not have a cripple cap on the Rx or the Tx and has a range of about 2 meters and its brand new :sad::sad: That sux. Tuning the variable inductance ‘pot’ made no difference either. :angry: Go figure :question: Just a dud I suppose.
      Any how I am still going on the Tx power increase, watch this space. I am planning a web site to document this and some other mods I have in mind, just a soon as I get the time

      :)uA

    • #41491
      Crom
      Participant
      • Posts: 143

      🙂 I have some spare time here in my pocket. uA, you can have it if you need it. 🙂

      :question::question::question: Pats down pockets :question::question::question:

      Oops, no, it’s gone.

      Maybe I’ve left it next to the pile of money that I’m raising to buy a Tank off bithed :p


      The impossible just takes a little longer

    • #41492
      micro_Amps
      Participant
      • Posts: 1290

      Thanks crom, its the thought that counts.
      I hope I can find some of both, tho I dont know where just yet…

    • #41448
      ph2t
      Participant
      • Posts: 2088

      Hey uA, great idea. You obviously saw my post at tinyrc about the same theory. I am working on a proportional controller for my Bit and I’m going to have to gut the original controller anyway. So I think that I will go with the 6V scenario using a 4*AA battery pack in a totally new box. I was thinking of using a 3.3V Zener (IN746A) for my design anyway see Proportional Controller .
      If you add a power switch to your controller you may save some battery life.
      Cheers,

      ph2t.

    • #41440
      PandaBear
      Participant
      • Posts: 1866
      Quote:
      …The other car, for some reason, did not have a cripple cap on the Rx or the Tx and has a range of about 2 meters and its brand new :sad::sad: That sux. Tuning the variable inductance ‘pot’ made no difference either. :angry: Go figure :question: Just a dud I suppose.:)uA

      I’ve been mucking around with some Compact 27s (white GTR) and that’s not doing well either. Nowhere near as good as a untouched blue 40.

    • #41438
      PandaBear
      Participant
      • Posts: 1866
      Quote:
      …I can’t really figure out how you are going to cram 4AA or even 4AAA batteries into the transmitter casing without some serious cutting and taping.

      Just like how Tomy uses 1/4 AAA batteries in the car, fractional (my term) batteries are a common industrial size. You can get 1/2 AAs, 1/3 AAs and even 5/4 AAs.

      Two 1/2 AAs should theoretically fit in the space of 1 AA, so you could have 4 nicads in space of 2 AAs. (No box cutting too!)

    • #41436
      Crom
      Participant
      • Posts: 143

      Heh,

      Then in addition to making my standalone charger be able to charge my bcg, Its gotta charge my controller too? Yea, that shouldn’t be too much trouble…

      Main problem then would be tracking down the batts themselves…


      The impossible just takes a little longer

    • #41411
      micro_Amps
      Participant
      • Posts: 1290

      Interesting thread on the prop controller development.
      It will be good to see how it turns out.
      In the series of chips that run in the Rx & Tx (the Txc2 & Rxc2) there are also 4,5,6,&7 series sets. The Txc6 is used in the 4B controller. But the Txc7 and Rxc7 are full proportional control. I havent been able to find much out about these but this could be interesting too. I wouldnt be surprised if they turn up in the next generation of BCGs.

      Good ideas on the batteries too guys I’ll keep them in mind. Im still going on extending the range of a standard controller. Its not as straight forward as first thought
      :)uA

    • #41408
      Shypo
      Participant
      • Posts: 2339

      Micro_amps:
      just wondering if you would be interested in undertaking a project idea i have.
      a Ps1 controller for a BCG. i know it would be heaps more comfortable and alot easier to use. it would take alot of rewiring and such but if you got it working then it would be truly awesome

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    • #41405
      micro_Amps
      Participant
      • Posts: 1290

      I dont think that would be all that difficult. Theres no real mods required, just replacing the internals into the PS1 controller and adapting the buttons to suit. Maybe installing a telescopic aerial at the same time.
      Do you mean a standard controller, or a 4B??
      A 4B would be more of a challenge with the extra switches and all, probably best to start with a standard controller to begin with. If you want to supply all the parts for a prototype, I’ll put the time in to build it, then return the finished product to you. That way we could all see whether its worth it. What do you reckon??

    • #41404
      GT-ahh
      Participant
      • Posts: 774

      you need a big arse 3rd party controller(like a madcatz one) for the internals to fit..otherwise theres not enough room without making a new pcb..alternatively you could just wire in an extension-cord/socket to your bcg controller…

      http://gtahh.web1000.com/
      custom shells, mods and tips

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