I think you may have applied too much heat to the inductor. Did you use heat sink clips before you heated up the solder?............ If not then that's why it goes only ten instead of 20 to 30 feet like it should.

No I didn't use heat sink clips and I've never heard of them before :( Is this what they are? Was I supposed to just clip it on to the L2 inductor so it would "cool off"?

*sigh* Here's a real simple solution. Just wrap some foil around your antenna, the more you wrap around it, the more range you get.

Chuckster...

Yes, those are one in many types of clips. You clip it on the end that you are going to solder ON/Off to reduce heat going to componet.

That's ok but if you are in to looks you might want to use a cellphone antenna.

.....Well, there's always that.

Chuckster...

i tried to switch one of the other ones from the little PCB to the antenna today but the range still sucks. i never used the heatsink clips. could that be a problem?

^ by my new PCB ASSY.

I have 2 new PCB's for sale.

To get back on the subject I bought some more inductors from digikey and found that there is a small, vary vary small difference with changing the 0.42uH inductor to a 0.47uH. If you have a bigger cap on the Main PCB it will cause slight interference to the stearing servo. Not enough to make you mad, only for a micro second. Also the good news, these inductors are higher rated so they will not burn up as easy as the stock ones. :D

How do you use a cell phone antenna?
Also, I drilled the plastic case so I could adjust the can.
20 to 30 FEET?? No wonder people are going to real 'tronics with the carbon fibre chassis.
BAE

The two resistors are #1 222 ohm and a 4.7k ohm. You can use 1/4 resistors with 10% or less tolerance. I have replaced mine and my daughter's car and they run great. The only tricky part is mounting them in because they are a tad bit bigger than the stock ones.

Hope this helps.

Once you change out the resistors, you will need to re dial in the reciever range. Its that white circle thingie with the wax in the top. Remove the wax and have a buddy hold your controller and squeeze the throttle. While walking backwards. Once the motor stops, adjust the set screw until the motor starts again. Have your buddy start walking backwards again and repeat. Once you get the range where you want it, light a birthday candle and fill the slot up with wax again.

has any1 tried to change the attena on the car with some Cat-5 Cable? It helps in the smaller cars like ZZ or big char gs..why not Xmods???!

i know there are some people out there that've used cat5 for antennas and they've said that they gotten a 10ft increase in range or so