why do you guys keep doing range mods that dont work?
 

why do you guys think that adding a different color antenna makes your car "custom"



cat-5, copper wire crip caps all of that does nothing or very little to increase your range.

if you want to double or triple your range do these two things:
ad a third battery to the controller. this is the most effective mod but it requires a little soldering and circuit knowledge.

the other and most easiest one to do is ad a bigger antenna to the controller. this also requires soldering but it is a lot easier to do than any of the other mods.


all cat-5 wire does is let you choose your color. it does not increase range unless you want an antenna sticking 3foot out of the car.

removing circuitry from a little circuit board is a dumb idea. how many of you wrecked a board from doing that???


if range is a concern start with the simplest and least intrusive fix first. you can buy telescopic antennas from radioshack for 3-5bucks or take it off of an old cordless phone base.

Re: why do you guys keep doing range mods that dont work?
 

Sorry hog, I'm definetly gonna have to disagree with you on this one. When I recieved my 35mhz Supra, the range was absolutely horrible... something like 3-5 ft. at the most. I opened that controller up and removed that nasty old crip-crap and immediatly upped the range to 15-17 ft.(indoors). I decided not to do the tele-mod on this one cause the range was fine for me.

*These are my personal results. Individual results may vary.
I agree that this is definetly the least intrusive of the mods, though be careful when disassembling the controller... you can easily pull it to far apart therefore breaking solder points (ususally from the battery box to the PCB... there too damn short lol).

hogjowlz,

Can you talk a bit more about the third cell in the controller. I was thinking about trying a 9-volt in the controller for transmitting only, and using a different one to charge the car. I thought about the 9-volt mostly because it would fit in the existing battery box... any thoughts on 9 volts? What am I gonna toast?

When I added the telescopic antenna, I Immediately realized that the transmitter is the ticket to range, so I am interested in more information about boosting transmitter power.

Thanks,

hue35

Personally I don't understand range increasing mods.

Most tracks I run on are no longer than 8-10 feet.
If you have a Bit that can run upto 25 feet away thats great but how in the world can you see it from that distance?

It makes little sense to me to do this type of mod.

You've got a valid point PWalk, but in some cases like my Supra... it's neccesary if you want to have fun!

For me, I think that act of hardware hacking is more interesting and fulfilling than the end result. So in most cases I don't do it because I need to, but because I can. ;)

PWalk,

I see your point, but I get frustrated that at 10 feet, I am at the end of the range and the car starts to become unpredictable and unresponsive. It's not that I want to drive it 25 feet away, I just want 12 feet to be bullet-proof.

- hue35

Kwik,

I agree with ya on the hacking simply because you can aspect.
I fiddle with these things as much as I can trying to improve the performance. I personnally have never run into a range problem forcing me to have to fix it.

Maybe if I had a Bit or a clone with reception problems I would have to rethink my previous post. But when we run the cars here in Philly we have never had a reception problem.

Besides these things were meant to be run in closed quarters, 8-10 feet of reception should be plenty I would think.

Re: Re: why do you guys keep doing range mods that dont work?
 

from what ive read. none of the microsizers or newer bits have a cripple cap in the transmitter. correct me if im wrong on that. a cap that size would be fairly easy to remove. but since most people have newer models that wont do any good.

now the cap in the car is a lot different since it is about 2mm long

Re: Re: Re: why do you guys keep doing range mods that dont work?
 

The Supra was the last New car that I had gotten and it had it, that was a few months back when it was first released, and have yet to get an actual MS... so it could very well be possible that the newer MS don't have them.
Agreed that particular mod is really reserved for 'Soldering Vets', no one should just jump into that one! The consequence's of a an error could be devistating.

You know now that I think about it Hog's right, I haven't seen a cap on the newer ones.

New Microsizers have none. Just got a new chassis yesterday & it went across the house with NO problems (easily 15-20 feet). It also had a pretty short looking antenna on the car

hmm, well my range blew ass... like 5 feet when i first got it... (new gen celica)... no crip cap in the controller, and i wasnt about to mess with the PCB...

i pulled the knot and all that crap out of the antenna and it stood double the height, and that makes it run pretty damn far..20 feet at least... unless the tv's on... ><" lol

i wanna do the telescopic controller antenna mod, but i dont really see it as critical... so it can wait :D

my guess is that yours is a 49mhz

im also gona bet that 85% of you with range issues are probably running a 27 or 35mhz.

Yip 49 MHZ.

what i figured. if you are buying a car with lower frequencies you are gona either have to mod your controller some or deal with running on your desk only.

This might be obvious, but....
 

Okay, most of you are going to know this already, but for those who don't....

If you are running your cars in your house, the kitchen is not the best place to run them. The fridge puts out massive interference, and will really screw with your control.

The same is probably true of your air-conditioner unit.

If you seriously want to test your controller's range, make sure that the car and controller are both well away from potential sources of interference.

Re: This might be obvious, but....
 

dougal, you're right and don't forget about electric heater units too (speaking from experience).

hes got a good point there possibly. tho i work in a huge room with 50+ computers and 19in monitors and have no range issues.

tho my friends shop with tons of electronics stuff everywhere tends to give poorer reception than my house or my work.

Computers put out *some* interference, but it's nothing compared to the EM put out by the motors in a fridge or a/c unit. Motors are noisy!

Removeing the crip caps from my Bit Char-G, increased my range from five feet to 20. Took me literally seconds. Seems like all advantage to me.

Hogjowls, you've said that beside your Microsizer, you just buy clones, maybe if you had a Bit Char-G that only works stutter free a couple feet away from the controller, you would be more gung ho to clip off those capacitors, that have been obviously added after the circuit was built, to get the thing working the way it was designed, and before you crucify me for buying a Bit, and not a Cyclona, I bought the Bit because at the time they were going for less than Microsizers on ebay, and I already had one bad experience with a clone, so I didn't want to buy 20 different clones to find a good brand, so I got a Bit, and the range sucked, but I removed the crip caps, it works great, and I'm happy. Why should that bother you?


**Forgot to mention my Bit is a 35mhz Skyline set, never had a problem with my 27mhz cars. I assume it is a newer one as i bought it in January, and according to the Quest for Madness website, the older ones don't have have the crip caps. The crip cap first showed up on the the controller, then the one to the car was added. My Microsizer Sport did not have one in the controller, but it did have one in the car. just removeing the one from the car does not help much. I don't reccomend removeing that one unless you know what your doing, but for me it was no big deal to remove, far from ruining anything.

I agree with hog, the 3rd cell in the remote does wonders! I took my car to school to day, and my friends and I were playing with it in the cafeteria. My friend ended up driving my duel cell clone all the way across the cafeteria, I almost couldn't lost/find it!!!!

3rd cell is the BEST range mod!!!!!!

Still everyone I have yet to find a track thats longer than 12 feet long.

Until then I'm not modding anything to do with range.

does outside count as a track?

nope

I have a Yellow S2000 char g, it had no cap in the controller, but there was one on the pcb of the car.

But Im not scared of Surface mount, cos I've changed the leds in many mobile phones, and they are small!

I dont know about all the cat 5 lark, but removing the crip cap in the car definitely worked for me!


My new LXX Auto Modellista 45mhz has a minimum of 26 foot, (INDOORS, not tested out yet) which I measured an hour ago, to a little bit further than that.

It all depends on the interference around you, the power of the transmitter, and a little on the juice in the car.

But at 30 foot, u can not easily see it!

when i said minimum, i meant that was the least i got at that test, it would prob b diff if I had 10 washing machines, 20 fridges, and 1 radio station in my house! lol.

I dont worry about range with my new lxx, thats the most important point!

Better range= fast motors dont put it out of that range so quick= speed!

Re: Re: Re: Re: why do you guys keep doing range mods that dont work?
 

err i dont think you gotta be a soldering vet, i did that mod with my friend it was the first time i held a soldering iron before in my life. all you need is to melt the metal attached to the brown chip and have your friend scrape off the chip with a screwdriver then touch it up when you're done. it took maybe 1 minutes, the longest part was waiting for the iron to heat up.

With my 27 MHZ ZipZap in my house (TONS of electronics) it gets kinda crappy range. I can get ok range outside.

Re: why do you guys keep doing range mods that dont work?
 

Good for you Heat! You were fortunate with your attempt... which can't be said for some people who have tried it.

It's a word of caution, meant to be a tip NOT a Deterrent for those who would try it.
Most people don't screw up their car beyond repair by doing a telescopic mod, that's what makes this particular mod more advanced.

I'm glad this topic was started because I've decided to boost the range of my custom multi frequency controller....

I have a couple questions that I hope someone can answer: first off, how much voltage can you put into a controller before frying it?

Say when you're doing a 3rd cell mod(adding a 1.5v to the controller) do you need to use a resistor or just wire it in series with the other 2 cells?

Also, anyone know of a creative way of fitting another battery into a microsizer controller? :( I really don't want to get an add on battery pack if I don't have to. I've looked into a 9v mod, but I can't find the diode that is needed to kick the voltage down (link to site here: http://members.aol.com/rchelicam/microszr/microszr.htm) -see the section on that page called: "Home on the Range".

The mods that "don't work" are passive modifications to help reception.
The length of the antenna directly affects the performace of the receiver, as well as how straight it is, and what it's made of.

Cat antennas arent super-duper better, but they are better, and they do work.

Solid core wire is better electrically than the stranded core wire used in the stock vehicles.
Because the addition of a Cat antenna means you have control over how long it is, my guess is that alot of people make it a little longer than stock, which is better right there. The makers are using as little wire as they can get away with, and the cheapest too.

If you get a color you like out if it, so much the better!

Of course pumping more power into your transmitter is going to increase range. So would modding it's antenna!

It's just a brute-force approach as opposed to the finnese of making your receiver work better by understanding the principles involved.

The ultimate solution would be combining both for super ultra range.

I took the cripple cap out of my car a Cat 5 antenna, and my range is over 50 feet. The mods do work.

i ran into someone who was complaining about their 2-5 foot range with their bit.. the dumb ass didnt know that he could pull the antenna out of the controller. once he did that he got 14 feet wiht no problm. i wonder how many more geniuses like this are out there???

When I got my car, it had a really crap range, I mean the car just wouldn't respond,

Then I put batteries in the controller and now it gets a really good range !!!!

Have u tried this hogs or ne 1?


LOL

so you mean batteries would give it range? i was just picking my cars up and tossing them around the room.

It does!!!!!!

Ive noticed that washing also stops people smelling bad!

Ne1 done ne good mods lately?
Monster truck?
20 cell bit?
Lorry bit?
Custom chassis?

Im feeling like theres nothing left to learn about the bits, N i wanna learn more!!!!

Ive read loadsa posts!

i have a working prototype of a battery circuit that lets you switch between series/parallel with jumpers so you can charge your dual cell car on a normal controller.

im thinking instead of a 20 cell bit, maybe hooking up a few lantern batterys... ya know those big cube like shaped things..

also if you have notthing left to do with the cars, i have found that my dogs like to eat them. you can triain them to do new tricks and give them bits as treats....

you guys can also learn how to drive them

i did a couple of dual cell mods on the two cars i have, one is a zip, the other is a bit, and i found that after the mod, the range was horrible and after a bit of research, i solved the problem by adjusting the tuning coil on the receiver pcb, thus regaining most, if not all of the original range my two cars had before the mods