controller mod & solution for poor range
 

After giving up one of my zip zaps for parts due to about 3 feet of range i decided to tweak on it a little more to try to get the range i wanted. I looked at the pcb closely and noticed that where the antenna wire is soldered on the bottom of the board it connects to a resistor. So instead of soldering it to that spot, I soldered it directly to the top of the board where that resistor is soldered. Now the car has great range, and actually works in my kitchen, where before it didnt even work due to interference of appliances. Me being me Im never satisfied so I bought the new antennas from Radio shack for the controller. You have to shave or clip the very bottom of the antenna so it fits in the controller. Then i shortened the orange wire that goes to the pcb in the controller, and resoldered it to the clip that screws into the back of controller. When I got it all back together I noticed the new antenna shakes due to it being so much longer, so I took one of my slick tires and cut about a 1/4 of it off, and wrapped it around the antenna where the controller comes together so it wouldnt rattle, now its very secure and all my zips have awesome range.The other thing I tried was the resistor mod to try to get the car faster, it actually made my car slower and cut my run time to about a minute. So after alot of work i got all the solder off the resistors and its back to normal.:D Not gonna try any more mods on speed, its fast enough for me. Anyway my wifes complaining about how long Im taking, gotta go, back on later to read posts, thanks again for allthe help Ive gotten from here.

Nice work. With so many people digging out their soldering irons to mod their cars, I'm surprised these don't come as a kit where you have to build your own PCB!

Maybe u could digitally circle the area of which capacitaor yur talking about

You mean those little green caps?

response to "ICHS" question
 

on your photo look at where your antenna is soldered, right under that see the resistor there, thats the one, instead of the original solder point, solder it directly to where the resitor wire comes through on the other side of the board, much better connection, works great.

DOH!! I thought you were talking about the resistor on the controller, I bypassed that and now my recption is much more spotty. Time to do some desoldering. Maybe i'll get a pot tomorrow and play with the value of the resistor going to the antenae.