The Novak GT7.........what is......
01-06-2003, 10:30 PM
#46
Tech Addict
I would get the GM xc
I have had 5 GM speedos in the past and I have never had one go bad. Very, very smooth and punchy. You will like the turbo function. Its very small, and it keeps cool even without the cap. With it, it won't get even warm. My 2-cents.
01-07-2003, 01:15 AM
#47
Hi guys. Greetings from Malta.
Darkseid, nice to read you again, even if things haven't changed and we still seem to disagree. Viv la difference as they say.
What impresses me most is the fact that there are actually so many people having problems with their electronics.
We run two of the fastest and most successful cars in our neck of the woods, yet .......touch wood.......we never seem to experience any such problems. I think that in the last 6 years since we have been using Novaks we had one Cyclone play up a bit at the Worlds in 98 and Tyree gave us a replacement straight away.
Yet there are guys at our track that are constantly smoking speedos, receivers, servos........even transmitters. Don't ask me how they do it.
So half the time when I read about guys who will not touch this and that because it failed, I think to myself......I wonder what he did to make it fail.
We had the classic example last Sunday. A guy, having rolled about 6 times in as many laps, suddenly started shouting from the rostrum that someone had switched a transmitter on and was interfering with him. When his car came round the area where I was marshalling I noticed that in one of his rolls he had pulled the aerial out of the receiver. Not surprising he had glitching problems.
My expensive Pro Trak charger packed up and I had to send it back to the makers for repairs. Now that's the sort of standard statement you get. But let me tell you why it packed up. It packed up because I was trying to discharge a 10 cell pack which I had built up for my dragster, when the Pro Trak is not designed to discharge 10 cells. But how many guys sending something off for repair would admit that.
The problem is that most people will say that they are disappointed with this that and the other because they pack up. What they won't tell you is what they did to make it pack up.
As I said, when I look at the installations of some guys electrics in their RC cars I wonder anything works at all. And these are always the bodgers who are constantly having electrical problems. We have a few of them at our track. always the same people.
So let's not go blaming Novak, or LRP, or whoever. Half the time we create the problems ourselves. Don't you think?
Regards
Joe from sunny Malta.
Darkseid, nice to read you again, even if things haven't changed and we still seem to disagree. Viv la difference as they say.
What impresses me most is the fact that there are actually so many people having problems with their electronics.
We run two of the fastest and most successful cars in our neck of the woods, yet .......touch wood.......we never seem to experience any such problems. I think that in the last 6 years since we have been using Novaks we had one Cyclone play up a bit at the Worlds in 98 and Tyree gave us a replacement straight away.
Yet there are guys at our track that are constantly smoking speedos, receivers, servos........even transmitters. Don't ask me how they do it.
So half the time when I read about guys who will not touch this and that because it failed, I think to myself......I wonder what he did to make it fail.
We had the classic example last Sunday. A guy, having rolled about 6 times in as many laps, suddenly started shouting from the rostrum that someone had switched a transmitter on and was interfering with him. When his car came round the area where I was marshalling I noticed that in one of his rolls he had pulled the aerial out of the receiver. Not surprising he had glitching problems.
My expensive Pro Trak charger packed up and I had to send it back to the makers for repairs. Now that's the sort of standard statement you get. But let me tell you why it packed up. It packed up because I was trying to discharge a 10 cell pack which I had built up for my dragster, when the Pro Trak is not designed to discharge 10 cells. But how many guys sending something off for repair would admit that.
The problem is that most people will say that they are disappointed with this that and the other because they pack up. What they won't tell you is what they did to make it pack up.
As I said, when I look at the installations of some guys electrics in their RC cars I wonder anything works at all. And these are always the bodgers who are constantly having electrical problems. We have a few of them at our track. always the same people.
So let's not go blaming Novak, or LRP, or whoever. Half the time we create the problems ourselves. Don't you think?
Regards
Joe from sunny Malta.
01-07-2003, 04:35 AM
#48
john- no matter what someone states you seem to always disagree and look for ways to put the blame on them. We have FACTORY DRIVERS at our track that have had problems with LRP and Novak so maybe they screwed up too. Bottom line is some things work and some things don't. If something has a defect and needs to be sent in I guess it's a good thing that you aren't working in the repair service department! I'm done with this topic as I will always be wrong in your eyes.
01-07-2003, 04:46 AM
#49
Originally posted by AGR#7
Indeed! So, what did Novak do to fix the glitching with your GT7. You did mention this to them?
I know I don't have $150 just lying around, to pitch in the pit box. If I spend that kind of money, after 2 runs, or not, that thing better damn well work!!
Indeed! So, what did Novak do to fix the glitching with your GT7. You did mention this to them?
I know I don't have $150 just lying around, to pitch in the pit box. If I spend that kind of money, after 2 runs, or not, that thing better damn well work!!
01-07-2003, 04:59 AM
#50
Tech Master
iTrader: (35)
Darkseid: Oops!!! My mistake, I had a G-10 also. I sold it to a friend when I thought that I was done. He's still using it.
That was when I had my MR-4TC. Now I've got a Tamiya 414MII and chassis real estate is extremely limited. I need something small.
So, what do I want... I want to know that if I spend $200, my ESC is not going to blow-up on its own.
johnbull: I've seen those guys at the track. They always seem to have "bad luck", "caused by others". I've seen some soldering jobs that look like they were done by a 3 year old child. But, thankfully those guys are a small percentage of the racers.
Fortunately, I race stock so I think that my chances of frying an ESC is somewhat lessened.
I'm still not sure which ESC I'll buy. At least I have until spring to decide.
That was when I had my MR-4TC. Now I've got a Tamiya 414MII and chassis real estate is extremely limited. I need something small.
So, what do I want... I want to know that if I spend $200, my ESC is not going to blow-up on its own.
johnbull: I've seen those guys at the track. They always seem to have "bad luck", "caused by others". I've seen some soldering jobs that look like they were done by a 3 year old child. But, thankfully those guys are a small percentage of the racers.
Fortunately, I race stock so I think that my chances of frying an ESC is somewhat lessened.
I'm still not sure which ESC I'll buy. At least I have until spring to decide.
01-07-2003, 07:38 AM
#51
Johnbull: yes, yes, yes... here we are again...disagreeing. 
I look at it like this, there wouldn't be a term such as "defect" if every electrical equipment failure was the fault of the enduser.
I bought a Futaba 3PDF about 3 years ago I believe. I took it out the package, got it powered up and found that the display would only display gobledeguck(?) The characters made no sense what so ever. It even went so far as to start displaying Japanese characters every now and then. I called Futaba immediately and ended up sending the radio back to them and getting a entirly new radio from them. Great customer service, yes!, but that doesn't change the fact that there was a problem in the first place.
Now, heres a challenge for you. Tell me exactly where I the enduser, did anything to cause what happened with that piece of equipment?
I have a Hitec Lynx 3D radio with a case thats cracking. I have never dropped my radio and I drive with only two fingers on the wheel, so I'm not stressing the steering stops. Others have had the same problem. Hitec admits there was a problem with the plastic and they offer to replace it free. Great customer service, yes!, but again, that doesn't change the fact that there was a problem in the first place.
So, again, what did the endusers in these cases do to cause this problem when the company admits it was a manufacturering problem and offers to correct it for free?
Hell, we all hear all the time about "recalls" for toys, cars, safety seats, even food...yada...yada....yada. Those "recalls" are the companys way of saying, "hey, we made such a huge mistake that we need you to bring this back before you use the product any more" Now, is that the fault of the enduser? Nope, because believe it or not, companies do make mistakes. Like I said, sh*t happens sometimes. Thats why the companys came up with words like "defect".
I look at it like this, there wouldn't be a term such as "defect" if every electrical equipment failure was the fault of the enduser.
I bought a Futaba 3PDF about 3 years ago I believe. I took it out the package, got it powered up and found that the display would only display gobledeguck(?) The characters made no sense what so ever. It even went so far as to start displaying Japanese characters every now and then. I called Futaba immediately and ended up sending the radio back to them and getting a entirly new radio from them. Great customer service, yes!, but that doesn't change the fact that there was a problem in the first place.
Now, heres a challenge for you. Tell me exactly where I the enduser, did anything to cause what happened with that piece of equipment?
I have a Hitec Lynx 3D radio with a case thats cracking. I have never dropped my radio and I drive with only two fingers on the wheel, so I'm not stressing the steering stops. Others have had the same problem. Hitec admits there was a problem with the plastic and they offer to replace it free. Great customer service, yes!, but again, that doesn't change the fact that there was a problem in the first place.
So, again, what did the endusers in these cases do to cause this problem when the company admits it was a manufacturering problem and offers to correct it for free?
Hell, we all hear all the time about "recalls" for toys, cars, safety seats, even food...yada...yada....yada. Those "recalls" are the companys way of saying, "hey, we made such a huge mistake that we need you to bring this back before you use the product any more" Now, is that the fault of the enduser? Nope, because believe it or not, companies do make mistakes. Like I said, sh*t happens sometimes. Thats why the companys came up with words like "defect".
01-07-2003, 07:42 AM
#52
Geppetto: yeah I love my G10. Its programmable and doesn't require a external power cap or a schottky diode on the motor. Problem is, mine is just old! One of the solder post is a little wobbly, so its probably time to retire it to one of my "just have fun" cars, like my F201. Besides that, as you noted, it is kinda big. The biggest thing is how heavy it is. Without wires, the G10 outweighs my GM V12 and XXL, PUT TOGETHER!
01-07-2003, 01:16 PM
#53
i own a novak GT7 and very happy with it. the pre-programmed setups were great. it never shuts down, no glitching whatsoever. ESC has little tendency to glitch, check ur TX and RX first b4 blaming it on the GT7
01-07-2003, 02:50 PM
#54
Tech Addict
GT7 is the best speedo I've owned and my next best is the atom.
Generally I would never blame a speedo for interference.
One thing I would like to ask though is, are the capacitors that come with most of the motors good enough or do you have to put the novak ones or equivilant on. I'm sure this could make a difference.
cya
Generally I would never blame a speedo for interference.
One thing I would like to ask though is, are the capacitors that come with most of the motors good enough or do you have to put the novak ones or equivilant on. I'm sure this could make a difference.
cya
01-07-2003, 04:54 PM
#55
Tech Addict
I also notice many people have trouble...
use a soldering iron. With theses speedos you have to do it as quickly as possible and cool it down as quickly as possible. 
01-08-2003, 12:44 AM
#56
Hi guys. Greetings from Malta.
STLNST. Darkseid. Sorry if you got me wrong. I'm not generalising, but I am sure you will agree that most times it's things like bad solder joints, shoddy wiring, etc that are to blame. What I was trying to say is that people have a tendancy to blame the manufacturer for everything. Indeed sometimes the manufacturers do boob. I have a real car like that at the moment!
I have just had a mail from my friend Tyree Phillips, Novak's product manager, who explains exactly why the GT7 occasionally shuts off. As you see the problem is a deficiency somewhere in the other electrical equipment which an over efficient Novak GT7 is sensing. Not much wrong with that is there.
Here is an exact reproduction of Tyree's mail. (Copy & paste actually).
Hello Joe,
Happy New Year. Charlie is on vacation so your mail has been forwarded to me.
It is good to see you have had success running the GT7 ESC.
12 gauge wire will buy you nothing except more weight. We have found that it is easier for the end user to solder 14 gauge wire and there is no performance disadvantage.
The automatic shut down problem that you are worried with has to do with the speed controls anti glitch circuitry. With some combinations of radio systems, cars and motors, enough noise is generated in the receiver that causes the speed control to ignore that particular frame. If there are enough contiguous frames the speed control deems unsatisfactory, the software shuts the speed control down, in lieu of having the vehicle take off at full throttle.
This is a problem that either you have or you don't. We have changed the software in the GT7 to make it less sensitive so the speed control will only shut down in extreme circumstances. Remember, this is a safety feature that worked too well. There is no reason worry if you are not having this problem. Your GT7 will continue to function properly.
I hope this puts you at ease. Good to hear from you again!-
Tyree Phillips
Project Manager
So there we have it. Hopefully this will put other people's minds at rest too.
So for those people that have a perfectly good speedo that is doing it's job over well, may I suggest they check the rest of their equipment, rather than dish out on another speedo when what they have is perfectly OK.
See what I mean about people blaming their equipment when there is nothing wrong with it.
I'm very glad I didn't heed all the tales of wow in this thread and replace my GT7s.
Regards
Joe from sunny Malta.
STLNST. Darkseid. Sorry if you got me wrong. I'm not generalising, but I am sure you will agree that most times it's things like bad solder joints, shoddy wiring, etc that are to blame. What I was trying to say is that people have a tendancy to blame the manufacturer for everything. Indeed sometimes the manufacturers do boob. I have a real car like that at the moment!
I have just had a mail from my friend Tyree Phillips, Novak's product manager, who explains exactly why the GT7 occasionally shuts off. As you see the problem is a deficiency somewhere in the other electrical equipment which an over efficient Novak GT7 is sensing. Not much wrong with that is there.
Here is an exact reproduction of Tyree's mail. (Copy & paste actually).
Hello Joe,
Happy New Year. Charlie is on vacation so your mail has been forwarded to me.
It is good to see you have had success running the GT7 ESC.
12 gauge wire will buy you nothing except more weight. We have found that it is easier for the end user to solder 14 gauge wire and there is no performance disadvantage.
The automatic shut down problem that you are worried with has to do with the speed controls anti glitch circuitry. With some combinations of radio systems, cars and motors, enough noise is generated in the receiver that causes the speed control to ignore that particular frame. If there are enough contiguous frames the speed control deems unsatisfactory, the software shuts the speed control down, in lieu of having the vehicle take off at full throttle.
This is a problem that either you have or you don't. We have changed the software in the GT7 to make it less sensitive so the speed control will only shut down in extreme circumstances. Remember, this is a safety feature that worked too well. There is no reason worry if you are not having this problem. Your GT7 will continue to function properly.
I hope this puts you at ease. Good to hear from you again!-
Tyree Phillips
Project Manager
So there we have it. Hopefully this will put other people's minds at rest too.
So for those people that have a perfectly good speedo that is doing it's job over well, may I suggest they check the rest of their equipment, rather than dish out on another speedo when what they have is perfectly OK.
See what I mean about people blaming their equipment when there is nothing wrong with it.
I'm very glad I didn't heed all the tales of wow in this thread and replace my GT7s.
Regards
Joe from sunny Malta.
01-08-2003, 03:55 AM
#57
John,
what do we have?
No matter how you or Tyree turn it, I see this shutting off as a problem.
Ok, Tyree told why it happens, but that doesn't mean it's good, right.
I have been racing for 20 years now and none of my other speed control had a feature, that if would shut down because it didn't like my combination of radio and motor.
Regarding american made products, it's true that there are some products that are of superior quality compared to the rest of the world, but it's certainly not electronics or full size cars :-)
Why do you think Novak's current esc is the size of a GM or LRP esc from the early 90's?
Better ask, what does it take to build a very small, yet highly efficient esc? Very small and very expensive components.
Novak esc's are bricks, simply because they still use components that not up to date anymore, compared to companies like LRP, GM or Keyence. The Novaks sell in the same price range though.
Tells you that they are simply trying to have a larger profit margin than the other companies, not even considering that the US are a cheap labor country compared to Germany.
Does somebody want to trade a new or almost new V12 xc for a brand new GT7?
what do we have?
No matter how you or Tyree turn it, I see this shutting off as a problem.
Ok, Tyree told why it happens, but that doesn't mean it's good, right.
I have been racing for 20 years now and none of my other speed control had a feature, that if would shut down because it didn't like my combination of radio and motor.
Regarding american made products, it's true that there are some products that are of superior quality compared to the rest of the world, but it's certainly not electronics or full size cars :-)
Why do you think Novak's current esc is the size of a GM or LRP esc from the early 90's?
Better ask, what does it take to build a very small, yet highly efficient esc? Very small and very expensive components.
Novak esc's are bricks, simply because they still use components that not up to date anymore, compared to companies like LRP, GM or Keyence. The Novaks sell in the same price range though.
Tells you that they are simply trying to have a larger profit margin than the other companies, not even considering that the US are a cheap labor country compared to Germany.
Does somebody want to trade a new or almost new V12 xc for a brand new GT7?
01-08-2003, 04:37 AM
#58
stefan- Save your fingers. After him receiving that email from Tyree there's nothing anyone cans say that would make him think differently. What I would find very funny is if this shut off problem is happening to racers that have a Novak receiver
Then what would be the excuse?????
If the GT7 is made to perfect that it doesn't work with other brands of receiver's why should someone have to shell out extra money to replace their existing receiver that they may be happy with? I say bye bye speedo and get something else that they would be much happier with, without trouble.
Then what would be the excuse????? If the GT7 is made to perfect that it doesn't work with other brands of receiver's why should someone have to shell out extra money to replace their existing receiver that they may be happy with? I say bye bye speedo and get something else that they would be much happier with, without trouble.
01-08-2003, 05:30 AM
#59
STLNST.
I respect your opinion and that of other readers fully.
With his explanation Tyree has put my mind at rest, and probably quite a few people's. too.
At least we now know the cause of the problem and we've no need to get all bitter about it. That's what this forum is for, to help each other out.
People thought there was a problem with GT7s. People were in two minds. They started panicing and blaming everyone but themselves. I simply asked Novak who gave me a satisfactory explanation. Now I am passing this info to all RC Tech readers. End of story. What they end up buying isn't going to effect me in the slightest.
So we've no need to get bitter about it.
Have fun.
Joe from sunny Malta.
I respect your opinion and that of other readers fully.
With his explanation Tyree has put my mind at rest, and probably quite a few people's. too.
At least we now know the cause of the problem and we've no need to get all bitter about it. That's what this forum is for, to help each other out.
People thought there was a problem with GT7s. People were in two minds. They started panicing and blaming everyone but themselves. I simply asked Novak who gave me a satisfactory explanation. Now I am passing this info to all RC Tech readers. End of story. What they end up buying isn't going to effect me in the slightest.
So we've no need to get bitter about it.
Have fun.
Joe from sunny Malta.
01-08-2003, 03:33 PM
#60
No one ever was bitter about it. You yourself took my own personal opinion and turned it into what it is now. So the only blame should be pointed at you. Feel free to read back a couple of pages. I never mentioned a problem with the GT7 glitching. All of my issues were with the way I felt it compared to the previous TC2....and I let others on this thread know that I wasn't the only one around my area that experienced the exact same things that I did. The next thing you know I'm labeled as bashing US products. Oh well. It should done and over with now. I'm happy with my Keyence and that's all I care about.