RC4 Decoder
 

We are looking at upgrading our RC2 decoder to an RC4 version
Any problems or glitches associated with these?
Any feedback would be great

i haven't heard anything yet but I'm keen to hear feedback too.
sounds like it will be a good thing, with a higher hit rate and less noise etc we have been using an rc3 here with no problems but will be upgrading to the rc4 soon hopefully, with what these are worth it would be silly not to at this price.
i don't think product support would be a problem from these guys.

Trevor had the RC4 decoder on at Castle Hill on Friday , MRT PTX Transponders don't get picked up .. only the genuine ones.

Hope that's not true as I have 2 x mrt transponder :eek:

From the moment I saw MyLaps sending out those upgrade deal offers, I felt it seemed overly cheap, meaning something was up with them 'really' wanting everyone to take up the new firmware system.

Any questions I have had basically went unanswered, MyLaps Australia in general did not seem to have any clue if the RC4 decoders would lock out the clones, there seemed to be a strong "we don't know but can't guarantee anything" official line being rolled out when asked.

They also won't commit to any answer on if any of the old models will be phased out with support or compatibility, or for that matter have no idea if they will ever come out with a replacement for the current rechargeable club transponders (and our club can still use 10 on any given entry level race night).

Hi Steve I have been talking to some guys in the UK they have got them to work, would like to check it next week if your coming down for the last meeting this year and I can do some testing. They changes the strength of the signal from the default settings. Will be interesting to see if it works.

OK sounds good, Plan to be there, and am on leave now so hopefully early.

I will be ther early to as I also will be on level I'll let you know what time.

I'm still wondering why we need to know the temperature and voltage of a transponder.. If it had an accelerometer and sent back max speed, max cornering, acceleration and braking G's then it would seem more worthwhile.

New RC4 transponders don't work with the older decoders at all? I guess all clubs will be forced to upgrade in the end anyway.

How many clubs are currently using this and what programs are they running?
Was told that allycat will be compatible early next year

Happy to share our experience and story so far ...

TFTR received our new RC4 decoder last Friday and installed it. All club transponders and AMBrc personal transponders tested ok.

The latest version of Alycat (9.3.1.86) works with the RC4 in that when cars cross the loop Alycat receives that data correctly and so races and practice run normally. The new data from RC4 PT's (voltage, temp, etc) is not currently read by Alycat. Ken is working on this and hopes to have it working in due course.

We've connected the Alycat PC to the RC4 Decoder using ethernet. Haven't tested serial. The RC4 does not connect via USB.

MRT Transponders

The good news is that the decoder picked up my black MRT PTx transponder. But it strangely didn't work the first time I tried it.

Steps:

1. tried the car with the MRT PT - didn't register
2. tried a car with an AMB transponder and that worked fine
3. the only default setting I changed on my RC4 decoder post install was Squelch which I changed from 30 to 85 to reduce sensitivity. So I changed it to 16
4. tried the car with the MRT PT and it picked it up fine. Strength of 154.
5. I put Squelch pack to 85
6. tried the car with the MRT PT again and it still picked it up fine. Strength of 150+ (didn't note the exact number). I tried it a few more times and it continued to register every single time.
7. I turned off power to the decoder and exited Alycat, waited 30 sec and turned on decoder and waited a further 30 sec and started Alycat.
8. I tried the car with the MRT PT repeatedley and both the decoder and Alycat picked it up every time (tried 4 more times and each time had signal strength of 150+ - which is comaprable to an AMB transponder)

Why didn't it work the first time? No idea. Will it work with other MRT PT's? That's the million dollar question and I will be trying others in due course.

MyLaps

I emailed Koert from MyLaps Sydney about this issue on Sunday and he rang me today. In my limited dealings with Koert he's always been responsive.

He said that they don't test "clone" transponders and don't guarantee they'll work.

He had no idea why my MRT didn't work the first time and then started working.

He advised that MyLaps have an upgrade offer for "clone" transponders where you can trade in your existing transponder for about $40. Not ideal but better than nothing. Details here.

Bottom Line

The optimist in me is hopeful that MRT's will work. My success with a single transponder is positive. More testing is needed with multiple MRT transponders to ensure that a) they all work and b) they work all the time.

I'll be doing more testing over the next week or two (as soon as I can get my hands on club members MRT's) and will report back.

Alycat

There is a discussion on this topic on the Alycat forum here.

Thanks David and others for your input, we have ordered the new decoder, will keep you posted on our outcomes

I've been doing research as well and I think I'm going to hold fire on doing the firmware upgrade at the moment. I'll download it and put it aside so if we "have" to do the upgrade for some reason, we can. We're using Alycat 9.2 so I am not real inclined to change something that is working fine now.

I think it's being partly confirmed that perhaps clone transponders will work erratically on the new RC4 decoders/firmware, something about being able to filter out some of the signal of the clones, because they are not 'exactly' the same as an original, meaning they can effectively render then almost useless by possibly making them unreliable.

There is an interesting thread showing the clones do put out a slightly different signal, meaning in theory you can alter the reading device (decoder) to say drop hits with a perceived dirty or incorrect signal.

Also, while unconfirmed, someone has stated you will need a RC4 decoder (or one able to update to RC4) to pick up the 'new' RC4 transponders, as none of the old decoders/firmwares will, which actually explains the whole current "RC4 Hybrid" transponders, with the mildly confusing 'hybrid' name they called them.

Love to be proven wrong on all this, but the pricing and marketing on this one seems to still suggest otherwise.

I think you're spot on Bishop.

Conducted a test today with dozens of laps from each of 3 different MRT PTx transponders (with our RC4 Decoder) and the MRT's were picked up a little over 50% of the time.

I think the above was random luck. The 2 additional MRT's I tried today worked without adjusting the Squelch setting but then stopped and started working intermittently. 2 cars running MRT's lapped together and sometimes they both were picked up, sometimes neither registered and sometimes one or the other worked. There was no discernible pattern that I could see.

My MRT used above also worked just over 50% of the time during a longer test than I'd initially carried out.

I have also seen this mentioned. The following UK site http://www.bbksoftware.com/ also correctly specified the reliability of the MRT PTx and so carries some weight:
Harry transponders are, I believe, the current MyLaps transponders that look like this:
http://img708.imageshack.us/img708/7725/13413256.jpg

Purcy transponders are, I believe, the about to be released MyLaps transponders that the above states will only work with an RC4 decoder.

This seems strange to me that a Purcy wouldn't work with an RC2 or RC3. While it's fair enough that the new features (car ID, voltage, temp) wouldn't work with the older decoders it seems to me that a transponder that won't work at all with older decoders would be a sales and customer service nightmare. Ie; the following hypothetical scenario "I bought the new MyLaps Purcy treansponder but my club runs an older MyLaps decoder and so it doesn't work, give me my money back MyLaps!".

The BBK Software site also has a useful historical explanation of AMB/MyLaps decoders / transponders up to and including the Harry here:

http://www.bbkrclive.com/2010/Offroa.../RC4System.pdf