What is the deal with GT7's (PROBLEM)
 

I went against the advice of most of the local racers and purchased a gt7 as I have always had good luck with Novak products.

Well not this time.

Many local racers stated they were having glitching.performance problems and total melt downs were common.

I assumed that the product has now been out long enough that they would have worked out the bugs.

I put the speedo in my car and it glitched like never before and the car had poor performance...well I swithced electronics around, changed recv, change motors..still glitched.

Funny thing is the new factory driver for Novak had same problems and pulled speedo out of his car and switched it for another makers version and all problems were solved!!

I did the same under his suggestion and put my old C2 back in and what do you know the car was fine.

What is everyone experience with the gt7 is their a general problems with the product??

I sent the speedo back today with not so nice letter to novak.

I'm sorry to hear that, i have been using my GT7 in my xray for almost a year now with no problems. I would be mad if I was you too, mostly due to the high price of these ESC's. I'm glad mine has been working flawlessly.

I got the GT7 right when it came out. Have not had one problem with it. People say that they have melted it, glitching and all sorts of problems. I have not had one. I ran 3 back to back packs through my B4 with a 8x2 in it and the speed controller was hot but performed flawlessly. I also ran it in my TC3 all winter with no problems. Ran it back to back down at snowbirds running a pack in Stock Practice, Changed out to 19 turn and ran a pack and then chaged out to a 7x1 for the heck of it and ran it and had no problems...even though I left the setting to Stock Aggessive for the Mod. :)

Did you make sure that your Big Cap was fully conencted? I know one guy at snowbirds was having problems with his and they reseated the Big Cap and all his trobles went away. Also make sure to run the Scottie sp on the motor.

I always run all capacitors and diodes...when you say reseated the cap what do you mean...just resolder it as it comes factory installed.

I guess... All I know is that they messed around with the cap and either reseated it or re-soldered it. I put a plug on mine when I got it so that if I wanted to run a smaller cap I could.

I have 2 of them and they both work great.

Webb, I think the latest GT7 come with Pwr Cap installed. The other end of the wires are inside the case.

My GT7 came with factory Pwr cap installed and the casing is the old solid Orange colour not the see-thru one.

I saw my friends GT7 melt down... looked pretty cool... problem was it was a replcement for his first one. That one kept shutting off if you hit a corner dot. I have seen a couple others with problems also. I am going to wait a little longer untill I hear they worked out the early problems before I buy one.

I am with you Webb, I have seen Andrew Gray pushing the envelop on his GT7 with 8X1, 7X1. I never saw he having any problems.. In fact 8X1 and 7X1 is all he's run.

I too, I am been using Novak since 1997, never have a problem.

who knows maybe mine was just a dud....It always a big let down when you purchase a new product and it does not work correctly.

The only problem i seem to have with the GT7 is how SMOOOOTH it is! You have to run an agressive profile and a single wind to feel like the car has any balls. Mine gets "warm"... but have yet to glitch or "flame out" with one. Actually seems to make the TC3 an easier car to drive..as agressive as it can be. Just my .02

:blush: - Dave

Same here not one problem to this day and I run some Hot winds too:sweat: 7x1 & 6x2 without a single problem:nod:
thinking about getting one more for my B4;)

-Dave:sneaky:

You could have missed a step in programming the ESC to the radio. Both of my GT7's work great.

I've lost count of all the GT-7's that melted here at SoCal. The advantage that we have here is that Bob Novak and Tyree Phillips race here and we have the factory support from them directly. Brian Kinwald melted a couple, Andrew Gray (before he left) melted one, and a couple other factory guys I've heard about but not actually seen melted some also. If you get a chance to look at Brian Kinwald's car, you'll see his elaborate setup to cool his GT7. Novak is a great company and I use their chargers, but I do have reservations on this particular speedo.

I have been using a gt7 in my xray for about 6 months now. It works awesome. I never experienced any glitching or ne faulty things happen to it. Ive ran 9x2 thru stocks on it. Ive heard all kinds of things about all speedos lately. I think some of the problem is what type of people are using the product. Im not saying people are stupid and shouldnt have one or arent good enough to have one, but everyone makes a mistake soldering a motor or pack in. Maybe these times it has been a gt7 by coincidence. This is my personal view on the subject.

Novak has come out with an update for the gt7. If you are using regular shotky diodes you need to use as many as 4 of them to protect the speedo otherwise novak has come out with a new diod thingy that replaces the shotky and protects the speedo. If you don't have your speedo setup like this you might run into problems. I guess this is the cause of most of the problems with the gt7.

I've got one on my SD and Xray EVO2 never had a single problem. Thinking of getting a third for my F201.

I have not ran Novak products for many years, Because I had problems in the past. But recently something possesed me to purchase a GT7 and I was pleasantly surprised -for a week, and then it smoked. No reason, I just turned it on and POOF. I had run about 10 batteries thru it, nothing different than before. I am very dissapointed. I guess I am going to send it back to get it fixed, and then pawn it off on some poor shmuck because I know I can't trust these products. I will never spend my hard earned money on the orange again.

someone over here in aus had one totally short out (possible metl down?) at a big meeting i was at. From then on he was convereted to LRP Quantum Comp.

mine has worked for a while now sometimes i dont even bother to run stokky diodes on my mod motors or stock and nothing has happened so maybe im lucky or some of u guys out there are just unlucky.

got my GT7 for about 6-7 months and have been using them without any failure.... never once... and I am using 2 diodes for stock.. and 3-4 diodes for mods... I think the setting of the Tx must be checked before using any ESC's... Novak does reccomend a setting in their manual...

I'm going to get a 1/12 scale car and I plan to get the GT7. Another option I had was the TC2. Has any one had any problems with the updated GT7's? I don't want to buy an esc that is likely to die.
Speed Demon- What Tx setting? Which setting do you mean needs to be checked? I'm kinda fuzzy on what you mean here..... :weird: .
Has anyone had any problems with the TC2? People have reccomended the GT7 over the TC2 especially for 1/12 scale because of how much smaller it is and how much smoother it is. I've heard of people melting down the Quantum Comp really quickly. People at my track don't seem to have any problem with the GT7. Mabey the Pacific Northwest is just GT7 happy :lol: :p , jk.

Where did you read this? There isn't anything on Novak's website about this. I also have been using my GT7 with no issues, but I race more stock than mod.

Bryan

A team Tamiya driver up here todl me he melted one with a 10x2. Reg Cyclone still rules!

I think I'll still get the GT7. I'll probably only be racing stock, too. If it makes any difference.

well... the GT7 has the manual with it... they reccomend those things like EPA, EXP and etc... check you manual dude...

I saw a KO schottky,.. it's huge compared to a normal schottky... and it cost much more than a normal schottky... they claim that it can boost your performance up to 30-40%.. I dunno if it's true....
anybody???

I wouldn't confuse a Schottky diode with a power capacitor as you may have done, Speed Demon.

Hi guys. greetings from Malta.

Our experience with electronic speedos goes back over 10 years.

We race hot motors in very hot temperatures - it's us that gets melt down, not the speedos.

We haven't always used Novak. We used to use another good brand but changed to Novak after experiencing poor service with the other brand.

In the last 6 or 7 years we have gone exclusively Novak, and I am glad to say we have never had any problems. That's not to say we haven't cooked speedos. We have but it has always been because we have done something wrong. We have never had a speedo failure in normal service.

My son's Novak GT7 equipped TC3 developed a serious glitching problem last weekend which we traced down to faulty capacitors. I have run the car since without problems.

One or two guys cook their speedos with monotonous regularity but you only have to see the messy wiring to understand why. Whatever brand those types have they will have problems.

Finally the biggest plus for Novak is their service. At least if you do have a problem you know they are going to put you right.

Regards

Joe from sunny Malta.

At my local track the owner is handing out the new diodes to everyone that has purchased a gt7 from the store. He told me that they were sent from novak because of the problems they were having with the gt-7's. Well I never had any problems with my 2 but I installed the new diodes anyways and still don't have any problems.

Simon K, I am not confusing anybody... I went to KO website and yes, the thing is there... they claim that it increase 20% (sorry for the mistake of 30-40%).
However, I dont think it's a power cap...I stil think that's a ultrafast schottky.. it means that... it is a ultrafast switching freq schottky wit a very-very low Vf drop.. and maybe a fast recovery type too... plus.. its a SMD type and that's why it is covered with epoxy..