Roelof

Face it, it is happening all the time, all over the world.
- Satelite dishes going from analog to digital
- Mobie phone from ATF to digital systems
- Win10 making older machines and hardware obsolete
- even your mobile phone is at an end of its life when it is 2 years old.

The RC4 transponder is introduced about 5 or 6 years ago so you were able to use the old transponders for sure up until now and if no RC track is updating the software you still can use them further on....

Problem when racing nationals or other races at other tracks is that you now can face the issue of an somewhere updated decoder.

Darkgenerals

iTrader: (66)

This is why you see businesses going to subscription based systems. How do you keep a customer spending money on your product if said product lasts indefinitely? Its not like the number of people racing is going up by leaps and bounds, so creating artificial improvements, and new generations of products is all you have to keep making money.

However this is all speculation, I've seen these threads pop up every couple of years and nothing comes of it.

SLOWINSLOWOUT

iTrader: (20)

Here is the link to the MyLaps announcement, not too hard to find, really.

https://www.mylaps.com/launching-myl...timing-system/

There is also a handy compatabiliy chart and warning about PT's that will not work with 4.5....

My wild speculation is both 4.4 and 4.5 will be available to down load.

Also, the decoder box stores both the current software version and the previous version, with the option of reverting to the previous in the menu.......

jkaetz

iTrader: (1)

I would encourage everyone to hold off on grabbing their pitch forks and torches. MyLaps has chosen to add a new protocol to existing decoder boxes rather than tell tracks that they must buy a new one. To do that they likely had to balance functionality with hardware restrictions. Thus dropping the RC2 protocol to add the DR5. To say that they are "disabling" older transponders is an attempt to present MyLaps move as a negative one. Combine that with the fact that the site in the OP is "offering some excellent trade-in deals." makes me believe that this is a narrative skewed in favor of livetime.

MyLaps is very clear about which firmware supports what protocol and does not appear to be forcing anyone to change.

JRSlash

iTrader: (7)

I am sure MRT will update their stuff in no time.

racer1812

iTrader: (31)

There's no skewed narrative on the part of Livetime or LiveRC. They are simply passing along the announcement from MyLaps. There's no forced upgrade at this point, and no reason for R/C tracks to upgrade unless they plan to have Drone racing, as far as I know. I will talk to Brandon at LiveRc and have him comment in this thread if he see's the need to. For right now, I personally would simply talk to your track and ask them if they intend to upgrade to the newer 4.5 firmware. If not, don't worry.

Brandon Rohde

Hi JKaetz,

This is Brandon from LiveRC and LiveTime. I can assure you that this is something that has absolutely nothing to do with LiveTime. When we first heard about this update, we fought against it to no avail. I understand WHY MyLaps is doing it, but its unfortunate for the racers who have old transponders or MRT's. When MyLaps recently sent out an email to their customers about the available update, it made no mention of the fact that it would disable old transponders and was not reversible. For that reason, we issued a press release on LiveRC to inform everyone of the cost/benefit to upgrade. It is NOT required that you upgrade. That is solely up to the track. LiveTime will continue to support all versions of the firmware. We issued this press release in good faith to prevent tracks from updating and learning after the fact the hard way. Again - this update has nothing to do with LiveTime.

Regarding the trade-in deal, we have ALWAYS offered an upgrade/exchange program for $62 for a new transponder. This lets you trade in any house, AMB, MyLaps, MRT, etc transponder for a new one, working or not. We have offered this service for 3 years. We are currently working diligently with MyLaps to try and make this more affordable for people who are affected. I will post information on that as soon as possible.

Again - this update is optional. If you do not like it, simply don't upgrade your decoder box firmware.

racer1812

iTrader: (31)

Hopefully that clears up any questions or concerns. I know Brandon is busy prepping for his trip to China for the Worlds, as well as spending the little home time he has with his family this Halloween. Any further questions that come up I'll bring them the Brandon's attention, if need be, but until then that's your reply from LiveRC and LiveTime.

whitrzac

iTrader: (97)

Does this kill the 2 wire RC4 transponders, or just the old big AMBrc ones?

gigaplex

iTrader: (2)

Just the older ones.

jkaetz

iTrader: (1)

Hi Brandon, Good info. Thank you.

This thread starts off with a strongly negative title and the referenced article title claims that MTR transponders are being disabled. It all makes it sound like MyLaps is being very greedy and attacking the competition. When my brain reads that something will disable your old transponder it makes me think that something is being done to make the transponder no longer function. When I read the MyLaps info it became clear that they were not disabling anything, simply dropping support for an older communication protocol to support a new one.

If MyLaps completely drops firmware support for the older protocol then by all means get the pitch forks and start the MyLaps hate machine. Currently it is 100% up to the track owner to continue supporting the older protocol instead of the newer one. May all our track owners be tech savvy enough to understand the differences and the impact it will have on their customers.

billdelong

iTrader: (33)

I think you're missing the point that all new decoders sold will be shipped with the new firmware... I think the bigger question is IF the new decoders can be downgraded to an older firmware and will the older firmware be available for new tracks to get copies of the older firmware. To me it would make more sense for MyLaps to offer 2 different systems...

• Drone Edition
• Surface Edition

Then no more butt hurt

Roelof

As mentioned before, with the introduction of the RC4 it was told that this gonna happen anyway....

On facebook I already saw a reaction of a club who automaticly did the upgrade w/o any idea if it was needed or the impact, because he had some issues he thought that could be solved with the new firmware.

I can only say if it is done, try to flash an older firmware or else contact Mylaps for a solution.

jkaetz

iTrader: (1)

Completely agree.

If they cannot be downgraded, I would expect MRT or another vendor to ramp up their decoder box efforts as there will likely be a demand. If there is not enough demand for a competitor, then there has been a lot of tooth gnashing for naught.

Roelof

To be honest, If MRT is making an own system and it is not fully compatible with Mylaps, racers will face issues going to a race.