I can't speak for Dirk, however, I support them because they support our hobby. They provide a reliable and extremely state of the art timing system. And $110 for a transponder is not a big deal. I have bought 4 of them over the last 10 years and have yet to have a failure. And by the way, they have a great resale value. You can get 80% of the cost back when you sell them and they are very easy to sell.

Sorry, no conspiracy to be found here . I have zero connections with them, I'm not even a very happy customer. But I can look beyond just my own horizons and think about more than just "me, me, me!" Mylaps are a company and for them (like any other company) this is a business, not a hobby - and they are in it to make money (they have employees that need to eat, pay rent, feed their families, etc.). That's how our western capitalist system works - for good and for bad. It's not exactly their fault that they don't have competition on the market, is it? Plus, I'm not a hypocrite, so when it pisses me off (and it does!) when e.g. Chinese companies produce cheap (and mostly crappy) blatant copies of what western companies have invented and designed, regardless of copyrights and patents, I cannot turn around and say "Oh but it's different with Mylaps - there I support such a thing, because it makes my otherwise very expensive hobby slightly cheaper!" Sorry, no can do. Do I wish their products were cheaper? Of course! But I cannot dictate it to them.

And again, even at current prices, these transponders are IMHO only a rather minor cost compared to the rest of the equipment you need to race (and to keep racing!) that I don't see what the big problem is. Please think honestly about what you are ready and willing to pay for other electronics, the stock class motor of the month, all the tires, the bodies (depending on class)... and how much of these perish so quickly or can only be used in one class or one type of vehicle, while the single transponder you actually need is universal and will usually outlive them all. Yes, we all wish this hobby was cheaper, but that goes for every single component and all companies, not just Mylaps and their transponders!

Yes, of course competition is a good thing. So let other companies do their own complete products (without patent or copyright infringement) and then it'll be a fair competition. Because when the tech is apparently so simple, old and proven, how come no other company has ever done a serious effort to produce such a (complete!) system of their own (i.e. incl. a decoder!) in all these years? Should be a gold mine, right? With all those unhappy people that want to spend less money... There should be enough engineers out there that could do it, too - it's only tech, not magic. But for some reason, all that has happened so far, was to rip off the cheap and simple part, the transponders. Apparently it's much harder to build a decoder, right? Or is it too expensive to do? For whatever reason, to my knowledge nobody else has successfully built and properly marketed a complete working decoder / timing system so far. If MRT really is finally working on a decoder as well, that's great news! And it's about time someone does, after all these years, no, decades - it's almost 2024 now. Problem is, it might be too late by now. Almost all current race tracks have a very expensive Mylaps system and are not likely to buy a new one, unless they'd need to replace a defective unit, or the new system was much better (no idea what improvement that might be - after all, the Mylaps system does a good job) - but would a better system be necessarily cheaper?

I raced, both RC and full size before we had transponders. The present system is great compared to what we used to have. Where I race RC the club has some transponders that racers can borrow for the night so people can race without owning a transponder. With my full size racing I don't own a transponder (I only do one or two meetings a year) but I can hire one at the circuits I race at.
If we had a competitor to AMB they would be using a different system and this would make it more expensive as you would have to have different transponders depending on which system the track was using. The transponders look expensive but they are probably the cheapest part of RC car racing. You can use them in several cars and they are very reliable as mentioned above. I have been back racing RC for 6 years and the only transponder problem I have had is when wire managed to get itself tangled in the spur gear. Cant blame the transponder for that.

MyLaps is AMB. The older AMB battery powered transponders don't work anymore if you update the decoder firmware to the latest.

Agreed, a transponder will easily outlast 3 sets of tyres.

I've seen others come and go but there's several issues that always crop up. First, if they're a legal entity then they're open to lawsuits for patent infringement if their decoder supports RC4, so invariably they're not compatible. That then leads to the majority of racers not attending tracks that use the alternate systems because their existing transponders don't work there. And many of the alternatives use IR line of sight instead of an RF loop which is far more sensitive to mounting location.

If it's a dodgy knock off that does maintain compatibility and flies under the lawsuit radar, there's an issue with target audience. Membership numbers are vastly different all over the place but let's assume an average club has 100 members and 1 decoder. The decoder audience is approximately 2 orders of magnitude smaller. Not as much money to be made. Plus that company probably won't support the product with warranties and firmware updates. A functional decoder is the lifeblood of a track, so they're far less willing to risk it to save a few bucks.

I'm using AMB and Mylaps interchangeably.

For people not familiar we use AMB/Mylaps transponders in full sized race cars. Newer transponders require a subscription to work. That means you have to have an account on Mylaps and pay a yearly for your transponder to work. Older transponders didn't require you to even have a Mylaps login.

Sorry if that was confusing.

gigaplex But what some people obviously dream about is a company that will sell a system of roughly the same quality, where transponders only cost around $20-$25 instead of around a hundred and probably a decoder for a couple hundred instead of several thousand dollars. And I believe such a system would easily sell, even when not directly compatible with RC4, as the cost would be very little for new tracks and/or racers, and also no hindrance for existing racers - what is $25 more to spend in this money-pit of a hobby? Even established tracks might be interested at that price (if the system managed to become popular) and it might be possible to run in parallel with the Mylaps decoder on the same time keeping software (so transponders and decoders stay independent from each other, and only come together on the computer). The question is, would such low prices really work for a company to develop, produce and long-time support such products? Even in large numbers if it proves successful? I kinda doubt it. But it is what Mylaps has successfully done for a very long time, with their prices.

In the current market at those prices, such a company wouldn't be profitable if it only catered to RC. Even if we assumed every track on the planet would ditch their existing decoders and bought the competing system.

Obviously the exact numbers were drawn out of thin air, but they were supposed to drive home a point (not to you but others).

AGREE 100 percent
100 for a servo or 250 for a speedo that gets changed often compared to a transponder that has a 10 year life or more....common guys think before you type...value for the dollar....oh what about the 150 per motor you change like your socks....AAAAnnndddd you CAN always sell your transponder for 80 after using it for 5 years or more.....Think about it........

Thanks for everyone’s feedback. This has been a very interesting market research exercise. I’m happy to see a part of the RC community opposes lower cost alternatives to certain products. Many of the small RC companies out there thank you. Including me.

It's not so much the lower cost alternative as the "universal" standard. AMB/MyLaps has become the standard in the RC world. In the greater scope of things, while transponders are expensive for what they really are, the cost of them is fairly low considering how long they last. I have some 18 yo transponders that still work as new. For a competing system to emerge, there would need to be an industry standard for communications. Then, competing companies would be able to enter the market. That will never happen, our community is way too small. There is no point in having a different brand of transponder if it only works in a few places... They (MyLaps) are in a monopolistic position, for sure, but I definitely wouldn't go back to the time of house transponders, or worse, hand counting!

Martin Paradis

There are cheaper solutions out there. I-Lap is one, and their transponder cost about $25. Is it as good as RC4? You have to put the I-Lap transponder high and closer to the clear windshield area in order to get read.

RC racing by no mean is a low cost hobby. To bash around will be a lot cheaper, and you don't need a transponder.

As I always tell the new comers to get on rctech to buy an used RC4 for $75-$85. It's basically a free rental. That thing doesn't break. Just sell it when you are done or out of the hobby. Help yourself by buying one for each class you race. Moving transponder from one car to another is pain in the bud. Again, it's free rental!!!!

Does the I-lap or Orange work for a track with the loop under the track?

I-Lap definitely not, it uses infra red line of sight.