To clarify, what I was trying to say was that you make a quick mention about how it draws (according to the article) 30-37percent more power than a regular reciever and then go on to say it is insignificant compared to what a servo draws and how it draws 40 percent less on your transmitter meaning you get longer life on your Transmitter batteries.
I would rather have had a bit more said about how the 30-37 percent does not affect it or how it MAY.
Apparently their is more than one person with the problem so you cannot dismiss it as isolated incidents.
Is there earlier batches that went out that may be older than the ones you tested? Did you get your Spektrum from the factory or did you buy it at a LHS?
Just some things that guys want to hear.
Tell you the truth,
I loved your article. Made me want to go out and buy one. I think you covered a lot of the questions that people wanted to know about it.
However, the ultimate tester is the public. People are coming out with problems. Some of which may or may not be atrributed to faults described in the article from your testing.
We are just asking questions to be well informed.
I, like you, think this is a great leap forward in technology, but like all new technology it MAY have flaws. Rather than standing gung-ho behind the product and your testing, I would rather people were open enough to listen to the problems.
P.S. Thats great that you tested it on different ESC's, but I would have been happier with you testing 4 Spektrums (bought at different LHS) on 1 ESC.
It would have been a better control for testing the product.

All in all, great article. Thanks for the info.:)

Actually the tenth post on the third page was me. I don't want Soviet to take the heat for me.

There is no problem with asking the questions and I learned a long time ago to ALWAYS allow for the possibility that there's a scenario that I may not have encountered during testing. Having said that, I'm simply standing behind the fact that I vigorously tested the Spektrum and still have not been able to expose a defect. I even intentionally created conditions to try and cause interference, but still never experienced a single glitch. Again, that's not to say that it isn't possible, only that we as a magazine often get held to this impossible standard that we should somehow be "reporting" issues that we never experienced. I don't stand "gung-ho" behind the product, I'm only defending the fact that I did a lot of testing for the article. Your first post related to the article clearly questions the voracity of my testing and my integrity by suggesting that I may not have tested the Spektrum at all. Here's the quotes: "They quickly mention this problem but then cover it right up…" and then "I don't see how they could have missed this in all the "testing" they say they did." I simply want to put that notion to rest so that we can get on with a productive discussion about the conditions under which these problems may occur. You may not have meant it exactly that way, but that's how it reads. Thank you for the kind comments otherwise.

BTW - we were only able to get one Spektrum system from the factory for testing, and that was before they were on the hobby shop shelves. We would have loved to get more and would have gladly bought them, but at the time they simply weren't available.

Spektrum
 

Has anyone heard of any problem with the Spektrum at Snowbirds?

Read the thread from the begining:cool:

SteveP,

I don't know if people realise just how far in advance youneed to have articles submitted. The Retail Spektrums were released what?2-3 weeks ago?

how many months ago did you do your testing?:weird:

I don't recall exactly when I received the system for testing, but it was some time before the units were available through hobby shops.

PitCrew - Thanks for sharing a fantastic "quick fix"! It's always good to have a "Plan-B" ready just in case problems do happen with such a new system.... :rolleyes:


By the way, I sent you a quick PM with a question... Again, Thanks! :nod:

actually that what i said,

i didn't say soviet said it, i only said it wasn't brought up until then. he was using it to justifiy his first post on page one thats all

i dont want to beat a dead horse with a stick,
but...

the test you (magazine) ran is limited. i believe you what you could with the given peramiters at your disposal, but not near the many different variables the general public will do with the product.

first- electronic equipment used with the system (how many different types of servos/speedos)

second- howmany types of vehicles was it in

third- types of tracks/surfaces/indoor/outdoor

i understand that you magazine tested the spektrum in one car, 2 speedos, one servo, and maybe 1/2 tracks?

**every test needs peramaters/variables defined that way results can be better understood. by saying i tested this product vigorously and found no defects, doest mean anything when a guy with a jr4735 cant even get it on the track...

i respect everyones opinion and encourage everyone to voice it, and please understand that is not to bash anyone, but just pointing out aspects that dont make sense.

i have a spektrum and thanks to pitcrew, i dont have to buy 5 airtronics servos...

I am glad to hear others are trying the capacitor trick with good results.

As fas as the draw of the receiver only being 40 milliamps, and being insuffecient......All I know is before I installed the capacitor, the system did NOT work. As others stated, my steering would go back and forth and the receiver would basically turn on and off.

Maybe with these somewhat older servos, their power requirement is greater than the 1.6 amps produced by the Q2. However, instead of shutting down, the servo just responds slower (as in transit speed). Maybe this could explain the occasional "glitch" i would experience on the crystal set up. Who knows. I know now that my spektrum system works fine (Except for the button on the Tx not working...) and I am using a jr4750 servo.

Steve-(you wrote the article correct?)
I am curious if you were using a digital servo or a high end airtronics (as I have heard these seem to work fine). Try using an older servo if not and you may experience a similar situation to what we are describing on here.

At any rate, I seemed to have found a $5 fix to the problem than anybody skilled enough to have the desire to run Spektrum will have the ability to wire up and plug in to their receiver. maybe Spektrum should ship a capacitor with a plug on it and say, "You may or may not need to use this capacitor, it depends on many variable including what speedo you run and what servo you are using". It does suck that Spektrum didn't figure this out sooner, but here only 2 weeks after product release we have found a "fix" to the problem. Thats not too shabby.
:)

I am one who bought the product and am a little upset that there may be potential problems with it but come, don't you think this is going a little overboard....saying that the mags should have tested the unit with 5 different servos, in 5 different cars while running in every single possible track condidion while standing on their head....get real. That is just crazy to expect that.

The test or report on this product was fair and it told the reader everything they needed to know. The product has been reviewed in several magazines and all reported on the same stuff...both were good reviews. I felt then as I do now that nothing was hidden from me and I do not feel lied too...any normal, sane person would feel the same way in reading the review.

Did it ever occur to you that the unit recevied by the mags was not defective? So if every possible condition was tested and the report was the same and then you the consumer went out and bought one and it was defective, you would still be mad and say the review was BS.

Give it some time, this is a new technology. The problems will eventually be worked out. It may not even be an issue with the product as a whole but there may just be several defective units out there. In the mean time put your normal module and receiver back into the car and have some fun.

Rovic - I understand what you're saying, but at the same time, it's not realistic. There's simply no way to test for every potential scenario. Let's take it to the extreme and say there's ten cars that we "should have" used as a test bed, and maybe you think we should have tested with digital an analog servos from each of the major manufacturers. Maybe then we could throw a few speed controls in mix, one from LRP, one from Novak, and another from KO. Then lets run each combination with a mod and stock motor. Then maybe we would want to know how it works in nitro cars, on-road and off-road. that's 2400 potential combinations, and if we did a dozen runs per week allowing time for removing and reinstalling the equipement in each car, bathroom breaks and getting on with the rest of our lives, we'd be finished with the article in just a little under 4 years. :weird:

You have to use your head and pick the most obvious scenarios in which you want to test any product, and I'm confident that I did a more comprehensive test than anyone thus far. Did I cover every possible permutation? No. That's not even realistic. Like I already said, this should be a discussion about what conditions can cause the system to stumble and not about monday morning quarterbacking the various conditions in which I was able to test this system.

Pit Crew - I think I tested it with a Futaba 9540, but I would have to check. I honestly don't remember. I don't recall there being any suggestions to use a specific type of servo, so I just grabbed a good high-performance servo and installed it. Good job to think of the capacitor. I can't imagine that the drivers and engineers wouldn't have seen this scenario before having run the system during many carpet indoor tracks, but anything is possible.


Koabich - thank you. There are many people that practice "science by a sample of one," meaning that if it happened to one person, then that must mean that it happened to everyone. It's a very flawed but very common thought process that seems to make its way into most internet discussions.

mine was broke, now its fixed thanks to pit crew, with money i saved on a new servo i will take pit crew on a shopping spree on south tacoma way.:eek: (local joke)