We will need new transponders this year. Now I'm wondering: how can I be sure to have a transponder that will work with all decoders now and in a near future?

If losing sales to clones was one reason for RC4 why not just make cheaper PT's rather than penalize the end users ? oh boy, the new system tells the ambient temperature thats nice I'll just chuck all my old stuff in the trash.

Call Mylaps for those kind of answers. To be honest, they have a right to protect their product like everybody else.

Maybe we should go back to hand counting. Then nobody needs a over priced transponder.

I was just wondering what it costs to AMB to produce one transponder. 5$? 10$?

I don't understand how another company hasn't developed something either. The tech behind it all is stupid easy, the most complicated part is the software, which would be a walk in the park for someone experienced in developing scoring systems. He'll, it could be done open source for free if enough people got involved.

Features that should already be implemented in the my laps software:
Real time updates over wifi, accessible through any wireless device, complete with data logging for individual users. Some of us wouldn't mind tracking our progress and plotting the numbers to see which changes helped the most.

Better voices for the updates. Anyone else get annoyed with the "one minute left" grumpy sounding guy

Auto posting of race results to a specific location on the Internet.

Strain relief on the transponder wires. Currently they can break off where they enter the potting compound way too easily, especially if you move yours from car to car.

That's just off the top of my head. For their prices, they really should have a much nicer system. I get why no one has offered an alternative though, it would be a huge gamble to convince everyone to change over. The development costs would be pretty high too. That's never stopped companies before though, I think eventually someone will make something superior, for cheaper, and my laps will disappear.

Alycat does this already. You just need the hardware to make it happen.

There are plenty of voices available. Just search the internet.

How can you tell the difference between an rc4 hybrid transponder, and the new rc4 transponder??... pictures look the same.

The new ones are going to have some sort of three digit security ID for ordering of extra transponders, also I'm guessing they will have the the sub number on them, so maybe a 00-06 or whatever.

But yeah for anyone who does not know, it could end up confusing.

Actually something I noticed in the CAD type pics seems to be a good giveaway as to what version RC4 you have...

http://www.rcmart.com/mylaps-transpo...l-p-35954.html

Looks like the new RC4 has 3 wires, but I'm kind of mystified as to why it would need a hookup to your RX signal, unless there is more planned that has yet to be mentioned.

It appears you are correct.

We are a small non profit club and have the old AMB 20 system (doesn't accept personals). If this quits, we cannot afford anything new or even the trade in. If we cannot buy or repair the decoder, we will go back to IR system. We used one before but got rid of it to eliminate the scoring bridge. Oh well. If that is how My Laps wants to operate, so be it.

For those interested, I contacted Mylaps about what MRTs would work for the trade in offer, and this is the reply I received.

Hello,

Any MRT qualifies. Just note: The $35.98 trade in offer will get you the new RC4 transponder; however, these are not available until February. they are on backorder currently, but if you want one, go ahead and put your order in now! And send us your MRT's as soon as you can. Or you can place an order for the MRT to RC4 Hybrid trade in for $80+ and you can receive a transponder within the next 2 weeks.

Either way, please make sure you send in the MRT first before we will ship out the new Mylaps transponder.

Regards,
Kelly Chase
Sales Consultant

Sounds like a catch 22 to me send me the cash and ur old mrt and maybe in 2 weeks we will send u a new hybrid..LOL..so now ur paying the full price for a AMB transponder..wow what a saving..glade I went with a AMB RC3..spent a entire $52 gotta love me..

Glade we had useless posts in this as this was for INFORMATION purposes ONLY..

Just a heads-up... there was already a whole thread on this earlier this year when the change was announced, and a guy on RCtech is working on homebrewing a solution ( he even replied here)....

http://www.rctech.net/forum/radio-el...p-madness.html

http://www.rctech.net/forum/radio-el...er-design.html