Transponders
 

Ok I ahve 2 buggies and i own 1 my laps. What i am wondering is why transponders are so expensive, they are just a little attena? why do they cost so much, Do my laps work for every track? i had the my laps 3 wire and it didnt work at my track only the 2 wire amb and mrt works at my track, does the MRT work at every track?

What is the best way to go about transponders>?

2 wire AMBs work everywhere. MRTs are limited to tracks that have not
upgraded. There are several threads about this.

The best way to go about transponders is buy the 2 wire AMB and be done. Guaranteed compatibility. It's part of racing. It's no different than having to buy a radio or motor or anything else to race with.

Yea i dont get why they cost so much ethier. But at least you buy them once and forget it, My Laps is ran at most tracks i believe maybe not all the old AMB transponers at least work still. I had to buy a MY LAPS Hybrid transponer dued to the old one going bad on me.

There should not be anywhere that the old 2 wire PT and the newer
2 wire Hybrid should not work. Unless they are running the really old
RC20 and that is so old I dont know what scoring program you could
even get to run with it.

2 wires work fine with the new RC4
MRC will not. That was part of the RC4 upgrade
plan. That is why they cost 100.00, no competition.
As soon as AMB started realizing MRC and others where
moving in they created the RC4 upgrade and offered it
at an almost give away price. And the sheep just lined up.
If your track is running RC4 they are part of the reason that
PTs cost 100.00

because one company basically controls the market

^^^ Yup!

I cannot wait for someone to produce clones. I don't get why companies complain when someone makes a knockoff when it's their greed that drives the motivation for people to peddle cheaper alternatives.

Charge a fair price and leave little to no room for for anyone else to even think of investing money to develop their own. Furthermore, if they do not overcharge there's no reason for anyone to question such exorbitant sums for such simple products.

So if i copy Mylaps tech and make a version called yourlaps and sell it for 35$ for one i will make money?

Man do i agree ! Not to mention it would grow the Sport more.

They made clones...actually several, then AMB figured it out and devised
the RC4 upgrade that rendered the clones obsolete. AMB offered it a
ridiculously cheap price and the sheep predictably fell in line. IF YOUR
TRACK UPGRADED TO RC4 THEY ARE PART OF THE PROBLEM. Everyone
knew what AMB was up to.

http://www.rctech.net/forum/radio-el...e-pt-news.html

You can get an RC4 compatible MRT transponder according to the above thread. I wouldn't blame the tracks for upgrading their decoders; AMB pretty much strong-armed them to upgrade now or pay much more later on.

I've bought 2 mrt rc4 transponders from stormer...they work great & I saved $15-$20 over the mylaps transponders.

Believe it or not, eventually, YES you absolutely would. Perhaps $35 is a bit too low for a solid profit margin but $50 is an excellent target price point and they'd stand to make at least, if not more than 150% profit.

Electronics of this minuscule nature are ridiculously inexpensive these days and buying in bulk reduces the cost per unit even more so. The most expensive part in all this, believe it or not, is that actual plastic housing because plastics manufacturers charge an arm and a leg for molds. My mother-In-Law has worked in one of the largest Plastics companies in the US for over 35 years (she handles the Motorola/Google account) and I've inquired on getting molds made for small products and the cost for a small 11" x 14" 20-up mold was a whopping $11,000.00, and that's the discounted rate for being family!!! LOL

The head engineer there who I helped design something of his own even told me that is was straight up but rape because it would take him 2 hours to perfect the renderings and the machine would pop out the mold in less than a half hour. If you divide that by 3, you're literally being charged $3,666.67 per hour! Even if that included a tug job or at the very least a reach around, it's still a tad wee bit absurd.

Now, say a mold would set AMB back some $100K, all they'd have to sell to recoup that would be 1,000 units @ $100 each. Being as they now control the market and there are literally millions of these sold, they more than make their money back. Now, practical thinking also says that at $120 per, some folks opt to buy a single transponder and swap it out from vehicle to vehicle so in essence they shoot themselves in the foot because a lower price point would not keep many people from buying a unit for each of their vehicles.

The old saying about Running down the hill catching a cow applies here where by instead of running down the hill and catching one, perhaps we WALK down and catch them all. ;)

This is also why some other fantastic cars do not sell as well as others. Very few folks can justify paying double the price for something that may be marginally better. Even still, one of the least expensive cars that lacks much of the precision of its more expensive counterparts is also the most successful vehicle in history by a considerable margin, thus proving that just because something is more expensive, doesn't mean it is indeed better.

Transponders are no different and are relatively inexpensive to produce and certainly nowhere near the $120 retail. Comparing a Transponder to a High-End Paintball Marker's Board, the amount of tech is is not even close, yet the more advanced and more expensive boards go for about the same price. Additionally some Boards today have OLED screens and feature USB ports, BlueTooth and more, all of which increase cost. So you can continue thinking the cost for an AMB Transponder is just all you want, but the fact is they are overcharging considerably, because at the moment they have everyone by the testes.

You just reminded me of the gimmicky promo video for the Virtue board for the Smart Parts Ion. :lol:

+ YouTube Video

I'll just throw it out there that there are MUCH less expensive ways to mold than using hard steel and injection molding which is what that pricing looks like to me. You probably could have something simply machined for a reasonable price if it could be laid out to do 100 or something on one load of the CNC. Also this would be the perfect thing to 3D print as the strength of the material is pretty much moot. You can get a Makerbot Rep2 for $2200 and be printing the little cases quickly. :nod: