Spektrum Telemetry System (nitro)
When I first seen this, I thought..Hmmm.. Got to have it (like 90% of us).
It just got released this week and my local Hobby Shop got it in. I ran down and picked it up, It cost $150 with Tax. I bought the lap count trigger too, another $50. If anybody else has the Telemetry system on thier vehicle at the track, this trigger works for them, as only one is needed at the track.
I finnished dinner and my wife went to bed, I took the unit out of the box and looked everything over. I thought...Hmm not bad, easy. Well, I was wrong on the easy part. I started at 9:30pm. I took the time to do everything by the book.
My first hurdle was that the power jump wire didn't allow for you to run power into the unit, so I had to make a "Y" power wire to run both units. I took the power lead from the on-off switch and cut the wire and soldered two male connectors on. (this part is not in the instruction book) Also, the 3rd wire has to be ran between the two power plugs. This is for the transfer of information from the Telemetry unit to the receiver.
Now on to the Temp lead. This was the easiest part of the whole setup. It is a loop, same thing as one of those on-board temp sensors.
Having felt good about the progress, I went on to the RPM/speed sesnor. To install it on the MTX-4, the first problem was getting a place to install it. On an Associated, HPI or Ofna, I don't think this would be an issue, but I tried the way the book showed, on the top of the engine mount tab, but the brake disk is in the way. So, I used the other side, After modding the supports for the car and cutting down the aluminum mount bar to fit, I couldn't get a read on the flywheel, the MTX-4 flywheel is shapped so that there isn't a flat spot to put the RPM relfector on. I had spent an hour fitting the sensor, just to find that the flywheel on the MTX-4 wasn't compatable with the sensor, and I couldn't get the sensor close enough. It was now about midnight and determined to find a way to make this work, I ended up grinding a small flat spot on the flywheel edge and placing the reflector on the newly created flat spot. Then I took the sensor off the aluminum mount ,(which I cut down to fit into the car) and remounted the sensor with Shoe-Goo on the middle bulk-head, lined up to read the edge of the flywheel. I had to play around with the sensor to get it positioned to read properly, but this only took a couple tries.
Now it was about 1am. Hmmm, after all this, I had to test it, right? So, out to the street, 1am and fired it up (my neighbors are used to me running engines at night, and they are up all night and sleep all day, they only get upset when I run them in the morning when they are sleeping).
As I tested:
I got readings on the battery voltage, signal strength, Temp, and RPM. I had a reading of 43500rpm then after figuing 2nd speed roll-out, I porgramed that into the unit and tested again with MPH being displayed. 50+mph.
The only thing left was to find a home for the Tiny Telemetry unit, I had it rubber banded to the receiver, it is a small box, smaller than the Personal transponder. This was a challenge! As there is no place on the MTX-4, everything is so tight on the car. After scratching my head for 20 min or so, the only place to mount it was over the personal transponder, holding it in place again with some shoe-goo.
The unit and sensors are VERY LIGHT, less than 10 grams withought the lap counting LED, and 13 grams with.
As for the information that can be gained, I like the idea of getting what is being fed back from the car. Speed/RPM...this will be good in choosing gearing, and engine temps, i was always curiouse about what actual running temps were.
I'll be running it at Superior this weekend to test it, and I will give more feedback Sunday night.
Last edited by rcfoolz; 01-06-2006 at 07:18 AM.