I've been running an AMB transponder for about two years now at various tracks with never any problems. I used it in Traxxas Slash's, and 1/8 nitro and electric buggies and truggies. Most recently, I ran it in my relatively new Hyper 9e, and once again had no issues, up until just this weekend at the Gulf Coast RC Challenge at Mike's hobby shop in Porter, Texas.

I had it mounted the way I had always mounted it, using the 9e's nice little platform which suspends the transponder above the servo (Hitec 7955TG). All throughout practice day, it worked fine, calling out my lap times as usual. But during the qualifiers, I started having severe problems. First, during the second qualifier, which was an 8-minute race in which I could average 18 laps, either my transponder or GCR's LCS counted only 7 laps, one of which was 126 seconds and other over 260. The race director said "You had some doubles," which meant it counted twice at one pass over the loop. I don't see how that would explain the ridiculously long lap times, though.

The next day, I had the race director check my transponder again when no one was on the track, by rolling it over the loop at walking pace. I did it twice, and both times he said it counted. But, during the first of the three A mains that I had barely squeezed into, it only counted ONE LAP.

The ESC was an up-to-date Tekin RX8. Spectrum SR3100 receiver. 6.0v going to the Rx. The light on the transponder always glowed bright orange, even under full power and steering, throughout the weekend and does to this day.

I tried mounting the transponder directly to the chassis, rather than two inches higher and through the servo. That didn't help. I also added a capacitor (thanks to Mike Scoll), but that didn't help either.

Could this be my transponder, or the track's LCS, or some other issue? Like I said, I have run this transponder in several cars, most of which were 1/8-scale buggies with 4S power and Mamba Monster systems. Also, for about four months, I ran a Castle BEC to my Rx, at 9.0v. I know that sounds too high, but it worked beautifully, with never a hiccup from the Rx, servo, or transponder. Could that have done damage to my transponder? Sorry for the long read, but I felt that all of that information needed to be stated.