Receiver range

[Jlov]

I lost range of my boat twice today. My Tactic 240 says 800 ft and I was about 600 ft. I have my receiver in a Traxxas water proof sealed box and also epoxied the receiver circuit board. Could either of these two things be affecting my range? Thx Jeff

[flraptor07]

Jeff, if you're gonna stay with this hobby go ahead and invest in a good radio and be done with it

[Jlov]

Yea cause that wasn't fun. I had to trek thru woods and through mud pits to get to other side of lake and with in range.....:frusty: Got any suggestions for a good radio then? Thx

[ron1950]

spectrum dx3r pro

[electric]

Never tried putting one of those receivers in a traxxas box. Since those particular receivers don't have an antenna, I would say, yes, that could be an issue. Take it out of the box and try it out. Do you have any carbon fiber on this boat? While that is a very good radio for the money, you might consider the other guy's advice. I finally broke down and started buying higher quality esc's, radio's and batteries a few years back and it really makes a difference, particularly when you start racing. Any failure can ruin your "fun" for the day. Look at this way, you only have "X" amount of time to "play" with the boats, you need to make sure that with the limited time available you have the least amount of equipment failures as possible.

[Jlov]

Yes carbon fiber motor mount,servo mount, battery and ESC mount are also carbon fiber. Does that have some affect electric?

[srislash]

Yes carbon fiber motor mount,servo mount, battery and ESC mount are also carbon fiber. Does that have some affect electric?

Only if the CF surrounds the Rx or more important, the antenna.

Over the past 3years on here(and other forums) I have read over and over about range issues with Tactic. Some were remedied, some were not.
Futaba or Spektrum(properly installed). I have Spektrums and can go anywhere on the lake. I have never ran out of range, just sight.
Shawn

[SloHD]

Yea cause that wasn't fun. I had to trek thru woods and through mud pits to get to other side of lake and with in range.....:frusty: Got any suggestions for a good radio then? Thx

Be totally done with it and buy an Airtronics radio. You'll never have a problem.

[flraptor07]

I have a Futaba 4PL and a Radio Post 401 and I've never had a problem with either one. I would say for you the Futaba 4PL or the new 4PLS would be a great choice @ right around $200.00 it can store up to 40 different boat set ups and has all the adjustability you'd ever need. The 4PLS is the same as the 4PL except the 4PLS has telemetry.

[fidelity101]

My Tactic TR324 went into failsafe at about 500 feet. The problem was that failsafe was "last known position" instead of "0", so I watched helplessly as my boat went another 1000 feet out and into a cliff. I'm VERY lucky that the boat hit a bit of sand and stopped short of the rocks. Broken prop, broken rudder, probably a bent shaft. All of this on the same day that I decided to sell all of my MR200 Spektrum receivers because I was told "Tactic receivers have the best range".

Hobbico is sending me a replacement receiver because they claim 500 feet is far to short and the receiver should have stopped the ESC when entering failsafe ...which it didn't. I'm back to square one on what to use for a receiver. The new Hitec Lynx looks nice as does the Graupner ... both are new to the market and coming out in late October to early November.

I'm really bummed out that my brand new $1200 Aeromarine Conquest almost bit the dust because of a defective $25 receiver! The Traxxas radio system seems to be good to about 750 feet. I'm tempted to just install a Hitec Optima 7 receiver in the boat and use my Aurora 9x radio...that's suppose to have a range of 6 miles! :)

For the record: It was a Tactic 240 radio, TR324 receiver and the receiver was powered by a 2S 1300mah Life 6.6v battery.

[darryl whitman]

hi guy , i went around with cheap Radios, an it cost me money, the guys r right, buy a good Radio, charger, an batteries.
the futaba 3pl, an the 4pl, are real good radios, U will really like the FailSafe setting, it a boat saver,

[fidelity101]

Watching my boat run out of control was the worst feeling I've ever experienced in this hobby! Hobbico is sending a replacement TR324 as it's not suppose to happen, but it DID happen and it sucked...really really sucked!

I just sold all of my Spektrum MR200 receivers thinking Tactic was the way to go...now I'm not sure what to do. Futaba radios are great in that they're reliable but very expensive. I've always liked Hitec and they're finally coming out with a really nice radio system here in a month or so. I just can't believe this Tactic radio system failed like it did!

[tlandauer]

Your findings of the Tactic is consistent with my findings, I have phased out all my tactics, they are going into my Tamiya car collections.
Not to make you feel bad, but for the price, the Spektrum is the choice for me. Futaba is of course top notch.
They weren't a problem when I began because my driving was right infront of me doing circles, but as I began to expand my driving range, still within my poor vision, they lose contact half the time and the exact thing had happened to me for a number of times, i got new rx and tx and same story---that is when I decided to phase them out.

[royalcasa]

Your findings of the Tactic is consistent with my findings, I have phased out all my tactics, they are going into my Tamiya car collections.
Not to make you feel bad, but for the price, the Spektrum is the choice for me. Futaba is of course top notch.
They weren't a problem when I began because my driving was right infront of me doing circles, but as I began to expand my driving range, still within my poor vision, they lose contact half the time and the exact thing had happened to me for a number of times, i got new rx and tx and same story---that is when I decided to phase them out.

sorry for crashing the thread, which Tamiya do you collect. I have trucks from the 80s

[tlandauer]

The only thing worth mentioning is that I have a NIB:http://www.tamiyausa.com/product/item.php?product-id=49400
Bought it in 2006 and haven't opened it . I wasn't keen on colleting all the oldies and now I am too preoccupied with boats.
What I meant is that I have many Tamiya products and it will be nice to use 2.4ghz radios in them.
I am sure you have a great collection, these gems from the 80s are very desirable. :rockon2:
May be start a thread and post some pictures for us!:drool::drool:

[kevinpratt823]

I have recently decided to try out Futaba due to some issues I had even been having with Spektrum. The 3PM-X is only $180 with a RX, and there are plenty of other models for sale on the big car dominated forum that I frequent. In fact, I just paid for a 3pm-x, an older 3pk with 2.4 module, and 2 RX's for less than a new 3pm-x. There are deals to be found, sorry to hear about your boat, powerlessness can be painful.