Futaba 2.4 had a bit of an issue!!!

[Steven Vaccaro]

I've been told on more than one occasion that the Futaba 2.4 is much more reliable than a Spektrum. Please explain that to the gas guy at my pond. See pics

The boat lost signal and literally drove straight as an arrow for about 1/2 mile. It then hit the rocks and totaled. If it was about 100-200 left of where he hit, the boat would have hit a gradual shore and up into the play ground. The good news is that the radio is now binding perfectly again.

[tiqueman]

Scary. Ive been running a Futaba 2.4 for a few years now and have it linked to ALL my FE boats and never had an issue, except if the RX gets wet.. then it gets a mind of its own. Had that happen twice and have since stopped slacking and filled all my rxs w/ di-electric grease. Ive seen quite a few spektrum issues at the local club races. A lot of folks reference a "dead" spot but Ive never had an issue.

[GP73]

I thought they had a failsafe built in?

That's scary.

[tiqueman]

I belive they do, but it takes 3 seconds for it to kick in. In a stock 40mph boat, thats waaay too long, let alone all the other speeds we are running. Both times I lost rx do to water intrusion, the boat went full tilt at the shore line and cut out before it hit the bank. the first time it did it, 100 yards of clear shore line and it was going straight for the 4 foot wide concrete culvert. It lost powere and barely bumbed into the concrete. Talk about having to chage your britches....

[line6]

Thats a shame. but that one dont look like a fasst.



Jason Sims

[Steven Vaccaro]

No fail safe in this one or it didnt work. It ran for probably 20 seconds or longer.

[tiqueman]

Im using the 603FF's and Ive been told they have one and are on a delay... Ive never been ambitious enough about it to look it up though. I do know that the one pictured compared to mine is a bit less expensive.... I hate buying new Rxs.... Although, at the local shop, the last time I got one they had dropped in price by $20.00 or so.

[GP73]

Well you could test it on the bench, I have done testing with my Spektrum receivers and they do go into failsafe fairly quickly, but that kind of damage is still scary...

[fuse01]

i use FASST as well no issues . but i'm on the new RX 614 on 4PKS

[jcald2000]

You MUST keep any reciver dry, i use conformal coating on my ESC's and receiver's.
Plus if you use analog servos you must push the fail safe button EACH time you run.

[Fluid]

One failure is proof of nothing. The Futaba radios have become de rigeur for the gas clubs in Texas, although there are some Spektrum and Airtronics seen. I was the first to show up at a mixed fuel race with a 2.4 radio about 4 years ago and the gas guys all thought I was nuts. Now at a race with 75 drivers only a handful of 27 and 75 band radios are seen.

No radio will work with low receiver batteries, set up wrong or with the antenna shielded by the tuned pipe. The gas guys learned the latter the hard way and usually place their receivers at the top of the radio box. Some even extend the antenna for better reception. It is hard to tell from the photo, but the antenna exits the radio box quite a ways from the receiver - meaning less extending up in the air. Still, runaways are far less prevalent today than they were three years ago at 300-boat races. All the ones I've seen recently (very very few) were with Spektrum radios, but that does not mean Spektrum radios are bad. Human error is still the chief cause of problems.


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[Steven Vaccaro]

One failure is proof of nothing.

.

I dont think I said it was. I would be pretty tunnel visioned to think differently.

I'm just tired of hearing people bash Spektrum. I've been running Spektrum in cars and boats for about 4 years now. 0 failures. 0 run aways. Every time some a post comes up about the two someone will always say that they have never seen a Futaba 2.4 issue. Well its now been reported to them.

[Grimracer]

Steven,

I would place a bet that the ON/OFF switch gave up.. most of the gas guys just do not take care of there switches… the vibration is lower then a nitro boat and can be very hard on switches..

I can say "without even seeing the setup" the switch failed.. most of the time the switch will work again on shore and then if the boat survived they “Launch it again” Scary!

Grim

[Grimracer]

looking at the pics..

He put a budget FHSS system in a gas boat.. need more be said..

THE SWITCH!

Grim

[don ferrette]

I always find it interesting how as soon as a boat goes out of control the radio automatically gets blamed regardless of who makes it........

Now with that being said it's time for a few points to be made-

1- 2.4 RX's are even less tolerant of moisture than their FM counterparts. A clear radio box lid is not a good thing to have when it's exposed to direct sunlight like that one is. Even if the box is totally watertight the clear lid can and will allow for drastic temp and humidity level changes inside the box. This is why many manufacturers like Aeromarine tint their lids.
2- 2.4 RX's do not tolerate excessive heat and typically will shut down when too hot. As above the clear radio box lid out in the open like that is not good as well as it being a black boat. It's always good to toss a towel over any dark colored boat if it's going to sit in the sun for any length of time. This also applies to protecting a dark colored 'glass boat from getting to hot and warping, seen that happen a few times before as well to a newer boat left in direct sunlight. A 'glass and resin hull can take up to 6 months before it is truly 100% cured and can still be affected by excessive heat regardless of age.
3- 2.4 systems are all vertically polarized. This means simply that the RX antenna needs to be vertically mounted. Yeah there are those who are leaving the antenna laying in the box but to me that's like playing Russian Roulette with multiple bullets.
4- 2.4 systems have a tougher time dealing with metal and carbon fiber. This is why it's essential to get the last inch of the antenna above any metal or carbon fiber. The last inch is the actual antenna BTW, the rest is coaxial leader.
5- A strong 6 volts is an absolute MUST to power the RX. This is even more of a factor with so many people switching to digital servos which draw constantly on the battery even in neutral. I will not even consider running any less than 2000mah packs in a heat race application and most of my packs are 2500mah.
6- Do not rely on a "volt watch" type of accessory to tell you pack condition. All these things do is give you an approximate voltage reading which can change drastically under load. I also have seen on a few recently give false readings saying a pack was good when it wasn't, almost cost a well known boater a boat.
7- Spark ignition systems on gas boats are capable of generating way more RF interference than their nitro or FE counterparts. I have seen a gas boat have radio problems from nothing more than a bad resistor spark plug more than a few times. Extra care must be taken with these boats because of said ignition systems yet the gassers seem to cut corners more than most others. Still trying to figure that one out......
8- On-off switches need to be replaced REGULARLY! These are a moving part that see tons of use and wear out. I replace switches annually and use high quality ones as well. The switch is one place to NEVER cut corners. In all the years I've been doing this a vast majority of radio "issues" were from cheap or worn out switches or weak battery packs.

Now all this applies to any 2.4 system regardless of who makes it. Bottom line is in my opinion you can't "overdo it" when it comes to radio gear and is why I buy the best I can get. I've never understood the mentality of relying on a $50 radio to run a $1500 (or more) boat.

And I will still take a Futaba FASST radio over any other 2.4 system out there without hesitation.