Sorcerer 001
01-31-2002, 10:38 AM
I've noticed that most of you guys run the Lynx, but there has to be a few of you that run the M8. So, hopefully I'll get a few responses.
Up until a year ago, I ran a KO Precious, which is the older version of the MARS. I ran this thing for 6 years without so much as a glitch. I decided to pick up an M8 because I'd heard so many great things about them, and I wanted to have a dedicated radio for my race vehicles, and another for my "sport" vehicles. Not to mention, I got sick of fellow racers making fun of my Precious.
The first time I ran the M8 in my XXX-T, it glitched constantly. After some research, I was able to cure the glitch problem by laying down a layer of electrical tape in the battery tray. If so much as a strand of the battery's wire touched the chassis, the thing goes nuts. I've tried changing crystals AND modules, and the problem would persist. So, anything I run this radio in MUST have the battery heavily insulated from the chassis. And to answer another inevitable question, yes, I have replaced the receiver. I'm now running an XXL, which hasn't fixed the problem.
I run primarily P2K based motors in my cars and trucks, so they've all got built in caps.
The other problem that I have with this radio is that unless you set it down very, very softly after a run, it loses power for a second, which is long enough to allow my car to jump off the table (or my boat to run it's polished and balanced prop across the rocks). I'm guessing that the weight of the batteries is pulling the tray away from the connector in the radio. I thought this was a fluke at first, but it turns out that several drivers at our track, including the owner of the track, are having the same problem. What's funny is that most guys are just living with it. We've all heard stories about Airtronics taking months to return repaired products, and don't want to be without our good race radios for that long. I have the option of running my older radio, but it's on 27 band, the "24 hour Traxxas Channel". (I'm currently trying to find a used 75 band module, don't want to pay $100 for a new one.)
I'm more or less curious if anyone else here has had the same problems, and how you resolved them (if you took the initiative).
Up until a year ago, I ran a KO Precious, which is the older version of the MARS. I ran this thing for 6 years without so much as a glitch. I decided to pick up an M8 because I'd heard so many great things about them, and I wanted to have a dedicated radio for my race vehicles, and another for my "sport" vehicles. Not to mention, I got sick of fellow racers making fun of my Precious.
The first time I ran the M8 in my XXX-T, it glitched constantly. After some research, I was able to cure the glitch problem by laying down a layer of electrical tape in the battery tray. If so much as a strand of the battery's wire touched the chassis, the thing goes nuts. I've tried changing crystals AND modules, and the problem would persist. So, anything I run this radio in MUST have the battery heavily insulated from the chassis. And to answer another inevitable question, yes, I have replaced the receiver. I'm now running an XXL, which hasn't fixed the problem.
I run primarily P2K based motors in my cars and trucks, so they've all got built in caps.
The other problem that I have with this radio is that unless you set it down very, very softly after a run, it loses power for a second, which is long enough to allow my car to jump off the table (or my boat to run it's polished and balanced prop across the rocks). I'm guessing that the weight of the batteries is pulling the tray away from the connector in the radio. I thought this was a fluke at first, but it turns out that several drivers at our track, including the owner of the track, are having the same problem. What's funny is that most guys are just living with it. We've all heard stories about Airtronics taking months to return repaired products, and don't want to be without our good race radios for that long. I have the option of running my older radio, but it's on 27 band, the "24 hour Traxxas Channel". (I'm currently trying to find a used 75 band module, don't want to pay $100 for a new one.)
I'm more or less curious if anyone else here has had the same problems, and how you resolved them (if you took the initiative).