new amb system

[john333]

The whole thing is just turning into a massive balls up, especially if the Harry's are out of stock. I race in the east mids region and the clubs here have stated that none of them are upgrading this year (unless they have equipment failure??) this means we should all be fine this season......however, if we decide to go on a road trip to say silverstone, who I believe ARE upgrading quite soon where will us mrt owners be then? Can't buy a purcy because they won't work at our local clubs, and can't go anywhere with rc4 because mrt won't count!

I don't want to, but I will upgrade to a Harry so I can race everywhere, so please mylaps at least have the decency to get a huge stock of pt's that will work at all clubs!

[bigred5765]

john mylaps have plenty of stock clicky
it just the uk importer thats out of stock right now pal bbk

[Mr Eccleston]

BBK are expecting stock back in the next couple of days as well.

[Mr Eccleston]

Originally Posted by Col

Hell no...

The nationals will be run with RC4 (as posted a couple of weeks ago) so no MRT bugs at 1/10 off road nationals.
The BRCA has no authority over which system a club chooses to run - that's for the club and it's members to decide.

If it helps I can ask every club in the club section which system they are running and create a sticky to let everyone know?

Col

This might save you a bit of work, MyLaps already have a list of who has RC4, guess you would just need to get the clubs to update it.

http://www.mylaps.com/index.php/emea...m_medium=email

[mark christopher]

Has anyone been told how long harry will be produced for?

[sosidge]

The availability of handout transponders is distinct from the upgrade to RC4. AMB/MyLaps stopped supporting the handouts years ago, I thought it was a shame then and I still think it is a shame now, but you can see the reasons why it happened - the handouts were phenomenally expensive (about £1500 for 10 in a rack) so a lot of clubs never bought them in the first place. Even at clubs that do have them (Chippenham, where I race often, is one), they are very rarely used. I suppose the main positive about the authentic PTs is that they have a good resale value, so even if you spent £80 on a new one you would still get £60+ back for it if you sold up a few months later.

As far as the RC4 upgrade goes, since some clubs have already gone to RC4, that means that Pure RC4 transponders are out there. And Hybrid RC4 availability will be finite. Clubs that refuse RC4 now are going to have to start turning racers away, clubs that are already on RC4 will have already turned MRT owners way.

The choice for the clubs seems quite straightforward...

1) Spend £415 now on an RC4 decoder and ask your members to pay £35-ish to trade-in their MRTs for RC4 transponders.

2) Keep a hold of your RC3 decoder now, but end up paying £1200 to update it in a couple of years time when you get fed up of turning Pure RC4 owners away, and fed up of your club members complaining about having to own two transponders (MRT and RC4) in order to race at other clubs or regional/national series.

I know which I would choose. Racers will end up with RC4 transponders anyway, it is inevitable. You may as well make the upgrade as cheap as you can and do it now.

MRTs were a good deal, but their time has come. AMB/Mylaps were never going to let the copies survive when they control the decoder market. You can complain as much as you like about their market position, but they got there because they developed the best system.

[mark christopher]

But your rc3 decoder might work faultless for two years when rc5 comes out......

If you have a harry no one gets turned away from any amb/mylaps , so bit of a pointless comment from yourself

[bigred5765]

personly i hated the hand out transponders, but only because i always forgot to put them in the bloody car, at least with pt's there in there all the time

[Northy]

Does anyone know anyone in the UK who changes batteries in handout transponders, knows what technology battery is used inside them, and if possible any details about how the charging rack works?

G

[nottmboy]

Hihave swapped all our batteries at least once
you just have to be very careful 1st time round as the circuitry is just below the battery in the resin. Will let you know part No of battery later.
never had a prob with our rack so can't help with that
cheers Andy

[Ema]

Originally Posted by Northy

Does anyone know anyone in the UK who changes batteries in handout transponders, knows what technology battery is used inside them, and if possible any details about how the charging rack works?

G

Accordingly to this link ( http://abc123.dowco.com/~tom/rc/amb/index.html ) the replacement battery is a GP 80BVH or equivalent.
The battery is a single cell NiMh, full spec here: http://www.gpina.com/pdf/GP80BVH_DS.pdf

Ema

[mpg200]

Originally Posted by Ema

Accordingly to this link ( http://abc123.dowco.com/~tom/rc/amb/index.html ) the replacement battery is a GP 80BVH or equivalent.
The battery is a single cell NiMh, full spec here: http://www.gpina.com/pdf/GP80BVH_DS.pdf

Ema

That all looks fairly straight forward

[Mr Eccleston]

Here's what we used, there are two option, long or short pins, it's easier with the long pins:

http://www.espspecialbatteries.co.uk...%20TRANSPONDER

[Northy]

Does anyone know if there are any electronics in the transponder to do with charging? Or is the rack intelligent? Or is there no intelligence at all and it's just a trickle charge?

G

[Shifta]

Originally Posted by Northy

Does anyone know anyone in the UK who changes batteries in handout transponders, knows what technology battery is used inside them, and if possible any details about how the charging rack works?

G

http://www.rctech.net/forum/radio-el...placement.html

[skippy]

Originally Posted by Northy

Does anyone know anyone in the UK who changes batteries in handout transponders, knows what technology battery is used inside them, and if possible any details about how the charging rack works?

G

We now use these (they d'not stock the GP80 now):
http://cpc.farnell.com/enix-energies...imh/dp/BT05591
As mention above, do not dremel the recess to deep, I use a dremel milling tool and use the original green heat strink around the button cell held in the resin as a guide for depth, also be careful not to damage the two LED charge indicators. Cut away the spot welded tag and use small soldering tip to remove and reinstate the new battery. The removal of the old silicon takes up the time.
Have used clear hot melt glue to fill the void (allows the RED and Green LEDS to be seen-after assembly), used a made up gig box to assemble the halfs and use a clamp to bring top and bottom together and hold whilst glue cools down, clean off surplus with WD40 or similar, a good as new handout tx

[Northy]

Thanks for all your help, but I don't want to change any batteries....

I'd like to know how the charging rack charges the battery? Is it just a dumb trickle charge with no intelligence anywhere in the system (rack or handout)?

G

[MikePimlott]

From BBK website Northy,

AMB20 Charger Rack
The AMBrc Charge rack is compatible with AMB20 Transponders. The older AMB20 Charger racks had a 3.3v power supply. Newer racks use a 12v power supply and contain voltage rectifiers to reduce this to 3.3v.
AMB20 and AMBrc Transponders should only be charged using the AMB Charger rack with the correct voltage power supply.

Transponder Care
Over charging AMB20 Transponders causes damage. There is no charge management system and just like any NiCad, if you keep charging it for hours on end, it will fail. We suggest no more that 15 hours charge then allow the battery to fully discharge. If you are running a 2 day meeting then you will have to break this rule. Once in a while it is OK but not week in week out. If this is a requirement you are advised to upgrade to AMBrc.



So it sounds like its just a PSU that constantly powers the rack.
I dont know anymore mate, not taken one to bits to look! Yet.

[DanW]

Originally Posted by MikePimlott

From BBK website Northy,

AMB20 Charger Rack
The AMBrc Charge rack is compatible with AMB20 Transponders. The older AMB20 Charger racks had a 3.3v power supply. Newer racks use a 12v power supply and contain voltage rectifiers to reduce this to 3.3v.
AMB20 and AMBrc Transponders should only be charged using the AMB Charger rack with the correct voltage power supply.

Transponder Care
Over charging AMB20 Transponders causes damage. There is no charge management system and just like any NiCad, if you keep charging it for hours on end, it will fail. We suggest no more that 15 hours charge then allow the battery to fully discharge. If you are running a 2 day meeting then you will have to break this rule. Once in a while it is OK but not week in week out. If this is a requirement you are advised to upgrade to AMBrc.

So it sounds like its just a PSU that constantly powers the rack.
I dont know anymore mate, not taken one to bits to look! Yet.

The charge rack is dumb, but there is some charge circuit in the AMBrc handouts. There is an indicator LED on the transponders themselves to indicate whether the transponder is charging, fully charged or discharging.

[mpg200]

Northy,

What are you up to G? Do you have a cunning plan? PM or email me if so as I may be able to help

Matt