Boomerang radio gear info

[Dougan]

I have had a rush of blood and just won a Boomerang on Ebay, I know I shouldn't have joined this club! I liked the idea of 4 wheel drive, opposed to my Frog's 2 whhel drive.

I have looked at the online manual because it comes with no radio gear or servos. It says I need a battery eliminator system, which takes it power from the main battery. The system the frog uses takes it power from 4AA batteries. How difficult is it to obtain the correct radio system for this car? Either new or used.

I paid £45 for it, and it says it has been rebuilt using lots of new parts, was this a fair price?

Regards

Dougan

[Twmaster]

If that Boomerang is indeed that nice then you got a terrific bargain. I love buggies and the 4WD ones are a blast! As for the radio system almost all modern radios for use in cars are equipped with the BEC system (battery eliminator circuit) and will meet your needs nicely. If for some reason your MSC does not have the BEC plug you can still connect plain old dry cells to the thing to power the radio.

HTH!

[DJTheo]

If it doesnt have a BEC plug, you can get a BEC circuit from Tamiya, or better trash the MSC and use an ESC, this way you also eliminate the receiver batteries, which anyway cant be fitted easily in a Boomerang, maybe if you remove the driver figure.

Cheers

[mud4fun]

I have to agree with the other chaps, invest in a good Electronic speed controller (ESC), your local model shop should have some for as little as £25-35, these not only eliminate the need for the AA cells but also provide fine control of the cars speed and make it a much more pleasurable experience. In my 'play' cars I use futaba ESC's which are fine with the standard 540 motor, they are usually £30'ish. For my race cars I use Novak Rooster/Super Roosters which are much more expensive but have fine control, can use modified motors and are generally higher quality - last longer! As for new battery eliminator receivers (BEC) again your local model shop should stock a range from the very cheap HITEC to the better quality Futaba. I use HITECS in my daughters cars, they cost about £12 for the receiver and you can get them in either 27mhx or 40mhz (I prefer 40mhz due to less interference) but you would of course need to match this to the transmitter you have. If you intend to use your boomerang for races or even sustained off road use I would suggest you purchase a ball raced servo for the steering. You should be able to get a futaba S3001 for about £10 - these have higher torque and seem to be more reliable than the standard servos which cost about £5-7 each. I have just restored a Thunderdragon (have a look at my showroom) which is basically the same as a boomerang. These are fine cars and handle very well at speed on dirt tracks however be warned the front suspension is prone to snap where it mounts onto the front gearbox. I would suggest taping an overbumper onto the existing bumper to extend the reach of the bumper well past the width of the front tyres - failure to do this means that as soon as the front tyres catch a kerb or even large stone the lower wishbone tears off the gearbox - very expensive!!!!!!!

[madbad jezza]

hi,

if you dont want to blow out mega bucks on a new ESC, do a search on ebay for a seller who calls himself auctions! he,s selling a complete BEC switch - the old type that run off the speed controller for when your reciever hasn,t got a BEC facillity. i,ve just bought one off him myself - for less than a fiver, you cant go wrong. they,re dead easy to wire in - even if your current speed controller hasn,t already got the connector wired in - as long as you can solder.

cheers,

james.