Keep burning out Tactic 3 ch receivers!

[steelo]

Hi All,

I’m having issues with Tactic 3 channel receivers burning out in my wife’s Tomahawk.

Here is the set up: Using a 2s Turnigy lipo with a Hobbyking ‘X-Car’ 45amp ESC powering an Axial 27T motor. So far, I’ve gone through 2 of these receivers…it will work perfectly fine through one or two batteries. When we go to run the car again a few days later, the LED won’t turn on, the radio is completely unresponsive and the ESC doesn’t go through its full ‘initialization’ tune. It's just completely dead.

I’m thinking maybe the ESC is pumping too much voltage into the rx and burning it out? Very frustrating….

Any ideas?

[Percymon]

That ESC is supposed to supply 5.6v/2a Bec , so on paper should be fine.

[steelo]

Yeah, so I’m baffled….Either I’m doing something very wrong or these Tactic receivers are just junk. I don’t think I’ve ever blown out a receiver, my trusty old Spektrum rx is about 5 years old and has never given me any issues.

Another concern is that there is no polarity marked on the receiver where you plug in the ESC and servo. I assumed that the black wire goes on the outside since that’s how I’ve always connected them.

If anybody on here would like a Spektrum controller (minus the receiver) for very cheap, let me know! LOL

[GregM]

What steering servo do you use? Maybe it pulls too much current from the ESC's BEC? Although even if that's the case, I'd be puzzled why that would render the receiver useless.

[steelo]

Hi,

I believe it’s a Kyosho standard servo that I’ve been using for a few years.

[GregM]

Thanks! That one shouldn't pull too much current from the BEC. Well, would you mind trying a different servo?

[steelo]

I would, but I’d have to order a new receiver =) For now, I’m just using an extra Spektrum receiver and haven’t had any issues (yet)

Now that I think of it...being careless, I have a few times accidentally connected the Lipo battery with the power switch ‘on’ and heard a ‘spark’…could that have burned it out? I would think it would burn out the ESC before the receiver though…

It's frustrating that I've burned through almost $100 on a new radio and 2 receivers...

[steelo]

I’m looking at the ‘Flysky’ fs-gt3b…it seems to be very reasonably priced (around $40), with quite a few features. I’ve read decent reviews for it being a cheap radio, it has a nice, back lit LCD screen, 10 model memory, ABS, D/R, trims and people wrote that you can ‘hack’ the firmware to add features such as a lap timer. I also like that I can buy extra receivers for all of my models for ~$10 each =)

Does anybody have any experience with this radio?

[Percymon]

I’m looking at the ‘Flysky’ fs-gt3b…it seems to be very reasonably priced (around $40), with quite a few features. I’ve read decent reviews for it being a cheap radio, it has a nice, back lit LCD screen, 10 model memory, ABS, D/R, trims and people wrote that you can ‘hack’ the firmware to add features such as a lap timer. I also like that I can buy extra receivers for all of my models for ~$10 each =)

Does anybody have any experience with this radio?

Had mine 5 years and no issues whatsoever - the RXs come in various brand names, so its normally easy to pick up RXs cheap (albeit not as cheap as they used to be, but still less than half the price of a Spketrum one !)

[steelo]

Thanks, I think I'm going to give it a try.

[markbt73]

That's weird... I've been using a Tactic radio with those 3 channel receivers for many years now. I have 2 receivers with Velcro on the back, and I keep swicthing them from car to car, and they've never had so much as a hiccup. Your "power-surge from plugging the battery in" theory might be correct, hate to say...

[danb1974]

I'd first check the voltage the esc supplies to the receiver... did the servo seem unusually fast? The simplest explanation would be faulty bec inside the esc, supplying more than 6V to the receiver, frying receiver's internal voltage regulator.

The receiver is not marked but is keyed - not that many of today's connectors have that key. Yup negative (black) on the outside.

[Chumley54]

I have a FLysky FS-GT3B, and the GT3C....I hacked the 3B so it has 8 channels and loads of programming. Bought a 6 channel receiver and use the 3b on my Clod Buster for 2 servo steering. Channel 3 goes to the rear servo. I use the other 3 channels to control lighting. The hack allows programming any button on the TX to perform a function on any channel....

The 3 chan receiver has been in the $7.00 range if you shop around, and I paid $12 for the 6 channel. There is an 8 channel rx, but I haven't the need (yet).

I also improved the 3B with a roller bearing on the steering wheel shaft. They are really good units. Having said that, the Tactic units may actually be made by Flysky....open up a dead RX and check the board inside. If it is Flysky, you can use the flysky receiver with the tactic RX....

[stu22]

On 4/11/2016 at 9:50 AM, steelo said:

I’m looking at the ‘Flysky’ fs-gt3b…it seems to be very reasonably priced (around $40), with quite a few features. I’ve read decent reviews for it being a cheap radio, it has a nice, back lit LCD screen, 10 model memory, ABS, D/R, trims and people wrote that you can ‘hack’ the firmware to add features such as a lap timer. I also like that I can buy extra receivers for all of my models for ~$10 each =)

Does anybody have any experience with this radio?

I've switched most of my bashers and seldom run stuff to FS-GT3B's. Have never had any problems but there are some who believe it can cause problems for Spektrum systems when running at the same time. Personally I have never seen any problems but I can't say it doesn't happen.

Switched things over after realizing I was spending a small fortune on Futaba R603FF receivers. You can get the FlySky transmitter and a full set of receivers for it for close to the price of a single Futaba receiver.