ASK Cub Reporter, 09.19.2013, Version- Gone Crazy, Be Back Later

“I have hpi racing remote and the wire (antenner) in body was cut and taped back. I replaced it with a new remote, but i was yold i could send it to hpi and u guys will fix for a certain price. I was wondering how to fix

From my Android phone on T-Mobile.

billy h”

Cubby- Yo hey Billy, ummmmm, thanks for the email? After running your email (read- jumbled mess) through my Xerxes Universal Translator I have determined your question to be, “I tore the antenna off my receiver, how do I fix it?”.

Fixing a receiver antenna is fairly easy if you can solder. Simply tin the wire on both ends, solder them back together, then apply heat shrink tubing over the top. Done! The one main piece of advice I can give you is… try not to change the length of the antenna during your soldering exploits, especially on 27 & 75MHz gear.

But… maybe you ripped the antenna wire out from inside the case of the receiver. Depending on how froggy you are feeling, you may want to just crack the case open and resolder to the board.

Otherwise, if you can’t solder and don’t want to learn how, man up and buy a new receiver. I haven’t checked the price of getting a receiver fixed, but chances are you can find a cheap replacement and save the turnaround time of getting yours fixed.

“Another Servo

The guy at the hobby shop said I should replace the servo in my HPI Blitz but my truck drives just fine. What should I expect if I put an expensive servo in my Blitz?

Chris B.”

Cubby- Hey ya Chris, and thanks for taking the time to shoot me an email. Shoot Brian your snail mail at the “Contact Us” link at the top of the page for a free BSRC sticker pack.

Ya, I think too many people tell others that they “have to have” a high end servo. We have plenty of RTR trucks around the office that still have their stock servo inside, and just like your Blitz, they drive “just fine”.

But… there are times when a better servo really is a noticeable upgrade. Heck a good servo can entirely change the personality of certain vehicles. A servo that is too weak or slow (or worse yet, both) can really hamper steering.

So… lets say you bust out a Ben Franklin and get a good servo. If you decide to do so, look for a servo with a transit speed faster than .15, and torque greater than 125 oz/in. I am partial to Hitec servos, mainly because I’ve used them for years with very few issues.

Ok, lets say you have your uber servo installed, how will your Blitz drive differently? That depends on what the previous servo was, but lets say it was the stock RTR servo. You will notice that at very low and very high speeds that the front wheels will stay exactly where you point them, whereas the stocker simply doesn’t have the power to do so. You’ll also notice when having to make major course corrections that you can quip the front wheels from far left to far right more quickly. To boil it down- a better servo is more capable of putting the front wheels where you want them, when you want them there.

If you are getting along fine with the stock servo, that’s cool, keep on using it and don’t listen to the dude behind the counter trying to pry some cash out of your pocket. But… if you’ve got the extra cash, pop in a better servo, they typically sit pretty high on the “noticeable improvement for your cash” scale.

That’s it for this week, shoot me your questions, Cubby at BigSquidRC.com is the addy you want. Shoot me pretty much anything your warped head can come up with, the worst I can do is forward it to the rest of the staff to laugh at. If your email hits the big-time you’ll win a free sticker pack, and the first week of the month I pick a “Letter of the Month” where the author gets a free t-shirt.

YOUR Cub Reporter