Pcm or spektrum? If you've run both, can you tell a difference with the running of the car? I see alot of the top drivers still using pcm. Just curious Thanks, Hotrod

PCM use to be the best way to go for glitch free racing.. Spektrum is the newest type of frequency.. Glitching is possible with any radio at any time.. But it usually means something else is causing the issue.. I just picked up a spektrumm the best part about it is never ever needing to change your crystals, or wait for frequency clips..No one will ever be on your frquency..

Hotrod I have used a PCM for years and last year bought a Spektrum system for my radio. Honestly I can not see a difference. The only benefit with the spektrum is not having to worry about crystals and changing channels (which is a big plus). My advice would be if you mainly stick to one or two tracks and rarely have to change your crystals stick with what you have. If you go to many different tracks then the Spektrum may be worth the investment.

at hooby shops close to me spektrum rev.s are about 10-20 $$$ cheaper than pcm

I recently switched from PCM to Spektrum and have seen no difference in performance but it's awsome to be able to just walk up to the track and put the car down and go without worrying about frq conflicts or someone flipping on a radio in the pits and your car is destroyed.

to me spektrum is the greatest option you can buy but only if you go to alot of different places to race. it's great to be at a big race and go up to practice and not have to worry if someone is on your channel. the only downfall is the cost and if your only racing at one or two places and you don't have to change crystals very often you could use the extra money to improve your equipment.

Cost is negligable when you've got 1k tied up in your car! why chance it?

Ok thanks guys, I'm gonna get a little techincal here, 1024 pcm vs the spektrum 4096. Steps I think they call it .Speed or reaction? is it really better? Correct me if I'm wrong. And do you need a digital servo? Is there a point to where it's too much or not?

Ok thanks guys, I'm gonna get a little techincal here, 1024 pcm vs the spektrum 4096. Steps I think they call it .Speed or reaction? is it really better? Correct me if I'm wrong. And do you need a digital servo? Is there a point to where it's too much or not?

It's not about speed and reaction,99% of the racers out there including myself aren't going to be able to see a speed or reaction time difference on the track,it's about protection,why would one put 1K in a car and not have the proper radio equipt to protect it from getting destroyed by a glitch or some putz that turns his radio on in the pits while your practicing or worse yet racing,I've seen it happen all too often.It's hard enough to stay out of trouble with other cars on the track,just ask Mike Bush,he had his car destroyed at the Roar nats while making a practice run and another car spun and was trying to get back going.

HotRod

I switched to the Spektrum on my 3pk last year.

I run MANY MANY cars (too many) I have oval cars and TC's. Just prior to purchasing my Spectrum system, I had bought extra PCM receivers so I could have each car with full radio gear w/o having to keep switching receivers. ( I bought 9 of them)

Less than a month later I saw the Spectrum system in action, and bought one that weekend. I LOVE IT. The only place I've ever had a concern is at the ENCINO VELODROME (900+ ft. High Banked oval)

I put the power capacitor in the receiver and ALL my issues were gone, and I've NEVER had another issue.

NOT having to worry about crystals IS awesome.

After purchasing my system, I bought the system for my SON. He is still using the old 1024 PCM and it works FLAWLESSLEY in that old radio too.

We now have 4 spectrum receivers, and since they have such a short antenna wire, I just wrap it around a 4" long piece of lexan and tape it to the receiver. It's SOO easy to move it from car to car, and having the spare one, worked out great.

All I can say is, last carpet season I kept getting "hits." I changed everything but my specktrum including radios and was still getting hit. I totaled out 3 chassis! Not to mention all the electronics and such.

I will stick with my PCM / HRS.

Adam Liehr
Team FUTABA

Im with ADAM.. I could post pics of all the damage but ill say this its NOT GLITCH FREE.. and early on the fail safe did not work correctly either.. Ive never had a problem with PCM and Ill just keep running it. I had all the revs at the time with my spektrum when I gave up and I sold my system. I consider selling my spektrum one of the BEST THINGS I EVER DID..

I miss being able to just put the car down and run.. BUT I dont miss replacing chassis/ front end parts, etc.. Ill keep looking for the pin untill the time they work all the kinks out..

Ok thanks guys, I'm gonna get a little techincal here, 1024 pcm vs the spektrum 4096. Steps I think they call it .Speed or reaction? is it really better? Correct me if I'm wrong. And do you need a digital servo? Is there a point to where it's too much or not?

Thanks guys,as far as the glitching part I must be one of the lucky ones. A good stong signal from both. My question is,is there a difference in the reaction time? I guess I'm comparing the magnum style pcm to a 3pjs spektrum combo, what I'm familar with. If it is too fast, do people just slow it back down with radio, if need to?

The fail safe works fine if you set it properly when binding the reciever for the first time. You have to bind it twice. The first time makes connection between the radio and the reciever and I just do it again to get the servos straight and the esc in neutral. Just turn on your car before your radio and you can tell if it is working. When you turn on the radio the car will turn the servo on and you will have nothing to worry about.


As far as glitching I feel it may be a loose wire on the reciever or a antenna that came loose in the reciever. I put a dab of shoe goo on the antenna wire to keeep from coming out. Mine worked loose after removing the attenna tube but it did NOT glitch with the small antenna missing. I resoldered it and it works fine.

Not true for what Im speaking of.. REV 1 had some flaws.. #1 the amount of time it took for fail safe to actually kick in after signal was lost would have only helped if you lost signal running 2 cell spec at the velodrome.. Mine took about 4 seconds... 99% of the tracks I run at Ill complete a lap in under 4 seconds.. Then the "SHORT TX ANTENNAE SNAFU" when that little GEM reared its ugly head the fail safe never kicked on ...ever.. I watched as Mine and many many many others had theyir cars take off at full throttle straight into a wall.. and then the receiver act like it was not even bound.. thats what I was referring to about the FS feature.. IMHO even the latest revisions are slower to react than the futaba FS.. I broke 2 chassis on that gen1 unit... before initially removing it..

When they revised the system and came out with static proof receivers I reinstalled my system.. It was at a big race... The thing spent more time in fail safe than it did in drive.. the thing pulsed in and out for no reason... I got new receivers on site...Horizon rep happened to be there.. I never opened the boxes.. I just packed it up and disassociated myself from it...went back to gold old PCM that has not let me down since the 1980's.. and my chassis now are as chip/crack free as when they were new..


And roughtly 4 weeks ago whle running at platinum hobbies I saw yet ANOTHER spektrum system do exactly the same thing.. Im sure the racer will chime in when he sees it.. He broke stuff as well... I felt BAD about it because I kept telling him be carefull with that... it will let you down.. It did..

I heard every excuse in the book from horizon on the issue... My ESC, my reciever pack, the color shirt I was wearing when it happened, the fact that I ate taco bell before using it.. Finally I realized that no matter what I had..There was 1 common denominator.. when it was removed...magically quit breaking stuff..

I have never seen this problem anywhere I race. It seems you got 1 bad radio out of thousands that were sold. It's too bad that your radio did that but, I still feel 100% safer with Spektrum than PCM, FM or any other type.

How often have you used a fail safe in an electric car anyway? I would never go back to any crystal based or dial based frequency type radio due to the new or uninformed racers that leave their radio on to crash your car during a race. That is the main reason most of our top racers use this system. Too many people don't look for the frequency clip or just plain don't care. The ones that don't care have old cars and/or really outdated radio epuipment that should never be used at a race.

I have been running the spektrum since april and I love it. it is so nice to not worry anymore. i have run the spektrum with a novak lrp futaba and tekin speedo no problems i don't run a reciever pack and run the cap in the reciever. few weeks back i ran open mod, no reciever pack no problems. i have the old reciever and the new small reciever and run it in a futaba 3pjs radio with a futaba 9650 digital servo.

No way mine could have been the 1 bad one.. How do I know this.. because I SAW it happen to a LOT of people.. I wont list names..Ill let them chime in..

Not trying to turn this into an argument..

BUT if you want to take it there go back to VERDICT is in SPEKTRUM IS OUT.. READ carefully.. Watch as I explain problems which NOW ARE KNOWN.. which at the time Horizon techs were denying.. It wasnt just my car.. They sent people to our track.. 4 weeks ago in columbus I saw the same thing.. PM CODY GALLOGOLY ask him how his spektrum treated him..

I dont know why it is...I find it interesting.. People are afraid of horizon or something.. I know many many people who had problems who never spoke out about it.. Im not that way.. You send me a POS...Ill make sure others dont repeat my mistake.. Maybe the units are fine now.. Who knows.. But Im not breaking another chassis over it..

Tracks Ive seen it happen at>> AKRON, Cincinnati***MULTIPLE TIMES MULTIPLE USERS>> Columbus, Sandhills, lexington..

I put Pro Spektrum in for the Tri Clone race and loved it. (still do for all of the aforementioned reasons). Got one for my boy to run at the Velo. He lost the car many times and ended up putting the pcm back in and had no trouble. Needless to say, that system has been exchanged and the replacement system is as awesome as the system in mine. These things are built and shipped by humans. Count on some to have trouble as most products made by humans will.

Have had mine for 6 months and been to 4 tracks and never had an issue but mine is an HRS(only) unit and I think the only problems I have ever seen with spektrum was the first release ones.

Kenwood I'm not trying to make an argument on this. If you don't like Spektrum than that is your decision. It sounds like the early version may have had problems according to your statement and others in the Spektrum post. We have over 20 cars here with the spektrum system ranging from stock pan car to mod pan cars and gas trucks 1/8 and 1/10 and have not seen anybody have problem. Maybe its the radio used. 2/3 of them here are the Spektrum radio and the other 1/3 are using Futaba 3PK with the Spektrum module. I have the Futaba 3 PK with the Spektrum module.

3pk's here as well.. 1 spektrum DX3 radio..

I have to chime in here. Nothing is foolproof. The Spektrum appears to be a better technology, but it isn't a magic solution. Put a Spektrum in a car with other electronic issues and it is still going to glitch. Just because everyone you know hasn't had problems with a Spektrum system doesn't mean someone else won't. I think it is more important to determine why a car is glitching than junk the radio gear. With the way that some people defend Spektrum, they must be paid spokepersons. Yes, it is nice not to have to worry about an idiot on your frequency in the pits or finding an open channel when you want to practice. However, with everyone switching to Spektrum I've found it is easier to find a frequency for my Futaba PCM system.

BTW, I have seen more than 1 Spektrum system unbind at Cincinnati (WOH).

Exactly.. I was a HUGE supporter of it when I first got it...then mine started messing up.. I never had a problem with my radio before.. I havent had one since removing it.. Ill stay old school for now..