Hi,

Im getting into brushless and im alittle unsure because i heard some people say that the LRP COMPETITION SPHERE is awsome and others has to send theres back over and over again

Please tell me your suggestion!!!

Thanks,
Cody Gallogly
TEAM OHP

Cody,
I have had several of them and have had no problems with mine, however I have given them to friends to use and they have had trouble with them after they worked fine in my car. We've seen many people have trouble with them and I won't even
sell them on our website anymore.
If you are going into BL, I would only get a GTB.

also Tekin has a new brushless speedo

I had a LRP. But it spent most of it's time being sent back and forth for repairs. was replaced twice.i just finally give up on that thing. stay with Novak. But this is just my 02 worth.

I ran my sphere comp for about 2 weeks, and it had to be sent back for repairs. There's several people at my track that have had issues also. I know if mine has any more problems, i'll be switching to the GTB.

I've had no problems with mine -- but... it doesn't seem to have the rip that the GTB does. I'm running the Sphere on MAP #6 and I swear my GTB feels like it has more rip.

I'm pulling my Sphere out and now will have a GTB in both cars.. so... I've got a Sphere for sale if you want one ... :-)

I have had my Sphere Comp for about 3 months with no problems. Went through an entire BRL weekend flawlessly.
BUT, if I had it to do again I would get a GTB. In fact, I am going to get a GTB as a backup. Not that the GTB's have not had trouble, because some have. Usually when running the motors faster that the 5800. I have not heard many [if any] problems running the GTB with a 13.5 or 4300.


Also, Novak's Customer Service is WAY better.

I run a GTB on my 13.5 and a Sphere(the first one)not a comp on my 4300 I like it better as far as space . I mount it behind my batts on the slider tray and allso mount the GTB there ,well barelly.The only thing I don't like is on the modified mode it is all or nothing no ramp up but it has great brakes .No problems with mine so far been running it 4 5min heats a nite + practice with 4200s for 4 weeks.Just blow it out after every run.The GTB is great other than being a bit bigger than I would like.

But like I said this is the first version not the comp.

Jake

Just a question: a man at our home track replaced his sphere with the GTB and said that he thinks it is slower

By the way i am running the 4300

Keep the help a coming PLEASE

My Sphere comp seemed to have MORE RIP than my GTB did.. Ive not had any problems with mine.. I switched to LRP because the GTB is about as UGLY as it gets if you have to run brushed with it..If I show up to race and no one else does for BL and Im forced to throw a 19T in.. its EASY with LRP.. with a GTB you have all kinds of stuff to change and splice.. Plus I did not like the giant capacitor/heatsink/fan/ etc... I almost needed a trailer behind my car to carry it all..

LRP all the way. You can search my posts for supporting reasons to run either speed control. :)

I've witnessed too many radio issues with Novak products, plus they aren't intuitive. However, their cases are better than LRP's, yet they are an ugly orange color!

Same old question, you won't get an answer as to which one is better, just opinions and lots of biased responses...

My Sphere comp seemed to have MORE RIP than my GTB did.. Ive not had any problems with mine.. I switched to LRP because the GTB is about as UGLY as it gets if you have to run brushed with it..If I show up to race and no one else does for BL and Im forced to throw a 19T in.. its EASY with LRP.. with a GTB you have all kinds of stuff to change and splice.. Plus I did not like the giant capacitor/heatsink/fan/ etc... I almost needed a trailer behind my car to carry it all..

With the 13.5 motor, several of us have REMOVED the 50-gallon drum-sized cap and the heat sink (just put a piece of lexan over it instead). Works great ! Lots smaller !

I've had 7 Spheres and 0 problems. We run stock, 4 cell, so we don't run the heatsink or fan.

I know my dad posted up top, but I thought I'd throw my .02 in. We've had to send back 8 LRP Spheres and have never had to send back a GTB. I've had 2 of my LRP's go up in smoke(literally) I always had to run a rec pack with my LRP due to studdering off the line with the DSM, when I switched to the GTB that all went away. I can count probably ATLEAST 15 LRP's I've seen or heard of people having problems with.... can think of about 3 GTB's I've seen go bad. I liked the LRP much better at first but after having problems and seeing all the others have problems I wont take any chances with another one.

With my GTB I took the fan off and just sanded down the heatsink so its about 2/3 the size it started at. I also put longer wires on the Capacitor and ran it alongside the batteries and tied it down in front of the battery tray. Some guys have taken their heatsinks off and put lexan over without any problems.... I had mine off for awhile too but I figured I'd rather be safe than sorry so I put it back on and just sanded it down.

For what its worth both of the BRL races so far have been TQ'd and won with GTB's in the 4300 class, and most of the cars in the A have been using them. Novak has shown MUCh more support for oval racing the past few years and also helping promote Sonny B's BRL series, you may want to take that in to consideration also.

Hays Jr

Hays, Jr. But you are LefthanderRC. So 8 out of how many have you sold/dealt with? Did LRP provide good support or replace them?

We have sold more GTB's and have seen less problems with those. We havent sold as many LRP's and have seen more problems. The last 3 we sent in were sent in August and we still havent gotten them back. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, just saying that percentage wise we have seen more people have problems with Spheres than GTB's. Those are the numbers like it or not, we have no gains of selling one speedcontrol over the other, it really doesnt matter to us but those are just our findings.

We sent 3 LRPS in last spring, 3 in around August, and have 2 right now. In that time we have not been asked to send back any GTB's (which we sold more of). Not to say the GTB is bullet proof and doesnt have any problems, but this is just what we have seen. Beleive me I loved the spheres when they first came out but after having lots of problems and seeing everyone else have them I switched at the end of the summer.

Those are the numbers like it or not..
Yep, I understand what you are saying, I was just wondering what kind of numbers we are talking about. 50, hundreds, thousands? Of course, you don't have to answer that due to business reasons, but people should understand that you are an online hobby shop dealer, and your first post could have been read as 8 for 8 were bad, which we know isn't true.

Yep, I understand what you are saying, I was just wondering what kind of numbers we are talking about. 50, hundreds, thousands? Of course, you don't have to answer that due to business reasons, but people should understand that you are an online hobby shop dealer, and your first post could have been read as 8 for 8 were bad, which we know isn't true.

James, I understand what your saying now..... definately less than 25 LRP's in a year.

James, I bought a sphere to run in 12th scale with you guys, now you just watch.... it'll crap out the first week!

At the big brushless race last year (the one that had over 100 entries) I thought the Sphere was in most cars that made the A? Strange that people are saying the GTB is a quicker speedo. At the onset of the whole BL scene it seemed like you had to have a Sphere to compete.

What changed ?

At the big brushless race last year (the one that had over 100 entries) I thought the Sphere was in most cars that made the A? Strange that people are saying the GTB is a quicker speedo. At the onset of the whole BL scene it seemed like you had to have a Sphere to compete.

What changed ?

At the MBOC last year it was 4 and 4. I'll have to check for sure but I think it was 7 GTB's and 1 LRP in the Pro 4300 class this past weekend.

I've seen plenty of threads about people having issues with the LRP Sphere Competition Speed Controls. The question that needs to be addressed at this point isn't if there are failures, but why there are failures. The LRP may be the best or worst brushless speed control. If there is some user fault that is contributing to the failures (whether known or unknown), then I think it would be more productive to the discussion than the general "I don't trust blue so now I'm going orange".

Let me put this another way. I know if I short out or reverse the leads on my Turbo 35 that I'm going to blow the fuses. Is it CE's fault that their charger blows fuses when the user doesn't use the product the way that it was designed? Should every product in the world be so idiot proofed that it can never fail?

I'm not defending LRP or the Sphere. However, I find it odd that there seem to be many happy Sphere users that don't seem to have any problems. I will say that on the issue of customer support, Novak seems to be keeping their customers happy. Since LRP seems to be a bit slow on repairs, why don't we work as a community to help other racers to keep from damaging their existing LRP Sphere controllers so they don't have to buy a new speed controller or wait for service? I think it would be helpful to know what each person was doing before the failure happened and what happened during the failure. Maybe we as the users of the products can get to the cause and come up with preventative measures to minimize failures.

I don't mean to suggest that the racers should not get together and figure it out, but it would be nice if LRP/Associated helped with this.

Bought a used Sphere this past summer and so far, no problems. Thinking about buying a second for a spare and part with the Orange SS.http://www.hobbytalk.com/bbs1/images/icons/icon10.gif

I know most of my problems seemed to stem from the momentary cut out or studdering when using the DSM.... which then brought on a head on into the wall senario LOL. After hitting things hard like that your going to mess up your electronics 1 way or another sooner or later. Running a receiver pack instead of the cap made this problem go away, but if the rec pack wasnt fully charged every round I would have problems again, and charging it for everytime you go practice gets to be a pain. I had talked to Sonny B about this at the time and he told me the Sphere doesnt have as good of BEC circuitry as the GTB does which is why the receiver pack was needed. I know plenty of guys that have had NO problems with them so IndyRC you may very well be right there might be something some guys are doing wrong and dont even know.

Hays, your post makes me think of the following. What type of servo/receiver/personal were people using when they experienced problems with their LRP or car. I think we all are sometimes reluctant to admit that certain combinations of electronics don't play well together. A good example is Futaba HRS receivers and non-digital servos. Some of the digital servos out there may not work well with the LRP BEC circuitry which in turn can cause loss of signal and accidents.

Another thought is the LRP case. Anyone who has run an LRP speed control has at some point had the case pop open due to incidents on the track. Have the people who have had problems had their case pop open or have they improperly glued/sealed their case shut?

In case anyone needs LRP's website, it is here (http://www.lrp-electronic.de/). There is a web forum, but it doesn't look like the questions get quickly answered.