9-volt battery in the TX?

kotori · Post by **kotori** » Tue May 11, 2004 12:33 pm

A while ago, I was surfing the web for range-enhancing mods, and I found a little site that included some serious range-enhancing mods. There were a bunch of them, like removing the range-restricting caps in the tx and the car, and making a new antenna, but the mod that the site said had the biggest effect was making the controller able to use 9-volt batteries instead of the two 1.5v AA cells. Apparently the dude was able to get over 200 feet range improvement with this!

Unfortunately I can't find the site anymore. Can anybody find that site, or figure out how to do that mod?

hue35 · Post by **hue35** » Tue May 11, 2004 12:38 pm

Is that the same dude that was making airplanes out of bits?

hogjowlz · Post by **hogjowlz** » Tue May 11, 2004 12:41 pm

well in theory it should work. some transmitters may not be able to handle it tho. but hey now that clones are 5bucks you have the ability to test and not feel bad if it fries.

kotori · Post by **kotori** » Tue May 11, 2004 5:50 pm

It might be him. I remember seeing his website around the same time. Does he have a website?

sessiz · Post by **sessiz** » Tue May 11, 2004 6:24 pm

I dunno the site you're looking for but the mod is pretty simple. You have to go get the 9volt plug adaptors from RS and solder them onto the bat contacts inside the controller. There's a hole inside the bat comaprtment of a zip controller, don't remember about the bits. You thread the wires leading from the plug adaptor through there. You then have to affix the 9volt to the back of your controller and plug the bat into the plug thingie. I did this mod and really didn't see a major boost in range. There was a boost but only like 10ft.

SuperFly · Post by **SuperFly** » Tue May 11, 2004 8:23 pm

hmm, I already have that adaptor in place, but I've been snapping in a 4.5v (3x AA) pack. My controller has an antenna mod, so I didn't want to fry it with a 9 volt. Can the standard Microsizer TX take 9v and not burn up?

hue35 · Post by **hue35** » Tue May 11, 2004 11:43 pm

I seem to remember that the dude running 9 volts through the tx did a bunch of other shit to avoid burning it up. I also remember him saying that just hookin' up 9V would burn up the tx. I can't find that page right now, but I'm still lookin'.

hogjowlz · Post by **hogjowlz** » Tue May 11, 2004 11:55 pm

this?

http://bitpimps.lixlink.com/pages/phpFo ... ght=minnow

hogjowlz · Post by **hogjowlz** » Wed May 12, 2004 12:03 am

also kotori: goto radioshack and get yourself a single or double aa holder and wire that in series into the battery circuit and see what that does for you.

hue35 · Post by **hue35** » Wed May 12, 2004 12:25 am

Found it... at least I found what I was talkin' about.

here's a good excerpt from the section called "Home on the Range"...

"Using a longer receiver antenna and 9V in the transmitter, range is extended from 25 feet to over 200 feet. That is plenty for a small indoor or backyard electric airplane.

But it is not simply a matter of cramming a 9V battery into the transmitter. If you do this the transmitter will quickly be turned into a fancy paperweight. The upgrade involves adding a voltage regulator to the transmitter's TX2 IC so that it is powered by 5V or less."

here's the link

kotori · Post by **kotori** » Wed May 12, 2004 5:28 pm

Yeah, that's it. I don't intend to build an airplane, although that would be fun. I gotta keep stuff to WWI-WWII and 1:144 scale in my rc club, so airplanes are too small. But a PT boat isn't

SuperFly · Post by **SuperFly** » Wed May 12, 2004 8:35 pm

Well, after reading all of the above, I have this to offer:

I did a simple mod of soldering a 9V-type adapter through a small hole in the case. It's basically the female part to a 9v, two snap terminals in a pad of plastic, with black and red wires coming off of it. I have it soldered to the internal battery terminals. Anyway, I then hooked up a pack of 3 AA batteries (4.5v).

I really don't get that much more range. After reading that, I'm wondering how that 5v limit will improve it. Maybe feeding 4.5v to the battery terminals isn't the same thing as passing 5v to the actual tx? I don't know.

crazydave · Post by **crazydave** » Wed May 12, 2004 8:52 pm

Maybe it already has a limiter, fdor like 3v, and you need to replace that.

hogjowlz · Post by **hogjowlz** » Wed May 12, 2004 9:06 pm

nkok controllers are powered by 9v.

kotori · Post by **kotori** » Fri May 14, 2004 12:13 pm

From what I understand, the modification was involved plugging in a 9 volt battery,and also sticking in a thingie to reduce the power through the logic circuit down to 5 volts. That way, most of the equipment was at 9 volts, most importantly the broadcasting part itself. Thus, I suspect that while the logic circuits ( the black thingies with a lot of pins sticking out) fry at over 5 volts, everything else works just fine at 9 volts. I'm gonna try several things, but first I gotta get some battery packs and do a few other mods, not to mention begin building the hull it's gonna go into. Keep experimenting!