Car & Controller Crippling

SimonD · #1 11-07-2002, 05:35 PM

Hi all.

I have just purchased a Loctite Skyline (45 Mhz)
I have a couple of questions regarding the crippling....

The controller does not appear to be crippled but then the circuit board layout is not the same is the one in the picture on the mods page. Does anyone know where the newer controllers are crippled?

The car appears to have a crippling capacitor on the board as shown by the diagram. However, there is also a large capacitor (100 microfarads ?) on the other side of the board connected in parallel with the one depicted in the diagram, is this correct? Should there be only 1 capacitor acress those 2 terminals?

TIA
Simon

#2 11-10-2002, 12:12 PM

There are 3 or 4 versions on Bit Char-g's and each one has a cripple capacitor in a different place. Go to www.questformadness.com and it will tell you how to remove it from your car if it is that version, and from your radio if it is an earlier version.

SimonD · #3 11-10-2002, 12:25 PM

Thanks for the reply, however... I've been there, it was that site that made me ask the question!

My car has 2 capacitors where the site says to remove one! Do I remove them both??

My controller has the components in completely different places to that shown in the picture.

mbartell · #4 11-11-2002, 02:23 PM

I'm wondering if just cutting the cap with a pair of pliers on the PC board in the car would work?

It would be un repairable, but it would save me from having to file down the point on my soldering iron. I've never messed with boards this small and would rather mess up the one component instead of the whole board.

You think I should try it the nasty way or should I keep it professional?

gek · #5 11-13-2002, 05:49 AM

Hi Simon,

I just removed the top Cap and the range increased. I tried to remove the one on the back of the PCB but if you follow the PCB trail you will notice it's directly connected to terminal. What this does is unknown to me but removing it kinda messes up the bit as it just sits there.

JBit · #6 11-13-2002, 06:26 PM

Well I opened up the Mach controller and found a new board - "epi-005a" which didn't match anything I found on these boards. there was no crip cap on the back of the board, but there were 2 new ones on the front. Following this thread and the pics on the other thread and also the old board mods on the mod site I figured out that my board was closest to your #5 board, because it had 2 crip caps. I decided to clip the bottom one, the one attached closest to the antenna wire (blue wire) since it was closest in location to the original crip cap in the old board. i didn't touch the 2nd crip, the one bunched up with the other caps.

I have to say, this mod worked! i havent found the range limit yet on my Mach (i live in a small apt) while before the range was about 10-15 ft even with untying the antenna knot under the pcb in the car. (which gave it a noticable 1 ft increase in range) btw now the elongated antenna is quite floppy, i'll have to firm it up somehow (i dont want to coil it since i heard that hurts the range)

also, i triple charged my batt right out of the box with some juiced up duracells in my controller (Duracell M3, I had Energizer Max too but i passed) and now my batt is nicely conditioned to run 20+ min with no tail-off in speed until the last 5 sec.

that's it for now, as i posted before i'm passing on the light mods since the plastic is opaque - too bad the front spoiler is smiley-faced=no intercooler mod for me. i guess it's time to look into muffler mods!

Shacky · #7 11-14-2002, 12:53 PM

JBit, is the cap you clipped C-11 on the Rev. 5 transimitter board?

JBit · #8 11-14-2002, 06:20 PM

mine was a c-8, and the board was a rev. 5a, not rev. 5. i guess they are trying to get trickier with these newer boards - i'm glad my guess was right!

edit - i tried out a few pen tips and found one that is perfect. now i have to buy a 2nd to make a pair. there is no need to dremel or poke a hole in the car, since the shape of the body gives a natural "U"-shaped space inbetween the wheels and the chassis below the body.

the body also has a pinhole on the top to let the antenna out, so i figured that sticking the other end of the antenna back in the hole would create one loop - no loss of range! also the loop is springy and firm, so now when i run the Mach below the doorjam the loop catches for a sec, making the Mach do a wheelie - fun!

one observation - when the battery is almost out the wheels will turn right, but not left. i guess there is a natural resistance to the left, which explains why i have my steering trim turned to the left to make the Mach go straight, and when i put it reverse it reverses in a curve. in fact, on the hardwood i give it hard reverse to make the mach do a 180 and head back!