Airtronics MX-3, Radio upgrade

Stock traxxas radio's are am, mx-3 is fm, so it will not work. you will have to buy a radio with the reciver.

thanks, so I can keep the servos I'm guessing

Any FM receiver will due? I just have to get matching crystals?

As Mondragon said, You'll need a 75mhz FM reciever if you buy that.

Just a heads up, I just put my Airtronics 75mhz reciever in. I did it as I did the FOC and Single Servo mods, changing out both servos. The stock servos dont fit Airtronic's connectors. I'm sure you could get a JR or Futaba or whatever may be equiv to those connector types, brand reciever on 75mhz and run the controller if you wanted to get it bad enough.

If you got a 75mhz FM controller, you need a 75mhz FM reciever. Then you get matching TX/RX Crystals and you should be good. There are also 27mhz FM radios out there also, keep that in mind if you go shoppin for TX/RX and Crystals.

Mike

you can shave the little side tab off the stock servo's and they will fit. I run the same radio.

Dont you also have to bevel the edges on 1 side of the connectors too then? I dunno, I started to do that and then I decided not to bother till I swapped out the Servos. Good to know it can be done succesfuly.

Mike

I just shaved the tab Mike if I rember rite. make sure you dont cut it to close or you will expose the pin.

Mondragon said:

you can shave the little side tab off the stock servo's and they will fit. I run the same radio.

Click to expand...

Ok so it runs well then. So all servo speak the same language, cut off the tab and they all work with any receiver, all receivers work with all transmitters of the same band granted you have the corresponding tx/rx crystals. Do I get it now? are there any exceptions to this?

thanks

xmodrelic said:

So all servo speak the same language, cut off the tab and they all work with any receiver..... are there any exceptions to this?

Click to expand...

Yes there are some exceptions, such as Futaba HRS receivers, which must be used with digital servos only.

I was going to mention the digital stuff but I'm not going that far just yet, thanks.
That includes compatibility with the optidrive right? I know everyone just says ditch the thing, but I'm keeping it for now.

You might also want to consider a synthesized radio and receiver. That way you never have to buy crystals. Another way to go is the Spektrum system.onder2:

<3 my Spektrum, was a bit spendy though >.<

When I was shopping for receivers (for my MX-3), I didn't get a definite "yes it will work" with any receivers other than the one that comes with it.

I have found that the Novak XXtra 75MHZ synth receiver works just fine with the MX-3 non-synth transmitter. It actually works better. I get less glitching and better distance. There are a couple cool things about the XXtra, it's cheaper by about $20 than the airtronics receiver and it's synth, so you don't need to worry about crystals. You just tune it to the crystal you have.

Both it and the stock receiver will work with the stock servo's. You just have to shave the tab off the side. Although, I'd highly suggest replacing the dual servo's for steering with a single better servo.

I run the hitec 645MG and it does ok for bashing. I'm about to install a 985MG in it. It's got quite a bit more power and speed. Then you could use one of your steering servo's in place of your throttle/brake servo to get better brakes.

The reason I was receiver shopping was due to the fact that I had two radios and 3 trucks. I bought 2 full radio sets at $90 a set at my LHS and didn't feel like spending another $90 on just a airtronics receiver and crystal.

looks like I'm going to shop around, i really like the duel steering servos but I can see all its faults.
thanks