Don't want IR; I like airsoft.

I understand the dislike for proprietary stuff, but the hobby isn't big enough. Asking for others to adopt the Tamiya IR programming isn't standardization. It's simply one proprietary standard co-opted by others. The model train example is a good example of a standard established by an independent group.

For me, there are three things that kill my interest in the "hobby-grade" electronics. Price, complexity on the controller and a bias for IR. Price is the coffin...too high gets hard to swallow. Bias for IR is the lid because airsoft, which I want, is often an afterthought and poorly implemented. The nail in the coffin is the complexity on the controller. Extra knobs for turning stuff on and off are fine. But, as soon as it requires special stick movements to do stuff, then you've made it hard for my 10YO to learn. Hard learning is not fun driving. The basic controls should be easy to learn so that it's fun driving for me and the kids (i.e., future of the hobby anyways). If the ASP can answer those, I'll definitely look into it. Getting past the lid and the nail would make a slightly higher cost easier to accept. But, it does need to work with 480 motors. Need that for the heavy or fast tanks.

Again, my two yenners...

P.S. Kevin, thanks for the explanation of how the Taigen and HL controls work. That helps a lot!