I recently ordered crystals from Tower Hobbies. They came in an bubble wrapped envelope and of course all of the bubbles were pretty much "popped". While I haven't had a chance to check them, started wondering about how much shock crystals can take. Most manufacturers seem to have warnings about handling with care etc., even if they work, should I be concerned about weakened crystal structure? How often do you see failures? Just wondering since I've had 2 go bad in my lifetime for no apparent reason. I have no problems with Tower usually, but I may need to find an alternate source for crystal. They just seem to throw them into whatever is convinient.

Hi sfsjkid,

Good bubble wrap would normally be fine for a crystal set. If the bubble wrap itself is in poor condition and there was no other packing in the box with the crystals you may want to do an extra thorough range check, but chances are yours will be fine.

Failures in crystals are mostly seen only in the event of a hard crash, or from dropping a transmitter.

I hope you find this information helpful. You can also reach our Futaba support technical team at 217-398-8970, or via fax at 217-398-7721.

Sincerely,
Krysta
Lead Futaba Customer Service and Programming Technician

Thanks Krysta, that makes me feel more at ease. I will do an extra thorough range check though, as the packaging was pretty lame. Have a nice one, thanks for the quick reply!