Eman77

So I was wondering, how can you tell when your radio is just done? Kaput? Dead? Too old to work?

I have a 15+ year old Futaba Magnum Sport (2 channel, with the trigger grip/wheel setup). It was pretty nice back in the day. I used it a lot back then, then hardly at all for many years, and now I use it a decent amount since I'm back into the R/C thing with my old 1/10 electric cars.

Anyway, yesterday it worked fine. Today it seems dead. Battery swap didn't help. I turn it on, but the little analog battery power meter stays at 0 (which normally means the batteries are dead). New/good battery swap did nothing. It won't control the buggy at all - nothing. No steering, no Fwd/Reverse, nada.

I didn't drop it or anything, not sure what's up. Can these things just die when they get old enough?

Your thoughts are appreciated.

gerwen

It's possible one of the battery wires corroded. There's something called black wire disease or something like that that ends up wrecking the wires that go from the batteries to the guts of the radio.

Try opening it up and checking it out. Maybe you can fix it by soldering in a replacement.