Greetings,

First of all, thanks for all the engine help. I went with the bearing engine, and am sure I'll be pleased.

In addition, I had a chance to see a SPAD Gnat fly yesterday, and am building a couple for combat at a local club. I need a suitable, small receiver that fits in the space between the leading edge wing fold (about .5" high at most). Most had been using the Hitec Feather. However, I noticed that Tower Hobbies has the feather as discontinued, but still have the model for JR radios in stock (I have Futabas). Anybody know of a possible substitute that's slim, with servo plugs on the short edge? (The plugs have to lay in the same direction as the length of the receiver, as it's sandwiched between two pieces of coro). The Futaba super micro is only recommended for park flyers, and the R114F is a bit larger, and $10 more, and also says "for park or slow flyers".

Has anyone used the GWS Pico? I haven't really heard anything about them.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Regards,
-Pat-

Did you look at the Hitec Super Slim?
http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...?&I=LXN525&P=7

Stay away from the GWS for combat. It's not selective enough for that use. I have one in a park flyer, and I get hit from other TX's being on at the same time on a fairly regular basis, esp if I get too far from myself or too close to the other TX's

Anything labeled "for park flyers" is probibly a bad idea. They often aren't very selective, and combat is a really tough RF envrionment, with many TX's on at the same time in close proximity.

The Hitec 555 and the HFS-04MG are popular in combat. I run mostly 555's. You'll just have to be a bit creative with the plugs and zip ties to get it to fit. that's what I'd do.

The Polk Seeker 6 will fit. But it's caseless. And I consider it "unproven" in combat. It works great for normal flying though. ("unproven" because it's fairly new on the market, and it hasn't been abused in a season of combat yet. I have one, and several other guys have them, so they are starting to see combat. But I think it's too soon to predict over all reliability)

Btw, one of the issues with RX's that have the plugs coming out the end is that they often have a daughter-board that is soldered on vertically. That's another set of solder joints to break in an impact, and if the vertical board isn't well supported by the case, the mass of the board itself can help break the solder joints in a sudden stop.

The smallest dual conversion RXs I've ever seen are FMA RXs. They make a 5, 6, and 8 channel. The 5 channel has the servo plugs on top, so it won't be as compact as the 6 or 8 channel, which has the plugs on the end...

[link=https://www.fmadirect.com/site/Detail.htm?item=1505&section=1]FMA M5 5 channel RX[/link]

[link=https://www.fmadirect.com/site/Detail.htm?item=1268&section=1]FMA Quantum 6 RX[/link]

[link=https://www.fmadirect.com/site/Detail.htm?item=1270&section=1]FMA Quantum 8 RX[/link]

I have several FMA Rx's in the "extreme" line. They work great in the air. But they have proven to be a bit fragile. The FMA cards and/or solder joints don't seem to hold up to combat abuse, at least mine havn't. I will say their customer service and repair center are great, and fixed RX's come back quickly when I send them the broken ones. I have 3 broken FMA's on the shelf right now, waiting for me to get a box for them. And I have 4 more that are currently in service.

I do find the caseless ones break easier, so I've been having FMA convert my Extreme 5's to Extreme 4's. It's the same RX, they just clip off the 5th set of pins and put a case on it. The case seems to support the board and reduce damage. I also only use the FMA RX's in full-fused models, no profiles or planes with exposed bits. Combined with some extra foam padding, they've been doing well enough in my SSC planes.

It also helps that SSC planes don't hit as hard as the B or 2610 class planes.

I haven't tried an M5 or the bigger FMA rx's so I can't tell you if they work better or not.

Oh, the FMA RX's I have also have really thin wire for the antenna. It's a lot more prone to breakage, and harder to solder back together than the Hitec antennas. But the FMA's actually work amazingly well with a shortened antenna. If you look on their website, they explain why. I have a 2 yr old FMA in an SSC plane which has an antenna that was chopped in about half in a mid-air years ago. It keeps working (and range checking just fine), so I keep flying it.

The Hitec Electron 6 is a nice micro RX as well, I have two of them in my .25/.32 sized SPADs. Looks like it's actually a little smaller than the 555, going from the dimensions posted on Tower's pages...

Yes, I forgot the Electron. Just as good as anything else. I don't have any personally, but I've seen plenty at combat contests, and know a few guys who use them in quanity.

I have ten Hitec Electron 6 in combat birds and they are the bomb.

I also have 4 gws rx's that I use in my combat electrics and for ssc practice at home. I haven't had any trouble with the gws with up to 3 planes in the air but I wouldn't trust them at a contest for sure.

I have several Hitec Electron 6 receivers and they are very nice but the original poster was after a thin receiver that would fit into the wing space of a Gnat. The Electron has the connectors and the crystal protruding at 90 degrees while the Super Slim has them on the edge.

Nobody has yet pointed out that the Hitec Feather you mentioned is a Single Conversion receiver and that in the RF rich environment of combat a dual conversion is a better idea.

Hey Guys,

Thanks for all the advice. I still haven't decided which one to go with, but it's great to get some good points of view.

Another idea that I'm kicking around is just mounting the receiver on top of the wing with some kind of armor around it, but I had hoped to get it totally out of harms way (if that's possible) by putting it in the wing. I'm almost finished with the plane, minus the receiver, so I guess I'll have to make a decision soon....

Thanks again,
-Pat-

Pat,

No amount of sim time will save you and your "micro receivers" if I see you at the combat field. Have you made a purchase yet?

-RMann