range question

[Road America]

I bought a Traxxas Fiesta with the idea of driving it on our club's blacktop runways when they aren't flying there. It runs great and if I go off the pavement it still can handle grass. The problem was I seemed to loose control at what I thought was not all that far away, approx. 50 - 60 yards. The transmitter is the TQ that comes with the ready-to run brushless 2S. This is standing on level ground, not on an elevated platform.
Maybe I'm just expecting too much - should I be getting more range? The batteries in the trans. are Ace Hardware - pretty new - and all four show a open circuit voltage of 1.53. The car is real new, never crashed or taken apart.

 

[DavidB1126]

Could be the receiver, antenna on the receiver is torn or damaged or the actual radio. OEM Traxxas radios especially for the lower end TQs are known for poor range sometimes so doesn't surprise me.

If you'd like to upgrade, Flysky GT3B and GT5 are great budget radio systems and they have great range too.

55 yards = 165ft. Sounds normal. Mine had range like that.
Flysky GT3= around 400/500ft
Flysky GT5= around 800ft. All per what flysky states.

But if you don't want to upgrade I'd start at looking at the antenna first. Also making sure it's in the antenna tube pointing up.

Not a common issue but it can happen, the BEC in the ESC could be dropping out causing not steady voltage being sent to the receiver causing signal drops, although I highly doubt that this would be the issue.

 

[kazetsukai]

My Mini Maxx came with the BL-2S and TQ controller, which would cut out on me line of sight in a large parking lot. Until then I had never seen any Traxxas controller do that.

I just replace stock Traxxas stuff at this point.

 

[Brady Matthews]

My Mini Maxx came with the BL-2S and TQ controller, which would cut out on me line of sight in a large parking lot. Until then I had never seen any Traxxas controller do that.

I just replace stock Traxxas stuff at this point.

My Mini Maxx does the same thing

 

[DavidB1126]

Maybe TQi's have better range but I highly doubt it and it's still overpriced especially to be paying another 40 or so bucks on top of a 100 dollar RTR radio to get it unlocked to adjust anything. Ideally like said better to get a aftermarket one like flysky where you can adjust settings on the "fly" and way more range.

 

[Road America]

I think maybe this problem is somewhat dependent on conditions. I just tried it at home, and I can drive it 60-70 yards away without any glitches or lose of control, unless I get it behind a building where I can't see it at all.
At our flying field it is all wide open (of course) but I am standing near some cyclone type fencing. The fences aren't between me and the car, just along side or behind me.
What we need is for someone to invent some fancy goggles that enable us to see radio waves and figure out what is going on!