Revo 3.3 & no Failsafe... WHY!!!!!

[nazUK]

This is a bit of a moan why would you spend hundreds on a great truck and then find out later it has NO failsafe, is this not a bit of an stupid error from Traxxas, not trying to offend any Traxxas owners as I own the Revo 3.3 myself but am worried that one day it may just run away and there goes all that money you have spent.
I've read many forums from one to another and from what I have gathered the failsafe on the Revo only return's it back to neutral or last known position which is absolutely useless as this can still make the truck run away and hit a person, wall etc causing damage to your well loved truck.

Why isn't there a failsafe that works with the optidrive or even why hasn't Traxxas developed one???!!!

I know you can take the optidrive out but I'm just a basher and want to keep the optidrive for telemetry and reverse.

Does anyone have any suggestions or solution?

 

[hamz9561]

According to a few fanatics the Opti-drive is supposed to be a fail safe.

 

[nazUK]

Thanks Hamz, yes your right but I've done a lot of reading on this the failsafe on the optidrive is for low battery cut off if I remember correct and what it does when this happen's it return's the throttle to neutral or last known position but does not recognize loss of signal or interference, meaning it will not prompt the brakes, I've tried setting it to brake but will not do it, I even tried installing a failsafe and later read 3rd party failsafe's do not work

 

[chickenman242]

If you loose signal or.have a flat battery nothing in the world is going to put the brakes on what you need to do is make sure the throttle return spring shut the carb back to idle in the event of low.battery or signal loss.
The trx 2.4 radio also has low voltage detection should you need to to remove opti drive

 

[Rolex]

If you loose signal or.have a flat battery nothing in the world is going to put the brakes on

The very purpose of an add-on fail safe is to throttle down to neutral and apply the brake if that's what you programmed it for. It will do it when the battery is low, not dead.
Loss of signal is the other thing that will make it respond to what you programmed it to do...drop throttle and apply brakes.
It's MADE to do that. If the battery is too dead to do that and you decide to run the truck anyway, don't blame the fail safe for your runaway wreck.

 

[nazUK]

Haha I agree with your last sentence, I tried an add-on fail safe Rolex but it didn't work, I've read a lot of guys have problems with 3rd party fail safe was just wondering if there was something or a way around this, I have another Monster Truck with fail safe and it applies the brakes as soon as the transmitter switches off i.e. loss of signal like you mentioned.
May have to just live with the Traxxas fail safe which just brings it back to neutral and make sure my batteries are always fully charged.

 

[Rolex]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dynamite-DYN2553-Race-Guard-Micro-Fail-Safe-Revo-New-/351112416854?pt=Radio_Control_Parts_Accessories&hash=item51bfee4e56

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Venom-0605-All-in-One-On-Board-Smart-Temp-Fail-Safe-Unit-/231284489439?pt=Radio_Control_Parts_Accessories&hash=item35d9a13cdf

I've used both of them. If I didn't trust them to do what they should I wouldn't use them.

 

[nazUK]

Ah cool, great recommendations, I've seen both of these just didn't know how reliable they were, heard the venom works well but the price tag personally I don't think justifies it rather put the money towards upgrading more parts on my truck but the dynamite sounds a good contender, will definitely look into buying that one and see how it goes.

Thanks Rolex

---------- Post added at 3:36 AM ---------- Previous post was at 3:33 AM ----------

I correct myself venom is cheaper than I thought, ops, thought it was more expensive :thumbup:

 

[griff7373]

Ah cool, great recommendations, I've seen both of these just didn't know how reliable they were, heard the venom works well but the price tag personally I don't think justifies it rather put the money towards upgrading more parts on my truck but the dynamite sounds a good contender, will definitely look into buying that one and see how it goes.

Thanks Rolex

I use the venom in one of my trucks it is well worth it in comparison to the price of a new truck or rebuilding one after a run away.

 

[rock-rod]

The opti drive is not a fail safe. It's there only to protect the transmission from shifting to forward/reverse while still in motion. That's all it does.

The return spring is your fail safe. Or ditch the TQI and go with a 2.4ghz radio with a built in fail safe. My futaba 3pl has this and will apply the brakes if communication is lost. However the only protecting from flat out losing battery power to the Rx is a return spring on the throttle servo.

 

[chickenman242]

The trx radio will not work with any failsafe, like I said if your return spring is adjusted properly you should.need a failsafe just make.sure your battery is charged.
I'm assuming you have 2.4 radio have you had any issues with signal loss? The only time I feel the need to run a fail safe is with the older am radio.

 

[nazUK]

Yes but a reutrn spring doesn't stop your truck just stop's engine running bring's it back to neutral which is what the Traxxas does anyway, I'm going try Rolex's suggestion's and probably go for the dynamite fail safe as I can hide that in the receiver box, I know there are other factor's in a runaway truck but a fail safe that prompts brakes is a great start.
Someone else mentioned to me about a kill switch which I will also look into

 

[Nitro4910]

Don't waste your money if your using a Traxxas 2.4ghz radio, they will not work with after market fail safes.

 

[nazUK]

I do have a 2.4ghz tqi, so I take it the fail safe that Rolex recommended won't work?
I do apologize should of mentioned it before my model is a 2013 pps: my bad

 

[SchrodeMode]

The Opti-drive puts the transmission in neutral, that's it, it has nothing to do with brakes. Your trx has a failsafe built in, have you tried resetting it?

 

[hamz9561]

The Opti-Drive also doesn't play well with fail-safes and other manufacturers 2.4 GHz radios.

 

[SchrodeMode]

The Opti-Drive also doesn't play well with fail-safes and other manufacturers 2.4 GHz radios.

That's why many people ditch it.

 

[nazUK]

Ah my worst nightmare come true, that's what I thought, so I guess either ditch it or just learn to live around it or better still buy a better transmitter/receiver

 

[SchrodeMode]

Ah my worst nightmare come true, that's what I thought, so I guess either ditch it or just learn to live around it or better still buy a better transmitter/receiver

Have you tried setting your failsafe? It should be done on the trx, you shouldn't have to mess with the Opti-drive.

 

[nazUK]

Have you tried setting your failsafe? It should be done on the trx, you shouldn't have to mess with the Opti-drive.

Yes didn't work and nothing in the manual apart from a small paragraph saying the built in fail safe brings it back to neutral