General RC Surface Transmitters

[Derek]

Since this is a "general" question about surface Tx's, I thought I'd put this here. Maybe it should be in the "Transmitters" section, I dunno.

Anyway...on an rc surface vehicle, how many channels are used as a minimum? I would think that there would be left/right as one channel, forward and backward as another channel. Would the brakes be counted as a channel or is that similar to a brake on a plane? Maybe the third and fourth channels would be for lights or for a servo that would be in the front for a snow plow blade (those videos are neat).

I'm I thinking about this right?

 

[Slobberdog]

Cars tended to only use 2 channels, when I was pounding the grass, brake was built into the speed controller and they did not have reverse on the competition speed controllers then, but hey that was a good few years ago

 

[Sparse]

throttle and steering are the ones that come to mind. It really depends on what brand your referring to.

 

[Tony]

Your minimum is 2 channels. steering and throttle. The brake is on the throttle channel. All the brake does is tells the ESC to short out all 3 wires on the motor. This puts a very high load on the motor and makes it slow down. The whole time I was racing, I was only using 2 channels. I did have an Airtronics M8 which was 3 channels though, but never used that third channel. Now days, you can get the DX4r and DX4s which are 4 channel Tx's for whatever reason you might need those other channels.

 

[EyeStation]

Those drift cars like the extra channels to turn on their driving lamps and ground effect lighting.
I am sure you can go all John Deere on your off road and fill up 7 channels with winches, plows, trailer disconnects, and such.
But 2 channels will take you for miles of entertainment.

 

[Sparse]

the tmax however, the older style had its own servo for forward and reverse. but alot of people would put in the forward only conversion, and take that whole servo out to stop stripping the tranny gears.

 

[Derek]

Thanks for clearing that up guys!

 

[wolfman76]

anymore these days i have an flysky it4 4ch on 5th scale third channel is used for your electronic kill switch which i have on my x2 it is very important considering you have a 45 truck with a 30.5cc 2 stroke engine capable of speeds depending on the setup anywhere from 45-120 mph even at 20 mphs if it hits your leg it can do some damage or even break it.... plus other channels for switching lights winches or whatever else you can think of to run on your vehicle...