Which Stick Tranny to buy??
 

Hi all,
Im looking to upgrade my tranny/esc in my 1/10 buggy from a etronix/code digital (£70) to a more expensive set which i hope will help my driving when racing.
The 3 that i am aware of are Ko propo Esprit 4 £400, Sanwa Exzes ZZ £400 or Futabu 4GRS £240 all which come with receivers.
Some of the above or even the slightly older sets can be bought for £250ish.
So does anyone know the main differences between these 3?
Are the more expensive ones worth the extra money? What do they offer over the cheaper Futabu one?
I have held the Futabu one and it feels really nice compared to my current light/small tranny.
Any advice is greatly appreciated
Thanks Lee

I went from the same tranny to the Futaba and I'm more than happy with it. It's a cracking transmitter and quite a bit cheaper than the others.

Somebody has a Gemini X in the sale section at £90. These are very good transmitters. Unfortunately the don’t make them any more. I’ve had one which my son now uses. They have all that is needed for any racer. The receivers are also still readily avalable.

I have a zz and most of the settings I don’t use and I suspect most people that have them don’t use most of the functions they have.

Phill

I'll also have a Sanwa Gemini X for sale if you should be after one :)

I spent ages waiting for a Gemini X to appear for sale, got bored of waiting in the end and got hold of a 40MHz Gemini II with RX for less then a couple of pints. I tried it racing in 40MHz setup to see if I got on with it and I love it, so ordered the 2.4GHz hack module and RX to convert it. That came to about £40 all in.

It has all the features I will ever need, including subtrim which seems to be missing on a lot of cheaper sets.

Typical there's 2 X's for sale now! :lol:

I went from the core code to the Futaba T4grs and after 18months it’s still going great ...... touch wood . Very good value for money in my opinion :thumbsup:

+1 for the Futaba, receivers £40 quid new for multiple cars, quick response never looked back after the etronix

I think you are paying for response time. KO Esprit IV and Sanwa ZZ have a quicker response time than the Futaba T4GRS - Think the KO and Sanwa are around 2.4ms and the T4grs around 4.5ms.

Be aware with some Sanwa transmitters like the Gemini (and anything up to the Z I think, but not sure) that the throttle stick is set fixed at I think 60/40 travel that could possibly hinder your driving response. Talking from only personal experience as I went from the Sanwa to a KO Esprit when I was keen whippersnapper and improved dramatically without any other variables. Saying this, there are many that could blindfold themselves using a Sanwa and still be faster than myself so that's cool too.

Other than that its all about how big your hands are and what conforms to them so you don't get cramp halfway through your run.

Seen a sanwa gemini x for sale for 100 in the for sale section, brilliant one and i use, futaba just doesnt feel right and the new transmitters are stupidly priced for what they are.

I actually like the 60/40 setup, I used to use it back on a Futaba Attack R BITD.

I'm sure you must be able to change it though as I have 2 Gemini IIs and one is at 60/40, the other at 50/50. Will do some investigation when I have them apart again.

I don't think the Futaba is to badly priced to be honest at £250, when you consider Sanwa and KO are £450+

Think my Acoms Techniplus was the same :drool:

All personal preference it seems, not knocking the Sanwa Gemini range as it always done the job for it's price, especially to get people racing competitively at club level. Should be able to set it to 50/50 without having to open the transmitter is my only gripe to suit different driving styles - Cool to know that it's possible though.

Admittedly I do think the price of the KO IV and SANWA ZZ ludicrous for a toy car radio but still I hear people saying they are not toys that's why :lol: