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I have to say, two years ago when I was shopping for a new radio, I felt like I made the right decision then and I still do today. Not many people can say that about their radios today. The 3PK has allowed me to, in one radio, keep up with the influx of new technology and stay ahead of the competition. I have been able to upgrade my model memory beyond 10 RCs (all the way up to 100), use a synthesized transmit module (75Mhz band, any channel), and now operate on a 2.4GHz band.

For the Spektrum buffs out there- this is the same system that you enjoy and love only with a faster modulation rate. This means that the system updates the receiver with your responses to the controls faster than ever.

Initial Testing

The initial testing did not go well at all! I was testing the system in my RC10B4 with Mamba Maxx 5700kv setup. I would intermittently loose connection and five seconds later hear the ESC re-arm itself. This mostly happened in a valley and also on my street in the same spots.

After doing some research I thought that the problem might be associated with a momentary loss of power to the receiver. I then decided to buy some capacitors that would discharge when the power level got too low to keep the receiver alive and receiving a signal. This, however, did not solve my problem as I suffered at the hands of an electric run away and crash.

My problem turned out to be Futaba’s use of coax cable for the antenna. Coax cannot be bent in anyway. If it is then signal loss, and the receiver’s receptability, is greatly reduced to near minimal. This means that the cable cannot be bent in a 90-degree fashion. Anyone with a B4 will see my pain on this, as there are three 90-degree bends in the antenna just to mount it! Having worked on professional systems that use coax and output 3,000 watts of power, I should have recognized this fact upon initial installation.

This is an important point in the consideration of the system. I was able to mount the receiver normally and drill into the plastic antenna tube to allow the cable to gradually enter the tube. Once this was done then the system performed flawlessly. I was now able to test this comfortably in my nitros.

Testing since

Testing since the understanding of the bent coax has been phenomenal. The system is very fast with normal servos and super fast with Futaba HRS servos. Receptability on line of sight is a lot better than traditional systems. The receiver is also smaller which helps out on my tight, and usually filled to the max, receiver boxes.

I do have a few qualms with the design of the system though I love it overall. The receivers, like the Spektrum counterparts, have a failsafe on them. However, the memory on the failsafe is volatile. This means that the memory will be erased when power is no longer applied (after a few seconds). So, every time you run your nitro RC then you will have to reset the failsafe. However, resetting the failsafe is done off of the radio (not the receiver) and takes literally one second- Put the radio in full brake and hit the SW switch on the transmit module. The green status light will blink green to show that the receiver understands the failsafe direction and is armed. That is it.

Conclusion

One of the things that I like about reviews is that I have the ability to get the news out on a great product and also to let people know how to fix certain items IF there are some present. This would be both of those all tied into one.

The Futaba 2.4Ghz FASST system is worth every penny. If you have a 3PK then you can either buy this system or the Spektrum upgrade as well. Having tried both (3PK and the DX3) I can honestly say that this system performs better than the DX2/ DX3. The 3PK has a lot more user control and options than the DX3. It is also noticeably faster than the Spek upgrade module for the 3PK.

The few problems that I did have (the failsafe’s memory and the coax cable) were relatively small and easy to fix once I understood what was going on with them.

Overall, I have owned this system since October 2006 and have been happy with it ever since. I have both 2.4Ghz receivers in my truggies after testing in various electrics and nitros. If you can afford this upgrade then I highly suggest it as it is very worth it. The capacitors, well, they are made by Spektrum and could not hurt to pick up the $5 cap (or just get your own 4700 uf 10V capacitor with a Futaba connector). This does solve a problem in the Spektrum receiver but was not needed in my running and testing.

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