| Batfish |
09.04.2006 08:41 PM |
I was on the pre-order list with Nomadio direct and I've had mine for a year or so now.
I've used it in almost all of my vehicles, in a variety of situations. I like being able to see the voltage on my car batteries, on the receiver pack, and on the transmitter itself. I use the temperature sensors on my nitro truggy, and on any "project" vehicles where I'm trying to learn good gearing.
I've used about 10 different RTR-type radios, a JR2xi, an Airtronics MX3, MX3-S, M8, and a Hitec Aggressor (something or other). Then there's the Nomadio Sensor - I absolutely love this radio. It has a feel that's perfect for me because of the way I hold my radio. Since almost all of my driving is racing, I learned good habits early on and I hold my radio right up to my chest. The ergonomic configuration of the Nomadio Sensor means I don't have to twist my right wrist anymore to hold the steering wheel properly.
Say you're running a receiver pack and you want to know when the rx pack voltage gets to 5.5V - set the rx battery voltage alert to 5.5V and tell the radio to either vibrate in a set pattern, tell you the voltage is low (with either a built-in sound file or one you create yourself), or both. When it happens while you're driving, your chosen alert action will happen and you'll know by feel and sound that your rx pack is at your defined voltage, without having to take your eyes off of the car on the track.
Say you're running nitro and you like to warm up your engine to a certain temp before you start pushing it on the track - set the temp alert to your chosen temperature and your radio will alert you when you've reached that temperature, so you know warm up time is over. On the same note, say you don't want your expensive engine to get over a certain temperature - set another temp alert for that high end temperature and the Sensor will let you know if/when the engine reaches that upper temp, letting you know to get it off the track so your pit guy can make adjustments to get the temperature down.
The temperature alerts are easily as useful on electric, for a variety of similar reasons.
Overall, I can't say enough good things about the radio.
I can, however, say one bad thing about it; the motion of my throttle finger to the brake is too wide. I put a small piece of fuel tubing on the brake lever itself, which helps, but it still isn't as nice as I would like. I've gotten used to the way it feels, so it's not a problem for me anymore, but it may be a consideration for anyone else.
As far as the receiver size being too big; make sure you take that criticism with a grain of salt. The only vehicle I've had a problem mounting the receiver in was my 12th scale pan car. You may have a hard time mounting it in some 18th scale vehicles, too. With nearly any 10th or 8th scale vehicles, you will have NO problems finding a place for the receiver. It easily fits in any radio box that I know of. The receiver itself could indeed be smaller (and I believe Nomadio is working on a smaller receiver) but it may have to sacrifice the telemetry options to accomodate the size.
As with all radios, try and find one that you can hold in person. If possible, try and drive with it before you decide to buy one. Only you can decide which radio looks, feels, and performs best for you.
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