The switch is awesome. Been racing with two of them of both vehicles for over a year. Work like new. Zero issues. This review is purely to complain to Amain about the absurd up charge on this product. I got mine for 16 bucks each at vp pro usa. Protek product are good sometimes. But my god a 250% markup? Wtf
Ok I tried it ! Maybe it's just me or the choices I have made with switches ( on and off buttons ) on ALL of my RC's ! This one didn't last a day of practice ! Running this in a Losi 3.0 with Dyn lipo ! All of a sudden just cutt off - fully charged lipo - all connections brand new. There is NO WAY to run a product that you do not have the confidence in, when you are using when it comes time for the Amain event ! I do not recommend this product or endorse this product! No way to say it was a bad batch because when you buy something you expect it to work flawlessly the first time with out having to work out the BUGS or batch number supplied with it !
Again a day or practice and didn't last ! I do not recommend this product ! Not looking for a refund or store credit - just a product I can rely on !
While the description speaks to the advantage of electrical connection vs. the potential for intermittent mechanical failures, what it does not present is the potential for electrical circuit board issues. I purchased two of these electrical switches in November 2018. My first one lasted from Dec 18 to Feb 20. It worked great. I kept my second one as a backup.
Over time, the nylon button cover deteriorated. A couple of weeks ago, the green 'power' light would not go out after turning off the switch. Then during my most recent race, my nitro buggy had a runaway which I thought was caused by my receiver battery since it was low voltage. But just to be safe, and since I had that weird green power light staying on at all times, I changed out the switch to my other one that I'd bought as a spare. When installing it, the switch seemed fine - no more green power light when turning it off. It seemed to function properly.
However, this past weekend during a race, with my new spare switch installed, and a newly charged receiver battery (a different one that previous) on the same old switch, I thought it odd that the power button displayed an amber light (meaning battery level sensed as low). I checked using two separate battery meters and the 7.4v Protek receiver battery was indeed at max capacity. So, I went ahead and raced.
My receiver batteries typically last all day when fully charged (two years worth of data to support it). I ran two 5 minute qualifiers, and then during my A-main right before the race started (I was in 1st place and had TQ’d), it seemed like my buggy flamed out on the pipe as my pitman was holding it because I was giving full throttle but nothing happened. However, when I was signaling to my pitman to put the buggy on the bump box to restart it he kept looking at me in confusion. I realized after this ordeal that this was because the buggy was still idling…only the receiver switch had started to malfunction and not register some of my inputs. Then, about 5 minutes into my A-Main, my buggy started cutting in and out with steering and throttle response before it got stuck at wide-open throttle and became a runaway. Luckily after pulling hard on the brake trigger multiple times, the input registered and the throttle went back to normal.
A second runaway with my second electric switch. The moral of the story is I personally do not think that these switches are any more reliable than mechanical ones. I think I’m going to go back to mechanical.
I ran this switch for a month or so then I went out to the track for a race and as soon as i pushed the button the switch smoked and burned a hole in it. It burned up a brand new protek battery and r304 receiver along with it because when it smoked the switch would not activate on or off so it burned until i could get battery unplugged and amain told me to call the hobbyshop i got it from when they should back the product up. AVOID LIKE THE PLAGUE!!!!
This is an excellent switch.
When I first held it in my hand I was not all that impressed for the price, but now that I have it installed I really like it. It's great to be able to see the charge of the lipo receiver battery at a glance and its much smoother to operate than a mechanical switch.
I mounted mine to the transponder mount. I used two layers of foam tape underneath and screwed it down but not all the way to accommodate the tape (leaving 1-2mm). Hopefully the cushion will make this thing last!
One star off for value - as good as it is, this switch ain't worth $40. I just finished my NT48.3 build and had to have one quick so I couldn't wait for them to go on sale, but if you are not in a hurry you should shop around. These things can't be much more than a few bucks to make and their mark up is unreal.
This switch is awesome!It has a lipo cut off. Plus it even shows you how much power is left in the battery! Super compact as well.
when I got it beeped turning it self off every 2 minute I would like a refund on this
This electric switch makes turning on all the electrics a breeze. Highly recommended.
To those of you looking at the price and wondering why it is so expensive I have come to my own conclusion. I have three of these in my three nitro vehicles. They are top quality and easy to work with. I did have one burn up literally the fourth time turning it on. I took it to Amain Hobbies in Chico and they looked right into it. They ended up burning up another switch (made me happy because I thought it was user error), come to find out it was one of my brand new protek 155T's I put in was frying the switches. I paid the little extra and put in a pair of 170's and it works like a dream. I have one of these switches in my TLR buggy, truggy and my HPI savage XL.
This review is prior to actually using the product I can comment on that after I use it. There is a very similar lipo on/off switch available online for 1/4th of this price. I wish I would have saw that and someone of the other reviews before purchasing. I buy almost exclusively from Amain on 90% of my rc stuff, and I have a local hobby shop they just don’t stock the racing gear I need. But I never would have thought they would have something like this marked up as high as they do. But I can say that they do have excellent customer service, and if I’ve ever had a protek product fail me, they will usually stand behind it and work with replacing it.
Works like a charm. No issues in many years of abuse. Long leads allow mounting in numerous areas of your battery box or chassis.
a great product 4 others at my local track also have this switch and love it great product!
Has worked very well for me so far. I've had it for about 4 months.
Update: 4/21/16. Switch still works on my nitro buggy and truggy, but noticed case is cracking. I had to ca the switch on the truggy. I have one layer of parma gel tape under it. I may go with two layers.
Update 9/6/16. The two layers of parma type tape seems to work.
Mounted this onto my N5c, I have used it for about 6 weeks now. Working as expected and described. I would like to see another version of this switch that can handle the higher amperage of 20 amps
