A neat radio switch featuring a built-in Y-harness...from GasRC Products.
Featured in this article is a new switch harness from Gas RC Products. What
makes this switch harness unique is its built-in Y-harness. In case you are not
familiar with the Y-harness, it is used to direct power from your battery pack
directly to the steering servo without passing through the receiver. Some
receivers have built-in voltage regulators (BEC: Battery Eliminator Circuitry) that limit the voltage to the servos. In such cases this built-in regulator negates the benefits of using 6.0 volt battery packs
to gain speed and power from the servos. In addition, powering large scale servos (especially digital servos) through the receiver
can sometimes put heavy current loads on the BEC circuitry, which wasn't necessarily
designed for such high currents. You can read more about the Y-harness in THIS
ARTICLE .
Back to this switch. The Gas RC Products switch harness includes two female connectors
(one for the battery to plug into and one to plug in your steering servo. There
is also one male connector which goes to the receiver. See pictures for
details.
The switch itself is a good
quality switch rated 6A -125VAC, more than enough for our applications. It
features mechanical locking so it can't be accidentally switched from On to Off
or vice versa. You literally have to pull on the lever to unlock it and move it
from one position to the next. It is a nice safety feature.
It comes with mounting nut and washers and some small Orings to seal it against
the radio box wall. This is to limit the amount of water infiltration to the
inside of the radio box.
All connections are soldered
and sealed with shrink wrap tubing. All connectors are universal which means
that they should work with all popular radio brands. (ordering of leads might
have to be changed in the connectors for certain brands...check your radio
equipment spec sheets for more information)
My Comments:
Great product. I don't know if any others exist on the market, but it was the
first time I saw one commercially available. It cuts down on a lot of excess
wiring inside a radio box as opposed to using the regular Y-harness. It also
makes for less connections, which equals less chances of bad connections.
*update: after closer inspection of the switch, I can confirm that this switch is waterproof and can be used as-is for mounting on an outside wall of the radio box. If properly mounted with the supplied Orings, nut and washer it should ward off any water from getting inside your switch and radio box! (Thank you to Mike Sr. of Redline for pointing this out to me)
Happy Boating!
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