Reverse Engineering Radios

dknguyen said:

No point in reverse engineering one- it'd be more work than to just learn how to do it from scratch. Just learn the basics of PPM radio system and build one of those. From my understanding it is almost as simple as you can get for RF. If you are trying to save money, then no need to go PCM or spread spectrum or anything like that.
https://www.electro-tech-online.com/custompdfs/2009/06/mectn004-1.pdf

Is the radio supposed to be $35? Or is the whole rock crawler+radio supposed to be $35? Because you probably could get the radio to be $35 to produce, but I doubt you could get the whole kit to be that much.

But can you beat this one?
**broken link removed**)

It's not hard to replace the MCU if you know where all the pins go- but you don't know where all the pins go and chances are you won't be able to find out on their multi-layer board without schematics even if you had the board in front of you. Also...don't forget you have to do the same thing with the receiver. You'd have to reverse engineer both. Not worth it especially since you are trying to go for cost, and those guys are usually more feature oriented. You'd have to slice through a lot of the fat to find what you want.

You don't seem to have the proper knowledge to design your own radio system, let alone reverse engineer it (which is harder and more frustrating). You're going to have to learn the material or hire someone who knows it, and in both cases once you know what's going on it would be easier to just design it from scratch.

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Chippie said:

what about the cost of getting type approval?

Here in the UK, the cottage industry was killed off becuase of government red tape and having to meet all kinds of approval/certification.

Looking ahead, if you plan to export, again you will need to meet certain standards...

So have you considered all of this as part of your business plan?

Assuming you have one.....

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wings_of_fire said:

I guess you are pointing out that the cost of reverse engineering would be exorbitant.

I wish to start my own toy manufacturing company. I want to manufacture toys that have technology & are affordable to everyone. I plan to manufacture a 2.2 RC Rock crawler which will retail for $35 here & a bit more abroad. Since I am from a manufacturing base as India & based on my industrial experience, I know it is possible.

Mostly all the RC toys that are imported here are very highly priced. The middle class people hardly think of purchasing them. I very well know that the current toy manufacturers here make huge profits & are hardly eager to put in effort to change the situation to bring a smile on the face of a less fortunate child.

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Coligny said:

People...I'm really new here. But if I see a post where someone ask where to dowload the latest Microsoft Windows or Batman movie I think banination would be fast to come...

Reverse engineering commercial product to make them cheaper in sweatshops in india all in the doubtfull but 'warm'n'fuzzy' intent to bring smile to less fortunate child (is it by the toy or by the salary from the sweatshop ?) Is not exactly legal in my book. That's even stranger since the RC field is quite old now and you can find or if you'r a little smart design by yourself an RC set.
And of course to keep it classy the poster don't forget to critic the profit made by the original manufacturer. Who by the way spend also some money on the R&D instead of trying to steal another company design.

CDMA phone for 0.5 cents... yeah... sure... It don't even cover the Qualcomm license fee...

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