Mustclime the emitter needs to be 9mm deep inside a tube yes, you put an HL emitter 9mm deep inside a tube and it shoots the same width pattern as Tamiya.
The Mako board itself does not reduce tank speed after hits but the upcoming Mamba board add on addresses this issue.
The newest Mako board does have the Bergpanzer repair option though and an extra weight class so you can have Light, Medium and Heavy tanks. The ATRC board removes all the HL death spasms and track recoils from firing which is sweet.
The new Mako board also has a Red LED that can be mounted anywhere you can drill a hole, so it does have visible confirmation of a hit.
Like Chris I too support the Mako product in Canada and one thing I can say about it is that it is very very easy to use and it is plug and play.
The real use for the Mako product is for fun battles that won't make you turn your pockets out.
Soon enough it will be a very real competitor to any system made
mustclime wrote:The boards are interesting but not really plug and play in my club. There are a couple issues....
1) the Ir emmiter needs to be at the bottom of a 9mm tube. The fan pattern of the stock hl emmiter is more like a shot gun than a tank shell.
2) as far as I know, the chips do not reduce motor power with the number of hits....so no battle damage, thats a no-no
3) In our club, you need lights to show hits, the hl apple does not have these.