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JezHall

TL-01's have a mind of their own!

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Hi

I have 2 x TL-01s and I had them both out running tonight.

Both ran fine (seperately) for 5 minutes then started to do random turns and ignore the controllers.

They were both running one at a time using seperate transmitters and behaved perfectly for a while then were possessed by the devil. Any ideas ?

Thanks in advance....

Jez

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I think we need some more information about the radio gear. What kind of controller do you use? 2.4 GHz od 27 MHz? Full batteries in the transmitter? Possible are some interference in the place where you were driving. 

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One is an Acoms Techniplus AP-202 27Mhz with a 27.225 AM Crystal

Other A Futaba Bionic Gold FP-T2NCR with a 27.125 AM Crystal.

Sorry for the initial lack of info.......New to this!

Thanks

 

Jez

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There's a lot of interference on the AM bands these days, best to switch to all 2.4Ghz gear if possible (pretty much a drop-in upgrade for an old car in most cases).

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5 minutes ago, El Gecko said:

There's a lot of interference on the AM bands these days, best to switch to all 2.4Ghz gear if possible (pretty much a drop-in upgrade for an old car in most cases).

 

Do I need new transmitters, Crystals and receivers?

Thanks

 

Jez

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4 minutes ago, JezHall said:

 

Do I need new transmitters, Crystals and receivers?

Thanks

 

Jez

Just transmitters and receivers, there are no crystals anymore. Once you bind the Tx to the Rx, they're hooked up and ready to go whenever you turn them on again.

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Just now, El Gecko said:

Just transmitters and receivers, there are no crystals anymore. Once you bind the Tx to the Rx, they're hooked up and ready to go whenever you turn them on again.

Brilliant thank you.

Any recomendations ?

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1 hour ago, JezHall said:

Brilliant thank you.

Any recomendations ?

Futaba are generally well-regarded still, I don't remember exactly which models but people still like them a lot. Good solid radios that aren't too expensive.

Even basic cheap gear works too, I have a single Flysky Tx paired to 9 different Rx (one in each of my vintage cars) and it's the perfect setup for me. I haven't experienced any glitching issues except when the batteries start to dump when it's cold outside, but that would happen with an AM Tx too. Speaking of batteries, the nice thing about the new Tx is they only take 4 AA batteries instead of 8, and they last a lot longer too between replacements.

But really any radio will do--they all have similar functions and features these days. Different brands distribute to different countries, you just have to pick one brand and stick with it.

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21 minutes ago, El Gecko said:

Futaba are generally well-regarded still, I don't remember exactly which models but people still like them a lot. Good solid radios that aren't too expensive.

Even basic cheap gear works too, I have a single Flysky Tx paired to 9 different Rx (one in each of my vintage cars) and it's the perfect setup for me. I haven't experienced any glitching issues except when the batteries start to dump when it's cold outside, but that would happen with an AM Tx too. Speaking of batteries, the nice thing about the new Tx is they only take 4 AA batteries instead of 8, and they last a lot longer too between replacements.

But really any radio will do--they all have similar functions and features these days. Different brands distribute to different countries, you just have to pick one brand and stick with it.

Thanks again for the info.....

I'll look on ebay now.

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What servos and esc's are you using?

 

 

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12 hours ago, JezHall said:

 

Both ran fine (seperately) for 5 minutes then started to do random turns and ignore the controllers.

 

It is possible that the battery in your car is getting low but the ESC was kit cutting it off? It sounds to me that you are using older equipment and may not have that function. I have an ESC and RX that on a low power situation, will cause a full speed runaway ignoring any Tx commands, until the car got stopped by a wall. 

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2 hours ago, alvinlwh said:

It is possible that the battery in your car is getting low but the ESC was kit cutting it off? It sounds to me that you are using older equipment and may not have that function. I have an ESC and RX that on a low power situation, will cause a full speed runaway ignoring any Tx commands, until the car got stopped by a wall. 

That could be the case, it is old equipment. The batteries were fully charged but could be running low quickly. I’ll test them later. I assume that fully charged batteries should function for more than 10 minutes?

Thanks

Jez

 

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4 hours ago, svenb said:

What servos and esc's are you using?

 

 

It’s the stock servo and a LM-406 ESC which isn’t the best. I have another one ordered after advice from this forum.

there is very little information about programming it.…..though it behaves fine for a while.

7F3F60A8-1EF6-4476-A6B2-E065107DDBAD.jpeg

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35 minutes ago, JezHall said:

That could be the case, it is old equipment. The batteries were fully charged but could be running low quickly. I’ll test them later. I assume that fully charged batteries should function for more than 10 minutes?

Thanks

Jez

 

Sounds about right for a NiCd type. What kind of batteries do you have?

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Hi Jez,

How long have you owned these vehicles? Have you run them without problems before?  There are TL01 knockoffs on the market, the quality is absolutely horrendous.  Check for slop from the steering servo saver and try moving the steering by hand while the steering is disconnected from the servo, the clone cars have excessive slop from the servo saver and the ball connectors for the steering are too tight. Unfortunately if your cars are cheap copies, new radio equipment won't solve the problem.  

 

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Do your motors have capacitors on the leads?  If not, the motor itself can cause RF interference.. often.

As others have noted, I too suggest you get a modern 2.4GHz radio.  I am in the USA and run Futaba and Spektrum.. not sure how popular Spektrum is in other countries.

 

FM radio's I ran back in the late 1990's on my racing sedans were PCM Modulation (JR Propo R1).. and had nearly zero interference.

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On 1/8/2022 at 2:16 PM, El Gecko said:

Sounds about right for a NiCd type. What kind of batteries do you have?

They are generic NICD batteries. Probably a few years old, should they work for more than 5-10 minutes?

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2 hours ago, JezHall said:

They are generic NICD batteries. Probably a few years old, should they work for more than 5-10 minutes?

Eh, not necessarily. I'd struggle to get 5mins out of my NiCds when I used them with certain motors, brand new or old batteries it didn't matter.

Now I run only NiMH batteries and I've been consistently getting 30-60mins out of the 5000mAh versions in almost every car.

Not sure what kind of motor you're running, but the more powerful it is (less turns usually), the less runtime you'll get. For example, the 17T racing motor in my Frog sucks up so much juice that I only get 15-20mins of driving on the same NiMH batteries.

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On 1/8/2022 at 2:16 PM, El Gecko said:

Sounds about right for a NiCd type. What kind of batteries do you have?

They are just Hai Bo Xing 1800MAH 7.2v.......Probably not the best?

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Update:

On the advice from this forum I bought:

2.4ghz MTX 249 transmitter

MRSR 249 2 in 1 ESC & Receiver

Sport tuned motor

.........and I still only get about 5 minutes of full control from the car, though the speed is noticably better!

I assume that points to the batteries? They do seem to retain voltage on the multimeter though.....

 

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On 1/15/2022 at 12:25 PM, JezHall said:

Update:

On the advice from this forum I bought:

2.4ghz MTX 249 transmitter

MRSR 249 2 in 1 ESC & Receiver

Sport tuned motor

.........and I still only get about 5 minutes of full control from the car, though the speed is noticably better!

I assume that points to the batteries? They do seem to retain voltage on the multimeter though.....

 

Yes I would think that points to the batteries still. If they do retain voltage, the question is how much and for how long.

Unfortunately what you're describing does sound about right for an 1800mAh NiCd. A NiMH battery 3000mAh or more would definitely increase your runtime, and should be a straight drop-in for the NiCd. Assuming you get the right plug for your ESC, of course. Also, some older 5000mAh batteries were a few mm's longer than a standard stick pack, but the newer ones seem to be ok in the older cars. (can't say for sure with a TL-01 since I don't have one, but they fit just fine in my ORVs, Hoppers, etc.) I max out at 5000mAh with NiMHs because the Tamiya type plug can only handle that much (5 amps).

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