First day at outside track

[Chris UK]

Went over to my local race club at an outdoor track which I haven't been to before, to see what it was like. When i tried my car in the practices, I was getting really bad interference [] and the car was all over the place.

But... got talking to some guys next to me who helped me by changing my Esc to the other side of the chassis etc and moving mottor wires away and the performance began to improve. After a few more frustrating practices someone said to try moving the aerial from the back of the car up to the front and what a brilliant idea!!![] My car was working great. i wouldn't have thought moving one thing like that would help but I see know that u have to keep the aerial as far as posssible from the motor wires etc. [8D]

So in the end i didn't get to race, but at least i sorted out my problem and I'll be able to start racing next week when the new league begins...[]

bring it on! [^][^]

[WillyChang]

Have seen pix of some guy using clamp-on "core filter" devices

on his battery wires, y'know the big blobby things you see clipped

to USB leads to your PC etc. They swear it works.

[Hellbilly]

I have huge interference problems with my TL-01 []

There isn't much space to move things around on it, but i think i have tried everything, and the car still goes berserk when it's 20 meters away from me [V]

I have yet to try one thing, i'm gonna cut and shorten the wire from the motor to ESC and solder it directly instea of using those plugs. I'm also gonna shorten the battery wire.

If the areal is not supposed to be near the motor, why did Tamiya place the areal almost directly on top of the motor on the TL-01 [?]

Any McGyver tips appreciated [8D]

[WillyChang]

Try wrap your RX in 2 layers of tinfoil.

But consider that there might be something wrong with your radio gear,

it can't be that dodgy to be glitching just like that. Have touched

many many TL01s, everything from brand new radios to 20yo gear and

they all have no problems. Try different RX perhaps.

However, we did come across a Stadium Raider with a defective 540

motor - one of the coils was shorted so the sparks caused bad RF.

Maybe try another 540 eh?

[Chris UK]

Hi , I think that using the tamiya manual to put everything in teh places it states is fine when building the car stock, with mecahnical speed controlelr etc, buyt once you start to upgrade the speed controlelr, motor and so on, there is the chance of more interferance when using different components, and so it si then up to you to find the best places to put your receiever, ESC, antenna etc. It all depends on your car and the equipment you use.

(So i have learnt today! [8D])

Chris

[Chris UK]

what i also learnt today was not to drive straight into concrete walls, cause it kinda breaks your bodyshell... [8)][xx(]

lol nevermind, spose it looks more like a rally car now []

I now have my ESC mounted on top of my battery 'holder' which has decreased interferance. I used tape at first which did't really hold it very well, and so it now has 2 screws which keep it nicely attached to the chassis [] -

Chris

[mud4fun]

Hi Chris, when I first got my thundershots I thought they looked odd with the antenna mounted amidships but I have suffered no interference at all, my group C also has this arrangement. I also use 40Mhz radio gear as it seems to be less common than the 27Mhz here in the UK. I have run my cars out to over 100m from me and still maintained full control.

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I always make sure I fit the 3 capacitors as recommended by Novak etc to the motor when using their ESC's. Don't know why but without them I used to get alot of glitching?!

[Hellbilly]

mud4fun, which type of capacitors do you use and where do you solder them on the motor? (I'm a bit new to all these electronics)[:I]

Here's a pic of my tl-01 and there you can see the motor that came with it and there is one soldered between the poles:

[WillyChang]

That might be your problem.

Read your ESC's manual... as a minimum, they recommend 3 caps.

Get 100uF poly ones and solder them

1) between +ve and the can

2) between -ve and the can

3) between +ve and -ve

Also tie down & tidy up your wiring.

Leaving those long loops of motor wire flapping around in the air

is just asking for trouble, as they act as antennas radiating the

high freq switching from your ESC.

No wonder your poor RX has trouble finding your TX's signal

amongst all that stray RF energy it is flooded with.

[Chris UK]

Im going to put capactitors on mine asap, cheers []

Chris

[Hellbilly]

Thanks alot for that Willychang []

About the wiring, that's not how it is while i use the car....hehe. My ESC sits on the bottom of the chassis and the wires tugged down and i use rubber bands to keep it in order. It was just like that on the pic because i was moving things around while working on the car. [:I]

[WillyChang]

Glad to know! []

Shockingly, I have seen WORSE!! [:0][:I]

There was one particular newbie, his wires were everywhere including

dragging on the ground. In many spots the rubber had worn off and

evidently this guy had never heard of electrical insulating tape. [:0]

It hurt just looking at it, poor TL01.

Was thinking about that the other night, as I was patiently

spiral-wrapping mine (too much free time?) - Great invention that.

[WillyChang]

quote:Originally posted by Hellbilly

My ESC sits on the bottom of the chassis and the wires tugged down and i use rubber bands to keep it in order.

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id="quote">id="quote">

Might be an idea:

1) sit the ESC on top of the chassis, give it some cooling air.

2) don't bunch the motor wires together with servo & antenna wires.

Acoms servo methinks? []

[Hellbilly]

Yup, Acoms indeed [8D]

There are several factors that cause the interference as far as i know.

The servo lead is damaged and exposed at the root of the plug. Just waiting for funds to replace. I'll probably just buy a proper pistol radio package from JR/Futaba and replace the servo entirely.

The areal of the RX was cut down to 30cm's when i got the car [:0] So i just soldered an extension. This is a temporary fix and it will be replaced when i get the radio.

Like you mentioned, i need to solder new capacitors to the motor.

And finally, as you said, it is probably wiser to keep the ESC higher on the chassis.

[Chris UK]

I have some capactors on one of my old stock can motors which I am going to take off and put onto my new one. Should help a bit []

Will get on with that when get home from school... hehe

[WillyChang]

quote:Originally posted by Hellbilly

The servo lead is damaged and exposed at the root of the plug. Just waiting for funds to replace. I'll probably just buy a proper pistol radio package from JR/Futaba and replace the servo entirely.

The areal of the RX was cut down to 30cm's when i got the car [:0] So i just soldered an extension. This is a temporary fix and it will be replaced when i get the radio.

---

id="quote">id="quote">

If you're gonna buy a new radio, that might solve everything.

Servo wire frayed... hmm, as long as the connection is clean

and not shorting out on anything else, it shouldn't be a problem.

If the wires are loose solder them back, insulate them with

heatshrink or a dab of varnish.

RX aerial might be why its picking up stray RF too. If you knew

the original length then sure, add on enough wire to make up the

missing length. But if you just added an arbitrary length, then

you might have detuned the system. Perhaps chop off *half* your

extension and do a Range Check... it might improve.