Roca Pico C5 Rx Problems

[Andycart]

Hi

I have a couple of these receivers which I bought from Hillcott in the UK. They are very small and light and 5 channel. The antenna is short (about 12"). All in all an ideal Rx for electric flight. But ...

You knew there was going to be a but didn't you?

I have a real problem with range, or at least I think I do. Flying close in, about 50 yards all is O.K. If I fly out to around 100-150 yards then my motor starts to stutter and the servos glitch. If I can manage to fly through this distance to around 200 yards the problem seems to resolve itself. GWS 4 & 6 channel receivers in the same plane seem O.K and I have used the same crystals and different crystals in all receivers. BTW all my crystals are the same frequency (channel 66).

Any ideas?

Andy

[Matthew Allen]

Andy,

I put one of these in my Electric Scout and test flew it today. I had exactly the same problem as you and I almost lost my plane. I think I might email Hillcott to see if they have any advice. Mine is on Ch.72.

Matthew

[Matthew Allen]

i've emailed Hillcott about this and I'm waiting for a reply. I just swapped a GWS Naro into this plane today and it worked fine so it definitely was the receiver.

Matthew

[Andycart]

Hi Matthew

I've also emailed Walt at Hillcott about this problem so I'll post any developments also. Surely there are other people 'out there' who use this rx.

C'mon guys let's have some feedback !!!

regards


Andy

[vintage1]

Interesting info.

you may be able to imrove things a bit by suppressing the motors very carefully - if the radios are short range because the aerials are short (and indeed they may not have much gain either) and interference is getting in after the antenna area, then that may help.

You can easily check this out by doing a range check with motor on, and motor off. If its significantly less twitchy with the motor off, then suppression will indeed help.

I would also be tempted to stick more wire on the aerials and try that as well. Recievers are not critically tuned, so you should not see range reduction by doing this.

If neither of thse work, then the radio recievers are basically junk, except indoors or for very small models flown close in :(

Its odd, because these radios seem to have good published specs....2uV is well good enough, if true, to get you out of sight...I'd definitely try adding a bit of aerial. On the other hand, could be a rubbish batch or something. Or you got 40-Mhz ones instead of 35Mhz. Or the crystals aren't cut quite right...?