I’ve never had one do this straight out of the box.

[Hoghappy]

I tried to power up Captain Sunshine’s new Bristol Bay last night after getting the new electronics installed. I replaced the Aqua Craft receiver with a Hitec Laser 4 and put in a 6volt 4.5amp Gel Cell (man was that fun getting out all that styro)…anyway when I went to power up, the rudder servo and ESC went crazy...turning on and off and glitching. I replaced the ESC with 2 different others…no help. Finally I pulled everything and powered just the 2 Hitec servos and Hitec receiver on the bench…like I should have done in the first place. Both servos were glitching/oscillating the moment I turned on the switch. I’ve never had one do this straight out of the box. :censored:


Should I send this back to Tower or is there something that I possibly could be doing wrong here? :confused:

Thanks

Captain Slick

[Ghost 2501]

check tx with another rx on the same frequency, and check your rx with a different tx. if the other rx twitches its your tx, if the your hitec out of the bristol bay twitches, then your rx could be at fault

[Umi_Ryuzuki]

Was everything charged up, Low batteries is a major cause of glitching.

[Allen D]

I pulled receiver and esc outta Atlantic tug (went with futaba rx, and proboat esc), and nothing would work-switched crystals out too, when I used my futaba radio instead, all came back to life-It is a kick ass little rescue boat now-with fully functioning reverse-with a 3300 mah 7.2 v battery, last run came in at 3 hrs, and I gave up because of darkness.

[Captain Sunshine]

I have another Hitec Laser 4 radio identical to the new one I’m trying to use in the Bristol Bay and when I power up using my older transmitter everything works in the Bristol Bay including the new receiver. I traded out the crystals again and tried just the new transmitter on my tug and it made everything in my tug go crazy. That tells me I have a bad new transmitter for the Bristol Bay.

That’s 2 items to send back to tower now. Hitec Laser 4 and a Ace bilge pump that is seized up new out of the box. :censored:

I'm begining to wonder about Hitec...I got some bad servos from them in the past. :(

Captain Slick

Ooooppps....didn't know Captain Sunshine was logged in to my computer....ain't she smart!

[LtDoc]

Something you might try before returning everything is to put distance between transmitter and receiver, or collapse the antenna(if possible). Receiver over-load is another one of those 'glitch' producers. Doubt if it 'cures' the problem, but certainly doesn't hurt to try it.
- 'Doc

[der kapitan]

Could it be that the radio combo that comes with the Aquacraft product is dedicated or tuned to that specific boat, and trying to upgrade with new components is the cause of the problems?

[LtDoc]

If you had said that the radio system was 'tuned' for a particular channel/frequency instead of 'boat', I'd agree with you. If that particular radio/system is only used in that particular boat, then you'd be right. Is it? Beats me!
- 'Doc

For what it's worth, and I have to admit I'm sort of prejudiced, 'Hitec' just isn't one of my favorite manufacturers. I know they DO make some good systems, but it seems like they also make a few that are not so 'good'. Then again, you can say that about all of them. Oh well...

[Umi_Ryuzuki]

If your old radio works with the Bristol bay reciever and crystals.
And the new radio will not work with the old receiver and it's crystals,

The the new transmitter sounds faulty. :(

[E-Challenged]

Servos twitch and go to extremes if transmitter is off while you are turning on receiver. The also do can do that if your transmitter is too close with antenna extended ( "swamping"). They also do this if the transmitter is on a different frequency than the boat's receiver. The can also do this if your boat's antenna and receiver is too near your motor or speed control especially if a brush type motor's brushes are arcing and you don't have capacitors installed accross the motor terminals and from the terminals to the motor can. It may also be necessary to wrap the reciever in foil and to ground the foil, motor can, speed control and receiver negatives together.

Motor brushes make electrical noise which can cause the reciever's automatic gain control to open up allowing swamping ( as I recall reading somewhere)

[P. Tritle]

Captain Slick, My Santa Maria did that too. The higher the throttle, the more it would glitch, and the farther the rudder would swing. To cure the problem, I used a JR magnetic "choke" on both the throttle and rudder servo leads. With the chokes installed it's rock solid.

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=167183&page=3 Post #44

PAT

[Hoghappy]

Thanks for all the responses’.

With everything hooked up in the Bristol Bay, but using my other Hitec Laser 4 transmitter with the new electronics and receiver, everything is fine…so it is not lack of caps on the motor or bad wiring or weak batteries.

This new Hitec Laser 4 radio goes bananas the moment I turn on the receiver. This is out of the boat, on the bench, with only the receiver and 2 servos connected...no ESC or anything else. It does not matter if the transmitter is close or far, antenna up or down, pointed away or at the receiver. If I swap out the new transmitter with another, it works fine and if I use the new transmitter with my other receiver it goes crazy too. I think it almost has to be the transmitter.

Captain Slick
.