RC servos gone bezerk

[RobertN]

I have a couple RC sailboats, posted here before. I was getting them ready to go in the car; I have opportunity to sail them at a work party at a lake tomorrow. I always check batteries, operation etc before I pack them up.

On my smaller boat, the servo's freaked out! Started moving back and forth even though I was not moving the remote control(turned on radio before servos like usual). I shut everything off, and opened the hatch to see inside. Turns out the AA batteries for the receiver and servos leaked, but it was not much, and was contained to the battery tray.

I put another battery pack in, and tried again. Same thing.

I am building another boat. I used the radio and receiver for that boat, and plugged it in to my existing boat. Servos still moved back and forth, limit to limit.

I hooked up the original radio and receiver, but used the spare servos from the new boat. They worked ok, but it appears one channel on the original receiver is dead.

The original receiver was always in a sealed bag. The boat was dry inside after the last use a few weeks ago. The receiver/servos were switched off. I know the batteries leaked, but they were isolated from the servos/receiver by a switch(which still operates fine).

Ever seen anything like this before?

The small boat in the picture is the one having problems...

 

[tommu56]

Some times in my planes if you are too close it wil do that.
The rf signal go's in the signal line of the servo and messes it up
Do a range test.

tommu

 

[Blagadan]

Have you tried removing the crystals and pushing them back in? I know my heli had a similar problem one time but by re fitting the crystals sorted the mad servo problem....

Or there might be interference near by causing the problem? mobile phone in your pocket? Garage opener near by?

If you can put in a different set of crystals with a different frequency, that might work for you...

My cel phone makes my heli mis behave sometimes. If someone rings me and I have the phone in my pocket when the heli is in the air, it goes a bit mad.

 

[RobertN]

I'll try these recomendations tomorrow. My other boat(the big one in the picture) sailed nicely this afternoon

 

[Blagadan]

Forgot to mention earlier.... nice boat!

 

[riptides]

Nice boats!

Fresh batteries in transmitter and recievers? Or just recievers?

Like others have stated, range check and frequency checks? Someone else around you?

Let us know how it turns out.

 

[RobertN]

Thank!

One use on the batteries about three weeks ago. Tried to sail at lunch time(I can go to a local lake and sail for about 1/2 hour, drive there etc in an hour). Put the boat in the water, no breeze, so took boat out and went to resteraunt

Nobody else was around. I did just like the other times I have prepped the boats. I did have my cell phone in my pocket, and bluetooth ear piece active...

I have to go to the firestation for training in a few minutes. I'll try the suggestions this evening and report back

Nice boats!

Fresh batteries in transmitter and recievers? Or just recievers?

Like others have stated, range check and frequency checks? Someone else around you?

Let us know how it turns out.

 

[Willl]

Try a different crystal in your receiver.

 

[N80]

I was real serious into RC a few years ago. Raced nitro powered 1/10 scale monster trucks. For whatever reason, I've forgotten most of what I knew but on your radio...or at least on RC car/truck radios, there should be a small dial for fine tuning the servo response. This can vary with different servos. It is called a trim dial. If it is out of adjustment the servo can twitch like that. So check your servo trim.

I used to race the nitro version of this truck:

I got tired of nitro. Would love to have this electric version but man that is quite a chunk-o-change when you include the truck, a good charger and good (dual) batteries!

 

[riptides]

We use to scoff at anything electric or things that would glide in the air.

It was all about burning castor oil and screaming fanjets.

Now-a-days it looks like electric is the way to go......

planes that is....