Hi, I'm new to this side of the rc world. Normally I drive a Traxxas Revo. I am having a bit of a problem with my planes remote system. I haven't flown this plane yet, I just finished building it. I bought it 15 years ago and never got around to finishing it. Anyways, the remote I bought is a Hitec 4ch Laser that came with an 8ch reciever and 4 servos last year from Great Hobbies. Last night I turned on the tx and rx and things seemed to be ok. Today I tried again and all 4 servos started jittering real bad. I thought the battery pack in the plane was near dead so I charged it but the same thing kept happening. Does anyone have any suggestions?
Thanks
Dave

A few questions to help sort out your problems. Did you turn on the transmitter before turning on the receiver? How close to the plane was the transmitter when the servos were jittering? Were the antennas on the transmitter and receivers fully extended?

Ken

Yes I turned the transmitter on first. I was right beside the plane. The antennas were both fully extended.

Get a few feet away, maybe 3 or 4, antenna pulled out only 6-8 inches.
Check the crystal, take it out , then put it back in
Turn off any close fluorescent lights.
What voltage is your receiver pack? A fully charged 6V pack will sometimes cause servo jitters until it is drawn down a little.

Yes, what was said above. Move about 10' away from the plane. Many time the servos will jitter like that when the transmitter is too close to the receiver.

Ken

Sometimes it'll jitter if it's over/fully charged too.

This morning I turned on the transmitter with the antenna out 6- 8in,then the reciever and backed away from the plane 3 or 4 feet. The rudder was working fine for 5 to 10 sec then started jittering pretty hard. I moved away from the plane (aprox 8 - 10 feet) and the jittering stopped but so did the control of the rudder. I moved closer to the plane (aprox 3 - 4 feet)and the jittering started again. Every time I moved away from the plane, the jittering stopped along with control of the funtions. Everytime I moved within 3 - 4 feet of the plane, the jittering came back.

The battery pack is a 4 cell 4.5V 500mah pack. I did charged the battery a few times last night thinking the charger might not be working. I haven't experienced anything like this with my RC Truck. I can be right beside the truck and not get any servo jitters at all.

The next step is to pull the reciever, battery, and a servo out of the plane and try it again on the bench. It's possible that something in the plane is causing interference. But to be totally honest with you I doubt that is the case. More than likely you have a problem with your radio. If it's under warrenty please return it and get it repaired or replaced. If it's not under warrenty you will need to have it serviced at a licensed repair facility.

Ken

I took a servo, receiver and battery out of the plane and tried but still the same symptons as before. Fine for the first half minute then jittery then no control at all. I found the receipt and wouldn't you know it, I bought it exactly 2 years ago plus 4 days. That's 4 days after the warranty expired. I've never used this remote yet. Just my luck, eh! I might take it to the LHS to see if there is anything they can do. If I have to pay for warranty work on a remote that costed a little over $100, I don't think it will be worth it. The bill could be higher than the remote cost.

So I took the remote to the LHS and figured out with some testing that it was a faulty unit. I guess I'll be in the market for a new remote.

Give Hitec a chance first.. they have excellent repair / warranty / non-warranty service. They will be able to tell the radio is new (not used in a plane, etc) and state your case that it's only days over warranty. I will bet they fix it for free. I've had very very good luck with them the couple times I've had to send someting in.

I was told once that (not sure where) when a unit is left unused for long periods the reciever can get out of (not sure what the word is here) phase or something where the it doesn't sync up with the xmitter, etc.. It's an easy tune job for them.

Mike

You made the comment in one of your posts that "you charged it a couple of times last night," that does not make much sense. `

Now please forgive me it you did but did you ever charge both the TX and Rx pack with the included wall charger for the full 14 to 16 hours indicated in your manual?

If you did not do this thats likely your problem. So please confirm you charged both all night long before you send anything back.

If you do send anything back to Hitec then you will have no need to worry if there is a problem.

John

Yes the TX battery was charged the full amount with the supplied charger. The night I was charging the battery in the plane a couple of times, I was trying to eliminate the possibility that it wasn't being charged.