Slow stick interference
 

My brother and I have recently built a slow stick for his oldest son to start learning how to fly. Having put the plane together we started getting some interference and grounded the plane for a little while. Recently we put it back up in the air with a totally new setup having suspected a faulty receiver the first time through.... this time a gws receiver and still interference... all the parts are mounted in their stock locations. Anyone familiar with people having problems with this plane and this much interference?

My initial thought was maybe the metal boom, however no one else here seems to be dealing with this problem with the same setup

RE: Slow stick interference
 

The aluminum boom won't cause interference problems.
Is your antenna fully extended? Sometimes the simplest things we overlook.
Keep in mind that the GWS receivers are single-conversion, which are fine most applications but are susceptible to interference problems in hi-microwave traffic areas (such as areas within a city, power lines, transformers, or cell-phone towers). I lost an airplane to a cell tower just last month, having ignored my own self-imposed rule of sticking with dual-conversion or 2.4 gig receivers for in-town use.
Flyer

RE: Slow stick interference
 

I fly GWS recievers very close to a cell phone tower and haven't experienced any problems with them.

If you have a picture of your setup, that would help.

By stock positions, I take it you mean that the ESC is as close to the motor as it will go, that the servos and their wires are behind the Rx (and the Rx is in the middle), and the battery hangs underneath?

I assume there are capacitors soldered on the back of the motor?

Get all wires away from the Rx as much as you can. Run the servo wires on the bottom of the fuse and your antenna through the holes in the pushrod holders that are unused. It isn't considered best practice to run the antenna down a piece of metal. If that doesn't work, try running the antenna out the wing. Fasten it with a bit of tape and don't forget to unfasten it before you remove the wing!

Put some tape over the crystal on the Rx to secure it.

If that doesn't work, try some voodoo and wrap the Rx in tinfoil. Some people say this isn't supposed to work, but it has helped me a bit in an installation where I had the Rx sit on top of two servos.

RE: Slow stick interference
 

I had that very same problem with my GWS receiver on my slow stick. I had the antenna run through one of the empty holes that the servo wires run through and I think it was too close to the fuse. I just let mine hang free and the interference stopped. i have read about a lot of guys here having the same problems and they tape it to there wing out away from the fuse. the only problem with that is when you take the wing off for transport but it seems to fix the problem

RE: Slow stick interference
 

Thanks for the fast responses, I'll have them try running the antenna down the wing and see if that doesn't clear it up.

RE: Slow stick interference
 

Here's a new idea.....I had the same problem with one of my slow stiks and after replacing everything on it it ended up being the BEC circuitry in the ESC. The plane would range check great and would power up in my hand without any problems but once the craft was in the air and got further than 50+ feet away the servos would all start glitching and going haywire. I replaced everything on it one by one and found that the BEC (Battery Eliminator circuitry) was faulty in the ESC (Electronic speed control) Which allows the use of the planes main battery source to power the Receiver and servos. Replaced the ESC and all was good no matter how the antenna was routed and I was using a gws 4 channel receiver with an Eflite brushed ESC. I went to a Electrify ESC and I like it much better. Don'y get me wrong ....I like Eflite stuff but the small amp brushed ESC's are not my favorite as they are VERY low amp BEC circuitry and will only supply enough power for 2 Servos. Add a third servo in a aileron foamie and forget it. You will loose your plane to the dirt when the servos freak out in flight once the bec starts heating up and loosing the amp load battle!!!

I actually took three servos and a ESC and receiver on my work bench and just cycled all 3 servos and within 30-40 seconds they all started freaking out! Try it if you own a Eflite brushed 20 amp ESC.

RE: Slow stick interference
 

If all else fails get a CC Berg microstamp receiver. I've had problems with several receivers/Planes but after using the Berg no more problems. The ant. wire is longer though and I just let it dangle from the rear of the plane. I couldn't even get the receiver to glitch when I turned on another Transmitter on the same frequency. One drawback, you can't use the buddy trainer system with it.

Vultch

RE: Slow stick interference
 

How come? Usually only one transmitter is actually doing the transmitting when using a buddy box - there shouldn't be a problem with it.
Flyer

RE: Slow stick interference
 

I'm not sure what the plane had in it the first time but when we replaced it we went with the c12 electrifly haven't been able to get to this yet with so many other things on the bench at the moment