Hi All,

I have got a five years old Hitec Eclipse 7C which I have lately upgraded with a 2GHz module with its Optima 7 receiver. Everything has been great so far but I have recently faced a few abrupt glitches on the rudder channel only. At first I thought that it could be some heavy alien signal coming from the environment but then I realized that it has to be in the radio. Due to the very damp place where I have to keep my things, I believe that corrosion might have happened in the potentiometer of the rudder stick.
What do you think? If so, beside buying a new radio, how do you recommend to clean a potentiometer in general?

Thanks for your help,

Franco

You could send your TX to Hitec and have them check it out.

They provide fast service with a reasonable cost.

Try a few things first. A different receiver. A different servo. I'd try and clean any servo extensions connectors. Perhaps even change the on off switch.

Very Often this type of thing is often caused by extensions and Y cords and yes corrosion of the plugs. Some times this can be fixed just by multiple plugging of the connectors. Buried plug connections can do this and thats why often removed plugs such as wing aileron plugs tend to not corrode.

John

Thanks a lot for the hint, I am going to check the servo extension too. I have already tried another receiver without succeeding and that is why I thought that it could be the TX. In another plane I had a similar situation but that time one elevator was sluggish Vs the other and its response lagged sometimes. Then I found that it was the Y cable so I solved the problem by plugging the servos into two different channels
Unlike this time the rudder servo self-bangs to the far left a couple of times in the first 2 - 3 minutes of the flight and then it keeps quiet until the end. The other funny thing is that I cannot make it happen on the ground, for some reason the plane has to be airborne.
I even asked my buddies to check me while flying for uncontrolled thumb movements, like it was an early sign of some neurological disease, but they said that they saw nothing.

One more thing, sorry for trying you patience. Almost coincidently with these glitches, another group of RC enthusiasts set their new flying field some 500 meters away from ours (yeah, I know this sounds funny too). As we don't know these guys, is it a possibility that someone there is playing with one of those electronic devices that can interfere with the 2.4 GHz radio systems?

Trying to salvage my favourite radio,

Franco