rcnewbie

So I was testing my radio equipment today...while the engine was running (hitech receiver, futaba servos, 46 fx motor) and my equipment became posessed! The servos started to move on their own (with transmitter turned off or left on). Of course I DO NOT want to have this experience in flight! There are two possibilities I can think of:

1) The equipment was in a crash weeks ago. However, last night, everything seemed fine.

2) A thunder storm was brewing, with lightening.

Trying to be optimistic, how likely is it that the lightening was causing this behaviour. Should I call an exorcist?

Phil Cole

With the transmitter off, it's quite possible for the servos to move. It's not of their own accord, but the receiver picking up stuff from the aether and passing it to the servos.
If the servos do it with the transmitter on, then you do have a problem.

Listen to an AM radio in a thunderstorm to here what goes on. Compare the amount of crashing and banging you hear while you are tuned to a station with what you hear while the radio is tuned between stations.

The RC receiver does similar things.

Crashes can cause intermittent faults, too. Tap the receiver, servos, switch, etc with a screw driver handle to see if you get some response. Do this with the transmitter on and off.

Ed

Do a range test without the engine running to validate the receiver and antenna system. Now come back to the plane with the Tx antenna collapsed. Tap the engine with a metal tool such as a long shaft screwdriver, Tx still on. If this duplicates the condition, it's probably electrical noise, such as a metal clevis attached to the throttle arm. You should have no metal to metal hitting each other, such as push rods or other metal parts, on board that plane. Use a plastic clevis at the throttle arm.

Have you flown this plane before ?