Do I need a glitch buster?

[fweasel]

Maiden Voyage for my Blackjack 29 V3 today. Stock electronics, Tx/Rx, brand new Turnigy 2s (series) batteries. It was a bit windy today so I was running mostly WOT straight line runs and very slow in the turns. More often than not, the boat would die in a turn, sputter back like it was on LVC, die again, sputter again, then dead. Initially I thought it was a range problem. Walked down the shore to get closer, didn't change much, and I was well within the distance that I run $40 Amazon.com boats with my kids. Sometimes turning the transmitter off and back on would get me back up, sometimes it just took 20 seconds. The ESC LVC is set at 3.4V, but the problem started on fresh packs. A dry land range test far exceeded the distance I was having issues at in the water, and the antenna is extended well above the hull. Tx batteries are not new, but only have about 6 runs on them from another radio and all appropriate voltage LED's are the correct color.

The problem could be repeated pretty reliably when coming out of a slow speed turn and getting back on the throttle, i.e. near full rudder, off plane, and ramping up to WOT. The internet tells me this might be a voltage related issue, the receiver is experiencing a brown out. and subsequently rebooting. Is this a good time to throw a $6 glitch buster capacitor at the problem?

[JimClark]

What radio and where is your antenna located?

[fweasel]

Spektrum DX2E transmitter, SR410 receiver. Antenna is in the rear corner of the hull, sticking up through a 4" mast. I'd say there's at least 3" of antenna wire above the topside of the hull.

[TheShaughnessy]

capacity and c rating of batteries?
Have you tried lowering the lvc?

[Fluid]

The LED voltage lights are notoriously inaccurate, considering that Tx batts are used they "could" be part of the problem. Range checks on land are worthless with marine 2.4 gig radios.

Check the plugs which go into the receiver, if they have corroded they may reduce the BEC voltage to the receiver. Some 2.4 receivers are very voltage sensitive.

issues like this are often very difficult to diagnose from 1000 miles away....


.

[fweasel]

capacity and c rating of batteries?
Have you tried lowering the lvc?

Whoops, Turnigy nano-tech 5000mAh, 35-70C, brand new, cycled and balanced twice the night before. I lowered the LVC from 3.4V to 3.2V when I got home, hope to head back out tomorrow morning for more therapy.

The LED voltage lights are notoriously inaccurate, considering that Tx batts are used they "could" be part of the problem. Range checks on land are worthless with marine 2.4 gig radios. Check the plugs which go into the receiver, if they have corroded they may reduce the BEC voltage to the receiver. Some 2.4 receivers are very voltage sensitive. issues like this are often very difficult to diagnose from 1000 miles away...

Shame on me for not having a spare set of AA's in the tackle box. They've since been replaced, we'll see tomorrow. All of the plugs and pins look clean/new. I suppose there could be some resin on the receiver pins if that's what the factory used to waterproof it. No real room to try and clean them up, but I'll see what I can do with a small jewel screwdriver.

[fweasel]

Back to the lake today with fresh batteries in the Tx. Maybe a little better, but still lost the boat several times. I lowered the LVC to 3.2V on the second set of batteries, no change. Leaning towards a bad Tx and will likely order a Spektrum DX4C later this week.

[srislash]

You could try a glitch buster, I mean it can't hurt. I can't see stock gear causing a brown out but.... I have had this issue with a twin steerable outdrive that I put a crawler servo in.
It could easily be an Rx problem, based on all other mass manufactured parts the odd one does come nonfunctional. I have never had it happen with spectrum but I have had them up and unbind and die altogether(I think once).

[NativePaul]

Brownouts would be my first suspicion with a Spectrum RX as Spektrums have quite a high voltage ceiling, Older RX could take multiple seconds to relink after a brownout, although they have improved the situation by much improving the reset speed of newer RX. I think there is a LED that flashes on the RX after a brownout, is there a flashing LED?

Do you have any binding in the rudder? Take the servo horn off and give it a waggle, if it gets stiff at either end it could be stalling the servo and pulling large currents that would cause a brown out in any radio, if that is the case move the pushrod in a hole on the servo arm, or reduce the EPA in the TX, so it can never reach the area that binds,

I don't know the BJ electronics, does it have programable BEC voltage, and low voltage cutoff? If it does I would try increasing the BEC voltage to 6V and trying to reproduce the problem, if it works leave it set at 6V and buy a glitch buster cap which should be an end to your problems.

Ignoring the Spektrum brownout issue, I would say it sounds like an LVC despite you saying that it happens with fresh packs, coming out of a slow speed turn is where it will pull the most current and the battery voltage will drop the furthest. Try switching the LVC off if you can or dropping it right down to under 3V/cell, and giving it a short run to try and reproduce the problem, if it works you need better batteries, but by timing your runs you can still run your existing ones without a LVC until you get some that are up to the task.

Or you could go racing and have even more fun, as the oval or M courses do not have any of the slow speed off the plane corners, which are bringing the issue to light. Also there will be a bunch of knowledgeable, helpful and friendly people at a race that can help you fix your problem. I don't doubt that someone would lend you a glitch buster, battery, ESC, RX and TX, to rule them out and find your issue.

[TheShaughnessy]

have you talked with horizon customer support, they know their product inside and out and will probably offer a quick solution

[fweasel]

have you talked with horizon customer support, they know their product inside and out and will probably offer a quick solution

Funny you should mention that. I bought the boat used off eBay, no warranty, so in my head, I never thought about calling the manufacturer. I will give that a shot. Sometimes you just need to hear the obvious stated aloud.

Brownouts would be my first suspicion with a Spectrum RX as Spektrums have quite a high voltage ceiling, Older RX could take multiple seconds to relink after a brownout, although they have improved the situation by much improving the reset speed of newer RX. I think there is a LED that flashes on the RX after a brownout, is there a flashing LED?
I'll need a small english speaking rodent to ride in the boat to tell me. I can't see the light when it's floating dead in the water, and when it comes back online eventually, I would imagine said light would be gone.

Do you have any binding in the rudder? Take the servo horn off and give it a waggle, if it gets stiff at either end it could be stalling the servo and pulling large currents that would cause a brown out in any radio, if that is the case move the pushrod in a hole on the servo arm, or reduce the EPA in the TX, so it can never reach the area that binds,
Interesting idea. I did notice a clicking (not from the servo) near the end of the rudder travel in one direction. I'll investigate that next

I don't know the BJ electronics, does it have programable BEC voltage, and low voltage cutoff? If it does I would try increasing the BEC voltage to 6V and trying to reproduce the problem, if it works leave it set at 6V and buy a glitch buster cap which should be an end to your problems.
No programmable BEC voltage, but LVC is adjustable. I dropped it down to 3.2V, but have not tried turning it off completely. Glitch buster is on the way, figured it couldn't hurt to try

Ignoring the Spektrum brownout issue, I would say it sounds like an LVC despite you saying that it happens with fresh packs, coming out of a slow speed turn is where it will pull the most current and the battery voltage will drop the furthest. Try switching the LVC off if you can or dropping it right down to under 3V/cell, and giving it a short run to try and reproduce the problem, if it works you need better batteries, but by timing your runs you can still run your existing ones without a LVC until you get some that are up to the task.
While the batteries certainly aren't top of the line, I feel they're pretty decent (Turnigy nano-tech 2S 5000mAh 35-70C)

Or you could go racing and have even more fun, as the oval or M courses do not have any of the slow speed off the plane corners, which are bringing the issue to light. Also there will be a bunch of knowledgeable, helpful and friendly people at a race that can help you fix your problem. I don't doubt that someone would lend you a glitch buster, battery, ESC, RX and TX, to rule them out and find your issue.
I'd love to, but nothing local, that I've found anyways. The reason I'm running slow turns is two fold. Still setting the boat up and no recovery method other than a set of swim trunks.

[fweasel]

Hit the pond again today with my son. During the week I did find some binding at the extreme ranges on the rudder caused by of all things, the rubber push rod boot. It grips the steering push rod tightly enough that it was limiting travel because it wasn't attached in a neutral enough position. I adjusted it and the rudder moved from lock to lock without any noises. Change number two, I bought and configured a new Spectrum DX4C transmitter to go with my existing SR410 receiver. Today's run's were much better, range seems improved, but still at the far end (80-100' maybe) of my imaginary course, the throttle would go dead for 0.5s or so, then kick back on. This only happened about 2 or three times per set of batteries, a significant improvement over last weekend. The difference was last weekend seemed to be under a high load situation (ramping throttle and hard rudder, off plane) and this time it was on the back straight, full throttle, no steering input. I also set the LVC back to 3.4V today as dropping it to 3.2V did nothing other than drain my batteries lower than I like.

The better transmitter has many pluses to it, so success or not, a worthy upgrade. The lower current draw brown outs on the most recent runs seem more range related than voltage or current, so I'll swap out receivers before next weekend. I would like to be able to run my Shockwave 26 on the same transmitter, so I need another SR210 anyways. Once I get this gremlin solved, I'll be on to the next mystery: why my high 40's setup is only netting me 38mph in ideal conditions...

[srislash]

I have an older Spektrum as well as the new DX4s(or C?) and have had no range issues on any of my boats, EXCEPT, the one Pursuit which the GF drives. It had so issue with range but I got the second antenna of the MR200 outside the hull and problem fixed. However you are running single antenna.
Only other problem was as stated above in my other post.
One of the other members here did have similar issues to yours but I believe it was an older radio with twin antenna Rx. I think he fixed his problem with a new radio. Not any help there I know but these are the only two instances I have read.
Keep at it and I am sure it will be resolved. Perhaps a separate battery for Rx?

[fweasel]

Perhaps a separate battery for Rx?

It's on the list of maybe's but I'd rather not in an effort to keep things as simple as possible. There's nothing exotic about my setup and plenty of other people have hit the water with this same RTR config with no problems.

[trigger]

A friend had this issue. His turned out to be the ESC switch. Chopped if off and twisted the wires together and bingo....might be worth a shot.