I lose signal even at short distance

[J’sCrawler]

I am not sure if it’s a nitro thing or what but, I can’t let the car get about 40-50ft away without it losing signal. I notice I can’t steer the car and I don’t have throttle control. I even have a little bit of the antenna sticking out of the box.
I am using radiolink stuff and this same setup works in my electric cars and I can go way far away with zero issues. I actually hijacked the rx out of something that I know goes far enough that I can no longer see it.
So what’s going on with my tx/rx in my nitro car?

 

[DavidB1126]

It's RadioLink. Who knows.

What transmitter? What receiver? What firmware?

As you see. RadioLink is notorious for issues like that.

 

[J’sCrawler]

The rc4gs with the r6f…..who knows what firmware but the same stuff in a different car never has this issue
I just don’t get it

 

[DavidB1126]

never had issues with my 4gs with r6fg v4's in my electric cars. don't have nitros.

Just a random thought, could it be something with failsafe? Or the rssi thing?

I only had issues with my 8x, as you saw multiple times.

 

[J’sCrawler]

The failsafe seems to work as it should. I don’t even know what rssi is
I want to point out this was also the case with a spektrum tx/rx combo. Until some water got on the rx and now the servo acts twitchy so I am going to toss that stuff in the garbage.

 

[DavidB1126]

RSSI is the strength of the signal, if I'm not wrong.
Click the exit button 2 times and a menu with all the info should come up, RSSI should be one of them.
They recommended to check RSSI when I had my 8x radio issues, here is the video they sent me. Should be the same for the 4gs

If the RSSI values are poor, idk anything else.
Thats why I encourage people to join the radiolink official group on FB cause I'm most likely no help.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2093827670929009
Edit: Already posted in the fb group. Lets see what other people say.

 

[WickedFog]

Is your receiver mounted securly? How is it mounted? Check for anything loose that could be vibrating. It could be a wire in the radio system shorting out on something. Try disconnecting the steering servo and test run the car on a stand, tires off. Does it still do it? If so, plug the steering servo back in and disconnect the throttle servo. Rev the engine by hand. Does it still do it? If the problem goes away doing either of those, it could be a bad servo with a short and the vibration causes it to flare up. Do you have another receiver you can swap in? If so, try that. Eliminate the electronics piece by piece.

 

[J’sCrawler]

Interesting not one of my receivers from radiolink have a clear portion on the top…… Edit: yes the r6fg does.
Once I swapped radio systems the twitch went away.
This rx must be a little bit bad on signal strength. At 20cm it’s showing a signal strength of -39dbm

 

[DavidB1126]

Maybe a new receiver?
RadioLink receivers are sold cheap, and made cheap.

 

[J’sCrawler]

So the r6f has no clear portion at the tip of the antenna, the r6fg does. Signal from the r6f is weak, I just tested the r6fg and it has much better numbers at greater distances.
Just tested my spektrum receiver again on both servos, it is the steering channel from the receiver that makes both servos twitchy. Could be the tx, could be the rx, but it is definitely in the steering channel.

Maybe a new receiver?
RadioLink receivers are sold cheap, and made cheap.

The weak signal won’t be an issue In a crawler so I guess the r6f will go to that. I agree on just needing a new receiver.

 

[WickedFog]

So the r6f has no clear portion at the tip of the antenna, the r6fg does. Signal from the r6f is weak, I just tested the r6fg and it has much better numbers at greater distances.
Just tested my spektrum receiver again on both servos, it is the steering channel from the receiver that makes both servos twitchy. Could be the tx, could be the rx, but it is definitely in the steering channel.
View attachment 180149

So if you plug the steering servo into the Spektrum Rx it is twitchy? If so, replace that servo. That could be the culprit. Tap the servo and see if it flips out.

 

[J’sCrawler]

Thanks @DavidB1126 for the help. I’ll try out the r6fg in the nitro and see what happens.

So if you plug the steering servo into the Spektrum Rx it is twitchy? If so, replace that servo. That could be the culprit. Tap the servo and see if it flips out.

It’s both servos in that channel. Throttle servo is twitchy on steering channel, so is the steering servo. Either servo plugged into the throttle channel operate just fine.

 

[WickedFog]

Thanks @DavidB1126 for the help. I’ll try out the r6fg in the nitro and see what happens.

It’s both servos in that channel. Throttle servo is twitchy on steering channel, so is the steering servo. Either servo plugged into the throttle channel operate just fine.

Oh, well yeah, either Tx or Rx. Since it happens with the engine running, I'd bet it's the Rx.

 

[DavidB1126]

@J'sCrawler

People say there is a new firmware update to try. See if that fixes it? Highly doubt it will. I learned to not do updates on my RC stuff. Unless it's ESC related.

Most likely something with the rx.
On the receiver you were using, does it have the clear top cut off? Maybe it ripped off. Mine did that, but that was with the 6fg version.

 

[WickedFog]

@J'sCrawler

People say there is a new firmware update to try. See if that fixes it? Highly doubt it will. I learned to not do updates on my RC stuff. Unless it's ESC related.

Most likely something with the rx.
On the receiver you were using, does it have the clear top cut off? Maybe it ripped off. Mine did that, but that was with the 6fg version.

Yeah, totally agree. If the antenna got shortened, it could be causing the issue.

 

[J’sCrawler]

@J'sCrawler

People say there is a new firmware update to try. See if that fixes it? Highly doubt it will. I learned to not do updates on my RC stuff. Unless it's ESC related.

Most likely something with the rx.
On the receiver you were using, does it have the clear top cut off? Maybe it ripped off. Mine did that, but that was with the 6fg version.

It did, I just found it on the table, the little clear tip of the antenna. Lame. Oh well I’ll buy a new one

 

[nino]

You can fix it by removing the outer layer (insulation and shield) from the remainin antenna lead. Basically make a new clear part (same length as the old one). Bam, new antenna!

 

[J’sCrawler]

You can fix it by removing the outer layer (insulation and shield) from the remainin antenna lead. Basically make a new clear part (same length as the old one). Bam, new antenna!

I’ll give that a shot
It’s not a total loss, it would still work in a rock crawler

 

[J’sCrawler]

It’s so crazy that worked