Receiver Interference

[New RC Car Dude]

Hello y’all! Hope all is well. I’m getting a little interference with the rx where it’s currently placed. I don’t have many choices so I’m open to suggestions as to where I can place this rx or any options to block the interference. I have 2 of the same rxs in other cars with no problems. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[nino]

How does this interference you speak of manifest? It could be a bunch of things, bad Rx, bad ESC, bad servo... You can always try and get the antenna straight up, it's easier when there's a receiver box with a slot for an antenna tube (which I don't see here) but try to move it somewhere away from the other electronics and vertical.

 

[DavidB1126]

I see a radiolink receiver. That's why.

If you talk to radiolink I guarantee you that they will say to you, it's either antenna placement (not the issue) or operator error (it's not, they want to hide their faults and blame it on the user)

And I don't think it's interference, it's more of signal dropping. Also recently discovered it's just not the rc8x but can be all the surface radios like the 4gs and 6gs that also has the issues. Radiolink messed up something in the firmware last year which effected the main board and hardware and they dont wanna fix it and blame their uses for it. Went through with this stuff for over 6 months and tried to help radiolink fix the issues but they didn't want to collaborate with me or any of my buddies to help resolve the issue. Instead they blocked us from their pages and censor their help groups.

Since then I moved away from radiounlink and went with flysky/Futaba and had no regrets. Sanwa is another great brand. Imo, the new radiomaster mt12 is the best radio on the market. Elrs for long range. Opentx for loads of programming options, and a 4in1 module which can bind up to various protocol and brand receivers. If you get rid of your faulty / dangerous radiolink radio, but keep the receivers, the mt12 can bind up to it no issues. @WickedFog just got the mt12 and a few others on here as well and they love it.

Edit:
More details of the issues with radiolink. The signal dropping I mean, the radio would cut out at a certain range (usually I tested from 40 to 60feet and can't get no longer range than that), the radio would cut out and the failsafe would not work and the car would "freeze" so if you were turning left your car would keep turning left and/or glitch and turn right. Same with the throttle. With this I ran my cars into walls, poles, driver stand and some cases almost into people since I didn't have control over my car when the radio cut out.

My hint that it isn't interference is that every other racer at my track with Futaba sanwa or flysky did not have issues. I with radiolink was the only one with issues which was the radio internally.

 

[AlanDewey]

Not sure from this photo, but it looks like you strapped the antenna to other wires which is the worst possible location.

Move it and test it, even if you have to test with no body on the car, at least you will know.

 

[New RC Car Dude]

How does this interference you speak of manifest? It could be a bunch of things, bad Rx, bad ESC, bad servo... You can always try and get the antenna straight up, it's easier when there's a receiver box with a slot for an antenna tube (which I don't see here) but try to move it somewhere away from the other electronics and vertical.

Thank you. The car will jump, become unresponsive and slow to react to the control inputs.

 

[DavidB1126]

become unresponsive

Hinting about the signal drop issues here

slow to react to the control inputs.

Hinting that it's a weak signal from the radio to the receiver. Does this happen right after it's unresponsive?

These issues are notorious with radiolink. Wouldn't be surprised if it is.

Would be surprised if it's a servo or esc issue.

Not hating on the brand. Just want to save people from these insane issues.

 

[New RC Car Dude]

Not sure from this photo, but it looks like you strapped the antenna to other wires which is the worst possible location.

Move it and test it, even if you have to test with no body on the car, at least you will know.

I will definitely give this a shot. Thank you

I see a radiolink receiver. That's why.

If you talk to radiolink I guarantee you that they will say to you, it's either antenna placement (not the issue) or operator error (it's not, they want to hide their faults and blame it on the user)

And I don't think it's interference, it's more of signal dropping. Also recently discovered it's just not the rc8x but can be all the surface radios like the 4gs and 6gs that also has the issues. Radiolink messed up something in the firmware last year which effected the main board and hardware and they dont wanna fix it and blame their uses for it. Went through with this stuff for over 6 months and tried to help radiolink fix the issues but they didn't want to collaborate with me or any of my buddies to help resolve the issue. Instead they blocked us from their pages and censor their help groups.

Since then I moved away from radiounlink and went with flysky/Futaba and had no regrets. Sanwa is another great brand. Imo, the new radiomaster mt12 is the best radio on the market. Elrs for long range. Opentx for loads of programming options, and a 4in1 module which can bind up to various protocol and brand receivers. If you get rid of your faulty / dangerous radiolink radio, but keep the receivers, the mt12 can bind up to it no issues. @WickedFog just got the mt12 and a few others on here as well and they love it.

Edit:
More details of the issues with radiolink. The signal dropping I mean, the radio would cut out at a certain range (usually I tested from 40 to 60feet and can't get no longer range than that), the radio would cut out and the failsafe would not work and the car would "freeze" so if you were turning left your car would keep turning left and/or glitch and turn right. Same with the throttle. With this I ran my cars into walls, poles, driver stand and some cases almost into people since I didn't have control over my car when the radio cut out.

Don't listen to radiolink fan boys of the brand. They suck. They just want to promote a dangerous radio to new people in the hobby and ruin their cars. And from these issues I learned to not buy any no name china brand on Amazon.

My hint that it isn't interference is that every other racer at my track with Futaba sanwa or flysky did not have issues. I with radiolink was the only one with issues which was the radio internally.

Thank you. I do hope you're wrong however I feel you're probably on to something. Just glad this didn't happen in my planes lol.

 

[CertifiedMike]

Relocate the receiver. Keep it away from EVERYTHING. Temp mount so you can try a few diff places.
After that, I'm inclined to agree with David. He's got a fair amount of experience with Radiolink failures.

 

[New RC Car Dude]

Relocate the receiver. Keep it away from EVERYTHING. Temp mount so you can try a few diff places.
After that, I'm inclined to agree with David. He's got a fair amount of experience with Radiolink failures.

Yep I tried all kinds of places with no luck. Already returned my Radiolink equipment and got something different. Went with Flysky. Can't afford something super nice just yet. Also have had really good experiences with Flysky and my planes. Thank you!

 

[CertifiedMike]

Yep I tried all kinds of places with no luck. Already returned my Radiolink equipment and got something different. Went with Flysky. Can't afford something super nice just yet. Also have had really good experiences with Flysky and my planes. Thank you!

Glad you got it sorted relatively pain-free!
Its funny how those receivers seemed to develope issues similar to the old 75mhz receivers 30 years before!

 

[DavidB1126]

Glad you got it sorted relatively pain-free!
Its funny how those receivers seemed to develope issues similar to the old 75mhz receivers 30 years before!

Sort of. Don't think it's the receivers because I seen people bind up radiolink receivers to that radiomaster and do just fine. It's just the radio / transmitter internally as radiolink rolled out a update who knows when which that specific update messed up the circuit board and hardware permanently and they deny their issues.

But on the bright side hopefully OPs issues are resolved with the new flysky combo. I switched to the nb4 and I love it. I can actually trust my radio and drive alot farther than what I couldn't do with the faulty radiolink.

 

[CertifiedMike]

Sort of. Don't think it's the receivers because I seen people bind up radiolink receivers to that radiomaster and do just fine. It's just the radio / transmitter internally as radiolink rolled out a update who knows when which that specific update messed up the circuit board and hardware permanently and they deny their issues.

But on the bright side hopefully OPs issues are resolved with the new flysky combo. I switched to the nb4 and I love it. I can actually trust my radio and drive alot farther than what I couldn't do with the faulty radiolink.

Good info! I suppose if someone had an MT12 and RL receivers it wouldn't be a loss really!
Its no good when you're watching $1000+ and countless hours speed towards a tree and your radio decides to break out some popcorn and pull up a seat instead of... DOING ANYTHING!!!

 

[DavidB1126]

Good info! I suppose if someone had an MT12 and RL receivers it wouldn't be a loss really!
Its no good when you're watching $1000+ and countless hours speed towards a tree and your radio decides to break out some popcorn and pull up a seat instead of... DOING ANYTHING!!!

Yep. If you want to, here is a video from when I first discovered the radiolink failures. Radio cut out. Car essentially "froze" the last known inputs. Straight into / under the driverstand.

Talked to other people during that time that were also noticing the same issues. One racer who raced on road indoors almost ran into a marshal since he didn't have control of his car for a split second. Crazy. Well, he did ran into him. Just a slight bruise. Nothing that insane.

 

[CertifiedMike]

I think I'm gonna buy one. I'll have something to blame my hack driving on and all the other racers will just nod and understand.

 

[New RC Car Dude]

Glad you got it sorted relatively pain-free!
Its funny how those receivers seemed to develope issues similar to the old 75mhz receivers 30 years before!

Thanks! Instead of testing and replacing, figured I’d go with something I know works well. Not really sure I didn’t do that I. The first place.

 

[CJSRCLIFE]

This is the main reason i started to move away from Radiolink i had an RC8X and ever since day one i had signal issues and glitch issues. I just recently bought a DX6C with x2 receivers and if it goes well i plan to get more then eventually move up to an IXSR. But you seriously don't need to go to Spektrum but i recommend at least Flysky, Sanwa and Futaba. I can no longer recommend radiolink since they are still ignoring the issues associated with the RC8X and their other products at this point if they don't recall or pull their bad products off the marketplaces and most likely if they continue down this path they will go under and go bankrupt. Or possibly if they can make the changes necessary to stay alive they may have a chance. There are only so many ways i can rephrase how much of a dissappointment Radiolink and their porducts were for me coming from Futaba. Sorry for going on a tangent everybody.

 

[Jerold]

Long Story Short
1. Keep them away from other electronics and wires.
2. Always keep your antennas vertical.

Short Story Long
I'm running RadioLink on a few different cars with Zero, Zip, Zilch, Nada issues. Of course you mileage will vary.

However, I did have one issue where I did not secure the second antenna on the receiver. I tucked it under the electronics and it glitched just like you described. The ESC threw a code for Radio Interference too. Then I secured it away from metal and other electronics and it's no problem now.

The antennas are in the two straws sticking up from the center brace. Ignore the red circle, the pic is repurposed. This has been a solid setup. This all fits under the lid. It could be higher but the height doesn't matter that much as long as it's line of sight.

There are a few things going on here.

Remember that a receiver and it's designed to pick up signals, even unintended signals. So anything near it has the potential to interfere with (confuse) it. The TX and RX both have a lot of filters to help with this but it's easy to overwhelm them with garbage signals.

But the servo is like a 10KHz at most signal you say. That is correct, but the frequencies emitted by the servo signals are related to the slew rate (how fast the signal rises or falls) not the frequency at which they occur. Then there are harmonics (lower frequencies that are multiples of the source) that can also interfere. So it's entirely plausible for the slow frequency signal to interfere with a 2.4Ghz signal.

Also, in the ideal world the TX and RX antennas are both vertical. If one is out of alignment the signal strength is reduced. If the RX antenna is horizontal and the TX is vertical, it will still work to some degree but it's the worst case scenario. Add that with the noise of the signals near it and the TX will quickly be drowned out.

If you have the two antenna receiver, they are really designed for aircraft where the antennas are rarely aligned. This is why RadioLink tells you to put them at 90° to each other. The receiver takes both signals and mixes them to reconstruct the best signal. If one is completely out of littered with noise, it can overwhelm the other one and the signal is garbage. i.e. the car will do weird things.

 

[New RC Car Dude]

Long Story Short
1. Keep them away from other electronics and wires.
2. Always keep your antennas vertical.

Short Story Long
I'm running RadioLink on a few different cars with Zero, Zip, Zilch, Nada issues. Of course you mileage will vary.

However, I did have one issue where I did not secure the second antenna on the receiver. I tucked it under the electronics and it glitched just like you described. The ESC threw a code for Radio Interference too. Then I secured it away from metal and other electronics and it's no problem now.

The antennas are in the two straws sticking up from the center brace. Ignore the red circle, the pic is repurposed. This has been a solid setup. This all fits under the lid. It could be higher but the height doesn't matter that much as long as it's line of sight.

There are a few things going on here.

Remember that a receiver and it's designed to pick up signals, even unintended signals. So anything near it has the potential to interfere with (confuse) it. The TX and RX both have a lot of filters to help with this but it's easy to overwhelm them with garbage signals.

But the servo is like a 10KHz at most signal you say. That is correct, but the frequencies emitted by the servo signals are related to the slew rate (how fast the signal rises or falls) not the frequency at which they occur. Then there are harmonics (lower frequencies that are multiples of the source) that can also interfere. So it's entirely plausible for the slow frequency signal to interfere with a 2.4Ghz signal.

Also, in the ideal world the TX and RX antennas are both vertical. If one is out of alignment the signal strength is reduced. If the RX antenna is horizontal and the TX is vertical, it will still work to some degree but it's the worst case scenario. Add that with the noise of the signals near it and the TX will quickly be drowned out.

If you have the two antenna receiver, they are really designed for aircraft where the antennas are rarely aligned. This is why RadioLink tells you to put them at 90° to each other. The receiver takes both signals and mixes them to reconstruct the best signal. If one is completely out of littered with noise, it can overwhelm the other one and the signal is garbage. i.e. the car will do weird things.

Long Story Short
1. Keep them away from other electronics and wires.
2. Always keep your antennas vertical.

Short Story Long
I'm running RadioLink on a few different cars with Zero, Zip, Zilch, Nada issues. Of course you mileage will vary.

However, I did have one issue where I did not secure the second antenna on the receiver. I tucked it under the electronics and it glitched just like you described. The ESC threw a code for Radio Interference too. Then I secured it away from metal and other electronics and it's no problem now.

The antennas are in the two straws sticking up from the center brace. Ignore the red circle, the pic is repurposed. This has been a solid setup. This all fits under the lid. It could be higher but the height doesn't matter that much as long as it's line of sight.

There are a few things going on here.

Remember that a receiver and it's designed to pick up signals, even unintended signals. So anything near it has the potential to interfere with (confuse) it. The TX and RX both have a lot of filters to help with this but it's easy to overwhelm them with garbage signals.

But the servo is like a 10KHz at most signal you say. That is correct, but the frequencies emitted by the servo signals are related to the slew rate (how fast the signal rises or falls) not the frequency at which they occur. Then there are harmonics (lower frequencies that are multiples of the source) that can also interfere. So it's entirely plausible for the slow frequency signal to interfere with a 2.4Ghz signal.

Also, in the ideal world the TX and RX antennas are both vertical. If one is out of alignment the signal strength is reduced. If the RX antenna is horizontal and the TX is vertical, it will still work to some degree but it's the worst case scenario. Add that with the noise of the signals near it and the TX will quickly be drowned out.

If you have the two antenna receiver, they are really designed for aircraft where the antennas are rarely aligned. This is why RadioLink tells you to put them at 90° to each other. The receiver takes both signals and mixes them to reconstruct the best signal. If one is completely out of littered with noise, it can overwhelm the other one and the signal is garbage. i.e. the car will do weird things.

Wow thank you! This was very informative. I like knowing how things work. I did end up getting my Flysky today and the issues I was having is gone, although I took all of the suggestions and placed the receiver in a box and away from all wires and electronics.

 

[RustyUs]

Possibly a lot of "noise" going on (in picture above) that you can't hear.

Long Story Short
1. Keep them away from other electronics and wires.
2. Always keep your antennas vertical.
that a receiver and it's designed to pick up signals, even unintended signals. So anything near it has the potential to interfere with (confuse) it. The TX and RX both have a lot of filters to help with this but it's easy to overwhelm them with garbage signals.

But the servo is like a 10KHz at most signal you say. That is correct, but the frequencies emitted by the servo signals are related to the slew rate (how fast the signal rises or falls) not the frequency at which they occur. Then there are harmonics (lower frequencies that are multiples of the source) that can also interfere. So it's entirely plausible for the slow frequency signal to interfere with a 2.4Ghz signal.

Also, in the ideal world the TX and RX antennas are both vertical. If one is out of alignment the signal strength is reduced. If the RX antenna is horizontal and the TX is vertical, it will still work to some degree but it's the worst case scenario. Add that with the noise of the signals near it and the TX will quickly be drowned out.

If you have the two antenna receiver, they are really designed for aircraft where the antennas are rarely aligned. This is why RadioLink tells you to put them at 90° to each other. The receiver takes both signals and mixes them to reconstruct the best signal. If one is completely out of littered with noise, it can overwhelm the other one and the signal is garbage. i.e. the car will do weird things.

Having been around AM & FM radios in the hobby, I've always tried to give receivers/antennas a clean path to do their job with least possible chance of interference.

I see a radiolink receiver. That's why.

If you talk to radiolink I guarantee you that they will say to you, it's either antenna placement (not the issue) or operator error (it's not, they want to hide their faults and blame it on the user)

And I don't think it's interference, it's more of signal dropping. Also recently discovered it's just not the rc8x but can be all the surface radios like the 4gs and 6gs that also has the issues. Radiolink messed up something in the firmware last year which effected the main board and hardware and they dont wanna fix it and blame their uses for it. Went through with this stuff for over 6 months and tried to help radiolink fix the issues but they didn't want to collaborate with me or any of my buddies to help resolve the issue. Instead they blocked us from their pages and censor their help groups.

Since then I moved away from radiounlink and went with flysky/Futaba and had no regrets. Sanwa is another great brand. Imo, the new radiomaster mt12 is the best radio on the market. Elrs for long range. Opentx for loads of programming options, and a 4in1 module which can bind up to various protocol and brand receivers. If you get rid of your faulty / dangerous radiolink radio, but keep the receivers, the mt12 can bind up to it no issues. @WickedFog just got the mt12 and a few others on here as well and they love it.

Edit:
More details of the issues with radiolink. The signal dropping I mean, the radio would cut out at a certain range (usually I tested from 40 to 60feet and can't get no longer range than that), the radio would cut out and the failsafe would not work and the car would "freeze" so if you were turning left your car would keep turning left and/or glitch and turn right. Same with the throttle. With this I ran my cars into walls, poles, driver stand and some cases almost into people since I didn't have control over my car when the radio cut out.

My hint that it isn't interference is that every other racer at my track with Futaba sanwa or flysky did not have issues. I with radiolink was the only one with issues which was the radio internally.

It wasn't too long ago (back when forums had lots of traffic) that Radiolink radios were atop the recommended lower budget brands when FlySky GT3 users were experiencing a plethora of QC issues. I know I swore I'd never own another FlySky radio , and moved to a Radiolink as a "step up" from FS-GT3 transmitters. A year of great RCing from the brand, and then I swore I'd never own another Radiolink product .

FlySky has, I think, learned a lot from years past. It's why I've (and so many others) given them a second chance with their Noble radio. Radiolink will most likely survive a couple handfuls of bad eggs .

 

[Jerold]

I also own Flysky and have had no problems with it. The design and interface is a bit easier than the RadioLink too. However, if you need distance the RadioLink owns it.