Help - Sanwa Interference - stumped...
 

I run a Sanwa Super Exzes with a Sanwa TM-221DS Module.
Never had any issues with it - ever - until today at Southport.

This last weekend at Southport outdoor track, I was occasionally a passenger as the car locked for a few seconds at full throttle and I had no control. Just like the good old days of interference on 40 Meg :( Had to retire the car in the last final as it was a liability and shot across the track into the straight :(

This is the TX.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/15062770/sanwa2.jpg

And this is the Module

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/15062770/sanwa1.jpg

I tried 2 different receivers at the track, same problem.
I tried re-routing all the wiring and standing the aerial wire up, still no good.

Anyone any bright ideas?

The battery I normally run is a NIMH and reads out as 10.7 Volts on the TX. I wondered when I got home if the battery wasn't giving enough power / my signal getting swamped etc? With a lipo in the TX (blue Turnigy one in picture) I get a readout of 12.1 Volts. Is more Volts / power better?

I didn't try the lipo at the meeting as I didn't have it with me - could more power help?

Is the Southport track notorious for Interference, I did see others with similar problems, which is weird as I thought we had put all this interference behind us.

Any help - pointers appreciated.

Power is always good to have at full voltage, but it doesnt sound like a power issue as you didnt mention if range was the issue (ie. the car always fails to respond at the furthest point on the track)

So assuming range isnt the issue, I would think that it sounds very like interference on the 2.4 spectrum.
Different RX/TX use a different number of points within the spectrum to hop around (hence the Spread Spectrum name). If one or two of those points get interference, its not normally an issue and probably we wouldnt notice.

I wonder if you lost more than just a few of these points and got some major interference?
As I said, I think different brands might be more resistant to interference, so does anyone else race your brand at Southport and do they have issues?

Sorry - Im guessing too, but thats where I would start.

Good luck!

Cheers for the reply.

The issue happened once per run, it was when I accelerated, then came off the throttle - the car just kept going with no response. Control did return 1 or 2 seconds later, but by then the car was going across the track in a dangerous manner!

It happened twice at the same spot on the back section. I didn't get to ask anyone else - but I saw a guy retire after his car shot across the entire track. One of my pitting buddies also said he'd heard of others struggling.

My Sanwa has never let me down, so I'm stumped.

Andy..

I too was struggleing with glitching, i tried several different receivers, but made no difference...

I stood the reciever on its side, this seemed to cure the problem.

I'm on Spektrum by the way...

Wonder if its a common problem @ the track as i heard several other poeple with similar problems?

Jim

Cheers Jim, I feel a bit better to hear that :)

Mine has been faultless until today - in the last final is just ened up shooting across the track into the straight - had to take it off the track as I couldn't trust it and didn't want it ruining somone else's race.

Did yours glitch on the back section too?

Mine did it a couple of times along the back - once on the corner at the end of the straight, and once over the jump alongside the straight.

Think I'll just pop the higher powered lipo in the TX and cross my fingers for the next meet.

Got my first ever glitch with my Exzes X while racing today and it turned out my transmitter battery was going flat.

I would take a stab and say that your lipo would cure the issue.

Cheers Allan :)

My TX Nimh wasn't flat as such - but a lipo would put out quite a lot more voltage, so I am ditching the Nimh and going to run the lipo in future - hope it cures it ;)

It will more likely be the pins connecting the module causing a poor connection.
Clean with a good alcohol pad or fibre pen or wire wool etc.

Dissconnect the battery first !! :)

I know of glitching on the spektrum micro recievers with high torque servos (for those with spektrum modules) so this might be another path to go down, reciever voltage or broken/loose antenna.

Is this something to do with draw and current then? Would a Power Cap settle this out?
Unfortunately I dont know enough about current to know for sure.

Regardless, it sure sounds like the track has alot of 2.4Ghz interference judging by all the other posts.
...An excuse for a 5.2Ghz upgrade? ;)

interference
 

i used to race at a track years ago and odd times problem with 27meg 40meg problems
found out old of old scrap iron steel buried under track don't know if this helps
especially if same point on track:thumbdown::thumbdown:

Another thing that may be relevant, is that I recall on a couple of occasions, after I had rolled the car, upon it either being flipped over, or marshalled, it would then shoot off when accelerating?

It did this after it rolled onto the straight, I was marshalled and when I went to drive away it just went nuts again for a second - any rhyme or reason to this?

Post a picture of your car please.

Pictures of Car / install. I was trying to keep all the wires away from the aerial from the receiver.
I originally had a Sanwa receiver in it - but swopped to the ansmann but still had same problems.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/15062770/car1.jpg

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/15062770/car2.jpg

I've posted about this in the Southport club page - a few more people had problems over the weekend....

hi Andy quick question what makes the speedo and does it have drive/brake frequencies

Hey up fella.

It's a Hobbyking 120 amp Trackstar in this one - it does have drive frequencies - 8khz (the default setting that's its on) - 16khz and 24khz.

Also has brake frequency, 1,2,4,8,16 (1 is the default)

No idea what these do - hence leaving them on defaults :)

we have this on our absima speedos lower drive frequencies and its stopped it

It's already as low as it will go !

It's the speedo though!

I already pointed this out in the trackstar thread. The esc misreads sensor wire information and goes into full throttle.

Try this (but be carefull for your fingers!):

With car in normal running mode (tx on, batterie plugged in, esc turnned on, ...) give a flick at one of the wheels. Your car will go into full throttle!

Seen it last clubmeeting for the 5th time now.

Bloody hell - sounds dodgy re the speedo - I'll try it !

Is there a fix for this problem?

Sollution? Not that I know of, simply disconnecting the sensorwire isn't an option as then the esc doesn't work and even if it did you would lose the boost and turbo option capability.

Check your receiver wire from the esc make sure there is no damage espcialy the orange.

You say you not had any problems with the car before so it's unlikely to be the esc programming do you race indoors on carpet at all.

You may find carpet fluff has got under the reciver pcb and shorts it out periodically we had this year ago with Tc racing I've not seen it for a while but it's worth a open up and clean out.

I've also seen signal wires broken or bared touching the chassis etc like I said check it out.

Alternatively start swapping kit out one at a time start with the motor a dodgy sensor bourd can give odd signal feed back to the esc causing random glitches.

Same with the steering servo

I see you running nano crap batteries does it play up at the begin of the run or as the run goes on you maybe get a current draw issue from the main drive pack thus would only tend to happen under load (on throttle) or where the car needs more power to move ie long grass etc.

Have a play bud

Stu rand

Very interesting thread this.

Keep us posted on progress mate.
Fingers crossed for you!

I tried to see if the car glitched when I spin the wheels when it has power - it doesn't.

I'll re check everything - but it's all gear I've run before. I do have Orion esc's and HPI lipos I could drop in from another model, but I've been super impressed with the Hobbyking esc and the Turnigy lipos perform just as good as anything else I run. Servo is a low profile KO that I've run for a couple of year now.

Can't get the car to miss a beat thrashing it in the garden.