Alternate antenna ideas! - Page 3

payaso · #31 09-06-2002, 01:16 PM

Good call Namuna. I think that theres gonna be alot of input on this... I'll be doin this to all my cars.

silla

caver01 · #32 09-06-2002, 04:32 PM

Yay! I've had my car less than a week and this little baby could become lengendary!

Actually, I still have only modest range. Today I took some motor winding wire and wraped it around and around a toothpick, the entire length and back again. I dunno how much wire that is. probably a couple feet of wire. Looks like a big red match stick. I left a little cowtail end, sanded off the enamel coating and tie-wrapped it to my car's spring antenna. This was going to be big. . . A super long coil antenna. . . results: Crappy. No better than my copper foil. Oh well. I think I really need to look at my controller. I think my controller is just weak.

Is anyone else out there using a brand new 57mhz controller with crappy range? It's Ok in the room, but I don't have the kind of wiz-bang 50 feet away kind of range some people report. Cripple caps removed from my car, and from controller. Next I am going to start fooling around with adding a custom antenna to the controller.

caver01 · #33 09-06-2002, 04:40 PM

I was thinking about buying a cheaper clone just to get the 57mhz controller from it. Any recommendations? I am starting to think that there is more to my controller than meets the eye, since I have not yet seen a picture of the cripple cap I had to remove. Most either have it missing, or the long-legged kind. not mine. Mine was CLOSE, but not the same. I wonder since it is brand new if something else is going on and my controller output power is less for some other reason.

So, any suggestions on a clone controller? Are they even interchangeable?

tinyrc · #34 09-06-2002, 05:08 PM

Wow, this is one of the coolest threads of all time! Keep posting the ideas and results guys!

Kingofjapan · #35 09-06-2002, 05:25 PM

hey guys, it's been really interesting to read this thread everynight with different replys every single day. Anyhoo. the question about using clone controllers, I have a Loctite skyline clone and the controller look slike a tomy one, but with one thing, the forward and reverse on the controller is reversed for the bit charges. so you would have to switch the wires in the car to account for that. Also i had a bullet with the same freq and the foward and reverse were ok but the steering was all backwards. it makes for a really good race when you have 2 batts and a hadicap of not being able to turn the right way.

so that's that.

MTL · #36 09-07-2002, 01:27 AM

GENIUS!!!!

but too advanced of a mod for me to try
ill stick to the wobbly 6 inch antenna

_NiTrOuS_ · #37 09-07-2002, 02:31 AM

what about QFM's antenna mod?

caver01 · #38 09-09-2002, 08:02 AM

I never tried their mod. My point was to internalize the whole thing so it does not interfere with obstacles, cats, etc. I was also hoping to increase the range.

caver01 · #39 09-10-2002, 12:28 PM

Well, I finally played with my POT, doing the mod to adjust it with a tiny screwdriver. ATTENTION, DON'T PRESS HARD THROUGH THE HOLE! Since my POT is waxed, and the PCB has the hole in it, I pushed a tiny screwdriver through to adjust it without disturbing the wax. As expected, it got a little tight from the wax. So there I was, doing the adjustment, pressing hard to get it to turn when I noticed that the white plastic was sliding AWAY from the PCB!!! Oh crap! I really did it this time! That little part has the tiniest copper wire leading down to one of the legs where it solders tight. Sure enough, I have NO signal at all. I pushed the thing back down on the board, and it started making contact again. Whew. All I need to do is re-solder it, right? Wrong. It did not work. The solder remelted, and somehow missed the wire completely, pulling AWAY from it.

Long story short (too late) I had to carefully pry the tiny copper lead away from the white plastic it sits in, tin this wire, push it back down into the groove, and build a solder bridge from the connection leg to it. I should have been a surgeon. Worked like a champ. However, now the adjusted POT was way off. I finally removed the wax and adjust the POT and now I get a pretty good 12 feet of range before stutters.

Well, This is just not enough for me. 12 feet is fine, especially without a visible antenna, but if I am going to make any progress, I want increased range. So, tinkering I go. . .

I attached a piano wire (.015mm?) to the existing antenna and routed it out the back window. Yes, now I have come full circle and have an external antenna again, but this time with the POT adjusted. My range was much better this way.

CONCLUSION (finally)
You can get away with a totally hidden antenna. That much is clear. Range is OK with the copper foil as is, in fact, it's about as good as the stock antenna ever was. However, with a springy piano wire, you can get range even better!

Next Experiments:
1. Explore the piano wire technique with tiny zig zags inside the car to see if that gives better results than the copper foil.

2. Try making a halo wire around the body, perhaps over the wheels, to see how that works.

3. Invent some kind of detachable clip thingy so I can swap out different antenna ideas with the small spring antenna I have now

4. Try another finer copper antenna, with more zigs and narrower strips.

5. Test piano wire ideas of varying lengths to see if there is a noticeable difference.

6. make another attempt at a micro coil like the Z-72 pictured here:
http://www.helihobby.com/commonImages/microAntenna.jpg

Anyone else having any luck with non-traditional antennae?

arch2b · #40 09-10-2002, 02:22 PM

i gave up trying to use my camera, so i scanned my bit with my antenna mod i explained in an earlier reply in this thread.

payaso · #41 09-10-2002, 02:31 PM

Is it just sitting there or is it connected to the antenna? How does it work?

silla

caver01 · #42 09-10-2002, 02:55 PM

I was wondering that. I am glad to finally see the image. This is exactly what I thought you did based on your description. It DOES look like it is just sitting there. Inquiring minds want to know.

I wonder if a rectangular sprial would work better or worse?

You'd think that there is somebody out there, what, with that Micro z-72 antenna out there and such, that knows a bit about antenna technology. I suppose the simple answer is to stick something huge into the air! But we are getting results with these ideas. I guess I am looking for a compromise between range and functionality. I'd go back to a piano wire external which is much better than the insulated stock model (almost impossible to see the bare piano wire) if that is my best option, but it is fun exploring ideas.

payaso · #43 09-10-2002, 03:14 PM

Yep that's the best part. caver01, I got the copper today. muchas gracias. I'm trying a new idea as I type. (I'm good)
There has to be some kind of a booster tip out there somewhere for the controller that gives the signal a super boost. I'm like Tim the tool man Taylor. I think the controller needs more power, and a longer antenna (at least 2') with a signal booster tip.
Does anybody know if the cellular booster tips will work? Just a thought. We'll figure it out in time...

silla

arch2b · #44 09-10-2002, 03:19 PM

i am not confident enough yet with my soldering skills to go near the board on my bit. luckily leds are cheap, i've learned soldering and practicing with my light kits for my differnt bodies. anyway, i very carefully bent a tiny hook at the end and compressed it tightly at the antenna connection to the board. someday i will replace the antenna wire, the piano wire sounds like a winner, and permanently attach the mod to the same point. i don't get the amazing range some claim, but i was only getting about 5ft before and now at least 15-20ft. my brothers bit gets 15-20ft right out of the box. it seems it's just luck of the draw.

caver01 · #45 09-10-2002, 03:45 PM

It think I should point out that in my near screwup with the pot, my solder job had a profound effect on the "tuning" of the signal. Obvious, a glob of solder on that thing pulled me off-signal enough so that I had to adjust it.

Arch2b, have you tried adjusting the pot at all yet? You might squeeze even more out of that coil. Care must be taken (I will only adjust from the wax side now) and you need a pretty tiny flat screwdriver, but the wax is easily removed and this adjustment is very easy if you go in 1/8 or 1/4 turns. On mine, I could give it a good 1/2 turn either way before noticing changes in range, so there is an acceptable level of slop and clearly, a "center" that was not perfect from the factory. I know this is the antenna thread, but I am starting to think that our tweaks are only going to show the best results if the frequency is properly tuned.