radio glitches

[vapochilled]

There's no "radio" section, so I'll ask here:
Browsing the various forums tonight, I came across post after post about "glitches"
Now, 20 years ago(oh my god it is as well) I was flying fixed wing in the UK on a Futaba 5ch 35MHz system, and never did I have a "glitch" nor did any of the guys at the rather large RC flying club I was a member of.
Yet today, all I seem to hear is how radios glitch?
Now, either flyers are just crap, and blaming dumb thumbs on a glitch or perhaps we just hear about it more due to the interweb?
Perhaps "over here" you have more RF garbage that's affecting the 72MHz band?
Or have radios been getting worse in quality?
My old 5ch was nothing special, no PCM(I remember when it came out though :) )
No fail safe technology.
So why the current trend here to blame the radio
Any of you TRULLY had a radio glitch that you can hand on heart say was not a dumb thumb.
Just seems odd to me that there are so many of these "reports" my own theory for what it's worth is simple. Radio makers make cheap and expensive models, how do you drive a user towards the higher end, higher profit units? You convince them that although their cheap system is great, it's actually crap and they need to upgrade. It would not be the only market where this is seen, look at TVs, computers, in fact anything in this buy buy buy driven world we live in.
Sure there may be a few features thrown in to sweeten the deal, but on the whole I believe that the old story of the Emperor's new clothes rings true here.
I'm sure there are instances where interferance has hit, but I'd lay money that it's no where near as prolific as the forums and media would have us believe.

[fernandezsraptor]

O how true i have been flying fixed wing in the US for 25yrs now and i was the one at the fields who did all the new 1st test flight's for other guys and a weekend instructor at or field and i didnt have many raido problems over the years, ya a broke wire or 2 on a servo, i remember returning a brand new AM 4ch Futaba for not passing a range test but never a raido glitch. but yes i to have surffered from dumb thumb, and even back then you would always have guy's that would blame a glitch on dumb thumb panick freeze attack on a crash, but sometimes there is a manufacturing problem from the electronics end, i have been working for a large electronics manufacture for 20ys and we do ground up PCB to finished product manufacturing and sometimes bad stuff gets out the door, electronics are always growing and if you dont keep up with it you will be out of busness, raido's will always change and grow and get better you have much faster reaction times now better servos compared with the old 4ch raido from back then but i will tell ya i shure wish i had the raido's we have now back then so in the end dont blame a brain freeze or dumb thumb on a crash just rebuild it and get in back in the air.

Keep it in the air

[cbflys]

Radio glitches are real. Especially so in electric power applications. Brushed motors for instance produce RF interference that fall in the 72 Mhz band. The long leads found on the ESC, gyro, and servos all make wonderful antennas for picking up RF energy. There also the usual interference that can be generated by any metal-to-metal moving parts - which we tend to have alot of in our helicopters (bearings for instance). Couple that with the inexpensive single conversion 'park flyer' type receivers that we all use - you have a pretty good recipe for glitching.

One solution that works well is routing all your leads through a ferrite donut. There are many sources of information on that to be found on the internet.

[vapochilled]

ok, so this is a US problem as I always used 35MHz and never had issues?

[heli-cuzz]

My tx and rx have occasional glitches. A glitch is one of those split second twitches. I've never crashed due to a glitch. I'd say that a glitch that brings an aircraft down is a mechanical failure and not a glitch.

Ferrite donut.... I'm hungry :D

[AaronS]

that is not a fair statement. if you have ever seen a heli lock out (PCM) and crash, this is a form of "glitching" and beleive me, when you fly electrics and your motor cuts out from a glitch, glitches can cause crashes. I had a glitch on the last quarter of a loop at the 2005 nationals on my T-REX, my motor hickuped, and the heli splattered right in front of many of the best in the world with Curtis Youngblood judging me :o

[blax1]

More power to 2.4 Ghz and DSM technology :)

[vapochilled]

that is not a fair statement. if you have ever seen a heli lock out (PCM) and crash, this is a form of "glitching" and beleive me, when you fly electrics and your motor cuts out from a glitch, glitches can cause crashes. I had a glitch on the last quarter of a loop at the 2005 nationals on my T-REX, my motor hickuped, and the heli splattered right in front of many of the best in the world with Curtis Youngblood judging me :o

That must of gone down well :rolleyes:

[heli-cuzz]

Sorry to hear that, aaron. You're right, glitches can cause crashes. I've never been downed by a glitch, but I do have atleast one glitch every tankfull on my nitro helis and my Trex once or twice during a li-po battery flite. They're just the twitchy kind mostly in the aileron of the swash servos. Mostly when inline with heli to tx position.
I am a firm believer in not mixing electronics companies servos/gyro/rx/tx.

[sgtmike74]

Though I have yet to experience a glitch (knock on wood) with my Raptor 30 setup, I have seen things that could have been mistaken for a glitch. Every now and then my belt would slip causing the the tail to jump. Anybody looking at the model would probably have mistakenly guessed it to be a radio glitch. I have since replaced the belt but haven't had the chance to test fly it again. I would guess to say that you are more likely to see glitches spring up in the electric helis more. From what I have read if you are not careful with the layout of your components you may be more prone to hits. The spectrum is a nice addition though I probably won't buy one until my current radio (which I like) gives up the ghost. As far as the buy buy mentality I don't really subscribe to it. My radio didn't cost an arm or a leg and I have no intention on replacing it at this point. (It haven't fail me yet)