Any way to improve distance of toy remote control car?

[caphair]

Its a cheap $20 27Mhz remote control car that a family member's kid plays with.

They asked (since I like to dabble in electronics) if there was any way to improve the signal as it'll stop responding about 10 feet away from the antenna.

Ill be honest I hardly know anything about antennas/radio waves when it comes to transmission distance etc so any help would be appreciated

[llonen]

Re: Any way to improve distance of toy remote control car?

You should get more than 10 feet range on 27mhz, what size antenna do you have on the transmitter, it may be possible to replace with a longer telescopic antenna however you would need to look at what ever passes for tuning on the transmitter output stages.

if you can put some pictures up, and if you have the transmitter dismantled some pictures of the pcb(s) etc.

Mark

[caphair]

Re: Any way to improve distance of toy remote control car?

It's a plastic coated antenna?

[llonen]

Re: Any way to improve distance of toy remote control car?

I wonder how far up that plastic antenna the wire actually goes, or is it metal coated with plastic.

[caphair]

Re: Any way to improve distance of toy remote control car?

I wonder how far up that plastic antenna the wire actually goes, or is it metal coated with plastic.

Should I try to remove the plastic? Are antennas made for a specific band that matches the receiver or?

[CapLeaker]

Re: Any way to improve distance of toy remote control car?

there may be just a piece of wire inside the plastic tube. Antennas have to be the correct length in order to get a SWR of 1:1

[CapLeaker]

Re: Any way to improve distance of toy remote control car?

actually there could be 2 problems. Either it is the transmitter, or the receiver.

[Sparkey55]

Re: Any way to improve distance of toy remote control car?

Its a cheap $20 27Mhz remote control car that a family member's kid plays with.

They asked (since I like to dabble in electronics) if there was any way to improve the signal as it'll stop responding about 10 feet away from the antenna.

Ill be honest I hardly know anything about antennas/radio waves when it comes to transmission distance etc so any help would be appreciated

1. Increase length of transmitter antenna.

2. Increase length of receiver antenna.

3. combine 1 and 2 above.

4. Replace with fresh batteries.

[caphair]

Re: Any way to improve distance of toy remote control car?

1. Increase length of transmitter antenna.

2. Increase length of receiver antenna.

3. combine 1 and 2 above.

4. Replace with fresh batteries.

Increase the lengths how? The car has no visible antenna btw

[Sparkey55]

Re: Any way to improve distance of toy remote control car?

Increase the lengths how? The car has no visible antenna btw

Use some steel spring wire or a rubber ducky.

[eccerr0r]

Re: Any way to improve distance of toy remote control car?

fun with antennas.

It's likely a coiled rubber ducky antenna else it has some electronics to impedance match it inside the transmitter. Replacing it likely won't help.

Transmitter batteries must be fresh. Weak transmitter batteries will do bad performance.

Where are you playing with it? Sure there's no noisy interference around from other possible sources?

Any ideas of other people with the same toy have similar issues? Perhaps the receiver needs to be retuned properly to the transmitter.... though doing so might be a bit tricky or impossible...

Unfortunately as this is a Part 15 device you can't bump power on it...

[Sparkey55]

Re: Any way to improve distance of toy remote control car?

fun with antennas.

It's likely a coiled rubber ducky antenna else it has some electronics to impedance match it inside the transmitter. Replacing it likely won't help.

Transmitter batteries must be fresh. Weak transmitter batteries will do bad performance.

Where are you playing with it? Sure there's no noisy interference around from other possible sources?

Any ideas of other people with the same toy have similar issues? Perhaps the receiver needs to be retuned properly to the transmitter.... though doing so might be a bit tricky or impossible...

Unfortunately as this is a Part 15 device you can't bump power on it...

I have seen the cars with a ceramic cap connected to the metal frame as an antenna for a receiver. No one cares about the Chicken Band anymore, put a Linear on it.

[eccerr0r]

Re: Any way to improve distance of toy remote control car?

Then all the kiddies with RC toys will wonder why they move in strange patterns...

Look ma, I'm not touching the controller!

[stj]

Re: Any way to improve distance of toy remote control car?

the problem is the car, you need a good antenna on it with the length optimised for the frequency.

[Sparkey55]

Re: Any way to improve distance of toy remote control car?

the problem is the car, you need a good antenna on it with the length optimised for the frequency.

Some of these cars use very small antennas so the kids do not pull the table cloth off the table with it. OMG dinner hit the floor!

[eccerr0r]

Re: Any way to improve distance of toy remote control car?

Car antenna can only be so big, a ¼λ antenna is quite huge...

Transmitter antenna also needs to be optimized.

But 10ft seems a bit low unless it's one of those tiny RC cars. They should go 30-40 ft without issues. I'd vote for receiver tuning if the transmitter battery isn't half dead...

... and don't use NiMH in the transmitter. Alkaline!!!

(BTW, 27MHz CB, ¼λ = 9ft. So you're dying at quarter wave away...)

[Sparkey55]

Re: Any way to improve distance of toy remote control car?

Car antenna can only be so big, a ¼λ antenna is quite huge...

Transmitter antenna also needs to be optimized.

But 10ft seems a bit low unless it's one of those tiny RC cars. They should go 30-40 ft without issues. I'd vote for receiver tuning if the transmitter battery isn't half dead...

... and don't use NiMH in the transmitter. Alkaline!!!

(BTW, 27MHz CB, ¼λ = 9ft. So you're dying at quarter wave away...)

These tiny remote controlled devices do not care about precise tuned antenna lengths. They work in the Near Field electromagnetic wave region. The field is most likely to be in hundreds of millivolts if not in a few volts R.F.

[eccerr0r]

Re: Any way to improve distance of toy remote control car?

Then the only explanation for the issue is receiver tuning?

[Sparkey55]

Re: Any way to improve distance of toy remote control car?

Then the only explanation for the issue is receiver tuning?

No. not the only issue. A more powerful transmitter would help with distance but would swamp the receiver when close by and would not be Part 15 approved most likely. A longer receiving antenna might help try using a small loading coil at the bottom of the receiving antenna or boost the receiver with a pre-amp, but the pre-amp may overload anyway.

[eccerr0r]

Re: Any way to improve distance of toy remote control car?

Well, then need to know what's expected behavior for this device, should it really be conking out at 10ft?

Not sure if bandages like antenna hacks or preamplifiers should be done to fix an underlying problem like battery weakness or improper tuning.