Any way to improve distance of toy remote control car?

[eccerr0r]

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

Are you sure that's an antenna, looks like a grounded shield for the PCB? What's it look like on the other side of the PCB?

[llonen]

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

I used to get upto 40 meters on similar rc stuff in the past outside mind you, so look at the transmitter crystal then check with a frequency counter and look at the amplitude with a scope see whats coming out.

[momaka]

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

Finally had some time to take this thing apart and check out the antenna. It’s just a square piece of paper with a shiny side that’s connected to the antenna wire. Other side is non reflective and glued to the plastic.

Could I just replace it with a coiled piece of wire?

Wow, I've never seen an antenna like that in a cheap RC before, and I used to have (and play) with quite a few when I was a little younger. Most of my *toy* RCs are from the late 90's / early 2000's, and they all come with typically a 15-30 cm (0.5 to 1 foot) straight antenna (sometimes just wire in a straw). Many of these RCs got about 10 meters / 10 yards of range or a little more in my town neighborhood. This was back before WiFi and Blutooth had become popular, though. So I'm not sure if that has changed anything nowadays.

That said, I do have one old Tyco RC (called "Jacknife", IIRC) that had an integrated antenna, which basically consisted of a long wire ran along the whole body of the car in a loop. Some years later, I was repairing one for a friend's kid, and that RC had a metal circular loop antenna inside - about 6-8 cm (2.5-3 inches) in diameter. I don't remember what kind of range that one got, but it wasn't bad IIRC.

Anyways, you can try replacing that current "antenna" piece with something else. I'd sat a long piece of wire would do just fine for testing. But if that doesn't appear to do anything, it could be indeed like Sparkey55 mentioned: just bad design. And of course, fresh batteries are absolutely a must with these.

One more sidenote: going by the pictures you posted, your receiver board looks very familiar to one of these on eBay:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/4CH-40MHZ-R.../202425771105?
These are much newer than the ones I have in my late 90's / early 2000's RCs (none of them have SMD components). So I just cannot attest to how good or bad these are. But I can tell you that my older toy stuff with longer antennas didn't perform too bad... save for some of them frying a few BJTs on the motor outputs (at least the ones that came with all TO-92 stuff).

*EDIT*
Talking about toys... I just hit post # 8448. That's the dream LEGO Technic car of my childhood. Ironic coincidence?

[stj]

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

replace it with a vertical wip, your trying to catch waves, not just match the frequency.

[caphair]

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

Finally had some time to take this thing apart and check out the antenna. It's just a square piece of paper with a shiny side that's connected to the antenna wire. Other side is non reflective and glued to the plastic.

Could I just replace it with a coiled piece of wire?

[Sparkey55]

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

try a foot-long bit of spring-steel wire on the car.
it's what they used to come with.

Read the thread completely, I have posted that solution above.

[stj]

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

try a foot-long bit of spring-steel wire on the car.
it's what they used to come with.

[Sparkey55]

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.

I do not know. Could just be designed that way or may need fresh batteries. Most of these really cheap toys (<$20) skimp on parts needed to "tune" for optimum performance to save a few cents on the Dollar. Cheap 27Mhz or 49Mhz crystals that drift like Trump in a porn cenvention. Maybe a 60Khz to 100Khz or more bandwidth on the carrier. This is not competition grade race cars here.

[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.

[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?

Then the only explanation for the issue is receiver tuning?

[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?

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?

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!

[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.

[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!

[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?

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?

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

Use some steel spring wire or a rubber ducky.

[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