Comms drop out on TT MTA4

[JohnnyWardle]

Hi guys, I've been attempting to revive a long stored TT MTA4. I'm more experienced with small engines and mechanical things. Have some electronics knowledge, but not RC specific. The car appears to be reasonably clean condition. With a few new bits, I got it running and driving pretty well. But....

 

It has this awful problem where the comms seems to drop out, and the servos all freeze in position. Not good if the throttle happens to be wide open at the time. I was wondering if this is at all common, or a known fault.. Annoyingly, it will behave perfectly on the bench, but with the car running, it still happens all the time. Most times, tapping on the receiver box seems to wake everything back up. So it's like a loose connection, but I haven't been able to identify any issue with the plugs/pins . 

 

I've tried taking the receiver out of it's little box and running it like that.. some improvement, but it's not ideal to run like that.

 

Do the crystals ever.... Wear out? I have two sets of Tx/Rx crystals, but swapping them makes no difference... The receiver PCB looks fine. I don't know if those components wear out with age or there are tiny breaks in the solder joints on that. Any help or advice would be much appreciated. 

[Kpowell911]

For what its worth, Id just pick up a cheap 2.4ghz system. Its not worth the hassle running a nitro with an unreliable radio system in 2024, when 2.4ghz sets can be had so cheaply

[JohnnyWardle]

Thanks for the reply. I have been trying to figure out how compatible/universal the receiver and servo parts are.. 

 

Is it fair to say that the servos are pretty standard, and pretty much any 2.4g receiver will work with them? 

 

I was also wondering if the little black plugs are standardized or manufacturer specific.

 

I was looking at an Etronix 3 channel set from modelsport last night. If that's likely the best option, I'll pick it up. 

[Kpowell911]

10 hours ago, JohnnyWardle said:

Thanks for the reply. I have been trying to figure out how compatible/universal the receiver and servo parts are.. 

 

Is it fair to say that the servos are pretty standard, and pretty much any 2.4g receiver will work with them? 

 

I was also wondering if the little black plugs are standardized or manufacturer specific.

 

I was looking at an Etronix 3 channel set from modelsport last night. If that's likely the best option, I'll pick it up. 

Pretty much it will all work. The plugs are 'standardized-ish'. Some may have a tab on, but you can slice it off with a Stanley blade no problem without affecting anything.