Drop outs solved for me - GT Carbon :}

So as most of us are aware some of us have had a few issues with drop outs that can be very unsettling at any time of your ride. This has happened to me from day one and I have been following various remedies since then. I think the Evolve team have been very proactive helping people with various issues and remedies have included replacing remotes and mother boards etc. They have even offered me a chance to come down to the factory and have a look at my board to help me fix it which is great. Its a three hour turn around the for me so I haven't managed to get there just yet.

That said I think I have solved my own issue and wanted to share it to see if can help anyone else out there.
I work for a major computer fruit company and I have built a few Carbon fibre drones from scratch so I know a little about computers and how to wire things up.
I have travelled around 600km on my board with drop out issues. The last 46km I have had no issues at all. This is the simple thing I did.

I have unplugged the battery wires and the wires from the speed controller feeding the motors. Just like on a quad copter the wires create an electromagnetic field when current travels through them. The larger the draw of current the bigger electromagnetic frequency. Hence when I climb hills in fast mode I was most susceptible to drop outs even at the start of my journey with everything fully charged.

If you gently twist the wires on each feed from the battery and to the motors before you plug them back in, I have now eliminated all my drop outs for the last 46km of travel. this includes all of my hill climbs at the start and end of my journey.

Of course this still may not work for everyone you may have hardware issues, but its worth a go and costs you nothing.

Here is a picture below what the inside of my board looks like now. Ill keep you posted to see if I have any other problems over even longer distances.
Cheers :}

 

You should try wrapping those wires in carbon fibre from what I understand it should shield radiation pretty well

 

I am interested to see what happens with this..

 

Ok so a little update on this one. Now I have travelled an extra 92km and I have been wearing my bluetooth headphones on my commute just to push the boundaries. I have had a grand total of just one tiny blip climbing a hill under load. All good :}

 

IMHO the circuit board has a few design flaws which could easily be fixed. These are just my opinion and there maybe reasons for the current design.
I base these theories on my background as an electrical engineer and electrician.

The clips for the interfaces to the board are upside down. Having to use an Allen key or scribe is asking for trouble when removing the cables to do fault diagnosis (especially when showing customers how to do it).

The main feed for the motor control board runs unsheilded straight past the transmitter. This EMF could certainly be bad juju for the transmitter performance and stability when it is needed most.

I know space is at a premium but the use of ferrite filters on high current lines might also help.

There are a few other things I saw more so related to the hrhs aspects of the boards but nothing that's unusual for a china made board.

 

If that is all that is required to solve a problem so many seem to have had (I haven't had it yet on the bamboo, but not been out on it a huge amount yet), then that is simply genius! Hope it continues to work for you.

 

Going to give these a go, great suggestion dronus. Thanks

 

Let us know how the ferrite cores work out. They come in smaller sizes that'd probably fit. I'm curious how well that helps shield for this particular issue.

 

Well it certainly can't hurt, nothing to loose. Keep you posted :}

 

Hi Obie. I want to try your suggestion, but I'm not sure which wires you are referring to in that photo you posted. Could you highlight (or circle, or something) the Speed Controller wires, and the Battery wires?

Thanks.

 

HI Rory, here you go.

 

Thanks heaps!

 

Im a little unsure....You unplug the Battery and motor wire? How do you unplug the motor wire? the yellow sealing connector, Where it goes from 2 to 3 wires? And what wires do you suggest to seal up?
The motor wires? Green, blue and yellow?

Thanks

 

Hi, so unplug the yellow connectors each side and twist them gently and plug them back in. These are the wires that go to the motors.
Then unplug the red connector, ( it speperates in the middle can be stiff to get apart) and twist that from the battery and plug it back in. Your done.

 

Which cable(s) did you apply the ferrite filters on?

 

Hi, I have only just received them in the mail. The positive wire is the one I'm after. The ferrite filters I ordered turned out to be a little big there is not much room in there. I did manage to get one on but I will have to try and source smaller ones for the rest. It might not be possible I will have a go though.

 

What size did you end up ordering? I'm ordering some now.

 

The ones I have are 3cm by 2 cm. there just too big. These are TDK Brand. You must be able to get smaller ones. I would just get almost as small as you can find. the other way is to buy the magnets with out the clips, but then you will have to thread them through and possibly re wire back in place. For me, not the preferred method.

 

This is another way, you can get these small enough, but again more work but gets the job done. I use this on my quad copters.

 

Keen as to see how we all go doing this. I've just done mine now (CGT). I'm interested to know are you running AT's or street. I've had my board since last July and done over 7000kms on it. It only started dropping out about 6 weeks ago after I did the new firmware update. When I have the streets on, I seem to get less D.O's. I'm no electrical wizz but can extra weight (90kgs) and drag (AT's) add to the RF build up maybe?