This post is to ask whether anyone has had problems with the Planet R6M receiver in a boat – in particular with moisture/water. Reason for question is that I have just purchased a Planet T5 system and was somewhat taken aback with the "casing" of the receiver – basically just thin plastic sheet folded around the receiver circuit board and secured with plastic tape. No sealant is used so water could easily be splashed on to the electronics. I have a second question – the user guide says 100 metre range absolute maximum – has anyone experienced a practical issue with range (in general 100 metres should be adequate if it performs reliably at that range).

I purchased the Planet system because I could no longer purchase the Acoms 2.4 GHz 2 channel system (which has proved very reliable for me).

Ian

Ashley & Andy,

Thank you for replying to my topic.

Wrt aerial length, the manufacturers usually insert something like "do not alter the length of the aerial lead" in their user guide. Aerials are tuned components and need to be matched to the input stage of the receiver (same concept applies to transmitters ie transmitter aerial has to be matched to the transmitter output stage). "Matching" in the context of radio frequency systems means ensuring that the power flows efficiently – if there is a mismatch then not all of the radio frequency power will be used effectively. If any on this forum have experience/background in RF then you will recall that if an input or output is not "matched" you get an unwanted reflection of energy (in a transmission line this gives rise to "standing waves" and well engineered systems are matched to minimise standing waves). This is a rather long winded way of saying that altering the length of the receiver aerial may reduce the performance/sensitivity of the receiver.

I assume that the planet receiver is mounted in a flimsy plastic "jacket" in order to minimise weight – the Planet system is primarily aimed at the small RC aircraft market where every gram saved is worthwhile.

I noted on another thread about Planet RC system that Dave Milbourn has found that the pulse widths are not always correct – in particular I think that 1.5 msec should be the midpoint and on one of the Planet channels Dave measured a different pulse width – I'll wire up my Planet system to a servo and see if it performs normally.

Ian