I recently heard a story that went something like this:
A guy had an R/C helicopter with a video camera and an analog video transmitter. He was using carbon blades and was having glitchy video. He switched to wooden blades and the video cleared up. The theory is that because carbon blades are electrically conductive they were building up a static charge with the air (ever seen Hunt for Red October?). The static charge was disrupting the video. By switching to wooden blades he got rid of the static charge buildup and the video worked better.
The question is whether or not this theory is valid. I have a couple problems with it.
1) In a real helicopter the conductive rotor material is in direct contact with the air. On most model helicopters, the conductive carbon blade is painted, insulating it from the air.
2) Why has a similar static charge effect never interfered with the radio controlling the helicopter? Probably because r/c radios have been digital for a really long time? I don't know.
What do you guys think?
Replies
I have never heard of static charge issues related to blades. However, carbon blades are much stiffer than wood, so it is possible that the carbon blades caused the heli to have different vibration characteristics which led to the issue. However, the conductivity of the blades probably didn't have much to do with it.
Just IMHO as a RC heli guy.