Radio control

[.:4:.]

So doing rc with my kid today. Its more fun when he or I set a challenge. So the park we go to, the council finished their upgrades months ago but left the mound of wood chips behind. Anyhow, obviously other people saw that as free game so its been dug out in places. Neither myself or my kid care about that. It made the challenge.
So the challenge was, hit the small lip to jump the dug out section then land on the rest of the mound and jump off that.
Sounds pretty simple. You dont need a degree in rocket surgury, but it took both my kid and myself a few goes to work it out. But we both did, after a few goes. If you went flat stick into the lip to jump the ditch, both trucks would plow straight into it and lose all momentum to get up the mound. Go slow, that was a fail.
The ticket was, mid speed, but before the lip nail it to bring the front wheels up, that'd nail the ditch and carry the momentum to go up and launch off the mound.
Not going to lie, i did set the challenge, however i didn't know the solution. There was multiple attempts, if my kid did something that sorta worked, id try that, if i did something that sorta worked he'd try that. So a collaborative effort but we both ended up working it out.
So yeah, we ended up beating the life out of both my rc cars. What takes all the fun out of it is neither car broke.
Its rc.... if you dont break it you arent doing it properly. My wallet says otherwise.

[ford71V8]

No damage, new challenge, play on.

[.:4:.]

Earlier this week i changed out the last stock suspension bits in my monster truck for ally bits. Gave it a test run, before it made it off my back deck the steering servo seized. That sucks, however i run the same servos in both my rc cars so i did have a spare. Im a big spare parts guy.
Yesterday i ran the other battery through my short course truck. Same same, didnt make it off my back deck. Grindy over rev. It munched the spur gear. Again, big spare parts guy, swapped that out.
Did rc with my kid today. Beat the life out of both of them. No dramas, they were fine. Makes no sense as both broke earlier this week with next to no input.

[.:4:.]

Was doing rc with my kid today. We swapped cars so he was on the monster truck. He took a mad run up and hit a good line on the mound of woodchips, hit it at probably around 100 and way overshot the grass. So after the grass there is an embankment. So it was a huge jump, he kept it level in the air, landed on the wheels, just down the embankment. The car stopped real fast, trees tend to do that. He couldnt drive the thing back up so had to make the climb down to get it.
Car was fine, i wouldnt have cared if he snapped it in half, the jump was that good.
So once he clambered back up and ran the thing again he tells me its squeaking. I palmed that off as old bearings. But he persisted as it was unusual. So we had a look.
At the bottom of the embankment there is a wire fence.
The squeek was a piece of fencing wire wrapped prefectly around the rear left axle.
Dunno what was more impressive, the jump or the wire wrapped around the axle. So wheel off, hub and axle out and the wire was really on there. I probably have a mix of tetanus, aids and ebola after removing it, but anyhow the car was fine. So fun was had.

[.:4:.]

So back at the park today with my kid to rip rc cars and there was another bloke there with his little unit. His little unit was 3. So he came up for a chat. His son was playing with a small kmart rc car. So my kid and I never run rc cars near the kids play area out of respect as to not tear it up. This bloke was saying to me a few times when he has been with his son at the play area and my son and I were doing rc in the distance all his boy would do was point and say 'dad, car, dad'. To that all i could say was why didnt you come over and have a chat. So his kid is obsessed with cars. To be fair, for a 3 year old, a small kmart rc car is about right.
So talking to this bloke, my kid was ripping in the short course truck and his little unit was tugging at his shorts pointing at the car. So i said i wouldnt do it if i didnt enjoy it and handed him the radio for my monster truck. He asks am i sure. My standard response is if i cant break it im sure you cant. So he gives it a rip in the gravel car park, pops a few wheelies and slides it around brings it in and hands back the remote with a blank look on his face and says 'that thing is sick'. Then he asks about price, not for his kid but for himself which makes sense. So i pointed out the short course truck that my kid was ripping. So no batteries or charger $750. That thing is still stock motor and esc but it has suspension and some driveline bits in it so prolly aboot $1250 as it sits.
So new mate asks about the monster truck, i said i got it on special for 750, but retail was 1050, but everything has been changed on it, so you dont want to know. Kids say the darndest things, my kid was focussed on ripping the sc truck but was listening in and says 'it has everything, dad recons he has over 3 grand in it'.
My kid was not lying, but its not a chunk of cash in 1 go. Its an upgrade here or there over a few years. It just sounds terrible if you say it all as if you just did it yesterday.

[.:4:.]

So i left this part out of my last post. So my short course truck had heat issues. Motor and esc still ripped, but got hot. Yeah it had fans on it, but not the point, they slowed the issue but well thrashed electronics just end up going bad. So whilst in the past i had changed melted connectors on that thing, before my kid and i ripped both cars, the short course truck, one of the motor connectors had copped that much heat that it was that brittle that it snapped. Did not have a spare, however i did have a butane soldering iron in the car so heaps of solder fixed that for the time being. I however do not have any heat related issues with my monster truck. Yes its a lot heavier, but all the electronics are from a much larger and heavier truck then a tenth scale.
So jack of constants of heat issues melting crap in the short course truck, yesterday i decided to go down and buy and aftermarket esc and motor combo.
I knew what esc i was after, but as for motor i was open for advise. So the sct doesnt need to go any faster then it does. Happy to keep it on 3s lipos.
So back in early 2009 when the then misso was pregnant and i had to stay home more often i had a 2wd stadium truck. I put in a then unknown 'hobbywing' brand sc10 programable esc and 4000kv brushless motor. Back then hobbywing was new and considered china crap. Well it ripped and that motor and esc lives on in my sons rc car. These days hobbywing has a good reputation for not being crap. I have a hobbywing motor in my monster truck. Anyhow. So the modern equivalent esc to a sc10 is the max 10. Same thing effectively just not 14 years old. So thats what i put in the short course truck. I rate them.
The combo came with a 3300kv brushless motor. Stock motor is 3500kv. So sounds like a step back. But heres the thing. Kv rating is no load rpm×volts. Nothing to do with torque. So the stock 3500kv motor at say 10 volts to make the maths easier should rev to 35000rpms with nothing attached to it. The 3300kv at say 10v should do 33000rpms. But thats nothing to do with torque. Rc car motors dont have torque ratings but when a load is added no load rpm goes out the window. For example, my monster truck on 6s (25.2v full charge) with a stock 2400kv motor clocked 131kmh on the gps. With an aftermarket 2200kv motor thats torqier its clocked 147kmh on the gps. Neither got close to the 50 something thousand rpm they're rated at no load.
So enough nerd stuff.
Slapped the esc and motor in the short course truck. Was testing it and adjusting settings and, nothing new, but the reciever took a dump. So not the first time, channel 1 works, channel 2 took a dump. So as it sits if i swap channel over i can have either throttle or steering but not both. Just another part to order and add to the list of expenses i choose not to tally for mental health reasons.

[.:4:.]

Hmmmm, so nowhere around has the factory traxxas reciever in stock. Part # 6533. Either way, they are stupid expensive and im pretty sure the crap out faster then hobbyshops can get them back in stock. Ive cooked a couple in my time. So yeah i could have ordered one online, but for the cost + postage. Thats a no from me. So i took myself down to a different hobby shoppe and got an aftermarket radio and reciever for about the same price as a stock reciever. Slapped that bad chicken reciever in and did some button pressing to dial the radio in. So my idea of having the short course truck as a stock unit. Well, its not stock anymore. But new radio and esc and motor, i got to test it properly this arvo. For lack of a better term its very good. However. Something that i have had happen a few times after recievers take a dump. Bad things only happen to good people. The steering servo gave up on life. For once i actually knew where the box of stuff that had an old servo from 14 odd years ago was. Yes, old crappy servo. But, an old crappy servo that works is better then a new fancy servo that does not work.

[.:4:.]

So not entirely pleased with the financial side of putting bits in my supposed to be stock and reliable short course truck, but pleased with the outcome. So its not any faster, or atleast doesnt seem to be, but it was plenty fast enough before. So the old radio had bluetooth. So you could set your steering end points and throttle trim and % and brake force. So a fance way to do basic adjustments. The only thing the old radio system had that the new one does not is a gyro. The purpose of the gyro was depending on how much you had it turned up was if the thing would try to auto correct if things were going a cropper. However, if you already are trying to correct it got in the way so i had it turned off, so no dramas losing that.
The new radio has a screen on it so you can adjust all the steering and throttle trim. The esc. That has a program card. So same as the ancient sc10 esc that my son has in his truck, and same adjustments. But way better then the stock esc in that yes % throttle and brake force. But a seperate setting for % reverse. So clearly i set my throttle at 100%, but i set my brakes at 75% and reverse to 50% as you dont need to fang it in reverse. The 2 main settings the stock esc did not offer and i really like is. 1, I call it soft start, the card calls it punch. So settings 0 to 9. What it is is a torque curve. Effectively launch control. So brushless motors have instant torque. Havent read too far into it, but its something along the lines of punch setting 0 is all torque off the line, then it goes in incriments of 0.5 seconds. So 1 is a ramp of 0.5 seconds, i have it set to 4 so a ramp time of 2 seconds, 9 should be about 4.5 seconds. So thats only from a dead stop, if its rolling its free game, all the power all the time.
The other setting i like is the drag brake. So with brushless motors, if you back off and coast without touching the brake the only resistance is driveline. But iff you set the drag brake it will make the motor add resistance when coasting.
Yes same with the soft start, if your heaps good on the trigger you dont need it or drag brake, but it doesnt take to much user away from the experience. Still more then enough room for user error.....

[.:4:.]

I hadn't had much time to fully set up the new radio and esc in my short course truck. It was setup enough to work well however there was 1 setting issue. So the thing would run great doing normal stuff, a bit of flat out here or there etc, however laying into it for top speed it would hit voltage cut. Wierd being it would do that on a fresh battery, and power cycled on said battery would be normal untill laying into it again. Did the same on my other battery. So not batteries.
So there is 4 voltage cutout settings. Off, low, intermediate and high. Thats what the program card says. However if you plug the program card into the car and into the computer, on the computer besides the settings it gives a description of that the settings mean. So i assumed voltage cut meant low voltage. Well, it does and more. So off is off. Low, intermediate and high have the same low voltage threshold. But what that setting means is discharge rate. This is where it gets all nerdy. So the 4500mah batteries i use have a 60c discharge rating. So max current is 60×4.5A. Thats why the voltage cut was activating. The esc was set to expect more then 270A flat out. So i changed that setting and its all good.
Other setting the child in me hates but the adult in me will not turn off. Yep, soft start. Instant wheelies are cool, i have an aftermarket wheelie bar on the car for said reasons. But the adult in me likes the simulated torque curve for 2 reasons. 1st is that off the line the thing utilises 4wd so launches better from a stop. 2nd is its more sympathetic to the driveline. Ive spent more then enough on broken driveline components on rc cars in my time. They never break when the car is in motion, its always harsh launches off the line.

[.:4:.]

So the short course truck is apples. It kind of sucks as it has deviated from the course of which it was initially purchased for. It was supposed to be the keep it stock and no dramas truck which it was for a long time untill stuff wore out. Where its at now im not too upset. Stock shocks i got over rebuilding so its got ally ones on it now. Did it need sway bars? No. Do swaybars make it better? Yep. Did i need to swap the stock motor and esc out? Yep, those were cooked. Is the aftermarket 3300kv motor faster then the stock 3500kv unit? I dunno, but it was a lot cheaper. Anyhow, its a sick truck.
So on the otherhand there is my monster truck. So that was always the cash cow/can i make it faster thing. Main reason i have had nothing to say about it for a long time is simple. Not through lack of effort, it just hasnt broken in a long time.

[DJM83]

Got it out for a run.

They were doing some racing and asked if i wanted to, i nearly did but was almost flat. Might get some more batteries.

[HIPO]

Trying to fight off the need for a 1/7 Arrma Mojave 6s.... looks like fun & have room to do a track....... doesn't seem like theres anywhere within a reasonable distance, if at all to race for this class!

https://www.modelflight.com.au/arrma...k-rtr-red.html

[DJM83]

Originally Posted by HIPO

Trying to fight off the need for a 1/7 Arrma Mojave 6s.... looks like fun & have room to do a track....... doesn't seem like theres anywhere within a reasonable distance, if at all to race for this class!

https://www.modelflight.com.au/arrma...k-rtr-red.html

Thats exactly what i purchased a week or so ago.



Took it out on the weekend, you are right. We have a track here and whilst i can use it there, its a tad too big. It needs big open spaces, nearby the local track theres plenty of that, so much fun.

[HIPO]

OK good stuff! they've been around a while now & seem pretty bullet proof.... was checking out the 4s version too.
They need uprated springs as they chassis slap & perhaps a better steering servo, but seem great as well, but should have come with an alloy chassis like the 6s. Pricing is very similar.....
Not interested in jumping them stupidly as seen in most videos, so should be very reliable!

I better get a red one then!

[HIPO]

Wondering if the Mojave motor would require a fan set-up for our climate.....

[.:4:.]

Originally Posted by HIPO

Wondering if the Mojave motor would require a fan set-up for our climate.....

Typically on a stock motor there are only 2 instances that will cause them to get too hot. 1st is constant stop then hard launch, and 2nd is if you over gear them.

That being said, on my 1 tenth traxxas maxx i do run dual fans on the motor however thats a polly shouldnt be car. Binned the 4s gear in favour of 6s and it has pretty well everything modified but the chassis and shock towers.

[DJM83]

Im going to fit a fan to mine, for the small outlay its worth it.

[HIPO]

Saw one overheat in a video, but the circumstances were unclear. Sounds like good, cheap insurance!
Only other issues i've noticed was wheel nuts coming lose & then associated parts stripping... theres upgrade parts available to solve that.
Pretty bullet proof though which makes it attractive..... have been down the chucking parts at stuff path before & thats frustrating! on road 2wd nitro & off road electric.

[HIPO]

Hey DJM83, do you have an average run time vs battery capacity? bit like how long is a piece of string, but curious just the same.

[HIPO]

Anyone have a preferred source for purchasing batteries! e-bay i presume, after checking them & hobby shops... same goes for AC chargers I suppose.

[.:4:.]

I have 3 chargers. The one that is my go to is the cheapest of the 3. An imax b6ac. Its a 6A charger, ac/dc input and does up to 6s lipo.
https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/18590062...mis&media=COPY

[HIPO]

Originally Posted by .:4:.

I have 3 chargers. The one that is my go to is the cheapest of the 3. An imax b6ac. Its a 6A charger, ac/dc input and does up to 6s lipo.
https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/18590062...mis&media=COPY

Thanks for that!

[HIPO]

Originally Posted by .:4:.

I have 3 chargers. The one that is my go to is the cheapest of the 3. An imax b6ac. Its a 6A charger, ac/dc input and does up to 6s lipo.
https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/18590062...mis&media=COPY

Saved that & it came up almost straight away on my stinking FaceBook! lol dare say say the gear will too.

[.:4:.]

Originally Posted by HIPO

Saved that & it came up almost straight away on my stinking FaceBook! lol dare say say the gear will too.

Its the cheap charger. I bought a more expensive charger because i thought as most do, cheap=bad expensive=good however i prefer the cheap one. You do have to buy an octopus lead or a lead with the correct connector for your battery. I have 3 types of battery connectors for 3 different batterys so the octopus lead is what i use.


DJM83, i agree. I have bought 2 cars and many, many parts from hobbies direct. Albeit ordered off their interweb site as im in sydney but still. Any quireies i had i just emailed them and the fired right back with options/answers.

[HIPO]

Originally Posted by .:4:.

Its the cheap charger. I bought a more expensive charger because i thought as most do, cheap=bad expensive=good however i prefer the cheap one. You do have to buy an octopus lead or a lead with the correct connector for your battery. I have 3 types of battery connectors for 3 different batterys so the octopus lead is what i use.


DJM83, i agree. I have bought 2 cars and many, many parts from hobbies direct. Albeit ordered off their interweb site as im in sydney but still. Any quireies i had i just emailed them and the fired right back with options/answers.

Yep, no worries, appreciate the info!

[roKWiz]

Spotted these today. look like fun.

[DJM83]

Originally Posted by HIPO

Yep, no worries, appreciate the info!

Took it out today.
Batteries are 2 x 5200mah/50C/11.1V 3s LiPos
Got 16 minutes from it until i started noticing some performance difference. Wasnt major but thats when i called it.
Batteries were fully charged before.


Also, wet grass was a hoot. Except now i gotta clean it
Also i better check wheel nuts.

[DJM83]

I bought 2 new LiPo's when i got my new car from Hobbies Direct in Geelong. (I visited the store) Amazing service.
Also use the local shop.
I have one of these, its a little older though
https://hitecrcd.com/products/charge...harger/product
Also have one of these, no good for multi battery cars but.
https://www.campbelltownhobbies.com....07d-ac-dc-7amp

Originally Posted by HIPO

Hey DJM83, do you have an average run time vs battery capacity? bit like how long is a piece of string, but curious just the same.

Hey mate, honestly ive not really looked and ive only used it twice. Once low enough to notice the slower speeds. As you know theres a few variables which contribute to run time. I can have a look on the weekend for ya!

[HIPO]

Originally Posted by DJM83

I bought 2 new LiPo's when i got my new car from Hobbies Direct in Geelong. (I visited the store) Amazing service.
Also use the local shop.
I have one of these, its a little older though
https://hitecrcd.com/products/charge...harger/product
Also have one of these, no good for multi battery cars but.
https://www.campbelltownhobbies.com....07d-ac-dc-7amp


Hey mate, honestly ive not really looked and ive only used it twice. Once low enough to notice the slower speeds. As you know theres a few variables which contribute to run time. I can have a look on the weekend for ya!

Ah ok, cheers fella!

[HIPO]

haha, everytime i see a rc truck...... bet Rockwiz would like that!