FIRST EVER Hobby RC

[pickledeyeball2]

Ok Guys,

So I am going to buy an Axial SCX10 Deadbolt RTR. As I said in the title, this will be my very first hobby RC. I need all the experience from you guys on this forum to guide me through the process of getting the right equipment. I need to know ALL of the things I need to buy to get started in hobby RC with my future SCX10, such as batteries, chargers, toolkits, etc.

I have already done some research on my own, and decided that the Venom 20C 2S 5000mAh 7.4V LiPO Hard Case would be a good first battery, with a Tenergy TB6-B 50W Balancing Charger.

LINKS:

battery-

Amazon.com: Venom 20C 2S 5000mAh 7.4V LiPO Hard Case - UNI: Toys & Games

charger-

Amazon.com: Tenergy TB6-B 50W Balancing Charger for NiMH/NiCD/Li-PO/Li-Fe/SLA Battery Packs: Health & Personal Care

Please advise me on whether or not this is a good battery, good charger, and what else to buy for my Axial SCX10 Deadbolt RTR.

Thanks All,
pickledeyeball2

[Crank]

They are pretty good rc's out of the box, especially for your first one.
Get some quality hex wrenches and go over the whole rig and check that all of the screws are tight (not super tight most are going into plastic after all.).
I would just drive it and replace parts as you need to instead of going crazy with upgrades right out of the gate.
If I was going to recommend a first upgrade it would be replacing the steering
links up front with an aluminum set, the plastic ones are made to save the steering servo in a bind, but they are seriously bad.

Since you are going to lipo it would be a very good idea to replace the Tamiya style battery plug with a better one like Deans.
Dont just turn the truck off and leave the battery plugged up, it will still drain the battery (I recommend cutting the switch off, soldering the wire together, and covering them with shrink tubing or liquid electrical tape.).
Oh and get a lipo charging bag, they are cheap insurance.

Lastly this forum contains more info than one person could ever absorb, so read,read, and read some more.

[-bjb-]

I suggest looking at the Value Hobby GForce brand batteries. You can get a battery that will work just as well as that Venom for 1/2 the price. They also sell generic Deans connectors to replace the stock ESC connector, and a charger that's slightly better than that Tenergy for less money too. It will charge a 5amp battery in a little under an hour. You can PM me for links if you can't find the stuff I am talking about.

[pickledeyeball2]

thanks for your help guys

[mr dave]

Please don't skimp when it comes to batteries, a hard case lipo with bullet connectors would be my first choice, then pick the size that suits you, and look at dimensions too, some might be too big to fit your truck.
And use the charging bag and follow instructions closely pertaining to amperage on your charger, explosions are always a possibility

[Johnnysplits]

Actually, you can skimp on batteries. I use $30 lipo's that are awesome. It's the charger that I wouldn't skimp on. I've owned three cheapies ($28 -$85) and all have incorrectly charged my batteries. There was one that if I wasn't keeping an eye on it while it was charging, would have set my battery on fire, or at least puff it. Please, get a good, high quality charger. Four brands to look at...Cellpro powerlab, Icharger, Hyperion, Thunder Power.

[-bjb-]

Originally Posted by mr dave

Please don't skimp when it comes to batteries, a hard case lipo with bullet connectors would be my first choice, then pick the size that suits you, and look at dimensions too, some might be too big to fit your truck.
And use the charging bag and follow instructions closely pertaining to amperage on your charger, explosions are always a possibility

I wouldn't have recommended the Value Hobby lipos if they weren't suitable for this purpose. I have $70 SMC batteries that I use in my SCTE, but the power draw on a crawler is so low that a person can use just about anything that won't burst into flames. The $18 5amp Value Hobby batteries come with posts which I use in my SCX10 without issue. They also have some $22 5.2amp packs that don't have battery posts that also work well. For this application, it seems like a waste of money to spend more money on something that won't work any better or be any more reliable.

I agree with the comments about the charger. It's best to spend a little more money there if possible, but my brother-in-law uses that $32 6amp charger that Value Hobby sells and it works perfectly fine. No doubt there are better ones to be had, but not without spending a lot more money. All the really good chargers require a separate power supply which will cost more than this inexpensive charger all by itself. Based on what the OP linked to in the first post, I assumed he wasn't prepared to spend over a $100 on a charger.

[b00st3d-vr6]

I have been running the G Force 2200mah packs in my scaler for over a year now charging with a cheap venom charger set to 2.5A and have had zero issues with either. No puffed packs, no cell failures. The nice thing about these packs is they fit on sliders so I strap one on each side for balance. When one dies, switch to the other and keep rolling.


Sent from the drivers seat of scx10

[Johnnysplits]

True ^ but like that old saying goes...buy once, cry once. I fully expect to get about 10 years from my setup. After that, I'll replace it with whatever is good at that time. Your brother-in-law is lucky. I'll never trust that low dollar stuff again. But I will admit, the system I have is way overkill for my use, unless I build that boat I've been wanting to do for two years now.

[Johnnysplits]

Originally Posted by b00st3d-vr6

I have been running the G Force 2200mah packs in my scaler for over a year now charging with a cheap venom charger set to 2.5A and have had zero issues with either. No puffed packs, no cell failures. The nice thing about these packs is they fit on sliders so I strap one on each side for balance. When one dies, switch to the other and keep rolling.


Sent from the drivers seat of scx10

I've been running a pair of their 2600mah 4s elite series and they work excellent...balance perfect and I.R. is extremely low. Next week I'll be replacing the two I use now for a single 5200mah 4s. More weight and I can mount it more forward than on the sliders like I have now.

[thehighroad]

Just so you know, that charger (and most rc chargers) are dc input only so to use it from home you will need a 12v power supply.