Opek's Amazing 2013 Xr10 Built For The 2016 Season.

[opek]

All the links are in and tidy. It took a while to get smooth articulation with the geometry and ride height I want. Huge PITA, but things are looking good-ish. The shocks and upper links are still going to break off if I find myself in a big bind... Maybe a set of CF skins will fix the upper link woes. I will likely order some Ti screws for the shocks.

Still using my shitty boss claws Either they will be so soaked with oil at this point the rig wont work, or I'll eventually trim off the rest of the pins. Is it biting Skaldiddog's style if I use worn out claws?

I just received some super flexible 20 gauge wire which will be a lot easier to work with that the music wire I was using to wire my rig previously.

[opek]

Knuckle weights and a flapper disc just arrived.

[opek]

Tada There is a rig behind the tire in the first pic

[SkaldidDog]

Sweet nuts!

Get that bad boy running.

J

[opek]

161 grams of wire, battery, electronics, and servo incoming.

[mrG]

Been thinking about trying the brood batteries, keep us posted

[opek]

Originally Posted by mrG

Been thinking about trying the brood batteries, keep us posted

Anything with 4 cells is perfect for me

Wired everything up and both escs armed outside of the rig. Soldered in place the front motor/esc combo beeps ever so quietly and does not function. I hope it's a programming issue as all the solder joints look good. I'll throw the castle link on in a few minutes and see if that gets me anywhere.

On to the good news, the old boss claws are out! Seeing as how tires are kind of important, but people seem to do well with lots of different tires, I'd take advantage of the cost effectiveness of saving weight on tires I think I saw sourdough jack do this a long time ago on a shafty, and I've seen it work in person... it's not new, it's not impressive, but it is amazing! 61 grams per tire.


Back to electrical

[opek]

I forgot to roll the firmware back on the new esc, so it was not responding because the 4 cell battery. Simple fix! The time draws near

[opek]

Just need a battery mount now!

[opek]

Well it's almost perfect. I tried to take it out today and a grinding noise reminded me the rear axle grenaded itself last time it was used. I tore that apart and thankfully the Axial HD gears are still goodish. A new pinion and lots of aluminum shavings later and the rear axle is good to go. Now for the real head scratcher: My front motor only goes very slowly forward, but has full speed in reverse. The rear motor is normal. I imagined it was a binding/calibrating/rx issue so I swapped the channels for the esc's and recalibrated. Same issue, different channel. So now I'm hoping the speed controller (it is brand new) still has some wonky settings on it. I don't think a broken motor would work so well in one direction and not the other... maybe it's just as simple as flipping my wires.

Why do I always lose my castle link? Back to the hobby store...

[winnerone23]

It could just be the motor timing? Ur throttle epa (or aux epa) depending on which esc it is and which port it is plugged into.

[opek]

It's works! Mostly...

The front motor is still totally wonky. Full speed forward and barely anything in reverse. The timing doesn't look too messed up and rotating the endbell (did I get that right?) doesn't seem to change anything. Such is life, maybe a more educated eye can spot the flaw.

Outside of that it works well Here is some crappy footage of a climb an artr out of the box could make! Maybe now that I learned something about my potato cameraphone I can make a prettier video next time!

The truck is insanely fast. Once the motors get dialed in it should be a ton of fun. I might look for a pair of 12 tooth* pinions to slow it down a bit. It's hard to tell how well the motors work because the two axles are acting quite different. I'm really trying to avoid buying another (the third?) castle link. The damn things are way too small.

[opek]

Just ordered one of these: http://www.amazon.com/Digital-Propor.../dp/9269807304

If I'm gonna learn to dig, I'm gonna learn to dig right

The rig took a few big falls today. One at least 20 feet onto rock, and a big handful of 5-10 foot drops. Except for one shock bolt bending, everything stayed well put together. It's much more robust than I had imagined. On to that battery mount...

[Dtomblin]

Mines doing the same thing lately. Last 2 outings I've grenaded pinions in the rear axle. My mesh was good I guess the pinions are just weaker than the gears if you bind it up.

[winnerone23]

The stock aluminum pinion's Suck!!! Grab some steel ones and good to go..

[opek]

Yeah foolish mistake.

Do you know that moment when your rig suddenly does all of the things that all of your previous rigs did that made you love them so much, today is that day. I moved the front upper link up one hole at the axle and it really cleaned up how the front reacts on downhill and sidehill digs uphill break overs downhill break overs pretty much everywhere.

The motors are still wonky but I can at least manipulate the Dr to get some sort of a reliable reverse...

[opek]

The tires hook up as well as I expected them to, but I bet if I rounded all of the lugs with the dremel it would work better; I'll let time handle that. I only got three packs through it before I lost a hub screw. With my wheels spaced as they are it's very weak where the hub meets the wheel, so the stresses and strains that pull screws out is expected. I expected the wheel face to break on the 20 foot fall, but it didn't and still looks just fine. Any of the buggy wheels I've experimented with would have deformed. I'll keep running it without much concern as I think other parts of the rig will break first. I didn't bring any backup screws so that cut my morning short. On my way home I stopped at the hobby shop (they must hate me by now) and for some reason the front esc was set to 50% reverse power, fixed that and it's so fast now! Both motors appear to be working in unison! Who needs ground clearance when you can leap right past high centers

Off for some more rock love. I forgot how much fun it is to be walking around on rocks. IMO half of the fun of this hobby is the bouldering we have to do in order to drive our cars on appropriately challenging terrain.

[opek]

Rip rap takes a toll on these crawlers, though good throttle control can mitigate damage. I was having some issues with interference on my radio. I would 'lose connection' with the rig and it would peg itself at full throttle in whatever direction I was just driving. A front dig caught hard with /lots/ of wheelspeed, 10t 5 slot w/ 13t pinion @ 14.8 volts fast and destroyed one of the unis. Other than that it's driving very well. I think larger gauge wire is in order, there is some serious lag when trying to get into it hard. Either 3s or bigger wire. We'll try 3s first.

I've only got 12 days before the comp, Q_Q T_T

[opek]

A few new parts arrived this week. Some long knuckle arms, no slop bushings, and my stick remote. Most importantly the new remote and receiver resolved my apparent wire thickness issues.... No complaints! I can go from 0 throttle to full throttle without any hiccups, there is a definite drop in torque, but the motor doesn't stall even when under no load. Holy shit dig on a stick remote is so easy and so hard, some hard things are easier and many easy things are harder. I like this a lot.

The knuckle arms made a huge difference in my rigs ability to dig uphill. HUGE!

[mrG]

Originally Posted by opek

We'll try 3s first.

3s will put a larger load on the wire.

What are your impressions of the brood batteries? Do you have other 4s to compare them to? My maxamps are on there way out and Im looking for a replacement, maxamps are not worth the money. They are nice size and weight though.