Can someone please show me the light?

[jjlogue3]

I am a nitro guy crossing over to electrics with the purchase of my first crawler. I have been searching threads trying to learn the most about motors, escs, and lipos and really haven't found the thread or web page that made me say "ooooooooooooooooh I get it". Right now all the mahs and s's are all greek to me as well as the t's on the motors. I am wanting to make a pretty heavy investment in the electronics of my AX10 but I don't have the knowledge to make a decision I feel comfortable with. I am not asking what I should buy or what you recommend I realize that is for the AX10 forum. I am asking for some clarity on what these numbers mean and how they work with each other. I know mah is milli amp hours but that is the extent of my knowledge. I would appreciate any and all help any of you could offer me even if it is a link to the holy land of all pages that gives me the knowledge to make an educated decision on my purchase.


Thanks in advance,
Jeremy

[Rockcrawler]

This should help you out some.

Definitive ESC, MOTOR, and BATTERY threads - RCC's top tech threads!

[Knitewulfe]

Mah refers to milliamp hours or how long your batteries will run. The higher the number the longer runtime you will get but the bigger and heavier the battery will need to be.

Motor turns refer to the windings inside the motor. The numbers can get very complicated when looking at the types of windings and type of motor but basically higher is slower but has more torque, so harder to stall.

[jjlogue3]

Originally Posted by Knitewulfe

Mah refers to milliamp hours or how long your batteries will run. The higher the number the longer runtime you will get but the bigger and heavier the battery will need to be.

Motor turns refer to the windings inside the motor. The numbers can get very complicated when looking at the types of windings and type of motor but basically higher is slower but has more torque, so harder to stall.

What do you mean by harder to stall? Would I need to find the happy medium then?

Thanks for the replies!

[Knitewulfe]

Originally Posted by jjlogue3

What do you mean by harder to stall? Would I need to find the happy medium then?

Thanks for the replies!

Pretty much. You do need some wheel-speed sometimes to get that extra push over an obstacle, but usually in crawling torque and slow speed control is priority. Also I really over-simplified it because gearing and voltage will also play a role in these things.

Basically when we refer to 'torque' in crawling we mean starting torque. This is the strength of the motor from 0 RPM to starting speed, how hard it can push or pull before stalling. Higher starting torque also helps in moving the truck under load with less throttle movement, making for greater low speed control.

The ideal set-up is high voltage and a low turn motor. A lower turn motor produces more start-up torque per amp of current, but sacrifices wheel-speed. Gearing works in a somewhat similar way by proportionally multiplying torque while decreasing top speed. You can make up the wheel speed by adding more voltage making the motor spin faster and have higher efficiency, and add more torque in the process. In electricity Watts are your Horsepower, and W=A*V. Also keep in mind when we talk speed in crawling it is still very slow relative to other forms of RC.

So why doesn't everyone run super high voltage setups? To complicate things even more the higher voltages require much, much heavier batteries. If you double the voltage you are essentially doubling the battery weight which almost always raises your crawler's CoG (center-of-gravity) or the point of balance where your truck will fall over.

So yes, it is all about finding a happy medium. There's much more to it but that's a basic summary of my understanding. I'm sure the experts could add much more.