battery placemant, capacity, size, and location

[dwblue00]

I hope this is the right place to post this. I just bought a axial dingo kit and got it all together. I almost have all my electronics about ready to go but first I have some questions about battery placement, capacity, and running a 2s or 3s lipo. I mainly want to use the Dingo as a scale trail crawler rig.

Electronics I have are as follows: Castle Creations Sidewinder 3, Spektrum waterproof receiver, waterproofed servo 208 oz/in. torque. (Is this enough torque?)

Items I need to get are a softpack lipo(s), and motor. Motor i'm looking at is the stock 27t brushed axial, and a BEC. (suggestions please?)

Now as far as setup, I want to run some lights and the BEC for the servo off 1 battery. (Any capacity reccommendations?) Now whats the best way to run for the batteries for the motor and speedo.....qty. 2 2s batteries in parallel or run 1 3s lipo? Will a brushed 27t, 35t, 45t, 55t motors handle 3s lipo for power? Hopefully all here will tell me whats the best way to do this and i'm also up for any suggestions. Thanks!

[rik]

some may say 3s is just too much for a scaler. i run 3s just because i like the extra "umph" when i need it. 2s will be fine tho. the motor turns you listed will be fine with either choice. its not like your going to running full throttle all the time. my 4 yr old daughter has a dingo. i set it up with a og sidewinder, a castle bec, and a 236 oz servo. if your not weighing the rig down with a ton a weight, your servo should be just fine. i run her pack up front. on the battery plate. the one thing you do want to look at is the "C" rating and obviously the "mah" of the pack. i run a 2S 30c 4000 mah lipo in her rig. friggin thing will run just about all day off a full charge.

the 27t will be a bit fast. tho, if you get a 2s pack, and some throttle control, it may be ok. i would recommend at least a 35t. in my scaler i run 3s, a fxr esc, castle bec, and a HH 35t and a hitech 7954 servo. nice and slow to trail, but has some snot to it when i need it.

either way, that battery, imo, should be up front. if you put it in the rear, especially if its a big pack, the balance of the rig will be off. it will tip end over end when trying to climb up an obstacle.

as far as capacity, go as big as you can imo. the bigger the capacity = the longer run times and less bttery changes on the trail. tho, the down side is weight. but a stock dingo, this will not be a problem

oh and get a castle bec and pick up a castle link. this is for programming the esc and more importantly, the bec. to set the voltage.

[dwblue00]

Originally Posted by rik

some may say 3s is just too much for a scaler. i run 3s just because i like the extra "umph" when i need it. 2s will be fine tho. the motor turns you listed will be fine with either choice. its not like your going to running full throttle all the time. my 4 yr old daughter has a dingo. i set it up with a og sidewinder, a castle bec, and a 236 oz servo. if your not weighing the rig down with a ton a weight, your servo should be just fine. i run her pack up front. on the battery plate. the one thing you do want to look at is the "C" rating and obviously the "mah" of the pack. i run a 2S 30c 4000 mah lipo in her rig. friggin thing will run just about all day off a full charge.

the 27t will be a bit fast. tho, if you get a 2s pack, and some throttle control, it may be ok. i would recommend at least a 35t. in my scaler i run 3s, a fxr esc, castle bec, and a HH 35t and a hitech 7954 servo. nice and slow to trail, but has some snot to it when i need it.

either way, that battery, imo, should be up front. if you put it in the rear, especially if its a big pack, the balance of the rig will be off. it will tip end over end when trying to climb up an obstacle.

as far as capacity, go as big as you can imo. the bigger the capacity = the longer run times and less bttery changes on the trail. tho, the down side is weight. but a stock dingo, this will not be a problem

oh and get a castle bec and pick up a castle link. this is for programming the esc and more importantly, the bec. to set the voltage.

Thanks for the reply! I already have a castle link and i'm already looking into the 10A BEC from castle. Now for the battery packs I was told to run soft sided lipo for the weight. So with that, should I run 1 3s or run 2 smaller 2s in parallel? If I understand your response a 35T will work better and 11.1 volts will be okay for it? I was planning on running the batteries either on the rocker guards or in the front. I also was planning on adding the scaler items rope, chain, shackles, tow straps, cooler, jerry can, and some lights. Future plans are to add a 2speed trans. This truck is going to be sweet!

[Olle P]

Another great battery option for the SCX10 chassis is to use a saddle pack with one pack on each of the side skid plates.
That lowers the centre of gravity quite a bit.

In the unlikely event that you need even more battery capacity you can mount a third pack the way Rik described...

[dwblue00]

Thanks guys! Now my question is, how does the this SCX10 chassis respond to the batteries sitting on either side of the gearbox. I know it lowers the CG. As a trail rig, will mounting the batteries on the rock sliders make a difference?

[rik]

Mounting on the sliders is the way to go. However you need to make a plate for them to sit on. They will sit on the sliders them selves but there is always a chance of puncture. My Jeep runs the 3s on one slider and all elecs on the other slider.

[dwblue00]

I was looking to run 2 lower capacity batteries in parallel on the sliders. How well does it crawl with the batteries on the sliders.

[rik]

runs much better with the battery on the sliders compared to running up front on the battery plate. as Olle P pointed out, it lowers you cog. why do you want to run two smaller packs?

[dwblue00]

i can parallel wire 2 lower mah batteries, to make 1 large pack. example: parallel wire 2-7.4v lipo 2200mah will result in 1 larger 7.4v 4400 mah battery pack. Doing a set up like this will balance the vehicle and keep cog lower. I also can run 1 larger 11.1 volt lipo up front and parallel wire the speedo and bec to the deans connector to connect to the battery. I kind of wanted to run 2 batteries 1 for the BEC and 1 for the ESC and motor. I already made up spots to have either batteries or electronics on the rock sliders. Maybe i'm looking into this 2 much, considering this will be a traill rig not a comp crawler.

[rik]

So your running one battery for the servo and one for the esc. What kind of servo are you running?

[dwblue00]

It's a 208 oz/in metal gear servo. I may end up going to a stronger servo but we'll see.Yeah I was going to do 1 battery for lights and bec/servo the other for the motor and Speedo.

[rik]

i dont think your "looking into this 2 much" as you said. its your rig, build what you like. it'll work. thats the fun part of these things, you can build them up exactly how you want. and so long as nothing goes up in smoke when ya plug it all in, there is no wrong way. be sure to post pics of your wiring when ya get it all done.