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05-30-2010, 01:24 PM
| #1 |
| Quarry Creeper  Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Rocky Mountain House, Alberta, CANADA
Posts: 226
|  Budget Brushless Experiment...
So I bought a LMRC and like many (or all) of you I noted the need to make a few improvements... Binding tranny gears, brittle shock shafts, plastic wheel hexes... not what i expected for $150. My buddy saw all these problems and decided not to get one based on my experience (and his AX10 is his fav RC) so I made a decision to go stupid on this little rig (with a budget)... I hate to crawl alone, so maybe this will show him the potential these things have and still cost under $300 total... Mods to date: Modified Mini-T cup ends with stainless threaded rod Tranny flip HS5055MG servo (soon 2 be 4WS) 200mah Lipo Quark Procar 22A ESC Spektrum SR3500 RX Turnigy 4500kV brushless motor, 11T pinion Micro-T soft springs Solder wrapped wheels, kept the foam IN Purdy red wheel nuts Grand total - about $320 now... could've saved a few bucks if the HS had a BND, but all in all when it's done it should be around $350 total (the way I want it)... The cheapest RC I have BY FAR!!        Special thanx to HobbyKing and EBAY for all their support!!  |
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05-30-2010, 09:40 PM
| #2 |
| Rock Stacker Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: Toledo
Posts: 61
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I know its fairly new to you but how do you like that motor/esc combo? I have tossed the idea around a few times and would love to hear crawling reports of how it works out.
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05-31-2010, 03:57 PM
| #3 |
| Quarry Creeper Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: Newton
Posts: 272
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very tight wiring, love the way the whole thing looks. I am curious to know how it runs to. You should make a vid, not may people are running brushless in their micros currently. |
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05-31-2010, 10:48 PM
| #4 |
| Quarry Creeper Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Rocky Mountain House, Alberta, CANADA
Posts: 226
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Gettin a whole half hour of runtime according to the timer on my DX3R... probly be a little shorter now that i have rear steer... nothin like having a 12" turning radius... can't wait to get another 5055mg servo instead of this noisy/jittery Losi POS with the gay saver on it... wire is so stiff the rear end isn't flexing properly, not to mention it's too short... nothin like MG's w/o savers (i mean, come on, it's a micro!)... replaced all the stock springs with Micro-T whites with fuel tubing adjusters... works surprisingly well, as i get full suspension flex lock-to-lock with just the weight of the rig itself, not to mention decent GC... still a little topheavy tho... once i get some micro connectors from HK i can get rid of some more wiring... wanna get a 3850kV Turnigy too and give it a try (for $9 how can you go wrong?)... I'll get some pics up soon (don't know about a video, it took me over half an hour just to post pics last time - no star and all...  ) I know, i know, a membership's only like $50 or so, but that's money i can use for gettin porjects further along (such as this micro, my AX10, a SavageX brushless race truck conversion, RS4 brushless conversion, a few others...) Man this is gonna be an expensive summer!
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06-01-2010, 07:49 AM
| #5 | |
| Rock Crawler Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: West of Eugene, OR
Posts: 942
| Quote:
...30 minutes on a 200mah. Nice. Sounds like you're having great fun with the Micro! I don't like the stock servo much but I've had no troubles thus far without the saver on it. Thanks for all your info - your fellow Micro drivers would appreciate it if you kept us up-to-date. FYI: the typical Star ('membership') we regular folks get is the Green one, at $20 for a year. 20 clams is 20 clams, but it's not as near as bad as 50. | |
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06-01-2010, 09:04 AM
| #6 | |
| Rock Stacker Join Date: May 2010 Location: Olympia
Posts: 90
| Right-O Quote:
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06-01-2010, 05:51 PM
| #7 |
| Quarry Creeper Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Rocky Mountain House, Alberta, CANADA
Posts: 226
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Got a few pics of the 4WS and other mods so far...   I seriously need another 5055MG, but it's still works good enuf to play with... Some shock shots...   Articulation is pretty alright... not too much, not too little!  Just need a good rear servo, maybe some more wheel weight... got a bunch of LEDs from a buggered SnapOn work light i'm gonna use to fab a set of rock lights (4 should be plenty - i'll just run em off the BAT socket on my rx)... ordered some 1.5mm carbon fiber from HK - gonna make some chassis plates of my own - don't know if i'm gonna make stock copies or go Comp chassis ( I like the body style on these units - it hides all the wiring and junk)... but there are some pretty wild chassis designs i've seen others put on their micros... decisions, decisions...  BTW, probly gonna get my green star like y'all suggested... $20 seems like a pretty good deal... Looks like the cat is goin on a diet!! |
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06-01-2010, 09:31 PM
| #8 |
| Quarry Creeper Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Rocky Mountain House, Alberta, CANADA
Posts: 226
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Just got done grindin' the hell outta this thing... 28 minutes till cutoff on the first battery, 29 minuets 35secs till cutoff on the second battery, both are rated at 200mah... The 4WS seems to last just as long as with 2WS... Thinkin I still need some 240mahs from the Ebay... At only $7 with free shipping, a guy can't really go wrong... |
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06-02-2010, 09:06 AM
| #9 |
| Rock Crawler Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: Danish badlands
Posts: 761
|  now thats a sweet ride |
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06-02-2010, 01:20 PM
| #10 |
| I wanna be Dave  Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Martinsburg WV
Posts: 2,781
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I just wanna give you props on some nice clean wiring. Nice work. You can remove the lid with pride! Way better looking than the standard "rainbow colored rats-nest" you see around here a lot of times... |
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06-02-2010, 07:07 PM
| #11 |
| Quarry Creeper Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Rocky Mountain House, Alberta, CANADA
Posts: 226
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Thanks all for the compliments... the wiring took some time to make it all as short as possible but still long enough to be serviceable... Like today, I got my warranty tranny gears from Horizon in the mail... couldn't WAIT to get home, only to find the goddamm things are worse than the ones I took out ! Now, I gotta give props to the Horizon service department - the guy had my parts comin about two minutes after I called their 800 number - but the people runnin the gear mold should be told to STOP what they're doing cuz Losi obviously knows there's a problem with these gears and they should be pulled from the shelves instead of being given to customers looking to replace those exact parts only...Sorry bout that... my rant for the day  ...At least I got a new slipper - pinions - spurs out of the deal... Apparently when you mirror the tranny, the motor drives the slipper shaft counterclockwise when you go forward, so when it slips it has the opportunity to loosen the cheesy plastic slipper nut that holds it all tight, so I replaced the whole assembly and cranked it all down with 1/2 a drop of blue Loctite and a M2 aluminum Nylock nut... Can't see the BL motor bustin that loose... Hopefully it still slips before i pop a shaft apart... After that was all said and done and I had it all back together, it actually turned smoother than it had previously, old wobbly gears and all... go figure... gonna go try out my new 10T pinion (was 11T) and see if there's a noticeable change in how it creeps... Can't wait till my BWD weghts get in... just ordered them yesterday... My buddy's goin Hobbyshop hoppin in Calgary on Friday (we both have boycotted our LHS) so maybe i'll have another new mod to do soon... I'll keep y'all posted, eh! Last edited by SpeedyG; 06-02-2010 at 07:10 PM. Reason: spelling corrections |
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06-06-2010, 04:50 PM
| #12 |
| Quarry Creeper Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Rocky Mountain House, Alberta, CANADA
Posts: 226
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So I busted out the ol' calculator today... just out of curiousity... 1 - Losi McRC $155 2 - Pkgs of Mini-T ball cups $11 1 - 200mah Lipo $7 2 - HS5055MG servos $54 1 - Complete steer linkage/knuckle set $30 1 - Turnigy 4500kV brushless motor $9 1 - SnT Quark Procar 22A ESC $25 1 - SR3500 Spektrum RX $99 (ouch!) 1 - Micro Deans $3 1 - Set of BWD weights $22 -------------------------------------------- Grand total so far......... $415 Canadian ! So much for being a "budget" build... If only Spektrum made a cheaper rx, which is the main reason why it's breaking my bank... oh well...I guess that's the price you pay for having all brand-name parts with warranties (with the exception of the motor), so I can crawl worry-free for at least a year... I guess since I didn't win the TMC chassis, i'm gonna have to build my own, which is fine since i've already got some 1.5mm CF coming in the mail soon...Gonna be pretty pimpin when i'm done! I'll keep y'all posted...    |
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06-10-2010, 12:13 AM
| #13 |
| Pebble Pounder Join Date: May 2008 Location: UK
Posts: 102
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Hi speedy, thanx for all the info. I too have an ax10 with 4ws but just don't have time to use it so your build is an inspirtion. For your rear steer you list: 1 - Complete steer linkage/knuckle set $30 is this a complete set you can buy or was there anything else you needed when doing it? I guess the front and rear axles are the same as with the ax10 kit. I am using a spektrum ar6100 rx so will set it up with independent rear steer on the dx7 radio. I've got a TMC chassis coming as a comp build but my wife has one too so will see what we decide with that, maybe a scaler!!! |
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06-10-2010, 07:32 AM
| #14 |
| Quarry Creeper Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Rocky Mountain House, Alberta, CANADA
Posts: 226
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If you're looking for a complete set you'll be looking for a long time... I had to piece it all together on Ebay - hubs, knuckles, shoulder screws, linkage, servo mounts... Just had to change over the wheel bearings to the new knuckles and it all bolted together like stock... I use the 3rd channel on my DX3R, but all I have is full left-center-full right capability when I steer the rear independently from the front... I was looking at getting a DX6i just for my crawlers, but maybe that'll be a future investment when I have extra cash...  |
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06-10-2010, 08:07 AM
| #15 |
| Pebble Pounder Join Date: May 2008 Location: UK
Posts: 102
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Stick controllers are my preference I may try to find a broken one on ebay and use it for spares |
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06-13-2010, 11:03 AM
| #16 |
| Quarry Creeper Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Rocky Mountain House, Alberta, CANADA
Posts: 226
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Had it out on my "rock" pile yesterday (bunch of giant chunks of busted concrete), noticed it was gettin hung up in certain areas... decided to do some mild clearance mods... Removed the lower knuckle kingpins, ground the heads off, gave them a blade slot, shaved 1.5mm off the lower knuckle boss, also shaved the protruding boss and screw off the front of the diff housing, put 'er all back together...   As y'all can see, it makes the entire undercarriage seem that much cleaner...  Still waitin for my 1.5mm CF sheet to get here...cant wait to build a chassis that has more room to lower my CoG and that will eliminate the outer tranny mount/TVP snag points... My wheelbase is 104mm right now (fully extended shocks, 108mm fully compressed), might stretch it out to 115-120mm to add more stability... |
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06-13-2010, 01:36 PM
| #17 |
| Quarry Creeper Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Rocky Mountain House, Alberta, CANADA
Posts: 226
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Couple of action shots from my phone... Latest mods definately helped gettin around today... Got a line around the entire pile, it's pretty crazy, but I can almost do it in one attempt, where I could barely even get 1/3 of the way around before... Super slow wheel speed and lotsa torque are definately an asset...  Where's Waldo? haha...   |
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06-19-2010, 03:07 AM
| #18 |
| Pebble Pounder Join Date: May 2008 Location: UK
Posts: 102
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Hi, got my crawlers, one for me and one for my wife. Is it 2s lipo you are using as I see the Quarke is 2-3s same as the micro sidewinder. Still unsure whether to go for the microsidewinder for future projects or the Quarke. Did you need a BEC using 2 servos? Thanx. |
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06-19-2010, 10:37 AM
| #19 |
| Quarry Creeper Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Rocky Mountain House, Alberta, CANADA
Posts: 226
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I think the Quark is good for up to 5s, and I was thinking of getting another smaller esc for the crawler and using the Quark for another project  ... Quark has been running great tho... The only issue I have is that it's kinda big, and it makes my rig quite top heavy (might decase and heatshrink it to save a few grams)I am currently using a 2s 200mah lipo, getting some 240mah 2s in the mail soon... No separate BEC needed for 2 steer servos (quark is good for 1.5A) I actually have a micro Sidewinder in my miniLST2 and it Flies!! Never thought about putting it in a crawler tho... Probably be a good choice, with all the programming you can do, especially with the CastleLink... Quite a bit smaller too... But I see they're expensive - twice the price of the Quark... Here are some links to compare them... http://cgi.ebay.com/SIDEWINDER-MICRO...item5ad991a1f4 http://cgi.ebay.com/Quark-Universal-...item3a5bfd8b76 Hope this helps!! |
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06-19-2010, 01:37 PM
| #20 |
| Pebble Pounder Join Date: May 2008 Location: UK
Posts: 102
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Looks good for the sidewinder, from your experience, would the sidewinder micro and 4200kv motor work or would it be too fast? I also see the sidewinder motor is 20mm x 30mm, I guess the diam is too wide as you are using 12mm diam motors. I've taken sine if your ideas, but can only spend 15 minutes at a time working on mine so will take a while. Last edited by Boos Boy; 06-19-2010 at 01:51 PM. |
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