Components questions

[FOXX]

I have several questions. I've searched quite a bit for these specific answers and decided it's probably best to just start a thread. I have decided on a few other parts but the ones I'm concerned about are below.

What I have: MRC PRO Roller, stock radio for a micro crawler.

What's on the shopping list already:
Losi 1/18 Mini-Rock Crawler Motor LOSB0839
Losi Mini-Rock Crawler ESC LOSB0828


Questions:
What's needed to mount the 645mg steering servo?
Will I need a servo plate and which one?
Is the stock losi esc good enough to power the hitech servo and will I need a bec?
Do I need a servo saver? What is it?
Will my micro radio work to power this setup?

Also, what tools are a must have in working on these? I have basic around the house tools but nothing small enough for these rc's.

I'm willing to hear any and all suggestions. Thanks in advance!

FOXX

[AreCee]

See answers below.

BTW: If you buy the motor/ESC combo you will save a few dollars over buying each separately.

Originally Posted by FOXX

I have several questions. I've searched quite a bit for these specific answers and decided it's probably best to just start a thread. I have decided on a few other parts but the ones I'm concerned about are below.

What I have: MRC PRO Roller, stock radio for a micro crawler.

What's on the shopping list already:
Losi 1/18 Mini-Rock Crawler Motor LOSB0839
Losi Mini-Rock Crawler ESC LOSB0828


Questions:
What's needed to mount the 645mg steering servo? The Pro allows you to use a full size servo.
Will I need a servo plate and which one? Use the stock one.
Is the stock losi esc good enough to power the hitech servo and will I need a bec? Depends on the battery: It should work fine on a 2 cell lipo.
Do I need a servo saver? What is it? No. On a crawler you want a direct connection between the servo and the wheels or else you may not be able to turn the wheels.
Will my micro radio work to power this setup? Yes the ESC needs to be configured to the radio but other than that it and the servo don't care what radio you use (unless you use digital servos which the 645 isn't.).

Also, what tools are a must have in working on these? I have basic around the house tools but nothing small enough for these rc's.

You will need hex drivers in .050", 1.5mm, 1/16", 2mm; 7mm nut driver.

I'm willing to hear any and all suggestions. Thanks in advance!

FOXX

[CrawlHer]

Bec's are nice to have around to get full power out of your servo.

your micro radio will work but you will need another receiver since the micro has a esc/ receiver combo. your best best is to buy

one of these

http://www.hobbypartz.com/79p-gt3b-carradio-lcd.html

needle nose pliers and a coplete set of allen wrenches will do the job for the most part.

that motor and esc combo will work but your better off getting a esc that can handle lipos. its a crap shoot with the stock mrs esc.

you can get a castle creations micro sidewinder for arounf $55 new and that motor will work with any esc.

[FOXX]

Excellent. Thank you. I didn't know the micro was a rec esc combo. So is the castle creations a pretty straight forward install? Meaning, any modifications I need to make? I like to play it safe so that's why I asked about the bec but I hope there's room in there for all this stuff. I'm still pretty new to this and didn't want go go blowing stuff up before I had a chance to crawl around. I will probably go with what you mentioned. I didn't want to have to upgrade a lot at a later date.

Originally Posted by CrawlHer

Bec's are nice to have around to get full power out of your servo.

your micro radio will work but you will need another receiver since the micro has a esc/ receiver combo. your best best is to buy

one of these

[url]

needle nose pliers and a coplete set of allen wrenches will do the job for the most part.

that motor and esc combo will work but your better off getting a esc that can handle lipos. its a crap shoot with the stock mrs esc.

you can get a castle creations micro sidewinder for arounf $55 new and that motor will work with any esc.

[CrawlHer]

Anytime
thats how they fit all the electronics in the small micro chassis.
no mods needed to install a cc micro sidewinder in the chassis. theres plenty of room for all the stuff. iam running this setup with a holmes 33t motor. just do yourself a favor and grab a bec while your at it you wont regret it it gets real expensive real quick buying your electronics twice. i can post pics of my setup to get you an idea of how everything lays in the chassis if you want

CrawlHer

[ohdeeuhm]

Originally Posted by CrawlHer

Anytime
thats how they fit all the electronics in the small micro chassis.
no mods needed to install a cc micro sidewinder in the chassis. theres plenty of room for all the stuff. iam running this setup with a holmes 33t motor. just do yourself a favor and grab a bec while your at it you wont regret it it gets real expensive real quick buying your electronics twice. i can post pics of my setup to get you an idea of how everything lays in the chassis if you want

CrawlHer

I'm interested in seeing your layout. I have a MRC pro on the way and I'm wondering how I'm going to fit everything in such a small layout

[CrawlHer]

alright here ya go



CC BEC on right side of chassis
CC Micro Sidewinder on left side of chassis


Battery on rear upper links on a lexan plate


RX on front upper links on a lexan tray

[FOXX]

Originally Posted by AreCee

See answers below.

BTW: If you buy the motor/ESC combo you will save a few dollars over buying each separately.

Thanks a lot for the detailed answers. This will surely help me decide what to and not to get.

Originally Posted by CrawlHer

Bec's are nice to have around to get full power out of your servo.

your micro radio will work but you will need another receiver since the micro has a esc/ receiver combo. your best best is to buy

one of these

http://www.hobbypartz.com/79p-gt3b-carradio-lcd.html

needle nose pliers and a coplete set of allen wrenches will do the job for the most part.

that motor and esc combo will work but your better off getting a esc that can handle lipos. its a crap shoot with the stock mrs esc.

you can get a castle creations micro sidewinder for arounf $55 new and that motor will work with any esc.

Again, thanks. I will probably get this radio. Fits the bill and the reviews are pretty good too. Nice rig too! I'm sure it crawls great. Can't wait to get the lexan body all done up too. I make stickers so I'm curious what I'll come up with.

[Getrag]

your micro radio will work but you will need another receiver since the micro has a esc/ receiver combo. your best best is to buy

one of these

http://www.hobbypartz.com/79p-gt3b-carradio-lcd.html

needle nose pliers and a coplete set of allen wrenches will do the job for the most part.

that motor and esc combo will work but your better off getting a esc that can handle lipos. its a crap shoot with the stock mrs esc.

you can get a castle creations micro sidewinder for arounf $55 new and that motor will work with any esc.

+1 for that TX/RX combo

I just set up 2 friends, my son, and my dad with that setup and its perfect for the price

[the other 2.2 guy]

the GT3B is a good suggestion but sounds like you could go the $20 route instead (save $15 and put it towards a BEC) you dont need 3 ch or multi vehicle memory and thats really the only reason to get the GT3B over the GT2 from hobby partz. i would go with the stock motor and a tekin B1R esc. then buy a 800 mah lipo from hobby partz.

i have had an MRC for a long time and just bought a pro roller too. so this is the set up i am going with and i will let you know abobut mounting the full size servo.

hope this helped

[FOXX]

Originally Posted by the other 2.2 guy

the GT3B is a good suggestion but sounds like you could go the $20 route instead (save $15 and put it towards a BEC) you dont need 3 ch or multi vehicle memory and thats really the only reason to get the GT3B over the GT2 from hobby partz. i would go with the stock motor and a tekin B1R esc. then buy a 800 mah lipo from hobby partz.

i have had an MRC for a long time and just bought a pro roller too. so this is the set up i am going with and i will let you know abobut mounting the full size servo.

hope this helped

This is the route I took. They should be here by the weekend. I went with the stock Losi motor ($10 ebay) and the br1. Should I get a bec?

[FOXX]

So I called Castle Creations today and asked if I should use a BEC on my Tekin and turns out I probably should've asked Tekin since I'm going to use the B1R.
So, to save me from having to call and ask, does someone on here know if I'll need one? I'll be running 2s lipos and the losi stock crawler motor. Thanks

[AreCee]

It depends on which servo you use in addition to the motor.

For most normal comp activities using a 2S pack and a reasonable servo that doesn't suck power you should be fine without a BEC (I am not using one).

However, if you decide to get one of the monster 400+ oz/in 7.4V servos then yes you will need a BEC to supply power directly to the servo rather than having the servo starve the RX.

Now if you go to a 3S pack then you do need the BEC since the ESC's internal BEC output will drop due to the voltage increase. The internals are rated at 2 amps with 7.4V.

Of course it wouldn't hurt to have an external BEC with a 2S except for the added size and weight.

[bquin]

Originally Posted by FOXX

So I called Castle Creations today and asked if I should use a BEC on my Tekin and turns out I probably should've asked Tekin since I'm going to use the B1R.
So, to save me from having to call and ask, does someone on here know if I'll need one? I'll be running 2s lipos and the losi stock crawler motor. Thanks

I also run the B1r on my mini and definitely used a bec....even while using a smaller servo than I am now...just remember to use the capacitor that comes with the B1r

[FOXX]

Ok Good. I'm running the Hitech HS645 (I think that's the number--it's the one everyone recommends) I don't like blowing up stuff especially when I don't know if it's supposed to be there or not. I figure, even if it doesn't need one, it couldn't hurt right? ..But what do I know...

[FOXX]

Originally Posted by the other 2.2 guy

the GT3B is a good suggestion but sounds like you could go the $20 route instead (save $15 and put it towards a BEC) you dont need 3 ch or multi vehicle memory and thats really the only reason to get the GT3B over the GT2 from hobby partz. i would go with the stock motor and a tekin B1R esc. then buy a 800 mah lipo from hobby partz.

i have had an MRC for a long time and just bought a pro roller too. so this is the set up i am going with and i will let you know abobut mounting the full size servo.

hope this helped

It did help. Thanks!
Couple questions. The 800 mah lipo I got from Getrag's suggestion (Lipos:
Bluesky 800mAh 20c 2s $6 x2 or more... http://www.hobbypartz.com/83p-800mah-2s1p-74-20c.html) Are these 2s? ..or maybe it's a C... What does the S mean? ...I was also wondering where you guys place these? I was thinking about on the side of the chassis opposite to the motor? I'd like to keep it as low as possible.

Also, My Tekin B1R came in and was wondering where the capacitor goes? It doesn't say anything about it in the instructions unless I overlooked it.

Speaking of not saying anything, my Fly Sky FS-gt3b didn't come with any instruction manual. WTF? Do they just expect you to know how to do everything? That is frustrating. I guess they expect you to go to their website for it..

[bquin]

Originally Posted by FOXX

It did help. Thanks!
Couple questions. The 800 mah lipo I got from Getrag's suggestion (Lipos:
Bluesky 800mAh 20c 2s $6 x2 or more... http://www.hobbypartz.com/83p-800mah-2s1p-74-20c.html) Are these 2s? ..or maybe it's a C... What does the S mean? ...I was also wondering where you guys place these? I was thinking about on the side of the chassis opposite to the motor? I'd like to keep it as low as possible.

Also, My Tekin B1R came in and was wondering where the capacitor goes? It doesn't say anything about it in the instructions unless I overlooked it.

Speaking of not saying anything, my Fly Sky FS-gt3b didn't come with any instruction manual. WTF? Do they just expect you to know how to do everything? That is frustrating. I guess they expect you to go to their website for it..

Sauder one side to the positive battery post and one to the negative side......do it cuz you will need it....on the b1 anyway

[FOXX]

Originally Posted by bquin

Sauder one side to the positive battery post and one to the negative side......do it cuz you will need it....on the b1 anyway

I will do this. Thx.

On a side note, how does one go about using the longer steering arm without the balls installed? The MRC Pro came with the normal shorter one installed and the longer one which does not have the metal balls in the hole to allow for movement. The shorter one seems limiting steering to the left since I have the Hitech HS645 MG servo which I might add, consider going with the stocker since only 2 of the screws fit in the mount plate. I hope it's enough to hold the servo! I had to rob a couple washers from another component. I suppose I'll find out which one soon enough. I didn't expect this build to be easy but this is getting ridiculous!

How do I use the longer arm?

[AreCee]

Use the balls from the shorter arm. Pop them out and stick them in.

[FOXX]

That worked great. Thanks!


One more question, why does my mrc go forward when I reverse the trigger and vise versa. I have the flysky FS gt3b. I'm reading through the manual and don't see where I can reverse this function. I'm thinking it comes from the factory set up like this...? My ESC is a Tekin B1R and I followed the setup instructions. Only problem is, it didn't start out with the forward function set first. I held the trigger in for the amount of time specified and nothing. After trying that, I pushed the trigger (reverse) and it set it up for the forward function. :(



Everything else works on my car which is pretty neat. I hooked everything up right too. I triple checked and double checked again before I even turned anything on. That's all I need to actually get rolling. I don't want to reverse hookup the motor or the wires going to the receiver either because that's not how the directions say to hook them up. There has to be an easy fix that I'm overlooking. Thanks for your help!