Novice RC'er having trouble with my Losi

[jesus_man]

Allow me to give you a little background. Several years ago I bought a Exceed 1/16 maxstone crawler and enjoyed the heck out of that. Then my son got old enough and started to enjoy it as well. While living in Germany for 4 years, I came across a fella selling a used Losi crawler modified to go faster. My intent was to put it back to stock and was told the parts are all there to do so. But I've been too nervous about diving in because some sort of programmer came with the parts and I'm afraid of messing it up. Then probably a year or more ago, the Losi started acting up. I chalked it up to interferences from outside sources since Germany uses different frequencies and I had noted a nearby remote control crane interfering with an RC heli I was operating one time.

I pull both crawlers back out recently and charge batteries in hopes my son and I can do some crawling. The Exceed is still a bit jittery and likes to just take off on it's own, but with a flick of the throttle, it seems to respond again for a little bit. Still not like I remember it when new and it's unlikely you can do much technical crawling with it because it has a mind of it's own every minute or so.

But the Losi doesn't respond at all. It jitters around, will turn, but then goes straight and is a neat paper-weight at this point. I'd like to work on this a little and see if I can't get it working properly again and then perhaps figure out the Exceed later.

I've replaced batteries in the remote and verified they are all indeed good. The battery pack in the Losi is putting out 8.3v and it's rated for 7.5v so I think it's good. What's the next step?

Thanks!

[Perkul8r]

There could be a few problems with both of them. It could range anywhere from age of batteries, to electronics going bad. If you have another remote and receiver you could try that first. You said it was jittery in Germany too so that could be a start. If that doesn't fix anything I would try another esc to see if its gone bad. It kinda sucks to just try things, but its hard to tell exactly what could be causing it.

[jesus_man]

Thanks Perkul8r.

I am really showing my newbie colors here. I only have the remotes that came with both units. Are they interchangeable? And what would the reciever look like? Also, what is an ESC? Thanks!

[Perkul8r]

Originally Posted by jesus_man

Thanks Perkul8r.

I am really showing my newbie colors here. I only have the remotes that came with both units. Are they interchangeable? And what would the reciever look like? Also, what is an ESC? Thanks!

If both remotes are stock, than yes they are interchangeable. You would just have to bind the remote to the receiver in the truck.

The receiver, depending what brand it is, will all look about the same. There should be at least 2, 3 wire connectors coming into it. And possibly one small wire coming out of it and not connecting to anything. That would be the antenna , some have them, some dont.

The esc is the part that you connect the battery too. The battery powers the esc which powers the receiver.

[jesus_man]

Ok. Thanks for your patience with your help! I think I know what the receiver is. How do I go about documenting the current setting on the Exceed remote before changing anything? And then how do I change the settings to talk with the Losi crawler? Or is that done on the receiver?

Here's what I am dealing with:

[jesus_man]

I had a friend of mine take a look at it and he showed me what I needed to do in order to have a better idea as to how to trouble shoot.

I found the stock ESC and motor and I jumpered it to the battery to find it works. Perfect! But the previous owner had cut the factory battery connectors off in favor of something else. So there is a small hurdle, but with some guidance, one I can figure out. Can anyone identify this connector?



BUT - in my head, if this 25A-SL ESC from Leopard is something I can 1) replace easy and 2) get it to slow down enough to make it a crawler again, then maybe I should look into that?? Searching google, I found a US shop that carries the Leopard stuff so I called them. The tech says he thinks what I have is underrated for this application. He thinks I need a 45a version. I see these appear to come with a small little fan.

I have an upgraded motor (also from Leopard), so perhaps it makes sense to get an upgraded ESC for it as well. Any opinions? Go back to stock for just a few $$, or spend $45-50 to get a properly sized ESC?

Now in terms of controlling speed, is this done with the ESC program card, with gearing only, or a combo of both? In my box I found some little gears, so maybe putting those gears on the upgraded motor would get me back to where I want to be??


I'm trying to pull this off before Christmas so I can present it to my son as a gift. Thanks for any help!