few newb ax10 questions

[CRAIGB]

Ok I have a ax10 scorpion rtc Ax90011
1. I hear I need to upgrade the servo, is the mg946r a good servo to upgrade to? And down the road if I want 3 ch for a dig, would a certain servo be need?
2. I noticed sum people have issues with there drive shafts popping off, would upgrading axles and yokes solve this and what other benifit would they give?
3. Is there any gears I should upgrade to aluminum or steel?

[Charlie-III]

Changing servo's does NOT require a radio change.....a radio change does NOT require a certain servo. You "may" want a BEC (external servo power supply, like a Castle Creations BEC, aka CC BEC) if you overpower the BEC in the ESC. edit......for a "servo dig", a small servo is fine. I don't remember what I use, but it's cheap since the loads are low.

Popping off the driveshafts requires some thought, and thread lock, to help stop this.

The servo you linked would be "OK" in my mind, but may prove to be a bit underpowered.

Are you driving for fun or comping?? Comping usually requires really pushing the limits. It would also mean you will want an external BEC.
I run a HiTec 7955TG steering servo.....even that is not always enough torque. I also overdrive it a bit with a CC BEC set to 6.5VDC.

[CRAIGB]

So u use two Servos for a dig? One for steering and one for dig?

Im not sure what a external bec is..

So any advantage to upgrade axles?

[ghtpdm5]

yup, you have a steering servo and a dig servo. driveline upgrades would be for durability and not performance in most cases with the ax-10 (the dig unit being the notable exception to that, also the super 300 axles have more steering throw)

an external bec supplies regulated power to whatever component its powering, if both dig and steering servos were rated at 6v, then you would simply plug in to the battery or bind port on the receiver. if the steering servo was rated to 7.4v, and the dig was only rated to 6v, then you'd hook the power wires of the bec and steering servo together, and then run the signal wire of the servo into the receiver, leaving the esc internal to power the receiver and dig servo. the external that most of us use is the castle creations bec, which puts out a user programmed voltage, and 10 amps. the internal on most esc's is at 6v, and 3 amps or so. running a high power steering and dig servo would cause a "brown out" when all of these components are fighting for the limited power supplied from the internal bec in the esc. the external takes power directly from the battery, and then powers what you want it to power. when hooking an external bec up through the receiver, the most important thing to remember is to pull the red wire from the esc plug (the bit that plugs into the receiver) or you risk damage to the electronics.

[CRAIGB]

Thanks for info!

[CRAIGB]

Whats the best battery setup? Split axle pack? Would u go 7 or 8v

[forbid89]

Lipo all the way. Mount if on the front axle or a plate on the upper links.

[CRAIGB]

I meant 8 cell 1500. Split pack, will it work?

[forbid89]

It will be fine if you are running the stock servo if you upgrade to a more powerful servo then be sure to get a BEC. I still stick by my suggestion of switching to lipo's, it's one of the best upgrades you can make.

[CRAIGB]

The run down part of lipo is sketchy to me to know when to cut it off, would also need charger

[forbid89]

If you have an AE-2 esc in your AX10 (I got one in my RTC package) then it has a built in auto cutoff so no need to worry. If not you could use a low voltage alarm (dirt cheap) or Novak makes an external cutoff called a smart-stop. As far as the charger, they can be had for pretty cheap these days. The Thunder AC6 is a solid AC/DC charger the runs a little under $50 shipped and can charge pretty much anything under the sun, a wise investment in my opinion.

[CRAIGB]

Not shure, its a ax90011 rtc

What size lipo battery?

[forbid89]

Well it kinda depends on when you bought your AX10, they originally shipped with AE-1 ESC's and AM radios but the latest ones have have the AE-2 ESC and the 2.4ghz radio. Whatever model you have will have it printed on the casing, very easy to tell. As far as size, if you want to mount it on the front axle you are limited by size. You have about 70mm give or take. I run the geforce 1300mah from valuehobby.com. Here's my mount:

[CRAIGB]

7.4v ?

[forbid89]

Yeah sorry 1300mah 2S (7.4v) lipo, I've run 3S (11.1v) on it before but since the ESC is only rated for 2S it's what I've been using.

[crawlinisfun]

if your going to comp buy the best servo you can afford with a 200+oz rating and the bec (battery eliminator circuit) to save some headaches and as for lipo I will never go back to stick/cell packs. as for driveshafts i broke the stock ones so i ran the traxxas stampede ones

[CRAIGB]

Ok, thanks

What is the differences between 45t and 55t tekin motors?

[It usually runs fine]

10 turns


The higher the turns the more torque you will have and less top speed, the lower the turn the faster the motor is, but the low end power and control is less. Also take into account the quality of the motor and blah blah blah, you need to go read alot in the electronics section.

[ghtpdm5]

to help ya out a bit more, turn numbers are simply the number of times the copper wire has been wound around the armature of the motor. more turns means more copper, means more torque, and also means less speed. most crawler motors are 35t, 45t or 55t. 55t is going to be slow but torquey, a 45t will have great torque and more speed, and a 35t will have a fair bit of speed and still quite a bit of torque. you can get more speed out of your gearing combo by running a bigger pinion and/or small spur. have to be careful with gearing though, if you over shoot, called overgearing, you will have heat problems and very well could torch the motor. i'd start out with a very conservative gearing and work your way up one tooth at a time on the pinion until you reach the point where your speed, torque, and electronics heat all are at a point where you're happy.

[CRAIGB]

If i went with the tekin fxr with 55t motor, would that be a good setup? Also what servo should i pair it with??