Servo broke, doing a few upgrades and need your help

[azlnick]

Rig: Axial Wraith Poison Spyder RTR

Hi! New-to-the-hobby college student here!

I love my Wraith. I’ve been riding it stock for the past 6 months or so, and I finally broke something, the servo. I want my rig to be mostly for trails/crawling/water/mud. I like to go on walks in a wash near my house and it’s a perfect playground for a crawler.

I’m looking to repair the servo that broke when I bashed the front passenger wheel a bit hard. Steering has no power under load. Now the servo I picked out is similar to the Hitec 7980 which (from my research) requires some dremeling for the servo to fit the mount properly. I have a dremel tool, but I need a basic RC toolkit that someone can hopefully recommend.

I also want to learn how to waterproof my wraith for deep water/mud, so if anyone could link me/inform me of some info or videos on how to go about doing that would be great.

Other upgrades to do include: Motor, ESC, titanium links, and a stage one kit.

Upgrades-to-do (in order of importance)

1. (Repair broken servo) Hitec RCD HS-M7990TH High Voltage, Mega Torque, Magnetic Encoder Servo
2. Racer's Edge Aluminum Pro Single-Sided Servo Horn for Hitec (Blue)
3. Axial AX8091 2.2 Rocksters Beadlock, Black
4. CrawlMaster Pro 540 16t (Holmes Hobbies has various options available. What are they? Which ones would be good to take?
5. Holmes Hobbies TorqueMaster BR-XL WaterProof (Same question as above, what options to opt for?
6. VP Aluminum Knuckles, C-hubs and Lockouts
7. VP Titanium Link set

I'm hoping to do these in order, if I should do something different please let me know! I'll be sure to post pics and a vid sometime after it's repaired!

[snapon boy]

Castle bec top priority then Holmes hobbies servo! Mip 1.5 driver! The rest because you are a student you can squeeze buy with the Dynamite 20 dollar tools. Imho

[Reddog95]

Originally Posted by snapon boy

Castle bec top priority then Holmes hobbies servo! Mip 1.5 driver! The rest because you are a student you can squeeze buy with the Dynamite 20 dollar tools. Imho

I agree. Here is a link for you. The stickies are a must read and will answer most of your questions.


RCCrawler General Tech - Electronics at RCCrawler.com

[azlnick]

Ok so all the stickies got removed, and I was doing my best with youtube and the manual. I *think* I installed the CC BEC correctly, because I hooked everything up and it all works, but I just have no idea where the LED on the BEC is?? I want to confirm the BEC is working properly. Btw I put heatshrink tubing on either end of the BEC to help with making it waterproof/resistant, so I'm not sure if I'm blocking my view to the LED at all? Thanks for your help guys!

[sdmf]

Links should be a higher priority than motor and ESC, the plastic links are decent for a but, then they wear out and flex very bad. Otherwise its a good place to start out.

[azlnick]

Originally Posted by sdmf

Links should be a higher priority than motor and ESC, the plastic links are decent for a but, then they wear out and flex very bad. Otherwise its a good place to start out.

Sounds good, I'm working on the servo now, it's hooked up, but it feels slow to turn, like its not much faster than the previous (stock) servo. I have a multimeter, but can anyone tell me how I can test to see if my BEC is working properly (or where that damn LED is)? I feel like the voltage to the servo isn't quite right. I'm guessing I probably need to program the BEC for a higher voltage. I'm running a 7.2v Tenergy NiMH battery if that means anything.

[sdmf]

Originally Posted by azlnick

Sounds good, I'm working on the servo now, it's hooked up, but it feels slow to turn, like its not much faster than the previous (stock) servo. I have a multimeter, but can anyone tell me how I can test to see if my BEC is working properly (or where that damn LED is)? I feel like the voltage to the servo isn't quite right. I'm guessing I probably need to program the BEC for a higher voltage. I'm running a 7.2v Tenergy NiMH battery if that means anything.

You can test where the bec outputs to the servo. I cut an old servo end off with about 4 inches pigtails, I cleaned off the insulation so I could get a clean connection to the output. Red is power. I'm not familiar with hitec servos, but torque is more important than speed in crawler/scalers.

Edit: I use a heyok bec, which is adjustable on the unit itself. Cc uses castle link, no?

[sic1to]

Need to set BEC with castle link programmer(the led is in one end of bec...green)
What servo did you get?
GO LIPO!!! 3S(your batt will work but lipo is the way to go.)
Go with 13t HH torquemaster sport 34.99 since you run in wet/muddy terrain
Im assuming your still running stock steering links, if so upgrade asap or it will be like a wet noodle!

[Reddog95]

Originally Posted by azlnick

Sounds good, I'm working on the servo now, it's hooked up, but it feels slow to turn, like its not much faster than the previous (stock) servo. I have a multimeter, but can anyone tell me how I can test to see if my BEC is working properly (or where that damn LED is)? I feel like the voltage to the servo isn't quite right. I'm guessing I probably need to program the BEC for a higher voltage. I'm running a 7.2v Tenergy NiMH battery if that means anything.

Yes you need to reprogram the bec. You will need castle link to reprogram the bec.

[azlnick]

Originally Posted by sic1to

Need to set BEC with castle link programmer(the led is in one end of bec...green)

EDIT: Got the CastleLink to recognize my servo, updated voltage settings.
Good news! Removed my heatshrink tubing and found the green LED! I tried plugging in the BEC to program it, but the device doesn't find the BEC (Device not linked)...I'm worried if I might've damaged the BEC now.

Originally Posted by sic1to

What servo did you get?

Hitec HS-M7990TH

Originally Posted by sic1to

GO LIPO!!! 3S(your batt will work but lipo is the way to go.)
Go with 13t HH torquemaster sport 34.99 since you run in wet/muddy terrain
Im assuming your still running stock steering links, if so upgrade asap or it will be like a wet noodle!

All great advice, thanks!

[snapon boy]

Castle has very good customer service and support so dose Holmes hobbies. The 13t crawl master sport motor is very sweet. You can make your own links out of Traxxas links or all thread and brake lines or derlin it's easy. There use to be stickies but I guess not anymore. So u tube has videos on how to make links