Newbie...Tell me about your electronics.

[4est]

Brand new to the crawler scene and pretty new to RC in general. I picked up a scx10 ii raw builders kit after catching the bug with a scx24. I figure it will be a relatively slow process as I work full time, go to school part time and have a 10 month old so build time will be limited. I figure this gives me time to acquire all the parts I WANT from the get go. With that said, what electronics would you go with that you don't think you would have to upgrade as soon as you got better and more immersed in the hobby? And what other tips might you have for a first time kit builder?

[Obi2winky]

Also newbie here so I'm not going to pretend I know a lot of stuff, but I can tell you what I've learned in my process.

I think the first key thing is to know what you want to do with your vehicle. Competition? crawling for fun? Trails? And once this becomes clear, it starts to drive a few other decisions like:

Brushed or Brushless motors? I believe Brushed has the best low speed control and you it seems like you can get a cheaper set up with Brushed motor. But I've been told that if you can be spendy, the very nice brushless motors can be just as good at low speed as well.

Battery: 2s? 3s? 4s? How much voltage do you want? Voltage will drive motor speed. More seems better, but if you don't adjust your gears your car will get super fast. So if you want to crawl, you may need to get lower gear ratio's as your motor rpm starts go up in 3s/4s voltages.

ESC: the motor and battery decision will narrow this decision a bit. Also different ESCs have different features like being able to set your own throttle curve (eg, pressing your throttle trigger in 50% may correspond to only 15% of your actual throttle).

Servos: I've seen types that go directly to your battery, or through the ESC. I think the ones that go directly to battery are the more powerful ones. So if you have a heavy vehicle or a strong servo that can move a vehicle in a stuck-wheel scenario, I think you want the direct to battery kind. I know there's a real term for this but I can't remember... sorry

Rx/Tx: An important factor is how many channels do you need? For me, I have a three-position dig, rear/forward diff locks, and eventually a winch on top of the normal throttle and steer. So that's at least 6 channels. If I want want to add rear steer, I'll either need to add another analog channel or find a tx/rx receiver that can reconfigure your steer input to 2-way, 4-way, and 4-way crabbing steer.

Again, I'm new and the only real experience I have is reading posts all over the forum. But the key seems to be, know what you want from your rig. I'll let the professionals take over now. Enjoy!

[4est]

Thanks Obi, That all makes total sense and gives me some places to get started with some research.

It will very likely be doing equal parts trail and crawling.

[Bob_in az]

A simple, affordable & reliable electronics setup is;

Holmes hobby brushed motor
Hobbywing 1080 esc
Flysky gt5 radio
3s lipo battery
your servo of choice

With those components, you won't need to upgrade anytime soon, if ever.

[QuesoDelDiablo]

Bob has highlighted a good affordable set-up right there but it would also need an external bec added to power any decent servo.

I've got what I consider to be the ideal set-up in one of my rigs and that is:

Mamba X (it's the only esc on the market that doesn't require an external bec for high torque servos)
Holmes Hobby Puller Pro 2200Kv (you could comfortably substitute a Tekin Roc 412)
JX CLS6336HV Servo (almost any servo with more than 250ozin of torque will do)

A lot of people like the Hobbywing brushless systems but I'm not on that list - I strongly dislike them, the bec in them is weak and the FOC they use feels weird

You can't go wrong with a Castle SW4 for a programmable brushed/sensorless brushless esc but it also needs an external bec.

Castle brushless crawler motors are pretty good but the Holmes and Tekin are smoother at low speed.

If you want to go brushed you can go 2 directions - cheap sealed can motors (Holmes and Brood both have good offerings as do RC4WD, Axial, Associated and so on....) or higher end rebuildable (Again, Holmes, Brood or Tekin) but most people don't have the gear for proper rebuilds so sealed can motors are really popular because they're cheap and easy to replace.

[Tim1987]

holmes hobby has a nice 15/16t 540 motor for around 15. I would start there.

[Lashlee]

I agree with Queso, and have many of his recommendations in use in my rigs.

Rig #1 - HW 1080 (with a CC 10 amp BEC), HH 13T Crawlmaster Expert brushed motor, Savox 1210 servo
Rig #2 - Castle SW4, HH Revolver stubby, HH 500V3 servo
Rig #3 - Castle Mamba X, HH Puller Pro, HH 500V3 servo, Reefs 422 winch, Reedy dig servo
Rig #4 - Castle Mamba X, HH Puller Pro, dual HH 500V3 servos for 4WS

A BEC is a highly recommended and often overlooked part of any rig. The 1080 has decent voltage, its the current that will cause issues down the road.

[Obi2winky]

double post

[ScaleLifeNewbie]

I do about 25% trailing and 75% crawling with my 10ii. So I wanted a little speed with low speed control. Here’s my setup as of now. I want to eventually get a Crawlmaster for smoother/slower startup and low end, but this motor is great.

HobbyWing 1080 ESC- $42
Holmes Hobbies TrailMaster Sport 27T-$20
EcoPower WP120T-$70
Spektrum DX3-$90

Total for that is ~$220. I would consider this a ‘baseline’ setup, meaning you certainly can go cheaper with the servo/transmitter, but for the price, it’s great electronics and the DX3 remote feels really good in my hand and was still decently priced. You can also get higher end everything, but these electronics are plenty good for me.

For me, brushless isn’t the right move. I prefer low end control and slow/smooth startup and a tiny bit of speed(like a good walking pace). With a good brushed setup, you can get both. Brushless will never have the low speed of a brushed motor. Simply put, brushless for higher speeds, brushed for low end. My cheap $20 TrailMaster Sport and $40 ESC has better low end speed than a truck I was running with that had the $200 Hobbywing Fusion.




_________________
79 F150 SCX10 ii
TRXWalker

[durok]

Originally Posted by Obi2winky

Also newbie here so I'm not going to pretend I know a lot of stuff, but I can tell you what I've learned in my process.

I think the first key thing is to know what you want to do with your vehicle. Competition? crawling for fun? Trails? And once this becomes clear, it starts to drive a few other decisions like:

Brushed or Brushless motors? I believe Brushed has the best low speed control and you it seems like you can get a cheaper set up with Brushed motor. But I've been told that if you can be spendy, the very nice brushless motors can be just as good at low speed as well.

Battery: 2s? 3s? 4s? How much voltage do you want? Voltage will drive motor speed. More seems better, but if you don't adjust your gears your car will get super fast. So if you want to crawl, you may need to get lower gear ratio's as your motor rpm starts go up in 3s/4s voltages.

ESC: the motor and battery decision will narrow this decision a bit. Also different ESCs have different features like being able to set your own throttle curve (eg, pressing your throttle trigger in 50% may correspond to only 15% of your actual throttle).

Servos: I've seen types that go directly to your battery, or through the ESC. I think the ones that go directly to battery are the more powerful ones. So if you have a heavy vehicle or a strong servo that can move a vehicle in a stuck-wheel scenario, I think you want the direct to battery kind. I know there's a real term for this but I can't remember... sorry

Rx/Tx: An important factor is how many channels do you need? For me, I have a three-position dig, rear/forward diff locks, and eventually a winch on top of the normal throttle and steer. So that's at least 6 channels. If I want want to add rear steer, I'll either need to add another analog channel or find a tx/rx receiver that can reconfigure your steer input to 2-way, 4-way, and 4-way crabbing steer.

Again, I'm new and the only real experience I have is reading posts all over the forum. But the key seems to be, know what you want from your rig. I'll let the professionals take over now. Enjoy!

^^^ FYI - You're double posting, same as your post from this morning...

[Obi2winky]

Originally Posted by durok

^^^ FYI - You're double posting, same as your post from this morning...

my bad. it's what happens when you got the forum open on 3 different devices!

[4est]

Originally Posted by ScaleLifeNewbie

I do about 25% trailing and 75% crawling with my 10ii. So I wanted a little speed with low speed control. Here’s my setup as of now. I want to eventually get a Crawlmaster for smoother/slower startup and low end, but this motor is great.

HobbyWing 1080 ESC- $42
Holmes Hobbies TrailMaster Sport 27T-$20
EcoPower WP120T-$70
Spektrum DX3-$90

Total for that is ~$220. I would consider this a ‘baseline’ setup, meaning you certainly can go cheaper with the servo/transmitter, but for the price, it’s great electronics and the DX3 remote feels really good in my hand and was still decently priced. You can also get higher end everything, but these electronics are plenty good for me.

For me, brushless isn’t the right move. I prefer low end control and slow/smooth startup and a tiny bit of speed(like a good walking pace). With a good brushed setup, you can get both. Brushless will never have the low speed of a brushed motor. Simply put, brushless for higher speeds, brushed for low end. My cheap $20 TrailMaster Sport and $40 ESC has better low end speed than a truck I was running with that had the $200 Hobbywing Fusion.




_________________
79 F150 SCX10 ii
TRXWalker

Thanks! This sounds like route I'll likely go with.

[HumboldtEF]

Most of us start out with a 2S battery and end up ditching it for 3S eventually, I recommend just starting with 3S that way you dont end up with any batteries your likely to stop using eventually.

I personally prefer a brushed setup but to say that brushless cant be smooth at low speeds is not correct. A cheap brushless motor and ESC with high gearing or too high of a KV might not be a smooth setup at low speeds. However a good ESC and brushless motor can be quite smooth. I just put together a rig with a Mamba X and Holmes Hobbies 2700kv puller pro and its nice and smooth a low speeds. I was worried I wouldnt like it and it'd lead to bashing the rig a bit but its been great.

[ScaleLifeNewbie]

Originally Posted by HumboldtEF

Most of us start out with a 2S battery and end up ditching it for 3S eventually, I recommend just starting with 3S that way you dont end up with any batteries your likely to stop using eventually.

Yeah, I wish I would’ve started with 3S rather than 2S. But hey, that’s just another reason to spend money on RCs lol.




_________________
79 F150 SCX10 ii
TRXWalker

[QuesoDelDiablo]

Originally Posted by ScaleLifeNewbie

Brushless will never have the low speed of a brushed motor. Simply put, brushless for higher speeds, brushed for low end. My cheap $20 TrailMaster Sport and $40 ESC has better low end speed than a truck I was running with that had the $200 Hobbywing Fusion

I'm trying to say this respectfully but tone is difficult in text but you've apparently never driven a high quality (read: Holmes or Tekin, not Hobbywing, that's just Facebook fan-boi junk) 4 pole sensored brushless motor. They're as expensive as it gets but they're also every bit as smooth as any brushed setup out there..

But!

The original intent of your post is completely valid, there's no way to match the low speed control of a good brushed setup unless you spend serious cash and I fully accept/acknowledge that's not a good use of money for a lot of people..

Originally Posted by HumboldtEF

Most of us start out with a 2S battery and end up ditching it for 3S eventually, I recommend just starting with 3S that way you dont end up with any batteries your likely to stop using eventually

^^
What he said, every time I've seen a new-comer to the hobby buy in thinking 2S is adequate they end up going to 3S by the end of their first season..

[Alec4now]

Agree with most things apart from the criticism of brushless yes you can go brushless yes it's a lot more expensive, no it's not as waterproof as brushed, but if you want low end it must be a sensored system.

Sent from my SM-T580 using Tapatalk

[ovidiugm]

Dedicated crawler brushless combos like Hobbywing Axe or Hobbywing Fusion 2-in-1 (ESC and motor in the same enclosure/body) will provide the best of both worlds - high speed *and* slow speed control.

Simple test: with a brushed combo, give it a little acceleration trim so the model goes forward quite slow.
If you steer, you'll see the speed decreases.
If crawling an obstacle, the car will also slow down or even stop.

This is because the ESC has no information on motor state and it only supplies a constant voltage and current to it.

If you try this with a brushless combo like the ones above, you'll see that the slow, trimmed initial speed is maintained regardless of the encountered obstacles.
The ESC continuously reads motor position and will automatically adjust the power to keep the same speed. Incredibly useful.

[ovidiugm]

Just watch a few seconds here: https://youtu.be/h8BaMuZyxHY?t=415

This is after torture test and massive overheat of the system by dragging that dumbbell for a long time .

[ScaleLifeNewbie]

Originally Posted by QuesoDelDiablo

I'm trying to say this respectfully but tone is difficult in text but you've apparently never driven a high quality (read: Holmes or Tekin, not Hobbywing, that's just Facebook fan-boi junk) 4 pole sensored brushless motor. They're as expensive as it gets but they're also every bit as smooth as any brushed setup out there..

But!

The original intent of your post is completely valid, there's no way to match the low speed control of a good brushed setup unless you spend serious cash and I fully accept/acknowledge that's not a good use of money for a lot of people..

Yeah, I was a little too broad with that whole brushless thing. I don’t have any first hand driving experience with brushless, just experienced other trucks on the trail with me that have brushless, most being the fusion or AXE setup. With the quality of Holmes’ brushes motors, I’m sure they’re pretty good. I would like to try a brushless setup sometime, but not ready to drop that much coin to replace something that works really good already.




_________________
79 F150 SCX10 ii
TRXWalker

[ovidiugm]

For a budget sensorless brushless alternative that still outperforms brushed solutions by a significant margin, in my opinion, have a look below. It involves some quite advanced DIY like soldering under a magnifier and various software tools, indeed. But just take a look at the videos with the results!

Silent outrunner and ESC for less then $60