Author Topic: Prepping for new indoor season - looking for some help and advice.  (Read 7571 times)

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Offline ColinB

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Prepping for new indoor season - looking for some help and advice.
« on: September 15, 2014, 07:01:29 PM »
Hi,
I've been away for a year, but I plan to race again this winter. I was hoping to get some help to get ready for the 2014 winter season. 

  • Does someone have a way to load test my batteries? My charger maxes out at 50 watts so it won’t show how they will hold up in use. I bought two in 2012, used them for the winter, and put them away at "storage" voltage level, so I hope they will be ok.
  • General maintenance. How much should I tear down? I don't want to have to reset absolutely everything.
  • Rule changes? Will my car from 2012 still be legal so long as I can run in blinky mode?
  • Testing the car. When I put the car away it had some handling issues. (As well as driver issues, I admit it!) Is there a way I could get some practise and make some adjustments outside of a race setting? I assume driving it on pavement won't translate to carpet?

Does the club still have loaner transponders? If I were to buy one, which model / brand should I look for?

Anything else I should look at? Thanks,

Colin

Offline dajracer

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Re: Prepping for new indoor season - looking for some help and advice.
« Reply #1 on: September 15, 2014, 07:11:09 PM »
Good to hear you're coming back, Colin. With the new venue this year, Blake is scheduling practice nights as well as race nights. As far as batteries, as long as they haven't puffed too much they should be OK. Breaking down the car, the major things would be clean and relube side dampeners, clean and refill centre shock, check all the bearings to make sure they are running free and plan on getting a new set of tires because the old tires have probably dried out.
See you at the track.
Daryl.

Offline Shawn68z

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Re: Prepping for new indoor season - looking for some help and advice.
« Reply #2 on: September 15, 2014, 07:45:54 PM »
Hi,
I've been away for a year, but I plan to race again this winter. I was hoping to get some help to get ready for the 2014 winter season. 

  • Does someone have a way to load test my batteries? My charger maxes out at 50 watts so it won’t show how they will hold up in use. I bought two in 2012, used them for the winter, and put them away at "storage" voltage level, so I hope they will be ok.
  • General maintenance. How much should I tear down? I don't want to have to reset absolutely everything.
  • Rule changes? Will my car from 2012 still be legal so long as I can run in blinky mode?
  • Testing the car. When I put the car away it had some handling issues. (As well as driver issues, I admit it!) Is there a way I could get some practise and make some adjustments outside of a race setting? I assume driving it on pavement won't translate to carpet?

Does the club still have loaner transponders? If I were to buy one, which model / brand should I look for?

Anything else I should look at? Thanks,

Colin

I can dump a pack at 30amps continuous, or a Peak 50Amp resistive load, and give you the info about Internal Resistance, Average voltage, voltage at key times, etc.  Hopefully by the time we go back to indoor I will be upping the game to 80 amps or more.   Just send me a pm, and I can run your batteries thru their paces.  If they are no good, I am expecting to be ordering new batteries at the end of Sept.  Normally around $40 ea.

Shawn.


Offline Shawn68z

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Re: Prepping for new indoor season - looking for some help and advice.
« Reply #3 on: September 15, 2014, 07:46:51 PM »

Oh, the most important part of the car. THE DIFF!   Rebuild the diff to make sure its butter smooth!


Shawn.

Offline Blake

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Re: Prepping for new indoor season - looking for some help and advice.
« Reply #4 on: September 16, 2014, 12:10:33 AM »
Does the club still have loaner transponders? If I were to buy one, which model / brand should I look for?

Hey Colin,

Good to hear from you.  Hopefully see ya soon.  If you are going to buy a transponder, you will want a MyLaps transponder for the RC car industry.  The newest version is called "RC4":
http://www.mylaps.com/en/products/rc4-transponders/78

I have a couple of older models which still work fine if you want to consider a slightly cheaper path.

Blake

Offline ColinB

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Re: Prepping for new indoor season - looking for some help and advice.
« Reply #5 on: September 25, 2014, 03:55:21 PM »
Ok, newbie question time - the recent post about motors has me wondering - since I last ran the car 2 years ago with "boosted" esc's, can I run the same motor this year? I briefly looked through the ROAR website, but it lists particular motors. All mine has on it is "Team EPIC" and Roar SPEC. No model number or anything else I could see. I'll bring it with me next time, of course, but I'm curious and didn't want to wait.

Thanks,
Colin

Offline Shawn68z

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Re: Prepping for new indoor season - looking for some help and advice.
« Reply #6 on: September 25, 2014, 06:00:33 PM »
Ok, newbie question time - the recent post about motors has me wondering - since I last ran the car 2 years ago with "boosted" esc's, can I run the same motor this year? I briefly looked through the ROAR website, but it lists particular motors. All mine has on it is "Team EPIC" and Roar SPEC. No model number or anything else I could see. I'll bring it with me next time, of course, but I'm curious and didn't want to wait.

Thanks,
Colin

Dont know the motor until we see it, but it would be a 17.5 of some sort. We run 13.5T Brushless with the ESC in Blinky mode now.

Shawn.

Offline Shawn68z

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Re: Prepping for new indoor season - looking for some help and advice.
« Reply #7 on: September 25, 2014, 07:41:08 PM »


Thought about the motor thing again on my way home... If I remember correctly we did run 17.5 Boosted, with 13.5 Blinky.. Its was to phase in the new motor spec.  They ran very similar times, but the 13.5 was more consistent, and did eventually run quicker laps then boosted..


Shawn.

Offline dajracer

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Re: Prepping for new indoor season - looking for some help and advice.
« Reply #8 on: September 26, 2014, 02:01:32 AM »
Colin, I am sure you could run the same motor but we would ask that the esc be in blinky mode ie no boost. Yo would want to put as much timing as possible in the motor but yoù would still find your car very slow in the straights compared to all the other cars. You might want to try it that way until you get back into driving or feel confident t that you want to upgrade to a 13.5 motor. I know I could lend you a motor to try at anytime you want,  I'm sure most people could help you out.
See you at the track.

Offline ColinB

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Re: Prepping for new indoor season - looking for some help and advice.
« Reply #9 on: September 26, 2014, 12:28:50 PM »
Thanks for the replies guys. Yes, I'll run it as is (in blinky mode) until I learn to drive it again. I'm really curious to see what difference it makes. From what I remember it only kicked in part way down the long straights, so maybe it won't be too much different. I'll see for myself soon enough.
Colin

Offline BCbud

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Re: Prepping for new indoor season - looking for some help and advice.
« Reply #10 on: September 26, 2014, 05:09:16 PM »
Thanks for the replies guys. Yes, I'll run it as is (in blinky mode) until I learn to drive it again. I'm really curious to see what difference it makes. From what I remember it only kicked in part way down the long straights, so maybe it won't be too much different. I'll see for myself soon enough.
Colin

The boost would have worked in the infeild and the turbo would kick in on the straight so you will notice a difference.

Neil.
Xray T4 2013 Touring Stock - Xray T4 2013 VTA - Xray NT1 - CRC Gen-X10  - CRC GEN-X - CRC GEN-XI - Traxxas Slash 4X4 with LCG conversion - RC8Be  - Xray XB4  - DX3R-PRO
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Offline ColinB

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Re: Prepping for new indoor season - looking for some help and advice.
« Reply #11 on: November 06, 2014, 03:50:46 PM »
Motor question - should I do anything special before installing a new motor? I bought an Orca 13.5 to try to keep up with you guys. I don't think these brushless motors need any kind of break in, do they? I gave it a quick try and found the sensor wire was not working. My esc does run in sensorless mode, and it worked, but it didn't sound like I expected. I'll ask for your expert opinions next time I'm out. First thing to try is a different sensor wire. I'd try the one on my other motor, but the previous owner glued it to the motor. It's not going anywhere!
Thanks,
Colin

Offline A.l.b.

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Re: Prepping for new indoor season - looking for some help and advice.
« Reply #12 on: November 06, 2014, 06:37:01 PM »
no you don't have to break them in because there is no brushes or anything to break in lol
Emaxx + parked car  don't mix..................

Offline Ruckus

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Re: Prepping for new indoor season - looking for some help and advice.
« Reply #13 on: November 06, 2014, 09:14:38 PM »
did the different sensor wire work?,  I blew a fet in a speed control and the same thing occurred,  would run without the sensor hooked up but not at full throttle, would not run with the sensor wire hooked up.  Had to send it back.  Hobby wing sent be a replacement free.  :)

Offline ColinB

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Re: Prepping for new indoor season - looking for some help and advice.
« Reply #14 on: November 07, 2014, 03:23:10 PM »
No, we tried a few sensor wires and they did not help. I've got a loaner 13.5 motor for now until I can get the new motor exchanged/repaired.
Colin