sick... just like we want it. :D

Damn man! Imagine at 100% throttle! :|

I seem to recall a lot of advice to go lipo.... hmmm..... hee hee

I am currently working on a simular project; my goal was to keep the batteries inside the chassis and make it fair light. 5S was the number of lipo's i was heading for. my goal was a decent 60-65 mph. Hearing these numbers makes me want to jump my tools and drop the other projects for a while..

Though 55 mph on 25 percent; my guess is it will do about 85 mph @ WOT

quite literally too based on the pack ejection that just happened... :005:

Too funny..

sorry guys, throttle wasn't 25%, it was turned down 25%.. aka 75%.
but all the quark's settings were as soft as they could be set.

That sounds more realistic.. :p With better cells i am sure you can get higher speeds!

waiting to get a spur adapter made up.. i emailed mike, awaiting reply.. i'm getting anxious

oh, another quick question.. from what i've read, the packs shouldn't be discharged below 3.3v/cell? the highest cutoff on the quark is 3.0v.. and it goes all the way down to 2.2v?
i've got it at 3v right now, but is that safe?

also, i'm re-charging one of the packs right now, and it's at 998mah.. so i've run the car for about 12 minutes total, and it's drained about 2000mah. so w/ 8000mah, it looks like I'll have about 45min run times @60mph

Higher than 3v/cell would be better, but if 3v is the highest it will go, then you might just have to live with that. You could get an external LVC, and set that to a higher voltage, though.

more bad news.. another run today, and while doing a 4wd doughnut (cyclone), one of the packs ejected it's self..

i knew that this would be a problem from the last time a pack ejected it's self, so i used 2 zip ties on each pack, to keep it from sliding out sideways.. well both zip ties broke, and were no where to be found.. and the pack slid a good 40 feet from the car..
there's a copper colored ribbon that wraps around the connector end of the pack, and that got damaged.. is that cable for balancing? or ? there's pack didn't puff or anything like that, just a little knick. what should i do now? send it back to true-rc to rebuild the pack? or is that even needed?
picture:

http://img260.imageshack.us/img260/5853/p3150064sm6.jpg

If the cell itself has been punctured, its probably best that cell be replaced. However, its just a scratch or dent, you may be ok.

Don't take my word 100% though.

This is the reason why I am building a sort of protective box for my new packs. I'm going to get some flightpower packs, and I'm going to take some sheet metal and bend a little case for it. The case will also allow it to key into the slots in my Gorilla chassis, which, combined with double straps, will prevnet nearly any possibility of ejection. I used the same type of key-in method for my current Lipo's and they haven't budged even after some hair crashes. However, in the event that it does get ejected, the case will protect it, since my design will have it nearly completely surrounding the pack.

I believe the 'ribbon' is only a type of strapping tape, maybe a fiber type of 'kapton' tape?

The balancing wires are just regular wire like what you see at the tap connector.

Looks like no harm done.

Now, you really should put a side skirt on the battery trays... ;)

ok, i was hoping that was the case.. the cell's not damaged at all. it just barely broke that ribbon/tape. not dented or cut anything below that.

when i designed the bottom plate that's on the car now, i was deciding between maxamps or true-rc.. true-rc's are wider, and the cad file i sent was made to fit the maxamps. so the batteries don't sit perfectly flat, and resting on the side of the tray..

that's the only reason they've flown out twice =\ i'll come up with something much more secure on a revision.