well more bad news, I went to plug the battery that i built in to the MMM and sparks came from the connectors whe i tried to plug the batt in:grrrrrr: so now i am starting to get a bit frusturated. I dont know how to proceed because i can't balace the pack and i can't hook the thing up to the MMM without killing something.

That is normal just the capacitor charging very quickly

As if it hasn't been said enough....It will run very hot, its a Feigao 8xl, even on a good day they're on the verge of meltdown. Generally an 8xl is a 4s motor and runs hot on that, on 6s a123 I can only imagine how hot it will get, I don't give it long till you get a better motor. At the Very least spend the little extra and get a Medusa.

The stiff wire you got from Home Depot osn't going to be good. All the movement when your running it will wind up braking your solder joints since the wires can't move. As far as wire is concerned, if your trying to get it locally and cheap, go to Walmart. Get a car stereo amp wiring kit, or just get 12gauge speaker wire. With the amp kits you can even get bigger wire if you want, just remember that they don't come with much black wire so you may wind up using red for + and -, in which case make sure to label them!

Sparks are usually normal, can be a bit of a shock (pun!) the first few times, it happens, but it just becomes part of a routine, then you get worried when it doesn't spark!

My 8XL ran very hot with a 4S a123 setup, but I have a very heavy truck, and tall (i think thats the word, 20/51) gearing. Have since upgraded to a NEU 1515/1y and it runs cool with the same setup. Worth the money, just start saving your pennies hopefully you will have enough when your 8xl dies.

I am hoping this 8xl will last at least until the CC neus come out. then i can get one of those but if it dies before then i will probbably go with a medusa.

ok well, now i am thuroughly mad because i got the usb hookup kit ($20) and i come to find out that the firmware upgrade is only for eos0606i NET or DUO chargers. I am using the EOS0606i AC/DC charger. so now i have nothing to go on. i have a black balance wire soldered to each of the positive ends (the ends with bumps) and the red wire soldered to the negative end of the pack (where the negative wire goes to the plug) everything should be set up perfectly and when i plug the battery in it still says balance voltage too high :diablo: maybe I should just scrap the idea of even having balance taps in the first place. it sure would make my life alot easier :lol: anyways, the screen shows that the balace voltage should be 3.34v but it is reading my pack to be 4.96v. i don't know what to make of this and i don't have access to all of the tools or the budget to just dump money into these packs until they work(I am only 14) so I thank those who have taken the time to read about my struggles with a seemingly simple task and I will close with this; go easy on me as i am new, but remember that i am not as dumb as you may think:intello:

A123 cells don't need to be balanced. I would just run them in the truck un til dead, then charge them without any balance taps.

then i am screwing the balance taps, building the second pack and running the stinkin truck:yipi: Expect a video soon.

I don't balance my lifepo4 packs. Just wire them up, check that the connections are correct and run it till you lose power, go back recharge and go again! 2 sets of batteries and a high power charger can mean limitless running, as long as the other components are up to the task. Motor, esc etc.

cant you still look at cool important looking data on your computer?...

no but really...i wanna know cuz i want cool important looking data on my computer:lol:...then print it out:rules:...making me cool and important looking

I have the software that looks like it could display some pretty cool looking stuff, but sadly it will not recognize my charger. i am not 100% sure though because i may be using the wrong usb adapter. but in other news, at 10:18 last night my emaxx was powered up and driven around my room:party: this will end a little over a year of my broken emaxx:lol:

well, having run the truck 6-10 times now i have concluded that my setup is very good. instead of running 2p batteries i decided to only run 1p. i get 20 mins. of run time on 1p which is pretty good. the A123s provide constant continuous power up until the last seconds of run time when they dump. and i mean DUMP. i know this is normal. the truck runs very cool even when doing high speed runs. the MMM is barely warm at the end of a high speed bash session and the fan never has to go on. the battery pack does not get anywhere near hot and the motor is hot at the end of the run but not overly hot. here are some pics of the final setup. and a small video at the end.

unpacking the final shipment

http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l5...alparts001.jpg

all the new goodies laid out

http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l5...alparts002.jpg

and finally some pictures of the final setup

http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l5...dE-Maxx004.jpg

http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l5...dE-Maxx003.jpg

http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l5...dE-Maxx002.jpg
^^notice the switch is held on by the zip tie that is used to secrue the MMM:intello:

http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l5...dE-Maxx001.jpg

and lastly the video

http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l5...dE-Maxx006.jpg