What do I need?
 

I have a plain old E-Maxx, with some aluminum that is slowing it down. I love the aluminum, so I want to go with a brushless system, but a I don't have a clue as to what will suit me.

I'm a basher, but I often go to the track to practice. Eventually, I plan to Race locally.

I have been fishing around on the forum for ideas, I have read several posts, and lots of people have answered with friendly advice, but some of it really sounds Greek to me. :eek:

What I THINK I want is to buy a 4-battery chassis, four 3700mAh batteries, and one brushless motor/ESC that can handle it without smoking. :M: There were a couple of people who said that there may be such a motor/ESC, but I would like to know exactly what I am looking for and maybe an idea of the cost of such a system.

I know that I could be way of base with this idea, so if it sounds goofy, please help me see your point of view.

*On a side note, if I had known about this site and these products, I would never have bought an E-Maxx. I would have just started from scratch and built one with all of the amazing Gorilla parts. ;)

4 batts would give you a ton of voltage, but the weight would drag it down, as well as the cost of a system that could run that much........unless you're talking about wiring them parallel for more runtime, and then the voltage is more reasonable. However, the weight is still way too heavy. Just go with two IB 3800 packs, and if you need more runtime, check into Lithium Polymer packs which can be built to have 8000mAh if you have the cash.

As for the motor, generally a motor with 2000-2400 rpm/volt is best for a Maxx, but guys chime in if I'm wrong.

What is your plan? how fast do you want to go, and for how long? Are you a basher or a racer? how much faster than stock you want to go?

The downside on the heavy weight setup you've got in mind, is that it's very hard on the drivetrain (due to power and due to the weight of the setup) you need very good diffs and driveshafts.

Yeah, as Serum said, give us some more info. I'm sure we can find something that fits your needs.
Also, how much Dollares do you want to spend?

There are BL combos which can handle quite high voltages, indeed. There's almost no limit.

Who is Delores..? your new love Daniel??

Speed and torque are not an issue with me. I will probably not drive much faster than 30-35 mph and I had to buy a wheelie bar for the power of the stock motors, so I'm not looking to gain anything but run-time. :P:

The only things that really interest me are that I have a nice-looking truck that I drive well through the track, and that I am able to play for about 30 minutes at a time. ;)

I know that the brushless systems are pricey by comparisson, but I have a high-dollar 1:6 scale that I may sell in order to finance my new interest, so price...keep it under $800.00.

I was going to sell my 1:8 Kyosho Inferno as well, but I just realized that I can turn it into an electric, as well. :cool: I may hold onto it and get an additional brushless set-up in a month or so.

I also bought a TC4 that I may go brushless with, if I like the results that I get form the E-Maxx and Inferno. MAN! I just got into electric and I am already going nuts!

I had better slow down and just concentrate on the truck for now. :C:

The way I understand it, I may need a 9 XL Nemisis brushless and a Schulze 1897 ESC. Elmo @ Boom Boom Batteries advised me to use 3700mAh batteries because they can be charged two or three times per day, whereas 3800mAh can only be charged two or three times per week.

The 9920 warrior controller will be plenty, as well as being much less expensive and more reliable IMO than the Schulze controller. The guys at boom boom batteries are great. I am now working with them and will begin listing their stuff soon.
I should also have 9xl motors in stock very soon. Welcome to the forums as well, icecream!

The 9920 will do you fine there ice cream.

Great!
 

...so, now what am I looking at as far as the price of a 9 XL Nemisis? The Warrior 9920 is about $200.00 and most of the motors I looked at are around $150.00.

$350.00-$400.00 total? That's it?!! Don't get me wrong, I am just a teacher and I do not have money to burn, but I thought that I would have to shell out several hundred $$ in order to be happy with my truck's performance.

*Whew* That's a relief! Now, I won't have to sell my big car. :D...just one of the smaller ones. ;)

I think mike sells the wanderer series for a bout 100 bucks. Don't quote me on that though. Same motor as the nemisis.

I'd say ditch that 4 battery chassis idea.


The motor and controller will go for around $300. A new slipper clutch is highly recommended. I burnt up the stock one with my 9L. A strobe Slipper is about the best out there. $32 for that and $7.50 for the spur gear. And $12 a piece for the pinions you'll need. That oughta hold you up for about $350-380. That should be about all you need, that and some good batteries.

If you're looking for long run times, maybe lipo is an option to look at.

Dollares = Spanglish current :L:

No new love here, my RC's ....er, I mean my family, take up all my time.


Yeah, icecream, how about Lipos??

Just because I threw in a few words in Spanish while chatting with Daf this morning, he thinks he knows the whole language! :L:

This morning? For me it was yesterday night! :L:

Sure seemed like morning to me......;)

¿Lo siento?

Es la barrera de tiempo

.......hmmmmmm
 

I am leary of lithium polymer batteries, right now. I know that if you use common sense, they are not dangerous, but sometimes I get negligent. :W:

I think that I had better stick to what I have at least a little experience with. Plus, I just got happy about the cost of motor/ESC, and I also have to figure on some upgrades. Lipo batteries are out of my price range if I want to keep all of my other RC stuff. :M:

Maybe after Christmas. ;)

If you're worried about Lithium Polymers right now, shoot a PM to MetalMan about Lithium Phosphate batts. Not sure if he's still going that route, but he'd definately know a bunch about them.

Lithium who now?

Lithium Phosphate, very similar to Lipo, and even charge the same way, but aren't blow-up-able and a few other things. Like I said, I don't know much, ask MetalMan.

If they less blow up resistant. If they have the same properties. Like charge discharge as such. I wonder why they are not as popular. Help us out metal man.

I found some information on lithium phosphate (seems to be more commonly called "Li-Ion Phosphate" or "Lithium Iron Phosphate", with an abbreviation of "LiFePO4").
It looks like there's only one company really making these batteries; Valence Technologies, Inc. ( www.valence.com ). Their Saphion batteries are cylindrical and seem like they would be the likely first candidate for R/C use, but they don't have a very high current rating as an individual cell; 11A with a 27A burst. They are 10C cells, but it looks like they are only made as 1100mah, which would mean needing to make them parallel.
Here are a couple links at Valence which are very promising.
http://www.valence.com/faq.asp?topic=phosphate
http://www.valence.com/pdffiles/IFR18650p.pdf

It looks like the batteries simply can't catch fire from abuse since the materials used to make them are non-combustible. This is even safer than nicd and nimh.

The only places I can see these cells currently in use are the Segway human transporter (scooter thingy) and a couple car companies working with them for hybrids. I can't even find them for sale on the web. Probably have to contact Valence directly to inquire.

A Google search for "lithium iron phosphate batteries" will give you a lot of articles praising the technology and some good information.

MetalMan, come and save us all! He gave me a link to a site that was selling them for rc airplanes, but that was in a PM a while ago and I think I deleted it by now.

Lithium Phosphate Update
 

I did more searching and it looks like I was right about Valence being the only ones making these right now, and the product name is Saphion. However, I was wrong in saying noone is selling them; they're just not selling in the US.

Both e-flight and overlander in the UK are selling them.
http://www.e-flight.co.uk/shopdispla...cts.asp?id=188
http://www.overlander.co.uk/results.asp?categoryID=89

No word that I could find on when they will be in the US.

They do look promising.

They seem to about half way between lipo and a gp2200 in terms
weight if you parrallel 2 together for 2400mah although the amp handling is still lower.With 3 paralled it's only slightly heavier per volt compared to gp2200 but with much higher capacity(3600 compared to 2200).Space may be a problem though.Very interesting thanks Batfish.


If you run 4 4s packs for 2400mah,25.6v that weighs 700g.But that's only 36 amps continuous,compared to 64 amps continuous for the 3200 mah Kokam 20C cells.

so still a way to go then to match lipos,i hope they do though,there metal cased which is what puts me off lipos for offroad.

I've seen movies of those cells, compared to lithium cells (perforated with a nail..) nice experiment.. (there was fire involved, so it's not hard to please me with those caliber of experiments..

A friend of mine, who develops electric tools told me Sony is currently producing simmular cells, only they could do 20C continues at 2200mah.. another step in the right direction if you ask me..

technology keeps getting better. I like that. One day you be able to get 30c 10000mah packs. that would be the schizzle.

I wait till the day that 200C 750mAh packs become available!!!

a 200V setup... 98% efficiency...