Mechanical brakes - is it worth it??
 

Hi there

I've been reading this forum for some time and there is a question of mechanical brakes appearing time to time.
I know conversions from Mike allow you to use mechanical brakes.

I am planning to use slipperential and Castle 2200 KV combo. and I am wondering, what are pros and cons about mechanical brakes.

Do you have any places to look for more info or some suggestions about this? I'm new to truggies so I really don't know if those are any good and worth the time to make them work...

Really, the only "pro" is the ability to adjust rear/front bias. Cons are: added weight/complexity, and brake fade. Runtime benefits/detriments is contested.

My thoughts: mechanical brakes have the added weight of the servo, linkages, pads, and rotors. It might only be a few ounces but it's still more weight to haul around the track and the servo is going to draw some power so ultimately Runtime will suffer even though it might only be 30 seconds that could be the difference of finishing a 15 minute race or dying half a lap from the finish.

Motor brakes: Patrick from CC has told us that their controllers use regenative braking and it has been proven by a few members here. It might not generate much power but it's not taking power to brake either. The truck will have fewer wires to route, less complexity, weight less, and in general I think it makes for a cleaner more professional looking conversion.

As long as you can learn to drive without the ability to adjust brake bias motor brakes are the way to go. The only other downfall is that it will create a little more heat on the ESC if you are doing a lot of hard braking, so you may have to take that into account when choosing your gearing. A little lower gearing will keep ESC temps down when on power so it can handle the braking heat easier, plus the lower gearing wouldmean slower speed requiring slightly less braking. Of course lots of hard braking would really only be on a tight technical track where speed wouldn't be such an issue anyways.

Hopefully my little rant helps a little and I'm not just yapping in space! I use motor brakes and can control my trucks just fine!

Big battle about this on rctech not long ago. looking at how the really great drivers were driving at the last race I attended, looks like they were using bias to help them get around certain turns where I would coast at a certain point, turn, and then punch out (me using an electric RCPD conversion buggy, no mechanical brakes).

I would think though (and someone else is working on this) that you could replicate the effect of braking bias by using a clicker oneway setup similar to what losi did with the XX4. you could then dial in how the clicker would react changing the braking feel between the front and rear of the vehicle. You would then get a very close braking bias effect, and no need to lug around the extra servo or other items specific to that setup on the vehicle.