retaining mech brakes in 1/8 buggy conversions

[Sedri]

pinolelst, if you ARE interested in running disc brakes, I have run a dual-disc mechanical brake setup on my brushless-converted MP 7.5, using a brake servo, of course, in conjunction with a 9920BK esc programmed for throttle only.

Now there were two reasons I used mechanical brakes on my car

1. It's an onroad car, and I originally ran it with a two speed which allowed the car to top out at 55 - 60 mph which demanded A LOT of brakes to haul it down to a stop in a short distance

2. and, I was still getting used to the difference between the lazy acceleration of nitro and the "blink-and-it's-already-gone" whacked-out acceleration of my new 540XL.

A bit extra weight naturally and more components, but I always knew I could tromp on the brakes as hard as I wanted (usually while trying to avoid plowing into something when the car got away from me!) and not worry about any strain on the brushless system. My car spent a lot of its driving time howling to a fully locked-up stop while I was learning how to drive "brushless" - huge fun but crazy!!!

It's certainly a trade-off either way, less weight and more simplicity for more electrical heat, or more weight for a brutal, worry-free braking system.

With my first couple months driving my brushless conversion, i needed all the brake I could get to avoid destroying my car in a crash - but you might know about that stuff already! Now my car runs a single-speed center spur, geared to a more sensible top speed of 45 mph, and I'm a little better at driving - as a result, I'm only rarely hard on the brakes, and so I've converted over to letting the motor do braking the "emf" way. Also very nice, and very powerful brakes as well. Just more heat for the ESC to deal with.