Serpent 960 going E powered. Need advice.

Hey guys, I am super excited about his. Monday I am picking up a Serpent 960 with a few 966 upgrades. Car is in pretty good condition and comes with a few hundred dollars worth of spares. Two sets of belts, four sets of wheels (two brand new), tow bodies (one new), two full bearing sets, extra set of new shocks, spring set, a spare 2 speed assembly (doubt I will be using it), and a fair bit more stuff that I forgot.

Anyway I am going to fit Tekin RX8/T8 2250kv combo in it (might even try the T8 2650kv too) . That is the easy part. I have pretty much figured all of that out but the part that is giving me the most trouble is the batts. Location and size. If I wanted to get roughly 80mph out of this car on 6S what would be the minimal battery capacity vs C rating that I should use. Not sure if I will be able to get away with big capacity batts if I try to mount them inside the chassis like I have seen done on the net. If I fit battery boxes to the sides of the car then I could probably run some decent packs but how will this effect the performance? If you look at the car in its nitro configuration everything has been packed into a narrow space along the chassis. If I go sticking two heavy lipos to the sides of the car I am worried that it will destroy the handling. Not going to race but I do appreciate a good handling car.

So any tips and recommendations I would very much appreciate the input guys. I would like this to be a decent and reliable car.

[Semi Pro]

ok since no one has jumped in i will try and help, i dont know what your planed layout for packs is yet but based on afew other serpents i have seen built your going to want atleast a 35c 4000mah worth of packs for the 2250kv and closer to 5000mah 35c for the 2650, geared for 80mph its going to be an amp hog and run times arent going to be all that great

if you want it to be reliable i would gear it for 65 and then gear up depending on motor and pack heat

i dont think you have alot of options for the packs to be anywhere other than the sides

Thanks for the input man. And yeah I am not going to gear the car for 85, put it on the ground and see what happens. Probably start somewhere about 50-55mph gearing wise (I think that will be pretty safe) and take it from there. I think you are right about having to go with packs on the sides. More I think about it the more likely it will have to be so. I have seen a Mugen (not sure which one) but it had 2 x 2S SMC hardcases mounted on the inside of the chassis. That sounds good but I will need higher voltage than that.

Hows this for an idea? I do have a spare 1518 here also. What about if I use one of Castle HV plane ESCs (with Pistix of course) and use the mech. brakes? Run that setup on 8S. How do you think that would go. Should draw a bit less amps but geared for 85mph it will probably still be an amp hog. Not sure which would be better 8S and 1518 or 6S and Tekin T8 2250?????????

Was also thinking of getting some longer shafts made up so I can move the pulleys and the center belt further awat from the chassis. This might give me enough room to run the batteries in the center of the chassis (couple of stick packs laid across the chassis. Not sure how this would go. Might have to speak to my machinist friend and see if can knock up longer shafts.

[Semi Pro]

well i can tell you from my serpent that a 1518 isn't going to fit with mechanical brakes, I'm pretty sure you are going to be limited to motors around 60mm long

personally i would run a pair of 6cell35c 2500mah packs, one per side with the 2250 of 2650kv motor

longer shaft will solve afew problems but i think your going to create side loading if the shaft pulleys get to far away from the bearings

I think I have something figured out in regards to the motor mount that will be able to fit even the 1518. Right now the way things sit the 1518 is only 2-3mm too long to fit but I think that I should be able to gain that space with my mount I have kind of figured out. Not saying I will be using the 1518 but I would like the option to do this. I want to see and try and run the 1518 on 8S just out of curiosity. T make this work the main thing I will need to do is move the brace that sits just in front of the motor about 10-12mm forward to make enough space. The only thing that worries me if I am going to be able to get right gearing in there. The motor has to sit quite a bit away from the rear axle to clear the brake disc. I think I'll be right though.

The braking servo will be moved to the the center of the chassis right next to the ESC. The Rx is going to be a Spektrum micro so that will fit just about anywhere. Batteries are going to the sides and that is pretty much going to be that. I was thinking a lot about this and seems like the most sensible option if I want to have a decent capacity vs C rate.

Front worries me the most. I hate the thought of not having any front braking but if I lock the front diff then that means the front and the rear will be locked. Wont that make it handle like a pig? Not sure as I have no prior experience on these type of cars but it worries me a little.

So far I am pretty happy with this car. Everything seems nice and good. I have two spare chassis including one LCG chassis as well although they wont be much use to me. I have three sets of wheels (two new and one set near new on the car), crappy body that is still usable but also a new one unopened and a whole box of spares (lot of them new). All for $350 which I think it isn't too bad.

I want to make the whole chassis out of carbon fiber which will include the side pods for the lipos. This will be later on as I just want to get the car going first and anyway I might have to drill a few holes in the chassis. I am betting that I might make a few revisions in regards to what I put where so I might as well hack up the aluminum chassis and get everything sorted on there. Transferring the final layout onto the carbon fiber chassis should be easy then.

Anyway itching to get this going but I have to do a bit of a clean up in the garage first. In a haste to fix up a few RC's and sell them off the garage looks like a bomb went off in there. I want to start this project in a clean environment so it might be a few days till I start on it. Super excited about this and I think it will be awesome car.

Thanks for all your help Semi Pro. You have been a big help. I am ditching the idea of moving the center belt out further. Sounded OK at first but for all the effort and all the mucking around just to sit the lipo in the chassis it really isn't worth it. The setup few of you guys are running and that is enough to convince me. Not sure on the lipos though. Two smaller 6S packs in parallel or two bigger 3S packs in series. I think I will get better CG with two 3S packs but guess trying both couldn't hurt.

I have a day off Friday and I think I will just do a light rebuild/clean up/adjustment of the front and rear ends and then start from there. Watch for the build thread and pics coming soon. All input and criticism is welcome.

[Semi Pro]

cool, post some pics as you go

[TroubleMan]

I have a little bench cred with these cars and i can say a castle 2200kv will fit with mech brakes but it does limit gearing some, also locking the front is a great mod if you not circuit racing does fine on turn arounds and parking lot bashing. I would say a 3000 40c is the lowest pack i'd run with about any motor in this car. i tried putting lipo's onboard it's just no room for a good battery so trays worked fine for me.

Thanks man. I have been told that locking the front will just make me throw center belt and make the car handle like crap. Glad to hear that isn't so. Also I was told that these cars need a manicured track or the belts will get torn up from little rocks and debris on the road. I guess that is so but can't see why this car would be worse than heaps of other 1/10th belt driven on-road cars. ????

I Decided to take off the mechanical brakes off just for now. I'll get it going as a single speed and motor brakes just for simplicity sake. Will have a go at making the mechanical brakes and two speed work as a part two of my project.

So far I have stripped the rear end and changed the small pulley on the center shaft and the rear belt. They were in pretty bad shape but all brand new thanks to all the spare parts that came with the car. Next up will be the front end. Going to lock it although I haven't worked out how yet. Will do some pondering once it's all apart. After that the real fun starts. Converting this puppy to electric power. Going to shorten the top plate so to make more room for the motor in the rear. Pics will come before I start any of the conversion parts. For now it's just a clean up and refresh everything.

Got a new body for it too and looking at some of the Le Mans cars for inspirations and the front runner so far is the Mazda.

[Semi Pro]

i havent seen a 787B body for a 1/8 yet, but let me know if you do find one

Wasn't talking about the 787B body dude. I wish there was one but choices are pretty limited when it comes to bodies for these cars. I will be using a Proline Protoform body. I was actually talking about inspiration for the paint job. I like the looks of the 787B and was lucky enough to hear that car idle in real life so just love the looks of it. Thought that the paint scheme from the 787B would look kind of cool on the protoform body.

[_paralyzed_]

You simply don't need the torque a 1518 has in a car this light. Plus the low kv means you need a crazy big pinion.

The 2650, castle or tekin is your best bet and plenty of power for 100mph+ speeds.

You also mentioned future plans for a 2 speed. This topic has been beat to death. There is no advantage with multiple speeds in a brushless r/c. Just lock the high gear and run motor brakes.

[simplechamp]

Originally Posted by BIG-block

I wish there was one but choices are pretty limited when it comes to bodies for these cars.

Not cheap, and I don't know about shipping cost to Australia, but there are a few bodies here by Deltaplastik and BYSM that fit the bill. Guess it depends on how much you want one.

http://www.igthobbies.com/GT1-BODIES_c_203.html

Also, I agree with Harold. I just got my 1/8 on-road going with a Tekin buggy motor and it's plenty of motor. I could see going for a 1515 size, but doing extra work/mods to fit a 1518 probably isn't really needed. But as always, it's your ride, and if you want the 1518 then I think you should do it!

Originally Posted by _paralyzed_

You simply don't need the torque a 1518 has in a car this light. Plus the low kv means you need a crazy big pinion.

The 2650, castle or tekin is your best bet and plenty of power for 100mph+ speeds.

You also mentioned future plans for a 2 speed. This topic has been beat to death. There is no advantage with multiple speeds in a brushless r/c. Just lock the high gear and run motor brakes.

Well would have agreed with you man but I am getting some very conflicting advice. I have been told that this car will be a current hungry machine and it will have a very high amp draw. Been told that numerous times. What I was hoping to achieve by using a 1518 in one is to up the voltage to 8S and therefore lower the amp draw hopefully by some amount and keep the same top speed. Also that should mean that if the amp draw is lower I should be able to use smaller capacity packs and lower the weight some again. Not sure what to do now to be honest. I got all the motors so it's not a problem really. I will make the car so that the 1518 fits and just have that as an option. Got the tekin T8 2250 and 2200 CC motor too. The only thing to work out now is whether to go for the tekin T8 2650 or the CC 2650 as the higher KV motor option. Will probably go with Castle though. I will try them all and see how it goes with each.

For the two speed, it is only something I wanted to try really. Nothing else. I have the same opinion that it probably wont work all that great or that it will even probably get chewed up under the brushless torque. I think that the alloy clutchbell for the two speed isn't going to last long.

Originally Posted by simplechamp

Not cheap, and I don't know about shipping cost to Australia, but there are a few bodies here by Deltaplastik and BYSM that fit the bill. Guess it depends on how much you want one.

http://www.igthobbies.com/GT1-BODIES_c_203.html

Also, I agree with Harold. I just got my 1/8 on-road going with a Tekin buggy motor and it's plenty of motor. I could see going for a 1515 size, but doing extra work/mods to fit a 1518 probably isn't really needed. But as always, it's your ride, and if you want the 1518 then I think you should do it!

Thanks for the link. Never heard of the place but they have some great looking bodies there. Thanks.

[x-y]

http://www.cochesrc.com/foros/1-8-pi...electrico.html

[pinkpanda3310]

Originally Posted by x-y

http://www.cochesrc.com/foros/1-8-pi...electrico.html

That's a swish looking car but he used carbon fibre for a motor mount. Doesn't the glue start breaking down about 60 degrees centigrade? If his motor isn't getting that hot then there is no need for a fan.