My e-revo brushless edition build

[mistercrash]

I was lucky also that my battery didn't get damaged. Love the Pocoyo avatar.

For the battery doors, I thought of a strap of something tough, like Kydex, bent into an L shape. One end bolted to the side of the doors and the other end would have a 1/4 inch hole to snap on a short body post screwed on top of the batt compartment. Once the strap is snapped on the body post, a body clip would go through the body post to keep the strap in place.

I looked at EC5s a few times, seems like good stuff but expensive. I wouldn't mind if I had four or 6 lipos but when you run with twenty lipos and you have to make a parallel connector and the charger plugs to charge two lipos at a time, it ads up quickly. I know some will say that this hobby is expensive and that I should not try to cut costs but I can't be spending money like there's no tomorrow. Can't afford to do that but I still want to be a part of this hobby so cutting costs is part of the game for me. I'm going to try these, I will use the females on the lipos with color coded heat shrink, the kind I get at the electronics supply store, very thick and tough with hot glue inside. It should be good at preventing the two leads from making contact. I have seen others use these bullets with great results.

[rawfuls]

Why not that velcro for the trays instead of going through the work of kydex?

Those seem to be quite nice mistercrash...

Have you looked into powerpoles? They have powerpole retainer springs to keep them in place, until you pull off the retainer, then you can unplug it...

Looks really neat..

[mistercrash]

Yeah I looked at PowerPoles too. They seem to be very good and versatile. I don't know, seems like any talk about connectors brings different opinions from everyone and you end up with the same question: Which one to get? I tried the EC3... Didn't like them. I tried the Deans... Better but still some problems with them. Now I'm going to try those 5.5 bullets and how I like those. What a great way I have to cut costs eh! If the bullets don't work out for me then PowerPoles it will be.
I came up with an idea for the batt doors. I should start making some parts tomorrow. I don't want to use Velcro. Velcro is great when brand new, but I find it quickly looses it's ability to hold together the more you use it. Just my personal opinion from personal experience. A tough plastic part that holds onto a tough plastic body post with a metal body clip will hold strongly every time... Unless it breaks. If the little system I have in mind breaks then a piece of Velcro wouldn't stand a chance.

[rawfuls]

That's why you go with industrial strong Velcro silly!

Do let us know how you like those 5.5mms....

I need to pick up some more 4.5mm for my hardcase to rig up some new connectors!

[mistercrash]

No Pocoyo! No Velcro!

I did one side this morning. I used parts of what I think is a TMaxx rear body post. Don't know why I had that. The high lighted parts are what I used. I secured it to the top of the batt compartment with an M4 flat head screw, countersunk in the plastic so that the inside of the compartment stays flat and smooth. I will try thick Lexan for starters to see if it holds up, I cut it in the shape I wanted and secured it to the batt door with 4 M3 flathead screws and nuts. Those screws are counter sunk also inside the batt door. I have a feeling this is going to work very well.

[mistercrash]

All done. It's gonna work. The Lexan pieces are from scrap from a body, once I knew what I wanted to do, the whole mod took a little less than an hour to make.

[rawfuls]

Wow.. Looks really neat, how did you bend the lexan?

[brushlessboy16]

heat...
Looks good Mister crash, what else could you possibly do to this thing?

[mistercrash]

I didn't have to bend the Lexan, I used a part that already had a bend in it. Scrap pieces left over after trimming a body.

[mistercrash]

Running the ERBE today, I suddenly lost center diff action. I found this surprising as I just rebuilt the thing with a 100k diff lube. Once I took everything apart, I found out that the Stainless Steel output shafts I made seized in the output holes of the diff case and diff cap. It seems that Stainless Steel is not hard enough. Also, they were made out of a stainless steel rod that was 5.98 mm in diameter. It was probably just a tad too big. The modified TRA5415 and TRA5416 output shafts I used in my other diffs are a little smaller and have a bit more clearance so there's probably less rubbing and less heat build up because of the rubbing so they work much better. I tried the SS to keep cost down but using the Traxxas output shafts is better. There are marks on the SS shafts where they got grinded by the hardened steel of the diff case and cap.



I also noticed that my motor was a little bit out of alignment with the chassis so I took out the two aluminum motor plates I was running and they are bent. It appears that 6 mm of aluminum is not enough. Of course they are made of a very cheap aluminum, not that stiff at all. A motor plate machined out of T6 7075 aluminum would probably not bend like that. I did the best I could to take pics of the plates next to a straight edge in front of a light source to show the bends. In the meantime, I went back to the 6 mm carbon fiber motor plate I was using at the beginning of this build.

[shaunjohnson]

you must race hard...or maby it's the E-revo's motor mount setup, i'm just using the little old 3mm blue motor mount that comes with the E-maxx trannies (single motor conversion of coarse)
and it's not bent

[mistercrash]

Are you using the plate that places the motor up in the center over the tranny instead of the ERBE's plate that place the motor to the side of the tranny? I have seen a few conversions that have the motor centered over the tranny. The way the ERBE is set up, the motor plate is secured to the tranny with 4 screws that are all on the left portion of the plate. The right portion houses the motor and is just floating with no support. With the weight of the motor hanging on it.

[suicideneil]

Bummer. You can really see how much material has been ground away on the closeup shots of the outputs, quite nasty.

Hey gang...

I wanted to go back to your discussion about battery connectors. I have done a lot of work in the car audio industry on power delivery in high-current applications. You would be very surprised at how limiting wire and connections can be.

I started off using Anderson connectors, but after some research on them for an OEM audio system project I am doing at work, found out they are only rated for 30 Amps of current at 65*C... Given that voltage is speed, I switched to Deans based on their reputation. I like the concept that there is good surface area and a solid connection.

The EC3 connectors look to me like a set of bullet connectors in a custom housing. I like the idea of the bullet connectors from Hobby City, but unless you can really feel how tight the connections are, it's hard to tell how well they will work.

I have been intending to contact one of the RC car magazines and offer to do a connector test to determine ultimately who offers the best connector - but I doubt any of them would go for it, since they would be bound to loose advertising from the 'not winning' companies..

Anyways, use the most solid connectors your can, we are drawing a LOT of current through already undersized wiring - the slightest increase in resistance from a connector can definitely reduce performance.

BTW mistercrash.. I still want to get out and see that beast run!

[mistercrash]

Any testing you might do on connectors could be posted right here in this forum if the RC magazines are not interested. There would be a lot of interest in connector testing I suspect and what the final results would be. If you want to see my truck run, I will be at Hardcore RC race track Sunday the 26th to race in the club series race #4. Look for Raymond But no laughing at my driving ability