My e-revo brushless edition build

[mistercrash]

I was at the track today for open practice and I got to run many batt cycles with the repaired CD with 100k. The truck ran awsome, I really like it and I am going to stick with this set up. A lot less unloading to the front but no wheelies. Wheelies only happen on asphalt, not on dirt. The temps were a lot better also with the new gearing. After a 25 minute run of pushing hard, with ambient temp in the mid eighties much like last time, motor = 140, ESC = 125, batts = 120.

[sjcrss]

glad to hear you found a setup that you like & works for you....for know I'm pleased with 50k in the center for me and with my gearing 20/68 as well. Any more suprise updates coming?

[mistercrash]

Originally Posted by sjcrss

Any more suprise updates coming?

I don't know what I could do or mod on this truck that would be categorized as a surprise update. I'm out of ideas for now. I have been thinking of a 4 mm thick tempered steel motor plate. I don't think the ERBE would even notice the few grams added in weight compared to the double aluminum plates I'm using now. A steel motor plate would definitely not flex like aluminum. But I haven't had any problems with the double alu plate I use now, other than some flexing under hard landings. And aluminum is better at dissipating heat.
My Deans connectors disconnected on two occasions while racing. Now I tape the connections with a piece of electrical tape and that solved the problem but it's a PITA. I'm thinking of going to 5.5 mm bullets but I'm afraid to make a mistake with connecting them when I'm in a hurry. I don't pay too much attention to what I'm doing sometimes and I don't want to make anything go poof
Also, I have had one occasion when one of my battery door opened and I was dragging one of my Neu lipos in the dirt So I want to come up with something that will keep those doors shut no matter what.

[rawfuls]

Velcro around the battery compartment?

Switch to EC5's or PowerPoles, I heard EC5's are a PITA to remove...

[shizzon]

Mistercrash, I had my E-revo out racing last night for the first time and had similar problems. My deans plugs came unpluged multiple times and I had a battery fall out 3 times!! One i didnt notice dragging untill i saw it dangling underneath my truck as it sored over the 30 foot feature jump!!!!!

Luckily the battery survived and is still in top working order, but i will be working on preventing it from happening again as it tends to slow you down on the track.

[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.