Losi LST1.5 - Brushless LST2: Bigmaxximum, Quark 125B, 5S - Flux & Revo killer

Now that I’ve got your attention with my topic title "Flux & Revo killer" I can introduce my LST E-conversion . (If you don’t want to read a sad biography of my journey into RC or of my LST than skip the first post and start reading at the NOW part)

Since the day I’ve been born I’ve been driving with quality RC cars, but about my 14th it really started to itch and I started buying one car after another… It’s near the end of 2008 and I have three cars, a Blazing Star, an E-Firestorm and a Rustler VXL. At that time Joram (he's also on here) had the first 1:8 E-conversion car in the car part of a Dutch forum (MBF) if I remember correctly. I immediately loved the idea of building a 1:8 MT to brushless. The Savage of Joram was very nice (well, it had to be after all the money he spend on it) but I wanted something different. I started browsing the internet and after a while I came across the Losi LST. It was one of the largest and heaviest 1:8 MT available; exactly what I wanted!! So I started searching for materials that I need to start my E-conversion, it turned out I needed quite a lot and it was going to cost me a lot. My idea was to drop in a NEU 1521/1.5D 1900kv paired with a MMM and a NeuEnergy 5000mAh 5S 30C LiPo. I would than produce my own motor mount, lipo and ESC tray.

It’s the 11th of October 2008 and I just bought a Losi LST on eBay. After I got it I felt like a little boy and I kept on playing with the car, it was so huge and heavy, I loved it!

As time went by I adjusted my wanted setup a little. I bought a Castle/Neu 2200kv with MMM from America (when the Euro still had some value) and I took the LST completely apart. But back than the MMM ESC was experiencing a lot of troubles, since I didn’t want to have that I decided to sell the set. After that I bought myself a sexy Plettenberg BigMaxximum, a 4 pole 2300kv brushless powerhouse. In the mean time I had some good experiences with Quark, they were so smooth with no noticeable cogging and I loved that. So I went online and bought myself a Quark Airmaster 125B - originally build for airplanes - but also suited for my LST since I planned on using a 2-speed, thus eliminating reverse.

In the mean time I bought a Zippy 5S 5000mAh 30C LiPo and a TDRacing 2-speed pinion adapter, it now was Mid 2009. Together with my dad I build a motor mount and a LiPo tray.

After the LST was done I took it out for it’s maiden voyage, it was an awesome feeling! I actually got Goosebumps after the first few meters/feet. Unfortunately there also were some downsides … to make things short: the motor mount, battery and ESC tray were badly designed and build. Because of the bad LiPo tray my LiPo was dented during a crash which made the LiPo unusable. Besides this the LST broke down time after time after time; hexes, dogbones and other small stuff.

I was nearing the end of 2009 and I’ve totally had it with this car. Altough I bought some good electronics for this car it broke down again and again and again. I didn’t even empty one LiPo in total!! I decided that this wasn’t working so I decided to make the car as bulletproof as possible, so I started ordering parts; aluminium, carbon fiber, fans, wheels, tires, upgrades for the car and a lot of braided sleeving (see pictures later on ) and other stuff. The most important part was the LST1 to LST2 upgrade kit. When I bought the LST I didn’t realize that there were so many differences between the two, I found this out after my car had broken down several times.
I insisted on making several part on my own, it was supposed to be "my" thing and no one else could help. Unfortunately the most expensive tool I had at my disposal was a Dremel, you can image it took me some while to manufacture the parts I wanted. I started making the ESC mount out of carbon fiber and some aluminum 7075, two additional fans would also be placed to keep the ESC even cooler. After this it was motor mount’s turn, this was made from a 90degree piece of 6065 aluminum measuring 4mm in thickness. In the meanwhile I had someone annoying me every single day because progress was slow according to him, this person was called Cox (). Next in line was the LiPo tray, made from some 7075 aluminium of 5mm. This was a LOT of work and consumed a LOT of time. Every CNC artist will laugh his ass off but I don’t care, I build this myself with a very limited availability of machinery, it’s very rigid and I’m very pleased with it :)!

I started building the LST again, piece by piece bit by bit. Every part had been thoroughly cleaned and lubricated when needed. I decided to solder some massive 8mm bullet connectors for the power and all cables on the car were braided sleeved. Especially that sleeving costed me hours and hours of work. While I was working on this that same annoying person was still screaming on the background asking when I would be done because he wanted to see it badly…

NOW I will start to show you some pictures of my precious ride, otherwise it might get boring . Well before I go to that first some specs of my LST1.5:[list]
- Plettenberg Bigmaxximum 2300KV Brushless Motor
- Quark Airmaster 125B
- Flightmax 5S 5000mAh 40C LiPo
- Futaba 3PKS 2.4GHz Fasst
- Home made motor mount out of 4mm thick 6065 aluminium
- Home made ESC mount existing out of 2.5mm thick carbon fiber and some aluminium 7075, plus a "Dual fan" setup
- Home made LiPo tray made out of 5mm thick 7075 aluminium
- Braided sleeving: on every single cable on this car
- 8mm bullet connectors
- Some other stuff I forgot...

Motor mount and the LiPo tray (the three smallest parts will be place don the sides of the tray to secure the LiPo). It’s mount out of aluminium 6065 and 7075. Especaially the making of the LiPo tray consumed a lot of time.


The complete LiPo tray.


LiPo tray from below.


Unfortunately I didn’t make any pictures of the ESC Mount. All scews used a M3 or M4, zinc as well as regular.
So lets now go to the complete LST1.5...



The powerhouse of this monster: the Plettenberg Bigmaxximum 2300kv brushless motor.


Pletti’s assistant: the Quark Airmaster 125B, enough for 125A continuous and 300A peak.


The Flightmax Flightmax 5S 5000mAh 40C LiPo in the home made, solid, perfect fit LiPo tray.


The enourmous 8mm bullet connectors.


The CC UBEC to assist the Quark in making sure the receiver gets 5V.


Five extra 470uF capacitors were soldered to the ESC.


The on/off switch off the Quark (yes there’s a picture of everything)

The Futaba 2.4GHz Fasst receiver. You can see the braided sleeving here. (I’ve placed braided sleeving over every cable, this creates a nice effect.)


The dual fans for the ESC. Actually they are not needed since the ESC keeps cool anyway, but the cooler the better right? :). The fans are directly connected to the LiPo and are placed in serie.


The mechanic brakeservo, since I’m using a 2-speed the ESC will stay cooler, besides I like the braking power.


The LiPo tray in the car without the LiPoin it. You can’t really see how much work went into it but there are so many small details in this tray.


That aluminium "tube" makes sure everything is secured into place. In Total the LiPo tray is secured with three screws, one M4 and two M3’s, it might not seem much but it’s freaking rigid.


The 2-speed adapter from TDRacing, imo a very nice design.


The four M4 screws that secure the motor Mount and the aluminum upgrade (of which I forgot the name).


The ENORMOUS shocks, I love these :P. They are bigger than the shocks on all my other cars, one of which is a 1/6 Marder.


Alu diff housings, these were a part of the LST1 to LST2 upgrade kit.


High/Low gear switcher. It’s pointless actually since the theoretical topspeed in the lower gear would be 25 km/h (app. 15mph) so it’s always in high gear :)

These tires are currently mounted, Road Rage from Proline.


Axial 8-spoke Oversize Black Chrome rims with the Pro-line rubber.


Now you know all the details it’s time for some overview shots of the LST 1.5…



From the backside.


From the top



End result without the body since the body is very (extremely actually) ugly !!



_____________________
Some other remarks...

- Perhaps everbody is wondering why this car is called the LST 1.5. Well it’s simple, it started out as a LST1 and was converted to a LST2 lateron, but since both are nitro cars it’s called LST 1.5
- I’ve already driven this car for 3 packs and it’s drivers superb! No problems so far (this is quite an accomplishment since I was unable to empty just 1 pack before my big upgrade).
- I’m sure everyone is wondering about the temperatures… It has stock gearing and I left the temp gun at home. But after one pack the BigMaxximum, the Quark and the LiPo were cold to the touch . The LiPo was ambient, the Big Maxximum was about 15 degrees warmer than ambient (so about 30-35 degrees aka between 85 and 95F), same for the Quark. Remember this are rough estimated made based on a hand-touch, the next time I will bring the tempgun and take some real measurements.
- So far I’m very pleased with the car, I’m especially proud of the home made motor mount and LiPo and ESC mount. Again anyone who can operate a CNC will laugh at this but I don’t give a f*ck . The most expensive tool I had was a Dremel so the outcome will not be like with a CNC machine. (Oh and I'm only 16 year old...)
– Power? No idea but I'll do some measurements with my Eagle Tree... If I push it I think it will be more than 3000Watts (4 HP)




To wrap this up I want to thank some people, because of them I achieved what I set out to do. (Most people will be from here, RC-Monster, and some from a Dutch forum)
- Lincpimp (RCM) – THE man that has helped me the most, he answered all my questions when I started with my build. He truly is a standup guy! (James, you probably don’t even remember me, as all these questions were asked back in 2008 but I really appreciated your help.)
- DarkSupra (MBF) – For infecting me with the 1:8 interest and answering all my noob questions.
- Serum (RCM and MBF) – Without his help my home made parts wouldn’t be of the quality they are now. Thanks Serum!
- Suicideneil (RCM) – For helping me with my electronic related questions and for this very informative write-ups which helped me a lot. (Look at his signature)
- Bondonutz (RCM) – For helping me with the LST1 to LST2 upgrade, this was little but very useful information for me.
- Nard Cox (RCM and MBF) – For comming up with the name of my car and for annoying the crap out of me for during this build.

Thanks you guys!


A movie will come later .. let me know what you think of my ride!





Also another BIG thanks to Nard Cox for translating this to English as my "16 year old school English" isn't that good.

[Nard Cox]

Originally Posted by Byte

Also another BIG thanks to Nard Cox for translating this to English as my "16 year old school English" isn't that good.

Mine isn't either, but you guys will just have to do with this

Again, very nice build and can't wait to see it IRL. That's gonne be some nice bashing together with my Flux XL (movie time)!

[Popoxx]

A new amazing LST conversion congrats !

You answered all the potential questions, I don't know what to ask Can't wait the vid !

Originally Posted by Popoxx

A new amazing LST conversion congrats !

You answered all the potential questions, I don't know what to ask Can't wait the vid !

Thank you I'm very pleased with this conversion myself, I didn't have to drill any extra holes and it's very robust.

Hopefully the weather will be better soon, as there was lots of rain today so I couldn't make a vid...

[Nard Cox]

Comming week should be better Byte, I'm free next sunday :)

You dare to go to the BMX tracks?

[suicideneil]

Looks great, and awesome pictures too. The layout looks perfect- we've been discussing having the weight up front for better handling.

[snellemin]

Great pics and build man.

[The Dude]

great work
hope to see a vid soon

[magman]

Very nicely done and as Neil said, it should be well balanced for better handling

[mckrill]

Looks very nice and tidy - well done!

[JThiessen]

Nice work! Great to see another LST on the forum. Love that Braided line that you used!

Originally Posted by suicideneil

Looks great, and awesome pictures too. The layout looks perfect- we've been discussing having the weight up front for better handling.

Neil :)

It's idd the best layout you can get on a LST imo.


@All: Thank you I'll try to get up a vid up asap.