RC clod buster project

Fat Homer

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It'll be extremely light for a MT. I built one like this years ago and it weighed less than a stock clod. The metal tube itself is brake line tube which is not heavy at all. My old tube chassis clod would hit around 30 mph with a pair of 10turn motors on the old style NiMh batts. This one I am really considering brushless so I'm thinking it'll be a handful :D
Wow 30mph on nimh batteries and an old school motor!!!

If thats the case i definitely agree you need to go brushless and throw in some 3S lipo’s...

Otherwise, go 1/8 scale for your ESC + Motor and throw in 2x 2S lipo or one 4S lipo battery and watch her take off to the moon...
 

Steve_C

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Yeah it was pretty fast for a big truck. My buddy I use to work with was a carpet racer and had a speed gun and it would hit 28mph so thats moving pretty good. It's been so many years I cant remember exactly how many cells I had in that pack we built for that truck, but I want to say it was 7 or 8 if I remember correctly. The only issue I had with that truck was with the pair of 10 turn motors, I would only get about 8-10 runs out of it before I had to cut the comms to get it to run good again.

I'm still trying to learn about lipos since that's all new to me. Tell me if this is correct or not.....When you say for example 2S that means 2 cells wired in Series correct? 4S is 4 cell in series and so on? And then the amount of cells determine the voltage right?
 

Fat Homer

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The below video will probably explain the basics better than me...


but yeah, with modern day RC’s theres loads of ways to connect batteries... Some run two seperate 2S batteries in series to get 4S or two 2S in parallel to get the same 2S output with just more mah from the two batteries working together...


But if you are talking about the batteries themselves, yes the lipo’s these days are one flat long cell = 1S, so two flat cells encased together = 2S and so on and so fourth...

The largest lipo battery i’ve seen installed on a regukar RC is a single 6S lipo l, but they are quite fat... so normally to get 6S people run 2x 3S
 

Fat Homer

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Cool thanks for the vids, I have been watching a few vids on lipos lately but had not seen those two yet.

I had been wondering about why some people run two two seperate 2S packs rather than just one 4 cell pack, I didn't know that it was a way to get more more MAH so that makes sense now thanks.
Yeah, as mentioned in the 2nd video it depends how you connect the batteries to the ESC, so depending if you are looking for longer run time or much more power you can wire it differently :)
 

Steve_C

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Is run time with Liops as good as everyone seems to say it is? I dunno if you were into it back in the Nicd/Nimh days but back then depending on the motor/setup we use to average about 10-18minute range for run time. I've been reading that lipos these days are doubling and sometimes even more than doubling that. I know it all depends on the setup, but is the run time with lipos really that much better than it use to be with old batts?
 

Steve_C

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Think I'm gonna have to place an order for some more midnight oil because I've been burning all mine up lately. Been trying to make some more progress on the clod chassis after working all day but have been able to get a bit more done late each night. Still a LOT left to do (maybe 50% done with the frame work) but at least its starting to look like more than just a pile of straight tube now. Mocked it up to see what wheelbase I want it as well, looks like 15" is going to be about where I will put the axles.

Somewhat slow going when you consider I've already got probably 20 hours into the chassis, but it is pretty time consuming. Mainly just making sure all the tubes are bent at the exact same angle and that everything is square. Plus I'm going through and sanding off the flux after each bar is brazed on because the more bars that I attached the harder it is to get in there with paper to clean it.

Anyway here's how it sits tonight now.










 

Fat Homer

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Looking sick steve!!!

Also regarding batteries, yup i was on the scene 20+ years ago with nicd / nimh batteries and can tell you LIPO makes a world of difference...

Run times aside as it depends on motor etc how long you get (athough definitely more than before)...

most importantly though with lipo batteries is you get the same constant kick of power throughout the batteries run time, say normally 30-45min avg, before your ESC will start lowering battery power, saving your battery before its completely drained for safety reasons...

So for example, with old nimh / nicd you would get a lot of kick and power out of the first 5min of run time then the car just gradually gets slower and slower till you need to change batteries...

Where as with lipo, you basically get a pretty steady stream of power right till the point your esc’s voltage cut off rate is met and it automatically limits input power letting you know you need to swap batteries...

This also helps prevent a lot of run-away rc cars when battery is low...
 
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