Wheelnut

My Feedback: (81)

I was looking for something to run indoors for this winter and during bad weather. I had a losi micro truggy before and I upgraded to brushless, but at some point I needed money for planes so I sold it. This time I grabbed another one but the house we live in in has a smaller living room so I needed something with a sharper turning radius. So I started looking at the 1/36 scale models. I had a micro-T before but also sold it see a trend here? Somehow I ran across the mini Highroller. Only to find out that it had been discontinued. But I really wanted one. I searched RCG, Ebay, RCuniverse, couldn't find one.
Then it happened, I finally went to my last resort which should have been my first. But after my fruitless search, I thought, no way is the local hobby shop going to have one. Well, I called and they guy asked me to hold on. He found the old shop demo model that had been mostly stripped for parts. Sold it to me for $10. Missing servo, motor, and one wheel. I asked if he had any new retail parts and he said no but wait, I see a body for it. So he pulls out the green one.

At this point I should say I want to go stock for now. I only plan to run this indoors and stock will be plenty fast for that.
I'm getting ready to order some parts and probably need a little help. First of all, I can't find the stock motor, nor the stock tires.
It is my understanding that all the losi 1/36 wheels will fit, is that correct?
Also, any suggestions on a brushed motor?

Wheelnut

My Feedback: (81)

Ok, figured out the electronic unit I have with this truck is just the rx. I guess it had a seperate esc? I'm also finding it hard to find a good deal on a used Losi 27mhz am radio right now.
Brainstorming of other ideas. I remembered I have a 2.4ghz radio I pulled from a RTR truck and the rx is very small and fits perfectly on the back side but it's a little tall. Was thinking I could take the cover off but maybe a better idea to move it forward to where the cab of the truck is a little higher.
Could anyone please help me with ideas of what brushed esc and motor to get for this truck? or brushless combo that I can use with my radio?
Also found this 3s lipo in the battery compartment. Checked the voltage and it's 11.5V must be good still, maybe....
Thanks

Wheelnut

My Feedback: (81)

Does anyone know what size the original motor was? 280 maybe?
I'm so mad at myself. About a year ago I threw away a bunch of brushed motors including quite a few micro motors.

SyCo_VeNoM

god I'd have to pull mine out if I could find it.

Will say if you can get around it do NOT use a stock radio as they are pieces of crap. Mine with the stock radio would go 5 feet, and stutter... Yes I couldn't even drive it across my tiny ass living room without having to stand up and follow it.
Used the truck twice, and threw it somewhere a few years back.


Ohh yea you have the RX/ESC it was one board... Losi sold a 2.4ghz RX/esc but it was like $90, and didn't even include the damn radio.


A tiny ass ESC for 4-8.4volts XYS-BL20A brushed ESC
I bought a few for a project years ago, and they work pretty well. They are like $12 shipped from china

I decided to rip apart my micro HR after seeing this. Issues I see is the servo uses a 5 wire layout as (I took the servo apart) it has no logic board in it. Tomorrow I'm gonna try and solder a micro servo logic board to the servo as the layout looks exactly the same internally as a airplane servo I have. I would have used the airplane servo, but its just SLIGHTLY too big.

SyCo_VeNoM

Well I said screw it and got right to work
A hextronik HXT900's insides will fit in the servo case
Basically you will keep the servo motor of the losi servo, and replace the potentiometer with the HXt900's, and the bottom gear with the HXT 900's(same pitch and tooth count). You will end up pressing the losi spline onto the hxt's shaft its damn hard as the losi servo was designed half assed, and as cheap as possible(like most the MHR). If just getting it to goto gether was hard enough you also have to line up the top gear you have to press down so it will be able to move freely, and be centered on the servo. This has to be done while its hooked upto the radio with power, and is not easy
I find it sad that a cheap $2 chinese servo was made better then what losi used...
Honestly I'm shocked Losi didn't use some proprietary eliptical gears in the servo as it seems they went out of their way to make sure you had to use losi parts only on this thing...

Think I'll grind the RX tray flat so I could easily mount the RX, and ESC to it with plenty of room as of right now its a tight fit with a FlySky receiver

For the record the ESC I said if you ever used a flysky radio, and know how tiny the RX is that is how big the ESC is


Forgot to mention I have no idea what size this motor is as I can't say I've seen one that looked like this before in a RC as it is friggin tiny.

Wheelnut

My Feedback: (81)

Thanks for the reply and info.
The pic shows the board I have. There are to connection wires, one has a T and the other is an S. I know the S is for servo and I'm sure the T is for throttle. Meaning this is a rx only, right? Ahhh, I just noticed,this is the rx for a three wire sevo, but no matter, I don't believe I'm going to be using it anyway.
I do have a fly sky radio, but I have another 2.4ghz radio that has a rx even smaller than the one from Flysky. So I have the radio system ready, I just need to find a power set. Brushed motor is the same as the Micro DT so I can just buy one of those as they are readily available, just having a hard time finding a brushed esc small enough for this truck. I may have to go brushless as I have seen a few of them that are small enough.
Well, I just got busy and checked the horizon site quickly and got the part# for the brushless combo they "were" selling". Did a search and it was hard to find. Not many out there anymore. Found one and ordered it. Esc and motor for $49 plush ship. not bad at all. Now I just need to get the other few parts I will need to get her running. normal 3wire servo, I'm going to order one that comes with the losi servo saver to save myself some trouble because this truck didn't come with one. I also need a set of tires because I only have 3 out of the original 4 and absolutely can't find the original tires anymore, so I will be buying a set of DT tires even though they are smaller. :/ Also need spur and pinion cover, cant find it separately So I have to buy it in a set of other parts.
Waiting on parts to arrive now.

SyCo_VeNoM

yea I ordered tires for mine too as from sitting on the shelf under junk the tires got flat spots, and the one ripped.
I ordered Raminator, and Micro desert tires off ebay.

Find it weird they must have changed electronic sets as the one I got was an all in one board with a 5 wire servo, and I remember the BL ESC being an all in one board too.
I think I got mine when they 1st came out though.

Wheelnut

My Feedback: (81)

Please send link if you see more Raminator tires. I can't find them.

That's what I've been seeing also is the all in one board. This was a hobby shop demo unit so there is no telling what they did to it. I know originally it had a 5 wire servo.

Wheelnut

My Feedback: (81)

Well, bad news for me. I got a refund from GS Hobby because they didn't actually have the brushless combo in stock. But at least I got my money back quickly.
I also called another online vendor who had it listed as in stock and sure enough, NOPE!
So... if you could please help me find something compatible that would work I would greatly appreciate it. All I really need now is the esc and motor and of course the Raminator tires if you can find them again

SyCo_VeNoM

well here is what I done to mine in the past 16 hours its basically ready to go outside the tires, and needing a new battery.


Yea its pretty damn tight I just double sided taped everything down. The ESC is the one I mentioned in my earlier post. I put the RX like that so the plugs go up into the cab area on the body otherwise I couldn't put the body on.
But the following show nothing is visible when the body is on



I hope the desert truck tires fit I'll get back to you on them when I get them as they are expected here on monday according to the shipping info I just got.
I hope I don't have to do the mod to change the axles so they use nuts instead of e-clips.

Wheelnut

My Feedback: (81)

Looking good dude! I re-read your earlier post and see what you said about the esc. Well, I'm out of luck on the Losi brushless combo, but that's cool because looks like I will be saving money by buying the esc and motor from hobbyking. I buy from them a lot anyway.
I can't believe we are both missing one tire. Want to sell me your three?
I thought about your tires and how you said one or more had flat spots. I think it might have been saved by soaking in moderately hot water.

SyCo_VeNoM

well I was trying to get it off so I could try to pop it out, and it ripped easily. Actually it might have been ripped as it was where it was flattened out I don't really know.
All the tires have flat spots I found out when I looked closer. The one was just REALLY warped to where it was easily noticeable the rest wobble bad when spun so they are useless.

hmm found a 180mah 2S lipo on HK for $4 that should fit into the battery compartment fine

Wheelnut

My Feedback: (81)

I tried the 2s lipo I was using for my 1/24 truggy which has a very small battery tray, but the battery is rectangle and doesn't fit the square battery compartment of the Highroller.
Do you have a link to the battery you found on HK?

Wheelnut

My Feedback: (81)

Well, I decided to go brushed for two reasons. One, the 10amp esc on hobbyking is on backorder. Two, I read on the threads where two guys who both ran this truck indoors as I plan to do stated that it was much funner and more controlable on brushed and plenty fast on 2s.
So, brushed motor and brushed esc are ordered and will hopefully be here soon.
Started looking at 2s lipos on HK site and remembered that I probably had some that fit. I have three of trhe 180 man 2s nano techs and they fit fine. Just wish I could find one a little more square that had more mah but not as expensive as the one from Losi.

SyCo_VeNoM

yea it was the 180mah nano tech I was looking off what my calipers read of the stock battery
all the other batteries are too big
Hobbypartz has one, but its in the who the hell knows when we will ever get stock part

Wheelnut

My Feedback: (81)

Losi always does stuff like that on purpose. Like making the battery box that fits nothing else but the battery they had designed. Same thing with that crappy servo. I mean you can work around the servo, but not really the battery box. Well you can, but it probably won't look pretty

SyCo_VeNoM

I was wishing the body sat a bit higher I was gonna stack the ESC, and RX on top of each other, and cut the battery box open to use a receiver hump pack, but as you can see from my pic its pretty damn tight.

That servo is idiotic its designed so crappy on the inside it isn't even funny. The motor to turn the gears isn't secured by anything, and moves freely hell only reason it turns anything is the wires stop it from spinning. Neither is the potentiometer that reads the servos location they easily move around inside it.
I'll give them some leeway on the battery box as the RC is tiny so you can't guess what companies will make, but that is about all the leeway they get. The rest is just piss poor design as that servo I gutted for parts was basically the same exact size (it was 1mm too wide), and was built 1000X better.

Anyways ordered those HK batteries and while I was at it ordered 2 batteries that SUPPOSEDLY will fit in my Merv as my battery I had self discharged... HK had 2 the perfect merv battery, but was int only, and I'm not paying $20 shipping+import duties for a battery...

Wheelnut

My Feedback: (81)

Yes, that body does sit pretty low, I'm glad the esc I ordered looks pretty small and I hope it is. I may regret ordering the stock servo...:/ hopefully it will save me some time on the rebuild. If it doesn't work out, then I will buy an HXT500, (I have a ton of HXT900's laying around) and mod it to fit and work like you did.
Can't wait till all my stuff gets here.
Good luck on the batteries.

Wheelnut

My Feedback: (81)

Ran my DT around on the 180mah lipo today and wow! Pretty fast and pops wheelies on demand. I didn't know it was going to be that fast. But that little motor does get pretty hot.
After running for a bit, the motor would shut off but the wheels would steer. I thought the motor or esc had over heated. Turned it off and back on and it ran again. After a short period it shut off again. So I took out the battery and it was at 7.6V. So either the truck knows to shut off or the batter does.
Anyway, now I know 180mah doesn't last long.

Oh, I also checked the spur/pinion mesh because it felt really tight, but the mesh is set perfectly. Not sure why the truck feels so tight and won't really roll much when you push it. I know the magnets in this little motor can't be that strong.

SyCo_VeNoM

I noticed that on mine too the wheels feel tight

BTW I used HXT900 parts in the stock servo

Wheelnut

My Feedback: (81)

That's cool about using parts out of one servo in another.

I had a revelation today. Maybe mine is over heating and the timing on the battery happens to be the same as the time it takes the truck to heat up

SyCo_VeNoM

quite possible I know some redcats would overheat if you used a battery with more mAh then what was in it.
Yes instead of gearing it down a little they decided to use the battery as a timer lol

SyCo_VeNoM

Wel got the tires the Micro DT ones look pretty click, but they are a tiny bit smaller diameter (1-2mm)

Problem comes in that the rim is narrower... its needs either a spacer, or a micro DT axle which is LOSB1507...
Guess I gotta order it and wait. Wish I knew as I ordered the tires off the same dude, and could have saved $2.50

here is a size comparison


Gotta love losi making a special rim, tire size, and mounting style for 1 truck...

Wheelnut

My Feedback: (81)

Do you have the threaded axles?
I'm wondering because if so, I have the same problem. But I'm willing to just use spacers against the bearings. Antenna tube might work.

SyCo_VeNoM

nope the E-clip
I ordered the threaded axles as an e-clip shot off when I was taking it off never to be seen again, and honestly I hated the e-clips... Stupid stupid idea

I'll be honest due to the MHR I've never owned another losi, and have never recommended one as I figured if they made this many terrible design choices on one single RC what dumb things could they do on the bigger ones.