MGT

I just ran 2 tanks through my revo to tune it and what not..HOLLY COW!!! I ran a tank through it last week, keep in mind this was first time I started it in over a year. Same glow plug + same gas from over a year ago. I Kept the nitro (30%) in my room the entire time so maybe thats why its still good. It started right up last week and I tuned it a little bit. It was running alright but today it ran awsome. I played with the setting and dialed it in. Took about one tank to get it where I was happy then the 2nd tank I ran the first half and it started to rain. I let it idle for the rest and it never cut out. I can't waite to put fresh gas in this thing. For how light this thing is the little 3.3 is a little power house when tuned right. I'm trying to get used to the revo again because im going to have my hands full with the savage. Getting the revo going is making me wonder why I ever got out of this hobby. I always took the best of care of my r/c's, running the engine dry, removing the glow plug, adding after run oil like crazy, and just tearing it apart for inspection/cleaning. This TRX 3.3 is 2 years old with a 1 3/4 gallons through it. The inside looks new and TDC pinch feels new still. I'm pleased =]

MGT

I've got a question about the pinion gear. Stock is 20T but is it true hpi says the go to a 25T when running 6S? And if it is true does it come with the 25T gear??

spiftacu1ar

I know it comes with the 25t pinion, but I don't know when you are supposed to use it. If you are supposd to go to 25t with 6s then my truck is WAYYYYYYY under geared. I am running the kershaw gearbox (which is a lower ratio to begin with, 2.6 vs 2.2 in flux) with 47:15 spurinion. I use nomadio constoller with tach sensor, it clocked my top speed at 36.8mph (speed displayed on controller), which does NOT include tire ballooning. The big joe tires balloon a lot, so I reckon I was doing at least 45, maybe even 50.

MGT

Yeah I just heard that with 6S you must switch out to the 25T according to HPI.

*************EDIT*************

OK never mind. Anyone with a flux read this thread NOW lol. There are 16 pages and I think you should read every one like I did.

http://www.rc-monster.com/forum/showthread.php?t=18981

The jist of what I got was that gearing up is BAD in most cases. If you had some smaller, lighter, onroad tires, and wanted to do a few speed passes the 25T gear would be ok with the right Lipo's and carfully watching temps. But on the stock size tires or tires that puts more load on the motor, staying at the 20T or dropping down a few teeth is the way to be safe. Ofcoure this is watching temps in every condition with every lipo combo...

If you gear up to the 25T with the stock tires OR larger with anything less than my packs say bye bye.

spiftacu1ar

Cool, I am running a nomadio system, so monitoring temps isn't a problem. The current temp is always on screen. If the batts go over 120 or the motor goes over 160 it will yell at me too. I think I am going to go from the 15t to the 20t pinion though. Espcially b/c my internal ratio is also lower than in the flux.

Lilredmachine

The 25t pinion is included for onroad speed runs with Phaltline tires or equivelant. It is not supposed to be used for offroad use with heavy offroad tires. You will fry the electrics.

This should be common sense to anyone familiar with electric, however anyone coming over to a Flux from nitro stands a really good chance of effing it up.

MGT

Yeah but for some people like me there is some confusion the way HPI words this. It makes sense now...but I can see how someone would say ohhhhhh 60+mph. Slap on the 25T thinking it must be ok because it comes with the truck. Drop in some cheap lipos and blow it up.

I'm just glad I'm learning all of this now, I don't even have the truck yet lol. I'm soaking up everything I can about lipos, Ive already learned a lot in just a few days.

Flux Driver

Idea for Maxamps website [sm=lol.gif]

Lilredmachine

And judging by the crap job that fire extinguisher is doing of putting out the fire, it really is a genuine maxamps product!

Flux Driver

Well thing is you have to use the MaxAmps fire extinguisher peak refiller. But they're known to over-pressure the extinguisher canister, causing a leak. Thus you get a poor stream of fire extinguishing spray when it's time to put out a fire. The extinguisher unit therefor becomes a dud, which customers of MaxAmps have become familiar with.

EDIT: I just realized this forum has a MaxAmps support forum. Does that mean MaxAmps staff post there? I hope I don't get banned LOL. I don't mind if these posts are deleted but I prefer they not be.

MGT

AHHHHH I'm excited. I just checked up on my order...

03/25/2009 5:44 A.M. OUT FOR DELIVERY<

MGT

Alrighty I got it and I want to discuss this matter first. Is the spur gear mesh anything like the nitro savage? It seems REALLY tight, like it binds. Its easy to check but for the price it could be set right. Maybe this is why people are saying the drivetrain seems noisey/the pinion wears out, because it deffently comming from the spur/pinion. Does it seem that way because the motor doesent turn as freely as a clutch bell would? Or is it just set too tight?

whipnet

You need to mesh an electric just like a nitro.

*

MGT

Well I know that but I'm saying its REALLY tight. It's so tight I can see how people are wearing these out/falling off. It makes sense why people say it makes a lot of noise and why some overheat/blow theres up on the stock 20T. It's wayyyy to tight. UNLESS thats how the motor makes it feel. Ive never delt with a BL motor this size so I'm not sure about how freely it turns. What I'm saying is on a nitro the clutch bell will spin freely when the truck is off. That makes the intire system spin freely as long as the brake is applied. On my fulx its deff binding from the factory.

****HAHA I just relized your follwing BOTH of my threads lol. Thanks man!!! =]

MGT

Pictures!! =]
















The revo has a FOC, carbon fiber rear bulkhead brace. CF throttle servo mount, CF battery tray, no Cheese-E start, Alum. pushrods, Ti Ni shock shafts, P2 rockers, and the traxxas wing. P.S. My revo has been ran over by a car.

usmc_VTOL_mech

2fast
The mesh is not too tight. You are just feeling the "cogs" of the motor. the magnets are so strong the motor does not spin freely like you are thinking.
If it settles your mind reset the mesh and it's gonna feel just the same
Good looking trucks man!

Flux Driver

I had the same thing with my mesh. It's supposed to be that way. I put it in my truck behind my seat and when it shifts, I hear it clicking loudly. It's normal.

MGT

Yeah lol found out by trying to set it myself. It was a PITA to get it back to how it came, I shouldnt of messed with it but I got it. Ive only had one brushless motor and it was the size of a C battery lol, for my mini I had a while back.

I was looking at the new shocks and was wondering if anyone got another set of 4 and put them on. I mean it would add some weight but if you pulled some of the preload and had 8 of these babies it sure would take bigger jumps better than the old savage set-up. I'm just not used to only having 4 shocks on my savage. They do seem a little larger but how are they holding up? I havent heard any stories of people bending the shafts of blowing the caps off.

BTW this is KILLING me waiting for my packs. I have no idea when i'm going to get them, could be tomorrow, could be next week..grrr.

I still have a TON of questions about this thing though. There are parts that came with it that I have no idea what they are for. Some of them include shims? Im guessing diff shims?? Some are plastic, they look like some sort of mount?? I have no idea. There are these tube things, maybe for the shocks? It came with spare shock parts? What is the stock weight oil in the shocks? What wheel are you running for the wheelie bar? I put the small one on..hmm what else... What are you guys doing with the ESC wires, they stick up and make it hard to put the body on, just tuck them under the rear shock tower? Stock servo specs @ 6v? Yeah mostly things that arent important but I sure would like to know.

Flux Driver

That's exactly what I do with the ESC wires. I tuck them under the rear body mount.

Those tube things had me confused too. I read a post somewhere saying you put them on the shocks if you're doing speed runs on the street. The springs have two parts. If I'm not mistaken, you replace the shorter spring with the tubes. I haven't done it myself though.

I use the large wheelie bar wheel. I find it easy to sustain wheelies for fun and also easy to prevent the truck from falling back. When the small wheel, the truck is more likely to roll back.

You're gonna love it when you finally run it. When you turn it on, you hear a "beep-beep-beep-beeeep, beep beep beep beep..... beep-beep-beepbeep-beep-beep" then suspenseful silence. Then you give some throttle and hear the gears and drivetrain turning and the wheels grind some dirt as the truck moves.

MGT

Ahhh I understand now about the tubes thanks a bunch. Makes sense I guess but who wants to do 60+ mph anyway, especially in this thing. If I really wanted to try and go that fast I would have bought an onroad car that would hit 75 stock. I would crash it so fast haha, no thanks.

Yeah I'm pretty excited but i still have a lot to learn by the time my packs do come. I'm still unsure about charging and volt cut-off. All this ESC tuning has me a bit confused. I'm trying to find a nice 101 write-up on charging lipos, balancing lipo's, and using the usb thingy to tune the esc...or just anything about setting up the esc in the first place.

Lets see what I do know; I know that there are a max of 3.7 volts in each cell making the pack 11.1 volts. I also know that when charging these it's best to have each cell charged to about +- .01 volts, thats where the balancing comes into play. Am I on the right track? Also for the first rew runs, only run about 60% of the charge to break them in. hmm what about the voltage cut-off so you dont run the packs too low and kill them. Is the usb tuning kit requried to do this or is the ESC already know when to shut off. thats where it starts to get a little confusing for me.

At first I was blown away by all of this but I think I'm catching on very fast.

Flux Driver

I never done Lipo before. I haven't heard of the 60% thing. Do you have a pair of identical NIMH packs to try out the truck with?

MGT

Nope I heard a lot of people that went from those to lipo's, saying they wish they never forked out the coin in the first place. It was that much of a difference. So I skipped even the 2S lipos and when right for the $120 packs lol. I know it's going to be insaine and even if I have to waite another week to learn everything I need to I'll do it. I'm pretty good when it comes to these things it's just a matter of time before I learn.

Flux Driver

OMG wow lol. Better use red locktite/threadlock on the gear on the motor rod. Blue didn't do it for me and I'm only using 7cell NIMH packs. If you ever need to remove it just use a mini blow torch. A keychain torch lighter will work. Just take the motor out and heat the screw up to melt the locktite. Or touch the screw with a soldering iron. That's usually how I do it. Heat guns can get too sloppy.

If you have a Dremel, use a sand paper tip to widen the holes on the battery boxes a bit. That way the narrow hole won't chew up your battery pack wires that much. I've read the rubber fasteners aren't that good. I never bothered with them. I just use zip ties. It takes four each time you change battery packs or remove them, but I'm fine with that. A couple times I just left the battery packs in there and charged them right in the boxes. They're just NIMH packs anyways. For Lipo's I'd say bring them out to keep and eye on them.

MGT

I took a close look at the rubber latchs and they seem fine. It's tricky and hard to explain. The little tab that you would normally push in to open the box needs to actually be pulled away from the box. Use a slotted screw driver (flat head) to do this gently. And pull the rubber latch up. It lockes it up and behind the plastic thingy and wont move. At first I thought this was a really bad way of HPI fixing the problem...BUT then I saw the one I un-did and then re-latched compared to the other one I didn't take off...I then relized it wasent really latch at all because it didn't go up behind it...I'm think this is what 99% of people are doing and it just pops open again. I'm going to post close up-pic's of what im talking about right now so it's eaiser to understand...

P.S. about the motor pinion. Did you clean the hole/screw before you added the locktight? If there is oil on it, the locktight wont do anything, even red or green. I'm thinking this is part of the problem...or my better guess is that because it's steel on steel its heating up and melting the locktight?

MGT

In this first picture you can see how the latch is tucked under the plastic. It's very tight and I find it hard to beleve they pop out.



In this picture you can see it not properly latched. It was about the best I could do by hand because it's such a tight fit.



This picture shows you how to get it to latch 100%.



I have a feeling most people are doing what pic #2 looks like and it just pops off. When they are latched right it forces the plastic tab away from the truck and locks it in. It's not going to pop out from what I see. Any thoughts??