TorqueFest

My LST has suddenly been hit by an attack of limp steering. Almost as if the RX battery is running out.

I ran the truck last sunday and it was awesome, I was getting some of my best ever times at Swindon Nitro's. Then Yesterday I went down to an unused car park with a couple of mates and started her up and it was like the batteries were almost dead. It would turn slowly at speed although the rate of turn would increase as the speed decreased, but the servos hardly moved the wheels at all when stationary. But the fail safe did not activate at all. So I packed up went home and charged both hump packs (one after the other). The charger is one with micro processor control and this seemed to operate exactly as usual. I run two 1100 hump packs in a custom installation under the rear chassis. So with them both charged I connected everything back together and went to start it up.

I could tell it was going to be a bad day as when I engaged the roto start the one way started slipping. Swapped this with my spare and dumped the old one in some WD40. Then at least it started almost immediately. Off down the drive and S**T it was still steering slowly.

I disconnected the steering arms at the servo savers to check that the linkages all moved freely and they did. With the linkages off the servos moved as expected, not terribly quickly but smoothly and precisely.

Everything seems to go just as it should only with very little turning power. I'm going to use a mates charger tomorrow morning to see if my batteries are charged or not so please no battery related comments!

I have to get this fixed by tomorrow evening as I'm racing on Monday. Has anyone experienced this before and if so what was the problem.


Many thanks

Mattcity

You need soem airtronics servos Jeff!!!

Mattcity

Only joking jeff, got a similar probelm with mine steering definatly seems a little week, not so much when the truck is in motion but when stationary the wheels only just move, even with a fully charged 1400 pack in place.

maybe we can figure something out at the track on Monday.

matt

mtdriver

Do you still have the originall aa battery holder.

If so try with some fresh aa batteries in it to see if steering improves.

That will eliminate batteries not beeing charged

Have you still got the original servo's installed

jefx

Try tightly wrapping some zip ties around the metal bands of your servo savers to see if the savers are just worn out.

1badxj

Newbie here, has anyone ever tried a 7.2 volt reciever in there LST ? I have a friend that did it to his MGT with steering weakness and it worked great for him, Don't know if the JR system will handle the little extra voltage

SublimeJason

It will work, The Receiver has BEC ( Battery Eliminator Circuitry ) But theres Not really a Good Spot to put one.

1badxj

If you remove the plastic flap under the fuel tank you can fit a 6 cell AA pack = 7.2 volts. I have a 5 cell 2500mh there now and when fully charged the steering is still slow at low speeds. I am going to try the 7.2 pack just have to have one made

TorqueFest

Matt - Thanks mate - so true. (I'm determined to get two sets eventually - if you can wait a bit longer)

Jefx - yet another time where a "Captain of Gondor has shown his Quality" (love the avatar and comments). I had not considered this part of the link as a possible culprit. I did notice that when I held a tire firmly and turned the wheel on the transmitter, the servo savers expanded. A zip tie would certainly be a good temporary fix to see if this is the root problem. I'll try this before I go down to the track this morning.

I still have a big issue with the fact that this does not appear to have been a gradual decline but an instant change. I'm sure there is something going on here that is yet to be revealed.

Thanks to all the other "battery related comments!".

TorqueFest

Took off the front of the truck and removed the servos. One of them is now completely shot (which appears to have been the underlying problem) so I've replaced both the steering servos. Hopefully it and everything else will be OK for the race tomorrow.

nps

Since it has BEC, can you connect a LIPO battery right to the RX?

SublimeJason

I don't Know? But was going to Try that Myself.

nps

I have a couple packs from my helicopter, but did not want to burn anything up. If it has the BEC then it should be safe. It would be great if it did work. They sell seperate regulatators you can buy, but they are costly.