betarayjim

Hi all,

Apologies in advance because this is going to be pretty vague. I am very new to this.
Basically, I have a car, and a handful of parts, and wanted some advice on whether I can do anything with them.

Years back I bought this on a whim...


It has this battery...


This motor...


And this ECU...


Now, I'm pretty sure the battery is dead since it only lasts a few seconds after being fully charged. Is that fairly obvious after being in the loft for several years?

The other thing is, I have these, which came to me from a friend, but I don't really know I can use them.



Are these better than what I already have, and would they even work? I need a new battery regardless, but could I just replace it like for like or would I need something different?

I'm not really after anything more than a bit of fun and tinkering. Any help would be very much appreciated!

ColeB

Do you know if the battery you have is lipo or nickel metal hydride? Is the bottom picture a bigger motor?

betarayjim

It's nickel metal hydride. The bottom two pictures are the same motor. It's the same physical size as the one that came with the car. I'm given to understand it's brushless and has 13T and KV:3000 on the side.

The "new" ECU has "4-9 NiMH 2-3 LiPo" on the side. Does that mean if I get a new NiMH battery it'll all work ok? I have a fast charger, which I'd rather not replace unless I have to.

ColeB

The 4-9 nimh means it can handle 4 to 9 cell nickel metal hydride packs. 2-3 lipo means it can do 2 to 3 cell lipo packs. More cells = more power. A lipo battery will give you an extremely noticeable boost in power. I'm not sure about the charger, ask the guys at your local hobby shop for a battery pack that is comparable with it and is also compatible with your current set up with the truck.

flyinwalenda

My Feedback: (5)

The battery you have is a 6-cell NiMh. The system you have in the car can take up to an 8 cell pack.
You will probably find 7-cell packs at the lhs and that will give you some more power and still work with your charger.
If you change out the system to the brushless set-up you will have better performance using the 7-cell pack as brushless motors are more efficient so it will run a bit longer.
If you want more speed then you would get a LiPo pack to use with the new set-up but then you will need a new charger that charges both NiMh and LiPo packs.

RustyUs

With a lil' bit of soldering (I can't tell what connectors you have been using in the pictures), or get a NiMh pack with Deans style connector...you'll be good to go.

The Yeah Racing brushless motor/ESC combo shouldn't be too much of a power hungry system, and you should be OK with using NiMh batteries.

Once you get up and running; getting the itch for more power/speed with the weight advantage/power gain of LiPo battery packs...familiarize yourself with the charging and storage practices of using LiPo batteries...link on RCU: Everything you need to know about LiPo batteries

EXT2Rob

My Feedback: (1)

That motor system will work great with that truck. If your NiMh pack isn't holding a charge for more than 5min, you might be able to bring it back by cycling it. Charge it, discharge it, charge it, discharge it....over and over again. Your charger may have a feature for that. But if you see no significant improvement from cycling, it's prolly a gonner. Put the brushless system in the truck, take your charger to the LHS and see if it's LIPO capable. If not, buy a LiPo charger from him, if he has one for $75 or less that will do 5Amps. And if he has 5000mah 2S (2 cell, 7.4V) packs for $60, pick up one of those. Other wise look at this and this. You DO NOT, EVER, want to charge a Lipo battery with a non-Lipo charger. (If possible, save the battery connector from the old battery, as you will need to put one on the battery I linked. But Deans connectors don't take heat well, so you may just buy a new pair from the LHS.)