phmaximus

How's ive just fitted a traxxas digital waterproof servo to my bonzer & put it inside a ballon hope it does not drown lol

allso ive put some small holes in the tyres in the hope it will stop them floating


traxxaspe, sweet, looks good, cant find anything to do with that part number did u fit them???

traxxaspe

Hey phmaximus I will upload pics of them on , but they fit perfect and screw straight into the top shock tower mounts on the front and back. I will try get sum info on the part from the hobby shop that I got them from.I want to put a brushless in sumtime , what do you guys suggest . Seems the ezrun 30amp with a 1200kv not more then 2200kv .Is that wright.Havent had much experience with brushless yet.

phmaximus

no no no... the 1200kv was no good, work around the 2200-3300kv range

johnny90

Hey guys. I am back after 4 years lol. I am selling my hbx bonzer on ebay.com if any one wants to check it out. Still in good condition. Want to upgrade to a new truck.

phmaximus

Well ive been doing some sea triles, So far the reciver box is nice & water tight, battery is water tight, ect, only thing is each time the battery connector goes under i loose my throttle, I need to work out a way of keeping the connector dry.

The tyres work a treat, thay can fill up & drain water fast enuff for crawling & provide heaps more traction on the bottom.
Hows i dident glue the tyres back on & thay work like a slipper clutch & squeel when slipping

James NZ

Hi guys
I'm new here and have a problem I hope you can help with. I sent to the USA and bought this for my sons 12th birthday - http://www.bananahobby.com/1442.html. We have received it today here in New Zealand. Turns out it is a Haiboxing Bonzer truck Item #6518. The problem we have is that it won't go forward but stutters in place, occasionally it may go forward. We have more success getting it to go backwards. I read some other posts here about this problem and tried one of the suggestions of running it in reverse for 30 seconds and then forward. Whilst the car was sitting on a box with the wheels running in reverse the front wheels twitched without any input to the steering from me. Shortly after that it stopped and went back into stutter mode. Now it doesn't even want to do that, although the red led on the ESC still lights up. I unplugged all the plugs and re plugged them in case they were loose.
It has a DR-R102-06 receiver and a LM-406FB ESC. The radio gear is AM 27MHz with the transmitter crystal labeled 9 AM TX27.175. The one in the car is the same but has RX.

I hope somebody can help or point me in the right direction. Thanks in advance.

Cheers, James NZ

bluefisherking

HI James,
Could be one of a (small) number of things:
- Most likely and best outcome for you would be just that you need to calibrate the ESC to the receiver - i.e. the throttle end points. I can't remember how to do it off hand, but it should be in your instruction manual, or failing that someone here may be able to tell you. (It will be something like power up, press the button, hold max throttle till light changes colour or blinks, hold max breaking till it changes/blinks again, then release...)
- *Might* be a faulty ESC - is there any way you could borrow a brushed ESC from somewhere to try it out? (Don't forget you will need to calibrate it once connected.)
- *might* be a faulty receiver - again the only way to check would be to swap it out (don't forget you have to transfer the crystal) OR use a servo tester (just a little box that has a battery, a knob on top and a servo connection that pretends to be a receiver).

James NZ

Hello bluefisherking

Thanks for your reply. Unfortunately my previous post contained the sum knowledge of r/c cars gleaned from this web site and others. I understand what you mean by calibrating the ESC to the receiver, it's a pity the manual that came with the car didn't share this knowledge or the way to do so, so I'm a bit stuck on that one. As for swapping parts around we don't know anybody else that is into r/c to do so. Reading through some of the posts here about motors, ESC and pinion gearing etc was a little bit of info overload late last night, especially after a hard day at work and then seeing the disappointment from my son when his "Ready to Run" car didn't!!

The manual does have a rudimentry troubleshooting guide and most of the suggestions suggest the battery being flat, loose wire connections or antennas not extended. However, under "Motor does not work" the two suggestions are "motor wires loose/damaged" or this one, "Receiver battery is weak". I thought that one was interesting so had a closer look at the receiver. There are three plug connections reading from top to bottom; ch2 which has the plug from the ESC, ch1 which has the plug from the steering servo, and batt which doesn't have anything plugged into it. I was wondering if this need a power feed from the battery? There is no battery within the receiver.

The ESC does have a small "setup" switch beside the led, but I am unsure of what sequence this would need pushing. I may just have a go with your suggestion to see if this works, can't do any harm, the car doesn't go!

Cheers, james NZ

Further to the above. I have just tried the above idea of pushing the reset button, it didn't make any diference. But I did notice that before trying this that when I tried the throttle trigger, the front wheels did an occasional twitching from side to side, so I am wondering if there is some kind of conflict between the throttle signal and the steering signal? Any ideas any one?

Once again, thanks for any help forth coming. Cheers

bluefisherking

Hi James,

Don't despair just yet

There is an awful lot of data, opinions, information etc on this long thread (and indeed all the rest of RCuniverse/RCgroups!), and it is almost completely surplus to your requirements . The more I think about it, the more your problem probably is the ESC - hopefully its calibration to the receiver, but failing that a faulty ESC - so don't worry that you haven't anyone else with whom to swap receivers etc.

In the old days, receivers always had their own battery, plugged into the slot called BATT. These days and in this case, the ESC has a built in BEC (Battery Elimination Circuit) which just provides the ~5volts needed by the receiver. However, the ESC may have a weedy/faulty BEC, which could cause the receiver to be flaky, twitch signals etc.

But before you assume that, you should really exhaust the throttle/receiver calibration thing - hopefully someone else will chime in with exactly how to do it on this ESC.

When you pressed the easy-setup button, did you try (i) holding it down for a while, or (ii) having it already held down as you connected the battery? (i.e. hold it down, then power up whilst keeping it held down) That may well be the method to get into the calibration mode, from which you do the hold full throttle till flash/change/beep, then hold full brake etc...

BFK

sunnymale

James NZ I dont know which esc you are using so can't be more precise but try this procedure:
Make sure the esc is switched off (if it has an off switch) and unplugged from battery.
Turn the power on the transmitter on then plug the esc to battery and switch power on
Without operating any of the sticks on the transmitter press and hold the set up button on esc for a second
Hold throttle on full forward and press and hold esc set up button for one second
With throttle on full reverse press and hold esc set up button for one second
This should hopefully complete the esc set up procedure.

Good luck

phmaximus

there has been some great advice, follow these guys....

my only tip untill u get the problem solved, is swap around the wires going to the motor. that way he can still have a bash


hang on.... ive got a thought.... there is a possibility that chanel 2's is reversed & not centred. it might be holding on the brake & thats why it wouldent go in the other direction. (ive had this problem when moving the trigger from thr 50/50 to 70/30

when it was kind of working did it try to slowly drive off all by it self???

I would strongly try moving the throttle trim knob, its its not centred it wont turn on,
is the trigger in the 50/50 position & are the trim knobs centred?
does the steering work?

James NZ

Gentlemen,

Thank you very much for your replies and help. I originally followed bluefisherking's advise and then found some other instructions that are the same as sunnymale's procedure. However in desperation after not getting the expected result, and not having any parts to swap around, I decided to try a local hobby shop on Saturday afternoon. Told the guy the story of what I had done and showed him the printed instructions that I found. His conclusion was that the ESC wasn't working, so I said do you have one. We fitted his, the steering worked but the motor just chatted."Hmm" he said, "are you sure the battery is charged"? Yes replied I. Anyway he fitted his battery, and whoa, the car sprints off! So we try his battery and my ESC, same thing, the car goes great!! Back to my "fully charged" battery and nothing. Oh, said I. How embarrissing. Although the battery showed 7.5v on my multi meter when it came off the charger there was obviously no currant capacity. The wall plug in charger wasn't up to the job.
So, one hideously expensive charger later (NZ$202.80, a rather techo charger it is too) we have a r/c car tearing up the driveway! The grin on my son's face said it all . Fortunately I ordered an additional battery when I ordered the car.

Sunday morning rolls by with the elated son waking us up to say that the car is great and he has got the hang off reverse gear. (I think there is still an issue with the brake causing a long delay before it will reverse) Anyway, an hour later he comes in with a rather long face. I ask what the matter is, and he asks if I have a glue to fix this...

One high speed confrontation with a fence post has resulted in a shattered chassis

So this evening I am surfing the web looking for parts... I can see this hobby is going to cost me. May just have to get a car myself...

Cheers, james NZ

sunnymale

James your chassis is a clone of the Tamiya TL01B chassis (Tamiya Baja King Baja Champ) The normal TL01 basic chassis is sthe same but TL01b has longer suspernsion arms etc, have a look at ebay in Aus or trade me etc and see if you can get a second hand or rolling tamiya chassis as they are much better in terms of the plastics used. If you do get another chassis it may be good idea to put a full bearing set in as well as Bonzer uses some plastic bushes that are horrid. Rebuilding the chassis and putting it back together will teach you a lot about how the car works in the first place and apart from some frustrations can be a very rewarding experience. Good luck and your wallet will be slightly lighter if you persure this hobby lol

phmaximus

what did u brake???ive got heaps of spare parts, let me get them together, & u can have them, just pay for the postage. pm me with ur postage details

phmaximus

no ok, ill sell them on ebay

phmaximus

How's thanks to bluefisherking,

I was convinced to make my bonzer have 4 wheel steering, long story short, it works a treat just need to order some front arms for the rear. I'll post up some pics when the arms come in.

phmaximus

does anyone know the part number of the HBX one peice suspension arms? or where to get them????

Spoiler

Just got my 6 year old son the latest 2.4 gig version of the Bonzer for Xmas. It runs well but I managed to crack the chassis around the front gearbox (don't ask [&:]). My repair did not last and I have just finished replacing the chassis with the Tamiya TL01. It went together finer bar some tweaking around the new Bonzer ali shock tower mounts and grinding down a shaft in the rear gearbox to fit in the smaller space provided by the TL01 chassis. The TLo1 chassis is definitley better made than the HBx version. Only problem is that the first gear in the front gear box lost two teeth because of the cracked housing and I'll need a spare and a strip down to replace it. This is the first RC car we have owned and am enjoying being the pit crew and mechanic - far easier than working on large RC planes but more fiddly in some respects....

phmaximus

hey 2.4ghz thats cool

well sounds like u have the skills for of it, hey next time u have it appart the carbon gear shafts are cheap...
good work with that shaft so many peeople have problems with it & get stuck

JeffS62

I bought a bonzer 6518 Off road RC Truck.  It runs fine on smooth surfaces and runs ok on rough surfaces in reverse.  But going forward in the grass or on a marginally bumpy surface, the RC Truck just bucks.  If I give it a push, then the truck will go forward on its own.  But it's really disappointing.  The whole point of buying an off road truck was to drive it off road.  Is there anything I can do to increase the torque in forward?

sunnymale

If you are suing the standard battery and charger supplied with the kit that is more than likely your problem. If you have any mates with decent delta peak cut off chargers get them to charge your battery or borrow one of their batteries and try it. Failing that check your motor has not got anything stuck in it if all that fails it has to be the esc unless you have stripped some gears but that seems unlikely as stripped gears would cause problems in forward and reverse.

Spoiler

The 2.4 ghz is indeed cool and works well Buuuut, since the chassis rebuild we havea recurring problem - the main gear - the one that drives off the motor gear (spur gear?) strips. My son has just stripped the third one. I love tinkering with the thing but buying an entire gear set just for the one gear is getting expensive. It also doesnt last more than about 2 - 3 hours of total driving before failing. Last time it let go slowly with a lot of noise and the car still drove and initially only slipped when starting from stationary.

Any advice on how to prevent this hapening?

I suspect the clutchless design is to blame - too much torque thru the plastic gears with those grippy tyres and 4wd eventually breaks the gear OR perhaos the Tlo01 chassis and HBX gear set are not a perfect match - i.e the chassis places the spur and first gear just too far apart (it looks fine to the naked eye) resulting in tooth wear and eventual slippage?

Or is this normal and these things are high maintenance?

Please help...

phmaximus

Just to doubble check, are u using the inspection hole to check the gear allighnment? And next time check that the gear shaft is nice and snug in the chassis. Sometimes the locating hole in the chassis gets elongated, since its been happening a bit, I would recommend getting the Tamiya chassis and shafts... Should only be about $10

Spoiler

Thanks, I stripped the chassis down on the weekend and found it wasnt the gear I thought it was. One of the side shaft gears lost a tooth and that damaged the second part( no idea how else to decribe it) of the first gear drive. I replaced all worn looking gears and cleaned up the teeth of the damaged gear and re-assembled it all. It works fine again.

Your point about gear alignment is good - after the first failure I did tighten the motor screws far tighter which is probably why the first gear did not strip again. I am using the Tamiya chassis but with HBX gears so some of the problems could be there...

As long as my son is able to have fun with the car I am happy[8D]

phmaximus

ahhh sweet, good to see ya up and going