Caldera 10e
 

I just got delivered today a redcat caldera 10e and a Earthquake 8e. I have not finished charging the lipos for the Earthquake et but I charged up the Calderas batteries and the truck seems to sputter when you throttle up. I am not using the stock charger as it will take forever to charge but I have a twin peak and that is what I used. The caldera is m sons but I actuall bought these to tr to get awa from nitro for the younger guys. I personall have 3 savage trucks which I love but to take the kids out with them I spend more time tunning/ refueling ect then enjoying the time bashing with them. Anhow has anyone experienced this? Mabe m charger just didnt give a good charge or mabe the esc is not in the proper programing mode? An insite will be greatly appreciated. Also in another note I am looking to bu a good lipo charger that is eas to use and I would feel safe with my kids using as I want to get the caldera a decent set of lipos to run on in the near future but wanted m son to get used to driving the truck first before giving him more power. The trucks seem to be made ver well even though I am not to sure I am sold on the single shock design as the savages have the two shock setup and I can jump those things 20+ft with no hiccups and we all know kids will do whatever dadd does.

RE: Caldera 10e
 

with the studdering, is it only at very low throttle input?
some brushless systems have what we call "cogging"
the ESC has to read the rotor position in the motor, and at very low RPMs with a high load(ie, a MT) that will cause it to studder.
as long as it doesnt do it above 1-2mph you have nothing to worry about.
if it does its really bad. LMK. there are some things we can check

this vid shows cogging:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKzS-RB7nVA&feature=related[/youtube]

RE: Caldera 10e
 

some decent lipos:
http://cgi.ebay.com/7-4V-4200mAh-30C...item2a0be5e1a7

even better IMO:
http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/s...dProduct=14980

the charger i have:
http://cgi.ebay.com/iMAX-B6-Lipo-NiM...item415144e3f5

RE: Caldera 10e
 

A fellow Virginian.............. How do you like the Earthquake?  I went a got a great lipo charger at my LHS but depends on what you want to spend.  Hobby king has some great deals on batts right now.

RE: Caldera 10e
 

lol thats exactly what my bandit does!!!! what im guessing is its my battery, but i will have to see. it goes a foot and then stops. goes a foot and then stops. idk must be the battery.

RE: Caldera 10e
 

brushless systems do put higher demands on batteries. a low-charged nimh pack can cause hesitation and lack of power. how long did the nimh pack charge on your charger before you tried it in the truck?

on the single shock design, you are comparing the very heavy savage(good truck no doubt!) to a much lighter MT that the caldera is. not saying a quad shock setup wouldnt have been nice. but since the caldera is much lighter its not nessasary like it is in the savage.
also, the savage has more shock travel. the more the travel, the greater the stress on the stocks.

also, i recomend anyone with a caldera 10e get the ESC program card: http://cgi.ebay.com/Hobbywing-EZRun-...item2eb28b7eb2

it will let you adjust LVC voltage, motor timing, drag brake, braking force, reverse power, initial punch and more. its much easier than using the radio to set those functions.

RE: Caldera 10e
 

My brushless Rustler and Slash do the same thing.

RE: Caldera 10e
 

I let the batter charge for about 30 min on the twin peak charger. It is the stock batter. I was also reffering to the Aftershock on the twin shock setup. These are brand new trucks and this was the first run. It studders the whole time. I was reading as much as possible but dont see anthing that would be the cause except for the batter not being charged all the way I was thiniing about tring one of the earthquakes lipos to see if it still does it. An help is greatl appreciated. Thanks guys!!
Matt

Nitro sport will that cable work for both the caldera and the earthquake?
Thanks

RE: Caldera 10e
 

caldera only. there is a program card for the ezrun 80amp ESC in the earthquake. youll have to look on ebay or i think urchobby.com has it?

it very odd that you got 2 new trucks that do the same problem. does the steering act up at all?
if you could post a vid on youtube and provide a link that would help.
i assume you already looked at the wires connecting the motor to the ESC and made sure they are plugged in tight.

so, the earthquake studdered as well....running the stock lipos?

also, check the gear mess of the motor pinions to the spur gear. too tight may cause the issue.

RE: Caldera 10e
 

No just the Caldera was acting up. I haven't ran the Earthquake yet. I belive it is the battery was not fully charged I tied it agian after charing uo the batter even more and it seems to be better. I am new to the burshless thing and lipos so an help is greatl appreciated. Can somebod please explain all the numbers and sizes in lipos as I want to make sure to get lipos that will not be too strong for the caldera and or the earthquake. For instance I know the MAH will give ou monger runtime. What is C? Cells? and what does it effect. I want to get the biggest longest runing batteries for both without damaging anything. Also what is the max volts for both trucks if anone knows off the top of thier heads. Like I siad please excuse m ignorance as I am completl new to brushless and I just dont want to wats m money buying the worng stuff.
Thanks again

RE: Caldera 10e
 

ill try to give you a crash course in lipos!

MAH is runtime, or capacity.

"C" is the discharge rate. the higher this number, the more "punch" the lipo can put out. for 1/10 scale rc's, you want 20c or higher.

now, the MAH and "C" work together. a 20c 3000mah lipo will not give the same runtime as a 30c 3000mah lipo. why? the "C" rating is how much punch the lipo can put out. the more it can put out, the less draw on the battery. thus, slightly longer runtimes.

2s lipo is 7.4v. each cell has a nominal voltage of 3.7volts. the cells cannot be drained below 3.0v. that is why the ESC's have a LVC(low voltage cuttoff)
it will cut power to the motor when it detects the lipo's voltage to be 6.2-6.4volts total.

a 3s lipo is 11.1v.

lipo charger also "balance charge" meaning they make sure at the end of charging that both cells have the same voltage.
when a lipo is finished charging, each cell should have 4.1-4.2 volts.


now, lipos dont slowly drop in voltage like nimh packs do. as you run a nimh pack, you will notice less power, untill the battery is almost drained and it takes a huge drop in power.
with lipos, you get almost the same power from beginning of run, until the end with the LVC cuts power.

for the caldera and the earthquake i would get a 2s 30c 5000mah lipo packs(2 for the 8E)
on the earthquake, the 2 lipos are added together, totalling 14.4volts at 30c and 3200mah.(voltage doubles, not runtime)
so a pair of 2s 30c 500mah lipos will put out about the same power, but give greater runtimes.

now, on the caldera, a 2s 30c 5000mah lipo will be a big power increase. and runtimes will be 25 minutes or so.

lastly, lipos are not as heavy as nimh counterparts. just one more small advantage!

if the stock nimh pack didnt fully charge, it will indeed cause studdering.
when i 1st went brushless i found that my nimh packs didnt cut it. lipos are soo much better for the job.

RE: Caldera 10e
 

You can actually do the esc setting without the card and it is not too difficult.  I have a volcano exp pro and it came with NiMH battery that would act just like yours. After downloading the program instruction from hobbywing I realized that the esc was set for Lipo.  I changed the setting to no voltage protection and it ran till the battery was dead.  Download the pdf instructions on the the hobbywing site it is very easy to do.  I just upgraded to the 2s 5000mAh 20C battery by zippy and what a difference.  The power is there from the time you start till the cutoff voltage hits and it takes awhile.  I had bought a good charger that does the discharge and charge and those two together worked wonders.  I was able to get 2400mAh out of a 2000mAh battery, it helped for sure.  Check out this link for help with understanding lipos it has great information.  I am new to the hobby and still learning but soak up as much as possible on here.  Hope this helps!</p>


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RE: Caldera 10e
 

i had also wondered if maybe the ESC came with LVC turned on. but it shouldnt cause studdering. it go into LVC mode. 1st it will limit power to %50. that could cause some studdering. but it wouldnt last to long before the LVC cut power to the motor all-together.

RE: Caldera 10e
 

Do you know how I can get my hubs off my s30 volcano. Everyone of them appears to be stuck and striping the hex screw when I try to remove them. I bent a dogbone after getting the truck tuned and can not remove them. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

RE: Caldera 10e
 

Nitrosport

I really appreciate all of the knowledge. It is people like ou that really help a hobby grow. Thank ou ver muchj I will know be looking at buing 3-4 (2s 30c 5000mah lipo's). Thank you so much if there is ever anything I can do to repay the favor of the knowledge please dont hesitate to ask.
Thanks again!!
Matt
Ebackus - our link didnt work if ou can repost that would be great but I believe nitrosport gave me the knowledge that I need to make some purchases, an more knowledge ma make me dangerous.. LOL
Also I am new to Redcat's vehicles I wouldnt have the slightest idea how to remove the hubs. If ou want to dismantle or put together a savage that I can help with.. Sorry wish I could help.

RE: Caldera 10e
 

Sorry the link did not work. I am still new on here. Understanding Lipos I reposted the link to see if I can get it to work.

RE: Caldera 10e
 

Hey twobnvd, looks like that 'Y' on your keyboard is messed up! :)

Anyways, I got this program card for my Caldera: http://www.hobbypartz.com/led-progra...hless-esc.html only $7.

At hobbypartz, you can purchase low cost LiPo batteries (4000mAh) for $25 or less.

I too have switched to Deans Connectors and I only use the NiMH when my LiPos are down/charging.

I have the same charger as nitrosportsandrunner and I love it. Got it at HobbyKing. It didn't come with an A/C Adapter though. I have to use the one from my laptop.

RE: Caldera 10e
 

Jhawk19
You are VERY observant. You are correct on one of my pc's the Y button is acting up. Thanks for the input I belive it sounds like a good lipo charger for me and I will check into purchasing it. ALso thanks for the good link on cheap lipo's

RE: Caldera 10e
 

hey nitro. my calderas' motor timing is set to 15 degrees. how would my adjusting it effect preformance and what would be the results of my run time? also are there any side effects i should be aware of?

RE: Caldera 10e
 

i have messed with the motor timing settings with the ezrun 35amp system and motor that i had in a on-road car.
the higher the timing, the slightly higher top speed i seemed to have. however, the higher the timing the greater the drain on the batteries.
i run all my ESC's at zero timing. the gains of increased motor timing just dont seem to be worth the strain on the motor/battery IMO.

but it wont hurt anything to adjust the motor timing setting and test the truck on different settings. you may find you like increased or decreased motor timing. its more of a preference thing. the adjustments dont make a huge difference in power/speed tho.

think of it like adjusting the timing in a real car motor(older models with a rotor)
when you advance the timing on a car, you increase the HP and torque at a lower RPM value. there is no real increase in HP or torque, it just changes the curve to bring up those values at a lower RPM.
sorta the same with the motor timing on the ESC. kinda changes the HP curve. but like on a car, changing it can decrease gas milage(or runtime.)

RE: Caldera 10e
 

you seem like a good person to know. i appreciate your time and am sorry to keep pestering. hope to keep communicating in the future.