Power

[Radar]

I've got a couple questions about the things that power your cars.

Is anyone running a brushless in their Pred, and if so, could you tell me what motor, possibly shoot me some pics of your setup (as I hear usually a platform needs to be built for the esc), and what pinion you are running for what kind of track? I hear that usually a smaller pinion is used for brushless.

Is anyone running Lipo in their Pred? Is so, could you tell me what you are running, and where you got the cells? I'm quite new to Lipo, and especially when it comes to running saddle pack Lipos.

Are there any Sub C cells that won't fit in the Pred? It's my understanding that some Sub Cs, especially when you get into the higher mah ratings, are sometimes wider and longer than lower capacity cells. I'm worried I'll buy some new cells and they won't fit.


Any other advice/information on the subjects would be appreciated!

Thanks guys!

[pro4nut]

Does brushless fit?

yes, Northy runs novak system with i believe the 5.5T motor
i have run the lrp system with the 3 star motor, it goes like stink but yes you need to make a shelf to fit on top of the steering servo to stop the esc rubbing the drive shaft when the car lands a jump. gearing i ran was a 22T pinion and origanol kit spur, had to run a larger pinion on advice of an lrp team driver to avoid thermal cut out issues.

if you intend to run lipo youwill need a sphere brushless competion esc not the origanol one as you need to run an esc with a voltage detector on board to prevent the cell running fully flat and killing itself.

pros of lipo long runtime
cons too expensive (most commercially available cells will not fit the pred) lipo cells are flat and then layered for an equvalent pack to a 6 cell sub c pack normally 2 cells sat on top of each other. these will not fit in a pred at all.

sub c cells are cheap and the pred fits 3700 and 3800 cells no trouble and will fit the even larger 4300 and 4200 as well as far as i know (not bothered to but them yet as i don't need the capacity) you only need 3800/3700 's for most uses.

brushed motors - can i recommend orion/peak V2 motors, and if you want a good one get a Spashett edition they spool up quicker and rev higher and cost the same, try a 12T single as a start, or a 10T single but expect not to use all the 'power' available. I started by running 19T and stock motors in my buggies to learn how to drive first.
Also,
get a fan, the pred gets hot, use a silver rich solder ( not that Deans C***) with a seperate flux.

Hope that helps.

[pro4nut]

Also LRP and NOSRAM are the eaxact same thing, same factory same mouldings for casings just a differant label and colour for the plastic.
This is just marketing spin to allow one company to sell the same products to more people.
Peak is just a label stuck on Orion products to help them sell products in the US which is a difficult market to sell non us products in.
HPI's cars are designed in Japan but branded to look American for this same reason.

[Radar]

Actually, just FYI, www.maxamps.com has informed me that within the week they will be releasing a 4000mah saddle pack. I asked because I thought maybe some other companies had already done lipo saddle packs, and maybe someone here already had experience with them. I've never ran lipo in anything (I have one pack for a plane I have yet to fly), so I'm in a fish out of water state when it comes to Lipos in cars.

I didn't know the Sphere doesn't have a voltage cutoff, glad I learned that before I bought Lipo, lol. I could always run a Low Voltage cutoff, but that's another 40 dollars. Maybe not worth risking blowing up batteries...

Thanks for the advice about the solder, I didn't know silver solder was better. Do you have any advice about battery bars? There's so many different kinds. Copper, Silver, Gold, Platinum... I know that Silver actually conducts electricity better than gold, but gold is more popular because silver tarnishes. I don't know what the deal is with Platinum. I assume copper is not an option.

I planned on getting some form of a heatsink with an attached fan, perhaps the one made by 3racing, although I'm not a big fan of them as they sold me a defective diff recently...

I actually spent a while searching for Nosram stuff here in America just because I like red more than blue, lol. Gave up because the prices for brand new stuff from Europe is so much higher than LRP here in the states. I ended up getting an LRP Sphere with a Novak 5.5r used. I figure if the 5.5 is too much motor I can always sell it.

The Novak GTB has a fan mounted on top of it, any way to achieve something along the same lines with the Sphere, or will it already get enough air being near that airduct on the body?

Thanks for all the advice so far, pro4nut!


I'll be happy to hear from anyone else as well!

[DirtRacer]

If you wanted answers regarding Lipos, theres a big fat thread in rctech.net, im sure going on there asking your questions regarding this matter would be more of benefit to you or not?.

[Radar]

Who said I'm not reading on there as well ;D? I like to get as many opinions/facts as I can before I make a decision. I don't just get my info from one source and make a judgment based on that. Bad things happen if you don't investigate first...

Also, I don't know of many cars aside from 4wd buggies that run 2x3 saddle packs, so it's hard to find info on saddle packing lipos. I figured who better to ask than the people who are in the same situation as me, 4wd buggy owners.

It's all new to me. Heck, even NiMH is relatively new to me.

[pro4nut]

To make it clear the sphere standard esc = low low voltage setting
the newer sphere competition does have it

still would not bother with lipo as chargers more difficult to acquire although the advantage version II is quite common

[pro4nut]

Sorry the sphere has a cooling kit you can buy for it

[chris burgess]

does anybody know about the Novak GTB's capability with Lipo power?

Does it have a voltage sensor in it? I have read the distructions, but have not noticed it mentioned anywhere...

[pro4nut]

I don't think it does Chris as it was developed at the same time as the sphere, with co operation with LRP.

You can buy, but i cannot remember where from an inline voltage detector with a failsafe cut out for use with older esc's.

[Radar]

I've actually already got a Lipo charger, lol.