Drag Brake in pan cars
 

So I've never been able to set drag brake in any of my pan cars, either 1/12 th scale, F1 or WGT, but especially in a 21.5 F1. Please devise what you do and list the equiptment. For fuel on road it's so much easier! I always did without it in electric, bu I'm getting older and som drag brake will help. In electric, mt cars just roll when the radio is at neutral.

I'm using a KO Helios radio, throttle and brake end points are each set at 100% when I set he speedo. I'm now using th hobby wing just stock speedo. But never able to get the drag brake set with other speedos. Once the radio is set I turn down the brake EPA to about 60%, just enough no to lock up the rear wheels under full push brake.

So I guess I'm trying to figure are do you dialin drag brake through the radio or in the speedo. I tried turning up the drag brake setting in the speedo to 60%, bu I still don't feel anything. Please offer som suggestions. I must be missing something in m settings. Thanks

You can leave your brake at 100 on your radio. There is a drag brake setting in the speedo itself. If you have the HW/Orion program box it is one of the settings you can change. First thing is, do you have the program box? If not get the HW one as its only like $20. You can change all sorts of things with it that are really useful in a pan car. Once you set the drag in the speedo re-calibrate your radio with the radio brake and throttle at 100%. You should start feeling the drag, however; I have used a justock in F1 and VTA and I never felt the drag brake was very strong.

I always adjust drag brake at the transmitter using the throttle trim. There are two advantages to doing this:

1) I can change the setting instantly from the transmitter.

2) Setting drag brake on the ESC means the brake will instantly engage at the drag brake setting when I lift off the throttle, which can unsettle the car on corner entry. The action is much smoother when the drag brake is set with the throttle trim, since there is a gradual transition from power to coasting to brake engagement as I lift off the throttle. Imagine the reaction you would get from a real race driver if you told him that as soon as he touched the brakes, they would engage at 30% (for instance). He'd probably refuse to get in the car!

One drawback to setting drag brake with the transmitter throttle trim is that many ESCs won't "boot" unless the throttle is at neutral. My work-around is to set the receiver fail-safe position to neutral, then power up the car before the transmitter.

On the hobbywing setting drag brake is a two step process.
First, set your dragbrake between 0- 100 %, then you have to go to the" initial brake"setting and enable initial brake = drag brake.
If the second step is not done drag brake won't work.
Also update the juststock/extreme stock firmware to the V3_508 it has much better brakes.

On the just stock make sure your reverse speed is set to 100% as well. Even if you are not running reverse it needs to be set like that in order for the brakes to work. Dont know why, it just seems to be that way. Also like stated above initial brake = drag brake

Thanks guys, all good recommendations and have me thinking. I like the ability to adjust the drag through the radio, similar to a gas car but will also experiment with the speedo. I have the HW data box to change to profiles in the speedo, but was unaware the HW Just Stock speedo coul have a software update. I bought this speedo for simplicity and to run TCS in blinky only mode. I will look into a software upgrade, but being a Mac user, I doubt I can upgrade.

I'm wondering if it's the 21.5 and 25.5 motor that provide little drag break effect? There is plenty of brake when I use push brake.

All brakes are directly affected by the motor that you are running. I have worked a lot with the HW products and found their drag brake settings to be effective and an excellent tuning option. I do recommend that you use the two or four capacitor board with that esc. It greatly helps the brakes.

My finesse on the trigger is much better on the throttle than the brakes, I only use brakes for 'oh shit' moments and intentional 180's, and sometimes not even then. I think a lot of racers are in this same boat, but driving like this means that any time I'm racing a motor hotter than a 17.5 in pan car I have to turn down the max brake so the car can't lock up the rear axle and loop out under braking. Aside from that, I would recommend setting drag brake with your radio trim, but running 17.5 or even 13.5 I never needed any, scrubbing speed isn't a good thing in stock pan car.

Can you recommend a good capacitor. I have a few laying around the house but have never used them. Are they se as the shotky diode. I have one from ok laying around.

I have found that the closer to a 1:1 FDR you get, and the more turns a motor has, the less effect the speed control drag brake has, I think most, even at 100% is still only a small percentage of total brake force, so if you have it turned all the way up and its still not enough, it may not be your fault ;)

Drag Brake
 

This subject is all to near to me for several reasons. The last asphalt race with the help of a friend I added drag brake in my USGT car. I noticed and felt the increase. However, in a previous asphalt race with my F1 car the effect may have increased rear wheel hop mid field??? So maybe the drag brake may not be a viable option in a two wheel pan car such as F1? I hope to test this out Sunday?

Usually in pan cars, drag brake can help with initial steering but usually not needed due to the grippy nature of foam tires. On the other hand I have found drag brake very valuable with dialing in my F1 rubber car. A little drag brake can greatly increase turn in consistency.
you can check the effect by revving the motor off track and releasing the throttle. The wheels should slow in various degrees of aggression depending on the speedo settings. I usually set the drag brake somewhat weak and then fine tune the effect with the throttle trim.

A little off topic but in the 1980s I realized that there were no good options to make the brake trigger sensitive to pressure, so the braking force was tied in with distance travel of the trigger forward. Now, many years later, does anyone know if a radio out there ties in brake force to the force (not distance) applied to the trigger at the end of the travel? I know it can be done now because my MIDI keyboard has pressure sensitive keys.

That would be pretty cool! Now I have a new project... :sneaky: