dbennett1130

Hey Everyone,

I'm just entering the hobby, and could not be more thrilled to be doing it. But I'm a little disappointed right now because I feel the sounds my RC truck are making cannot be right.

It's the Redcat Blackout XTE Pro. Please see the link for a video w/ sound.

**This site will not let me post the URL because I don't have enough posting history. If you go to youtube and search 'Too much grinding?' and filter last hour, it's my video by Dylan Bennett**

Is this normal? Is there any sort of break-in that might cure this? For now I'm staying off it, I don't want to make anything worse.

Thanks so much.

Skinny_j

iTrader: (17)

Does it do it all the time or just when you are taking off?

dbennett1130

At low speeds. So yes, from a start. It does seem to stop once the motor is fully engaged and moving. But with my finger off the throttle it happens, and going between forward and reverse, etc.

Zinergy

iTrader: (2)

It sounds excessive. Especially for 1/10 scale electronics with 32p gears and most likely a plastic spur.

Hobby grade rc cars do have noisy drivetrains. Friends and family ask me all the time if they're supposed to sound like that but I think yours is excessive. Though I have little experience with red cat. Have you checked gear mesh?

Billy Kelly

iTrader: (9)

Here’s link to the video guys.

https://youtu.be/L7jkrtG6pzI


It’s been quite awhile since I’ve seen a Redcat. So I can’t really judge how it should sound.

Igottabeme

Like Zinergy said its probably your spur gear pinion gear mesh. I would not run it anymore either without checking the gear mesh first. I have a redcat volcano so the motor mount and spur gear are probably the same. The brass pinion and plastic spur gear could both be getting stripped if you keep running it like that. You should take off the spur gear cover and check the gear mesh. A little bit of stuttering or cogging at startup can be normal. But just rolling by hand and making that noise sounds like gear mesh. If you can I would loosen up the motor on the motor mount to seperate it from the spur to eliminate the motor and pinion from being the problem. I also had a grub screw on the center driveshaft diff cup come loose and cause some chatter and make a not so nice indention in my motor.

Bri

I am pretty sure your Blackout is fine. Most likely what you are hearing is the backlash with the metal drive train and some cogging with the sensorless motor. It certainty wouldn't hurt to check the gear mesh. Basically, while holding the pinion gear, the spur gear should have very small amount of wiggle. Rotate the spur gear and check it in a few places. It should never be locked (no play) or have excessive play between the gears.

Best regards,
Brian

dbennett1130

Thanks for the help guys, I've stripped her down to the access the spur gear. I will try to post the vid here again but if it wont let me, ill post it in the comments of the actual Youtube link that Billy Kelly kindly posted.

Thanks for the help.

*No go on the URL, ive posted it in comments of the first vid.*

Also another Redcat user commenting on the first vid seems to think this is normal. Hmmm...I hope I'm not creating all this hubbub out of nothing.

EDIT: Thank you Brian, making me feel better about going for it. If one of y'all can let me know that Mesh looks good, I think I will.

Igottabeme

The center driveshaft moving between the front and rear diff cups is normal. The sound is coming from the spur gear pinion gear. If those are metal gears than that sound is normal.

RazorRC

iTrader: (5)

I think it sounds OK. Do it in the air a few times, full throttle/full brake. As long as it doesn't sound like something really nasty in the air, I think you're OK. Diffs could probably use a little shimming (RTR is rarely properly shimmed), but not something I would worry about.

billdelong

iTrader: (33)

+1

sounds perfectly normal to me too, sounds nice and smooth on power, that's where you want to listen for any crunchy/binding sounds is when the car is accelerating.

Sensorless electronics will also tend to cog when driving slow, try to use at least 50% throttle so you don't overheat your ESC with excessive slow driving.

Zinergy

iTrader: (2)

I considered cogging as well but it makes the noise when he just rolls it by hand... without using the electronics.

Are both the pinion and spur gear metal? Or is the spur(bigger gear) plastic? Getting gear mesh mostly correct, for people who don't know what they're looking for I'd suggest the paper method. Put a piece of paper between the gears, push the together. Roll the spur to feed the paper out a bit to make sure the paper has gear grooves in it but isn't so tight it tears the paper. Then tighten down the motor and roll the paper the rest of the way out using the spur to ensure it didn't get to tight or loose. There are youtube videos on using this method.

Some people don't agree with the method but this is how I got my friend to stop eating spur gears in his 2wd SCT. Now he hasn't destroyed one in months.

It might just be this is a noisy drivetrain car. If you know everything is turning freely, is in it's place and the mesh is good then you have 2 options. Try to send it in for warranty or run it until something breaks and then fix it. The latter is a major part of the hobby.... WELCOME.

Corners

iTrader: (2)

Hard to tell by the video, but it sounds pretty normal for a 4x4 truck with a metal driveshaft. It sounds like cogging of the motor rattling the drivetrain. If you pull the motor out of the way and she rolls smooth, it’s good to go. Just check your pinion gear mesh and go run it.

Jeff_S

iTrader: (5)

Sounds fine to me. It's a combination of the 4wd drivetrain drag and the brushless motor.

tvih

Yup, my SCTE 3.0 makes quite a noise too when you push it. So did the SC10 4x4 even though it was belt driven and less metal gears!