rmdhawaii

iTrader: (4)

What would be the best way to get smart about EP TC cars? Is there a Web site or book? I'm looking for this type of info:

- Battery options
- All about ESC including brushed, brushless, bushed/brushless combos
- Wiring
- Initial setups an ESC for carpet/asphalt
- Adjustments the ESC for better performance
- Running foam on carpet and asphalt
- Running rubber on carpet and asphalt
- Gearing differences between running on carpet and asphalt
- Diff maintenance between events
- Motor selection, gearing and planning for the future
- Motor temps and why motors get burned out
- Brushed to brushless equivalents

etc...

Thanks

Marcos.J

iTrader: (239)

you can find all this info here on RCTECH!!

rmdhawaii

iTrader: (4)

You know what I mean.

TL_XXX-S_racer

You could ask your local hobby shop
If not. Just ask away on rctech. Im sure there is enough sources on here, that you can find info.

imjonah

ALSO The R/C Car Bible: How to build, tune and drive electric and nitro-powered radio control cars on and off-road (Paperback)
by Robert S. Schleicher (Author) is fairly recent decent introduction.

back issues of RC Mags good source also.



Amazon

http://http://www.amazon.com/Car-Bib...5160418&sr=8-1

Frost99999

iTrader: (4)

Its definately a good question...Im new to RC racing and despite reading this forum A LOT I still have tons of questions. Ive scoured the internet and answered some things, but some sort of book or something would definately help.

Oh, and xxx main's touring car guide is pretty helpful if you dont have it already

So yeah, somebody on this board should write a book that answers all those questions! Id buy it!

razzor

Team Xray has good info in there manuals and thier setup manual is a must have in the tool bag.

rmd theres a lot of info even more than the onroad gas so good luck and im sure its going to be a KB of note

rough512

iTrader: (12)

I've browsed that book in one of our local bookstores.

It's really packed with info for new enthusiasts. Loads of how-tos, illustrations. Very good reading. Makes a good coffee table book too.

rmdhawaii

iTrader: (4)

Thanks guys. I appreciate your input.

rmdhawaii

iTrader: (4)

I took Marco's advice and started going through the electric on-road thread from the beginning - some 450+ pages ago, starting from August 2001. I didn't read every post - only the specific items of interest that pertained to my involvment in EP. Going through all this stuff is pretty brutal and would probably take most people 40-48 hours.

Did I answer my own questions? I'm much smarter than I was a week ago, but I'm certainly no expert.

In any case, below are some notes that I took while going through the info, that some people may find helpful. I didn't have to take notes for some things - as I read similar questions and answers so many times, some of it is already committed to memory. If you have anything to add or comment on or correct, please do.

Links:

Team Novak Technical INformation:
http://www.teamnovak.com/Tech_info/

Team Novak Battery Care:
http://www.teamnovak.com/products/ba...tery_care.html

Pro-Match Racing
http://www.promatchracing.com

Gear Chart Generator
http://www.gearchart.com/

Pinions and Spur Gears:
http://www.precisionracingsystems.com

New Novak Stock Brushless Thread:
http://www.rctech.net/forum/showthread.php?t=120582

Ball Differentials:

(fatdoggy) When you build a ball diff initally the aim is for it to be tight enough so that it dosn't slip(i.e. hold the outdrives and try and turn the pulley) but also for it to be as smooth as possible(smooth as in hold the pulley and move an outdrive and it should move smoothly). When you tune diff's you may want the diffs to slip a bit, but for initial setup when working from scratch I'd say just set them up so they don't slip.

Batteries:

(ZERO1) In general, the higher the amp rate you charge at, the more punch you'll receive but you'll sacrifice some runtime

(popsracer) From past experience a pack with 1 bad cell:

1) Will usually end up with a substantially higher ending voltage.
This is because as the cell is ending it's life cycle, the I.R. is increasing inside.

2) Runtime (or Charge time) will be considerably lower that what you've seen in the past. The bad cell will cause the entiire pack to false peak. Raising the Delta or Amp rate only risks damaging the entire pack.

3) The voltage meter test is not sufficient to weed out any bad cells.
The only way to test for a bad cell is to disassemble the pack and cycle each one individually then record the numbers. The bad cell(s) will be obvious with much lower (time) numbers.

Unless you are using Matched cells in your packs, charging at more than 5 amps is asking for an early failure.

() Battery brace or tape? TAPE!

() Discharger: Novak Smart Tray SE #4510

(Steve Weiss) [ How to put your batteries on the Smart Tray ]
http://www.rctech.net/forum/showthre...93#post2344093

Chassis Flex:

(Unregistered) A stiffer chassis will work better if it is set-up properly given a consistent racing surface. The set-up "window" where the car works is smaller because suspension changes have more affect on the car.

A more flexible chassis will often work better when the track is slick or inconsistent because spring and shock changes have less affect. The set-up window is larger but the chassis won't ever be "perfect". Sometimes this can make the lap times faster.


Chassis Prep:
http://teamcrc.com/team_crc_raceway/chassis.htm

Connectors:

Deans Plugs

(Jericsm) When soldering deans plugs, plug them together so the tabs will not move through the plastic.

Driving Tips: Lots of good info here for new racers!

- Faster corner speed like pro: http://www.rctech.net/forum/showthread.php?t=4935

- http://www.rctech.net/forum/showthread.php?t=23717
- http://www.rctech.net/forum/showthread.php?t=16186
- http://www.rctech.net/forum/showthread.php?t=97662
- http://www.rctech.net/forum/showthread.php?t=93090


Final Gear Ratio:

([spur] / [pinion]) x [internal drive ratio] = [final gear ratio]

Gearing:

(Sosidge):

- To get more top speed, fit a larger pinion or a smaller spur.
- To get more acceleration, fit a smaller pinion or a larger spur.
- Be wary of gearing too high as you may overheat the motor and spped controller.

(Claydoh): A smaller pinion would give more low end and a larger would have more top speed. On a tight track you would need the low end to get out the corners faster. Different motors would use different gears at the same track.

(?) If you are looking for the most acceleration, you would not want to go with a small spur anyway. For more acceleration, you want a higher final drive ratio, which means you want a small pinion and large spur. It has more to do with leverage.

Imagine trying to turn a steering wheel on a real car. The bigger the steering wheel is, the easier it will be to turn.

(Matt Howard) The less teeth on a spur the lower the gear ratio so you will have more top speed, the more teeth the higher the ratio so you will have less top speed. Just remember that spur devided by the pinion multiplied by the transmission ratio is your overall ratio.

Motors:

(ZERO1): ROAR legal stock motor is 27 turn 24 degree.

(Alvin): The lower the turns of the motor the faster the straight line speed will be... in general.

(popsracer): Modified is everything with less turns except for 19 turn is sometimes called the "Spec" class. A 27 turn, Rebuildable stock motor should be faster than the 19 turn that came with your car.

(ijnek): Lower turns = faster motor

(ijnek): The lower the wind,the faster the acceleration but lower top speed.

Pinions:

64P allows for finer adjustment but is harder to mesh. 48P is more durable than 64P.

Radios:

How radios work:
http://www.torreypinesgulls.org/radios.htm

Ride Height:

() Asphalt: 4-5mm, 6mm on tracks with cracks in them

Rollout:

() ([tire diameter]*3.14)/[Final Gear Ration] = Rollout

(ZERO1) Rollout is a calculation to determine the best possible gear ratio to a track for a certain motor. Say you went to a permenant track that you never raced on before. Rather than going to each hometown track racer and asking him what motor, tires, internal ratio, spur size, pinion and what pitch he's using and then go calculate up the final gear ratio they're running for each racer, it's alot easier to say "what is a good rollout for the 19T class?" After you know that, you know where to start on gearing your car for their track. It saves alot of ink, paper, time and frustration. Rollout is almost the same thing as asking what final gear ratio everyone's running, except that tire size is calculated into the equation which results in whats called rollout.

(IMPACTPLAYR) Roll-out- how far the vehicle will actually move with 1 revolution of the motor. This does not take into account free rolling. SO....

A larger tire will have a larger circumfrence, which means 1 revolution will carry the vehicle farther, so we gear up (smaller pinion) to achieve the same roll-out.A smaller tire will have a smaller circumfrence, which means 1 revolution will carry the vehicle a shorter distance, so we gear down (bigger pinion) to achieve the same roll-out. Also remember roll-out is only a good starting place. different equiptment such as motors, batteries, and even speedos (to some extent) can have an impact of gearing. So when you come across a new track layout what you wanna do is ask someone who is fast for their roll-out. from there you gear the car and go thru your normal "feel-out" to get the best ratio for your application. Usually you will be within a tooth or 2 once you use their roll-out.

Roll-out is much more important for foam tire racing, with rubber tire racing you can just assume your tires are within 1-2mm in heigth.... so gear ratio is all you need..... It helps alot to mentally or physically log the internal gear ratio of most of the popular car so all you really have to ask for is their pinion/spur which people are more apt to remember on the fly.....

As to why a small tire/big pinion would be faster this would only be true on a tighter tract where the reduced rotating weight would help with acceleration. However on a larger flowing track where you don't brake much a bigger tire/smaller pinion would help you carry more speed which would be more of an advantage........

Schotty diode:
http://www.teamnovak.com/Tech_info/m...o/SCHOTTKY.HTM

Soldering:

- 40 Watts minimum
- 60/40 rosin core solder (no acid core)

(Buda) The tip doesnt actually "wear" it gets oxidized and doesnt hold the solder well when you tin it to stay shinny and therefore doesnt transfer the heat as well. get a bunch of tissues and tin the tip then wipe it with clean tissue soaked in alcohol keep doing this untill hopefully the tip will be shinny again. if it doesnt the tip is worn/oxidized and need to be changed. Also dont use the sponge to clean the tip use dry clean tissue to clean it then "thermally shock" the tip with a clean wet sponge this prevents getting contaniments in the solder joint preventing dewetting and a bad solder joint.

(Buda) Roughing up the cells with sand paper or a file isnt a good idea. This leaves exposed base metal that will be open to corosion, and then added resistance and less amperage which = less power. all that is needed is a good cleaning with an ink erasor (the pink ones have an oil in them so they will keep solder from flowing properly) or something similar but nothing that will scratch the cells if you had to as a last resort would be VERY fine steel wool but an errasor is the best to use, what this does is remove any surface oxidation letting the solder wet better, which in turn also lessens the time spent soldering those $$$ NMh cells to the soldering heat and risking damage.

(ZERO1) The tip oxidizes more when the iron is on and there's no solder on the tip.

Swaybars:

http://www.rctech.net/forum/forumdis...=desc&page=366

Tires, Foam:

Width: Anything goes - 26, 28, 30
Diameter: Start at 59mm. Minimum is 55mm.

Tires, Inserts:

<< need to do some homework >>


Tires, Rubber:

Sorex as follows
28R - 68-84
32R - 81-96
36R - 96-151
40R - 120-170

Take OFF CS
CS22 - 32-86
CS27 - 50-122
CS32 - 68-140
CS37 - 104-158

- Sorex 36R for hot asphalt.

- Softer inserts give more grip
- Harder inserts give more precise steering


Track Dots:
http://www.teamlosi.com/Products/Def...rodID=LOSB1013

Wiring:

battery = female
motor = male
ESC battery side = male
ESC motor side = female

[Deans] Also make sure to look at the connectors for +/-. it will work either way, but the top of the tee shape should be set to positive.

Warnings:

Warning: With the newest IB4200 cells you MUST keep 500+ seconds of charge in them between weekend's of racing. If you do not this will cause runtime loss and possible bad cells and venting of cells.

rmdhawaii

iTrader: (4)

Yesterday, while I was at the book store, I had a chance to skim through The R/C Car Bible. It's a good book for those thinking about getting into R/C cars (on-road/off-road, nitro/electric) or just starting off, but it's not very in-depth. It's the basics in a well-organized and easy to read format.

As a side note, this is a very good wife/girlfriend book, so she can figure out where all that money goes and why you spend all that time working on the car and out at the track.