I'm still waiting on my upper links to arrive. They'll probably have an adverse effect on what I've been toying with this week. I can't see the benefit of the outer shock positions, unless one really needs the extra travel, or whatever it's there to provide. We run our dampers so short and the cars darn near bottomed out that extra travel is moot. I ditched the 1 degree "gold edition" toe plate as well. 1.5 total seems to be a good standard to work around. Anyway...

This week, I've been testing the different Ackermann settings provided by the Yeah Racing alloy steering set on my 05. I've tried everything from most to least. I'm very surprised to say that I liked the least possible amount. (tires turning almost equally) The car has tremendous turn in and sticks pretty well through the corners. The downside is that, combined with the 1 or 2 degrees of toe out I run on the front, the car is quite twitchy. It works for me, on our relatively tight carpet tracks. I'd imagine in a higher grip situation, it would be too much. The only downside I've found is the outside wheel, because of it's aggressive angle of attack, wants to caster itself one direction or another, or fold under the car. I may try a little more Ackermann next week to see if it tames it a bit. Not sure how much more glue I could possibly fit on a sidewall.

BTW: I do realize that what I've ben experiencing is backwards from what the instructions say, but I found the more aggressive setting, for low grip surfaces, made the car feel too tame and unwilling to cut a hard line into a corner.

http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w...ps1d56fb2d.jpg

Yesterday I had my first M03 race in months, this time not with a rental but with my own M03 :d. We used the Sweep MM30 tires and they are pretty nice!

Here's a couple of pics:
https://scontent-a-ams.xx.fbcdn.net/...93292554_n.jpg

https://scontent-a-ams.xx.fbcdn.net/...14679888_n.jpg

And here's the start of the last final:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=241436446021428

Also, please like the Tamiya International M-chassis Challenge page:
https://www.facebook.com/TIMChallenge

Monkey
The third one from the top would be for a Moderately High Grip Surface???

Yes, but I've found the outside grabs quite a lot on the lower two settings. It's a bit counterintuitive.

Has anyone tried a front mounted servo on the M05, like an M03 set up? I'm guessing the servo would have to sit up too high.

And why not just buy an M03? Well some people just like tinkering :D

Yesterday was the maiden voyage on our carpet track for our minis.We still had problems with the cut off. We swaped receivers etc but nothing seemed to work. We still could play 3-4 minutes so it was good.
It's really fun to play with those minis and we had a lot of people asking about them or older guys remembering racing them when Tamiya Greece had a race track in Athens.
We hope that we will have racing action soon here!

Now the bad news is i broke a shock head (top ball end) on my Yeah Racing shocks and i can't find a replacement anywhere. Does anybody know if another brand shock head fits?

Well hope to do testing with the CA'ed tread today. I ran and raced on the car yesterday and was still 2 wheeling or 3 wheeling around corners. But I never actually traction rolled :D. I gotta say I feel the car is getting really close now.

Jason

Yes. You can mount a servo (a mini would be best) sideways on top, using the Tamiya motor mounting plate as you attachment point. You'll end up with only one screw holding the servo. It's okay if you're not too crashy.

It does raise CG, but not by too much if you use a mini servo. My apologies for not having a photo of one actually installed. I got the idea from a car I was studying a few nights back with this adaptation.

http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w...ps8da763de.jpg

Here's what I'm toying with this week.

http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w...psc28477d5.jpg

Good day.

Update on the cut off on the minis with the stock electronics. (i am mekios' buddy).

My car has:

Cut wires from the motor and soldered the esc wires on the tabs of the silvercan (no bullets).
Bridged on-off switch (no switch).
Deans plug on the power esc cables (threw away crappy tamiya plugs).

Soldering was done with a station, all joints are shiny, not cold, no bubbles.

The car steers with a brushless futaba 351 servo and is controlled with sanwa m11 first gen (the one with the module) on 2.4 Ghz and the 92624 receiver.

The batteries are new (3000 Mah 25c from Absima) and are balance charged with Hyperion 730 charger.

I use the stock gearing with the 20T pinion and use ball bearings all around.

The motor was broken in on 4.5 volts for almost 40 minutes (powered from lrp pulsar 3 charger volt out ).

I do not experience cutoffs as usual as Mekios does. It did happen to me though some 6-7 times throughout 5 battery packs and i have to say it is quite frustrating. Mostly happened when cold, but not all the times.

I did some testing with a watt meter.

When sitting idle, i read 0.1A.
When operating the servo i read max 0.2 A (epas are set up)
With various throttle positions, i read from 1A to 8-9A with the wheels off the ground.
With full throttle and wheels locked (not spinning) Amperage went up and last number i saw before cutting off was 50A. When the esc cut off it had exactly the same blinking red led as we saw previously in the track. no throttle but servo was operating normally.

Unfortunately, I cannot have readings from when running the car.

Also i rewired the esc with the power switch and it is pending testing but i doubt it makes any difference, it is just easier to turn it on again...

Any input/ideas?

A new motor is on the way for testing without messing with it at all.

ps
this is my first post here, so taking this chance to introduce myself. Name is Nikos and i send you my best regards from beautiful Greece.

Cheers

Try installing a capacitor on the rx...

I still feel that the problem is with the esc. The problem with the Tamiya one is that some do work and others just do not. Logic should tell you that it's a "cheapie". Frankly, that's the first thing from the kit that goes into the trash followed by most of the screws.

Using a quality esc and servo makes life so much easier. Good ones will out last your car. Unfortunately, good brushed esc are not plentiful in the hobby shops. Unless you can find a used one, your selection is limited. Now this is just my opinion, but the best value is the Tekin FX. Here in the USA, it's $70-80. The best esc is the KO, but it's horrifyingly expensive especially if you get the setting module and card. The Tekin FX Pro is great, but the price tag is over $100 also.

There's something to be said for converting to a B/L motor and esc. The Novak Edge and the KO BLZ seem to be the most popular B/L esc. Locally the 21.5 motor is the most popular. The system used in Australia is less than $100 for the motor and esc. I have no idea where you can buy a Hobbywing combo since my usual suppliers do not list them.

Please, before anyone gets upset, I am referring only to brand new stuff that many R/C suppliers stock or can order for you. Yes, the LRP Q2 and 3 are great escs and so are some of the old Novaks. If you can find a new one or a good used one, buy it. Also, I don't like escs with a reverse so don't know or want to know about those.

The thing here is we are willing to keep the cost down so more people could join and create a class. So buying a new expensive esc that costs as much as the car itself will leave us with only 2 cars, mine and Mekios'. There are a few cheap brushed escs like the HW ezrun which is even cheaper than the tamiya that could probably work though.

I agree the esc might be junk, but 2 out of 2 is quite strange!

Anyways, before deciding on buying a new one i am willing to try with what we have.

The capacitor to the receiver mentioned above... Should i plug it in to a spare receiver channel?

However I still have steering, even at the time of the cutoff.

As a general observation, this cutoff happens when the throttle trigger is at around 10-15% and not on full throttle.

I agree with your goals to keep costs down and encourage more people to race Minis. Good luck with that and sorry that I couldn't help out with ways to make the Tamiya kit esc work. I'm not sure that wiring a cap to the receiver would help. Maybe to the motor or esc, but don't think that will alleviate the type of problems you're having.

TC have gone to B/L motors, so we were able to buy used, quality brushed esc from the TC guys. The kit esc either works or doesn't. Having 2 bad ones is not unusual.

Do you have a capacitor on the ESC? All of the brushed ESCs that I have encountered have one on the motor line, alone with small caps on the motors themselves. Granted, I'm running 10-20 year old M03s, but it's still a thought.

Tamiya ESCs don't usually need a capacitor. At this point, you might consider finding a either a used unit, or a cheaper new one. RCMart still has Moped V16s in stock for $30. eBay is a good source for new and used stuff for $30 and under.

Sadly, there aren't a lot of affordable brushed ESCs available in the US anymore, so the Hong Kong dealers are probably your go to. Maybe search with an eye towards the trail truck side of things. Those guys use tons of cheap brushed ESCs on their rigs. Maybe look at RC4WD.com