LJH

iTrader: (2)

I am not loyal at all, eBay, Kenon, Nitro Hobbies.

As far as my issues this was totally a traction thing. When the tires are working well I basically get no wheel spin when punching the throttle from a standstill. Last night I was able to lay down some tracks.....LOL. I think some of this has to do with temp and humidity but I think a lot of this is surface prep....I did not do a lot last night.

Cheers,
Jim

Billy Kelly

iTrader: (9)

EMU

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When I buy kyosho rubber, I buy bulk from the cheapest source. Bonsai hobby was my last recent purchase where I bought 10 packs of k20 radials for the rear, 4 packs 30 slick front, 2 pack 30 radial front, and 2 pack 40 radial front. The kyosho tires not losing performance in or out of the bag, means that these could be good for years. My last race I used tires that were opened and mounted 10 years ago.

PN tires I almost exclusively get from kenon. It's the only way to really know that you have the newest rubber.

when I mount tires, I label the wheel with the type of tire and sometimes date them. This makes it much easier when going through different pre mounted tires on race day to dial in front end traction.

eR1c

iTrader: (2)

I've been curious about the Mini-Z's ...no thanks to one of our members here on these boards (BillyKelly) -LOL, he keeps tempting me w/ photos of his track and cars!!

So I've been looking, why is it the same MR03's range in price from $175 down to $130?
The Mclaren F1 is only $130 whereas the Porsche for example is $175, -is the only difference the body?? or is there something else I am missing?
here is the link where I am looking:
https://www.amainhobbies.com/mr-03-m...s-trucks/c1954

this price spread seems consistent across various other sites as well as eBay.

PROMODVETTE

iTrader: (70)

Amain has some of those cars listed wrong. They are the newest MR-03 RWD and not Sports 2. The cars that are $175 and the Mclaren are all newest variation and the ones that are $170 are Sports 2. The only difference between the 2 you question is that the McLaren F1 doesn't come with bearings and the other kits do. I just got the McLaren and ordered my own bearings for way less than $45 lol.

McLaren - 32332W-B MINI-Z RWD McLaren F1 GTR White MINI-Z RWD MR-03 RS

Porsche - 32321W-B MINI-Z RWD Porsche 911 GT3 White RS

eR1c

iTrader: (2)

thank you!

LJH

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I am a newbie to the Mini-z's but having a ball. The cars are really well done and they take to tuning really well. Thanks to the guys on this thread I have learned that you do not have to spend a lot of money to get a well set up car, just some front springs, t-bars tires and I personally think the best bang for the buck is the MZ217 plastic rear motor pod with the dampener. One thing that may put me in the poor house are bodies....they are so well done and there are a lot of really cool bodies out there, unfortunately a lot of the bodies I like are discontinued and expensive when you find them. Seeing that you have a picture of a Porsche Fuch wheel I am guessing you are a Porsche fan....me too and I going to spend way to much money on a 935 body.

On the cars I did a bit of reading and research and for the ready set cars the RWD sport series seems to be the way to go. The transmitter is not great but not terrible. With that said I am really interested in the new series of cars that will use the Futaba 2.4 protocol so I can use my 3PV Tx.

Also, keep an eye on eBay, I got my MR03 RWD R8 for under $140 shipped. There are deals every now and then.

Cheers,
Jim

Cheers,
Jim

eR1c

iTrader: (2)

awesome thanks LJH,

yeah, I have an indoor garage track and have been using it for my 1/24th scale Carisma cars. I love the scale looks of the mini Z's ...and you called it I am a Porsche fanatic! I have a real 1:1 930 and love driving it whenever I get the chance. I have been thinking about a Mini Z, ...I have some money from some stuff I sold on eBay sitting in my PayPal account

Hey, do you know, will 1/24th scale model bodies fit the MiniZs (w/ some adjustment to mounting of course)? If so that seems like a much less expensive way to get the detailed bodies you want?

Billy Kelly

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eR1c

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wow! your right, that Carisma rally does look huge compared to your Miniz!!

LJH

iTrader: (2)

Hmmm....seem to have an issue.

Went to do some hot laps and the car will not go in forward but will go in reverse, steering works fine. I still have my first car which Kyosho never sent me the label for so I tried the Tx out of that with no change. the motor and all is stock and I have never held the throttle open while the car was stalled.

Any ideas?

Edit....just did the sniff test and it smells like I let the magic smoke out :-(. I am opening her up now.

So I opened her up....there is A LOT of crud on the board. Nothing totally sticks out except for the center FET has a little bump that the outboard one does not have. Are they both the same? I need to get my higher magnifying glasses to have a closer look.

I had to break out my 10X glasses to see what is going on. The FET's are 4606's and on the center FET on the "0" there is a very small "blister". I am not terribly knowledgeable when it comes to FET's. Does one control reverse and one control forward? If so does the center FET control forward? I have become pretty good at soldering after all these years but I would need a much finer tip to attempt to fix this but I want to give it a go. So, should I just stick with the stock FET's or should I try something else which would give me more overhead if and when I want to try a faster motor?

Thanks.

Cheers,
Jim

EMU

iTrader: (3)

That really sucks to hear. The fets are in a sense dual channel. One channel runs forward, the other reverse. If you notice in the picture, two legs on each fet go in one direction where two go the other. The output motor terminal side is essentially bridged to the pad.


Sounds like you burnt out one channel on the fet with the bubble. Typically, racers will call that the forward fet, because it always burns going forward when it goes. I would upgrade with something a little more substantial. 8858 fet has better feel than the 4562, but the 4562 can handle more amperage. If you can stack two of the original fet, then that might give you the best feel.

edit: looks like 4562 is discontinued. I would go with the 8858 https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/ON-Semiconductor-Fairchild/FDS8858CZ?qs=b4rH2LiNnwkwvvoJgpd3sg%3D%3D

LJH

iTrader: (2)

EMU,
Thanks for the info. I am surprised that the FET failed as well considering I am running the stock motor and there is no binding in the drivetrain. I do wonder if this stems from the fact that when I run the car I do so pretty continuously for an hour at a time in most cases.

Do you guys know if you can stack with the MR03 RWD board? The FETs are on only one side of the board and there are no traces on the top side. Looking at the board and the chassis I wonder if there is enough room to stack the FETs so that the board will sit in the recess of the chassis?

I just ordered 4 of the 8858's as well as a new soldering iron. My old iron is 15 years old and is fine for bigger jobs but the tip is no where small enough to do this job.

Thanks again.

Cheers,
Jim

EMU

iTrader: (3)

The big tip may make removal easy, but installation might be difficult. Does your big iron have temperature control?

it's been a long time since I've done any fet work, I'm sure you can find some videos to get a good idea of the procedure.

Removal in my opinionis the most important part. You don't want to keep the iron on for long periods of time. If you can work one side of the fet, lift it slightly, then work the other side... clean the pads well, and tin them. Tin the fet leve lightly as well with the same solder.

Line up the fet, and start with the output end of the fet first, since it doesn't matter if the output end legs get bridged, you just don't want the fet squirming when soldering the input legs. The input side is where the fine tip will really come in handy.

if you can't get it lined up well initially, but have tried a couple times, move to the other fet to allow chance for the traces to cool. It is easy to lift a pad if you continue to apply heat.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0utegUrDF4

LJH

iTrader: (2)