EMU

iTrader: (3)

I don't think that they've come with those for years.

sammysy

I use a Sequre SQ-001 soldering iron with the TS-D24 tip. It gets the job done. What electronics are you planning to use for your PN build?

abailey21

iTrader: (37)

being you can buy both at one place the pine would be my choice. Its a different look but very similar to the TS100 iron which is easily powerful enough to wire 8th scale, let alone Z's. pick that up with the pine 65W power plug (which is something every person on earth should own by now if only to quick charge your devices)

I personally have the 1up branded TS100 with the pine 65W brick because i already owned the 100 but my pit buddy has the pine iron and it is just as good. Total comes in around $60 shipped. pine64.com

abailey21

iTrader: (37)

100% depends on what you're doing with it. For racing, box stock is the most cost effective way of entering. Change the tires, kingpin flip, maybe water dip the motor if you know about that and you're racing. If you're like most of us on RCT and have been racing other scales for a long while you could easily jump the box stock and go full noodle like an RX28, HW electronics package and LiPo. Maybe in trying to keep it super stock ish get a PN racing 2.5 chassis with either a standard ESC or use the Kyosho evo board and keep it a AAA car.

I've been running and racing since the 1980's and after the past almost 20 years of running brushless and LiPo and trying to push my cars as far as i could (not that i was good) I'm personally enjoying the simplicity of the AAA cars and I'm staying there. So I have a box stock car and a PN 2.5 and staying in the AAA lane.

BoxxerBoyDrew

Thanks for all the help and info on the soldering irons! For right now I've ordered the cheep iron EMU suggested, and I'll order a better one after tax returns come in.
As for electronics for the PN2.5 build, I'm trying to fight the urge just to put in a RTR board! BUT if I can hold off till next month(spent my fun money this month) I will be putting in a EVO Board(need to order), NB4 receiver (already have), and I'll get a PN70T and a brushless motor probably a 3500k since I only run the Mini96 Challenge. I have brass and delrin servo gears, and everything for a plastic MR03 front end, but i really dislike all the slop that it has, so if I can swing it I'll put on a PN Double A Arm aluminum front end!
Again THANKS for all the help, Take Care and stay COOL!
Drew

abailey21

iTrader: (37)

If you haven't installed the servo gears or have some downtime to rip into it again you should shim the stock servo saver. I bought every option for the stock front end and still had loads of slop. shimmed the saver and slop was gone. I have a PN servo saver but it was locked up out of the bag so I had to use my stock one.

MonkeyCmonkeyDo

iTrader: (4)

So the one im eyeballing is on ebay and is 27mhz does that matter? Its an older model?
I knew about the kingpin flips and cutting the excess off the bottom and id do a tire swap np.
The motor i would prob just upgrade or something rather than water run it. This will be for racing.
-d

BoxxerBoyDrew

I haven't installed the gears or PN saver yet, so I'll search for shimming the servo saver and go from there! THANKS!!! I'm waiting till I get my soldering iron in before tearing completely down. Those tiny wire connections make me nervous without a way to repair if damaged.

Traveler2

iTrader: (1)

If it’s an AM car, it’s probably an MR-01 or MR-02, and will never be able to compete with the newer 2.4 cars. Just get a new RWD ReadySet if you want to race it.

Billy Kelly

iTrader: (9)

I’m assuming it the car body that has you eye. There’s plenty of collectors in MiniZ. And you’ll find most own multiple vehicles.

Are they trying to get a box stock class going?

I don’t currently race MiniZ. But I race at a few 1/10 tracks trying to get it going.

Traveler2

iTrader: (1)

I haven’t been racing that long, but completely agree with this. I held off buying a 1/28 LiPo/brushless car until earlier this year and wish I hadn’t. I should have just gone back to 1/12 pan car instead. The 1/28 LiPo cars are too fast for the smaller tacks around me, and are probably too small on a track of the right size. I think their speed vs size is out of wack for this scale, and AAA power is more realistic.

Can you share more on this? I’ve been racing Mini-Zs for 15 years but not familiar with this. I only run the stock Kyosho saver.

Traveler2

iTrader: (1)

I’d recommend going out there and talking to the racers to find out what they are running and any possible class rules so you get what you need the first time.

You’ll need the 4PM Plus with Flysky module (HERE) to control the newer FHSS Mini-Zs. The older FHS, ASF and AM cars can’t be controlled with your Futaba.

abailey21

iTrader: (37)

I understand man, I just ripped off the servo motor wire by losing grip and "flicked" the board by mistake with my finger. Obviously easy to resolder but not having one would be suck.

I'm hoping I word this correctly, EMU will probably correct me if my terminology is incorrect lol

The servo saver as you probably know is an all in one design but acts just like the rotator shaft savers of larger scales, like on 8th buggies. They're assembled on a shaft and spring like their larger counterparts and spring tension is your "saver". I'm sure you know this, just spelling it out for those that don't. Unlike the larger ones this one is held together with a C-Clip. easy way to shim it is remove the C-Clip and add small spacers on the shaft to slightly compress the spring creating more tension and less play.

I'm sure someone else can chime in if I'm wrong, but that's how I was taught and it worked for me. I'm actually thinking about trying my PN saver again now that I worked all the rest of my bugs out in my car (shout out to EMU via FB for helping with that) which is a much tighter saver and shouldn't have any play.

I've come to the conclusion it had to be the saver because i have a full upgraded stock front end and still had play, and then ran the PN double A arm and still had the same exact play until I shimmed the saver. All my servo gears were swapped for delrin with the brass 4th on day 1

Traveler2

iTrader: (1)

Thanks, I'll give this a try next time I open one up. I also run the stock servo gears on all my cars, and have only replaced the 4th gear with brass on about 1/2 my cars. Seems like it was a bigger issue in the earlier days of the MR-03. None of my EVOs have broken the stock 4th gear.

EMU

iTrader: (3)

Shimming the saver, is adding preload to the spring on the saver so that it tightens up the action. I have had a few cars which I had a lot of slop, swapped the gears and still had slop. Added a shim to the spring on the saver to increase tension and it took a lot of that slop out. There will always be some slop in the Kyosho servo assembly, as you cannot remove all of it, but ideally you want to limit it to the minimum without binding.

Traveler, I spent a lot of time talking with Mike Morse as LiPo was being introduced to the scale, about how at the base level it was too fast. We were testing mostly on brushed cars, and a few brushless back in that time (2014). I had thoughts about using a BEC circuit between the 2S and ESC to restrict to 6v, as well as trying 1S (possibly with voltage booster). I was in and out of the hobby from then until about 2018 when the GLR released, and the biggest issue was packaging, as most of these circuits were the size of the ESC and we just didnt have space to make it fit comfortably. The other issues were the increase in tech inspection duties to monitor these electronics packages.

My thought was to try to put the Lithium batteries at the same relative speeds as AAA for the motors used. In this scale, the motors are best operated at 5-6v, going up to 8v (what I rate LiPo for the course of its race voltage drop when I calculate speed on my KV calculator), even the slowest available motors are just FAST on most small to medium sized tracks. Relatively speaking, 2500 on LiPo is almost as fast as AAA 2wd modified was when we were racing primarily AAA brushed classes. If you go back and watch some of the old 2wd modified videos. You can see that much of that speed does come in the corners now, more than power on the straight, showing that the tires we are using today have a LOT more grip, but also the cars have much lower CG which allows higher corner speeds and faster avg laptimes. However, this makes it harder to keep up with for an entry level, learning driver. Sure, its easier to drive in comparison because the grip is there compared to the old AAA mod cars on Kyosho rubber, but its still faster than I would want for entry level classes.