Mamba Monster X "MMX" and 1515 powered Summit!
 

So not to long ago the stock ESC (EVX-2) in my Summit failed. And after a lot of research I settled on the MMX as its replacement. I had planed to run the ESC with the DeWalt 14.4v motor I already had. But when I was at my LHS to buy the ESC they had a good deal on it with the 1515 2200kv motor.
I was a little hesitant as I did not want to give my ability to crawl, and I was not sure how the truck would perform with the non sensored motor.

I took my time, and got every thing installed and did the initial set up on the ESC. Bench tested it and every thing checked.


So I took the Summit out for a little over an hour of bashing last night!!!!!!!


So Ill start off by saying I am vary VARY impressed with this system!
It crawled almost as good as stock in both 1st and 2nd grear. It will cog a little if you try to go supper supper slow. But giving it just a tiny bit more throttle stops this without making the truck go much faster, or jump forward. Really easy to adapt to. It almost never cogged in the first half of my run, and by the last half I had figured it out and had NO cogging at all! I think that I can make a small change to the throttle mapping and remove almost all cogging by changing the low throttle ramp up.

Its power was perfect! It had a bit more then stock power, but was not so much that I was in fear of braking the truck. And it had a little higher top speed then stock with near stock gearing in 1sr gear. (I geared it 13/62)

In 2nd gear it had plenty of go! But again not to much. It topped out around 28mph, had the power to get the front wheels off the ground, but again not so much that I had to fear it would brake at any second. It was vary smooth in both 1st and 2nd gear. And my run time was increased by a lot more then expected. I'm not sure how much at this point as I was not able to fully drain my packs as it got dark before I ran out of juice. But that was by far the longest run I have ever gotten out of those packs.
Ill post up how much of the packs I used when I charge them. (I'm using 9,400mah SMC 2s Lipo packs that are about a year old, and have about 25 runs on them at this point.)

My running buddy ran threw a set of stock Traxxas batteries, and a set of 5000mah 2S Lipos and I still ran for another 15 min or so before we called it do to light.

I am SUPPER happy with this system!!!!!!!!!

I plan to make a few small changes to the settings in the ESC at this point. And a change to the gearing.

First the ESC settings.
Right now I have the punch control set to 60%. I think this a little to conservative. I could get the front wheels off the ground, but not right off the line. I had to get moving to a point where the punch control started to roll off. So I plan to dial it back to 50%. I think that will be perfect as I was close to getting the front wheels up in the air from a standing stop, but fell just short. Seeing as the stock system can pull them up from a standing start this should not cause any problems.

Next will be the above mentioned change to the throttle mapping to smooth it out a little and remove the little bit of cogging it did have. (Vary little.)

I plan to change the drag brake from 10% to 20%.

And last will be to back the brakes off another 10% from where it is now. (I think its set to 50%) The truck endowed really easy under braking. And the brakes came on to fast, so a small change to the braking curve will also help fix this.


ESC settings are critical for a non sensored brushless system to work well in this truck without giving up the ability to crawl, or adversely effecting the reliability of the truck. Get them right and this thing is a BLAST with out braking it at every turn.

Gearing is just as critical to this truck working well with a non sensored brushless system as the ESC settings.

For the gearing change I plan to move to 13/60. This should increase my top speed by 1mph with out much if any effect on my ability to crawl. My reason for this change is mostly do to the slipper clutch. In top gear if I hooked up it would slip really bad. But I could not tighten it any more as I had the spring bottomed out already. This slipper is not new, and is about done anyway. It has well over 50 runs on it, and I have not been nice to this truck.
I want to move to a Robinson Racing slipper and the best fit for my truck will be the 60t model.

I plan to test this gearing before I order the RR system. If it doesn't work good, my back up plan is to go to 14/65. This will give me a .8mph increase in top speed. 60t and 65t are the largest two options RR makes for this truck. So one of them has to work with the above gearing or I will have to back the pinion down and lose a little top speed to make it work if I want to run that slipper clutch.


The new Savox SW-1211SG Water proof steering servos LOVED 6v! They where faster, and had no problems turning the wheels even when they where a little bound on logs, rocks, dirt, what ever. The new Hot Racing steering rack with the servo saver shimmed worked great to! My buddy has all stock steering and he had a hard time in the sticks and logs do to the servo saver not letting him turn at times, and the weak stock servos not having the guts to move the wheels when lightly bound.

The steering servos are powered off a Castle external BEC. The rest of the truck is powered by the BEC in the ESC and set to 5.5v. This was the lowest setting option in the ESC.


The new ProLine Moab XL tires I installed for this first run are AWESOME! They had better grip then my stock tires in dirt, leaves, sticks, logs, and mud. Only losing out a little on the rocks. But not by much. And they handled better at speed then the stock tires did to. (Tho they still ballooned more then I would like, it was not as bad as the stock tires tho.) It's a shame they stopped making them because there the best tire I have used yet!
And I have a lot of tires for this truck! I liked them so much I just bought two more sets of them!

I have them mounted on a set of Axial narrow beadlock wheels. They held up to the brushless power with no problems. Tho I do run on 4s, and my gearing is not what you would expect to see with a system like this. So they may not hold up to doing 60mph. I will never find out, as I do not plan to ever run this truck on 6s, or gear it to go much, if any faster then it dose now.



Sorry there are no vids or pics from this run. It was a shake down run that was not supposed to last that long. LOL But everything worked great and I was having to much fun to stop! I will get some vids of the truck after I make the above changes and test them out. I want the ESC setup finished before I make any vids of the truck as I want this system to show what it really can do!


If your on the fence about buying this system, just get it! Its much better then even I thought it would be, and its really a PERFECT fit to this truck! If you are concerned about cogging, don't be. 95% or more can be tuned out, and the rest is so miner you will almost not even notice it unless you are trying to make it cog.
So unless driving a 1/100 of a mile per hour is your thing, you have nothing to fear when it comes to cogging from this system!
And if you really want to be sure you have 0 change of cogging, just get a sensored motor and the sensor harness for the ESC.

This is by far the BEST ESC I have ever owned! And this motor has plenty of power, and is smoother then any other brushless non sensored motor I have used so far.

The system also ran vary cool. I had a small heat sink on the motor with no fan, and the stock fan on the ESC. Both ran much cooler then my buddies stock Summit system. His motor was a good 20* hotter then mine, and that was after I did I bunch of 2nd gear full throttle runs. And his truck had been sitting for about 10-15 min.

When we where just trailing his motor was a good 45* hotter them mine.

His stock EVX-2 with no fan on it was also much hotter then min when we where trailing. About 34*. After I did some full throttle runs while his truck sat, his ESC was still a good 15* hotter then min.

Over all I am vary impressed with the system!

It was money well spent as my Summit is now exactly what I have always wanted it to be! A great all round truck, that can still move when I want it to!!

Yup I run a 2200Kv in my Losi 8. Awesome little motor imo. On my MM esc I run at 40% brakes, with punch set at around 60-70%. Softer punch is easier on the drivetrain. If you want a milder/softer more controllable take off, pull the throttle curve down on the first 1/3 to 1/2 and let it go wild on the last 1/2. Btw, this motor/esc came out of a 3908 E-Maxx. It can drag a 12lb truck all day long. When I had brushless (Turnigy 2560) on my 3906 E-Maxx, short wb, with a two speed tranny, it was fun! I finally made my own steel idlers for it. Made a pretty decent 1/10th crawler, and then slam it in second and go haul some groceries.

You can roll shift lol, shift as you let off the throttle slightly, and it will shift to 2nd. Nice!

I may turn my brakes down to 40% and see how that works for me.

As for punch control and throttle mapping, I think that this truck can take a little more then its set for now without problems.

I had already pulled the throttle curve down a little in the 1st 1/4, so I will pull it down a little more and stretch it out a little closer to 1/2. That should give me what I'm after.

The Summit can roll shift if done right with no problems.
Shift, lift off slightly, then ease back on and go!

I do it all the time. No problems.

Tho it is known for braking the dog engagement. Its plastic, at takes all the torque for the motor. So they do fail from time to time. I have never broken one tho. But I plan to upgrade to the aluminum one that also reduces the slop in the drive train at some point.


I have broken vary few things on this truck so far. And I am by no means nice to it!
So far I have killed the steering servos, rebuilt them and killed them again.
Killed the stock motor.
Killed a 2 DeWalt 14.4v motors.
Killed one shitting servo. (End point setting was wrong. My fault.)
Broke a drive shaft. (Also my fault.)
Bent a shock push rod. (hit something. Totally my fault.)
And killed the stock ESC.

It should be noted the I do NOT run this truck in water. But it has gotten wet a few times.

But I do like to push the trucks limits. So most things that have been broken where my fault, or at least partly my fault.

I do really love this truck. Out of all the R/Cs I own, (I have several.) and all the R/Cs I have owned over the years, the Summit is by far my favorite! And the new brushless system just made me love it even more!

I suggest using the torque limiting feature and disable punch control. Also I found turn the brakes down to 30% or lower I stripped my front pinnion on 40%. The tq limiting does a much better job at keeping the truck calm and basically keeps your driveline from breaking.

I did not see a torque limiting option when I programmed the ESC. I must have missed it.

Ill turn the brakes down to 30% and see how that works.

My whole goal was to improve the performance of the truck, without reducing its reliability. So I want to keep things safe for the drive line. But still have fun.
I plan to hook it up to the Castle link tomorrow and do some tuning. Then charge my packs and see where they where at.

I will also get some pics if I can. And as soon as I'm happy with the ESC settings I will make a few vids and get them posted up. May take me a little while. I don't have as much time to spend on my hobbies as I would like these days.

Yea the torque limiting should be there but it will require motor test just follow instructions if you don't like it you can go back to punch control. These are your best options for reliability.

Ok Ill try it out and see how I like it.

What did you set your to?

Can't remember but I'm wanting to say 4.5ish.

You're running the 1515 try 6 to start with. I was running a 1800kv truggy motor. It will be a trial and error thing to get it just right

Ok Ill give it a try and see how it works out. Ill change just that and go run the truck again to see how I like it.

So the higher the number the more it reduces the torque off the motor right?

No lower number lower power at .5 you can't spin on loose dirt lol.

LOL that would be pointless! But awesome if you are going to let some one that has never driven an RC take your truck for a spin.

Set the torque limit to like 1.5 and throttle limit to like 60%. They are is almost no way they can brake it at that point. LOL.

Ill set it to 6 like you suggested and turn the punch control off and take it for a run to see how it dose and let you know what I think.

Thanks man!

pics or it never happened !

I just replaced the steering servo in my Losi with a Spektrum. It's a "pull" from a RTR Losi 3.0 kit. Super pleased, metal gears, waterproof, metal body. Not super fast, but has 120 oz pull. I had a Traxxas 2075 in it to get it rolling, it lasted about 20 minutes.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/221772043889...%3AMEBIDX%3AIT
Spektrum 9Kg Waterproof Servo w/ Arm SPMS605
US $19.90
$2.49 Standard Shipping
http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/Njc4WDgwMA...VU5~t/$_57.JPG

LOL!


Ok so here are some pics of the system installed in the truck.
Its a little dirty still from the test run, but you get the idea!

I'm still waiting on a new battery for my GoPr to come in so I can get some vids for you guys.

Wish I had another camera, but right now all I have is the GoPro and a cell phone.


On to the pics!
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y16...007_115619.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y16...007_115647.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y16...007_115709.jpg
The sticker that goes on the ESC has been removed. They did a crappy job of installing it and it was just about falling off. So I removed it.
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y16...007_115722.jpg
The Castle external BEC is housed in an LEM aluminum case mounted to the front body mount. This makes it water proof.
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y16...007_115731.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y16...007_115756.jpg

The fan that is on the heatsink on the motor is not hooked up at this time. It may be hooked up later if needed. But right now its just along for the ride.


Also I just hooked my batteries up to the charger.
One pack was at 7.575 volts. The other was at 7.399 volts.
So they still had a good bit of run time left in them.

I am vary impressed with how long the packs last with this system, in this truck.

I spent about 70% of my time in 1st gear, and 30% in 2nd gear. Most of the 2nd gear running was speed runs at WOT as well.