ello,
I am currently bulid a radio control car (about 1/5 scale), it is my first ever build and am not fimiler with what I need in the way of Recever and Transmitter etc there seems lots of choice and I dont know where to start!

I am Buliding it with a 50cc 2 stroke chainsaw engine.

I am a Engineer so know about the engine and have sorted the frame, suspension, engine stearing etc, but feel I need pointing it the right direction with the electrics.

Many Thanks

Well first off, you need to get a few more posts in, 10 I think, so you can post pictures, cause this sounds cool, scratch builds are always fun to follow. Assuming you promise that we’ll help.

Need to start with how many controls (radio channels) you need. Us little kids usually can get by with 2, throttle-brake combined and steering. But if I’m not mistaken many of the big boys have separate front and rear brakes, controlled separately for brake bias. Also you might need separate channels for throttle and even a single brake, depending on the layout of everything and such. The popular pistol grip style controllers are available with up to 4 channels I believe, many of the better ones have 3. More than that you likely need to go to a stick type controller, like used on airplanes.

Definitely recommend a good quality radio system, these days that’s a 2.4GHz system. With a ‘failsafe’ capability so the RC goes to neutral or brake if radio transmission is broken. Most good 3 & 4 pistol ones can do mixing, like for the example of front & rear brakes, or combining separate throttle and brake, etc. Then you can control the bias from the radio (transmitter) for example. Some of the selection process is personal comfort, suggest visiting a hobby shop and try holding some of them, see how they feel to you. Possibly look for a transmitter and receiver package only, doubt if the standard servos a package deal comes with would be of much use. Except maybe throttle.

Servos, the unit that ends up actually moving things, you need one for each function. They make large scale servos for large RCs like this. At least the steering and brakes need these I would think. They plug into a receiver that comes with the radio system, with standard connections, extensions are readily available. Can be different brands. (the transmitter and receiver need to be matched)

The receiver and the servos need electrical power, a battery, plugged into the receiver. One thing I’m not sure about with the large scale servos is voltage rating. Lithium polymer batteries, lipos for short, have recently revolutionized the hobby, but they come in a different voltage, nominal 7.4V for our discussion, instead of the traditional 4.8-6V. some servos are now rated ‘high voltage’ to accommodate. Don’t know if that’s reached big ones yet. Lipos are the way to go if at all possible for performance, and reliability with minimal maintenance. Plan B is to use lipos, but with a regulator to drop the voltage if required.

Hope this helps get you started. Feel free to ask away. And don’t forget the build thread!