Flat vs Round Wire (Round 1)
We ran the Trinity 10 x 1s with stock (not the custom wound arms)flat wire and round wire arms in both the FTTC4 (you can guess who) and the Losi JRXS. There is no doubt about it, the 10 x 1 round wire was ballistic when geared at 7.5 in the FTTC4 (track record fast lap) and geared at 7.56 in the Losi JRXS at
GulfCoastRCracetrack. This round wire arm has good sized 16 gauge wire and has very nice punch and huge top speed.
The stock flat wire arm has about 18 gauge wire which is quite a bit smaller than the round wire arm. This limits the punch a bit. It is also on a lighter D1 arm blank. It has to be geared at about 7.42 JRXS or 7.35 FTTC4 to have adequate top speed for our long straight.
The custom arms are both 17 gauge so they are in between these two.
Differences
The round wire (big wire) arm gives awsome acceleration from a rolling start like coming onto our straight, or on the shorter straight approching the first hairpin. You need a gentle touch of the trigger to stay hooked up. Truly a delightful motor on our track.
The flat wire arm shines coming off the hairpins from a slow speed. Top speed is adequate when geared like I suggested. The motor feels like a quint or hex wind and is very smooth on the throttle. You can drive the motor very hard without losing forward traction. This gives pretty consistent lap times althought the best lap might not be as good as the round wire. This is pretty much as advertized.
Drag Brake Feel with Flat Wire
We both noticed that the flat wire has a bit more drag brake tendency. I think that this is because of eddy currents created in the flat wire on coast. These are circular currents in flat metal that are often used to dampen balance beams and such. This makes the motor coast a little more like a stock motor which is good. You can use quite a bit less brakes. The sound of the motor is completely different. A lot more whine with this motor.
The Ballistic Motor Setup
I set up both motors at the recommended 20 degrees of timing (that's a lot for a 10 turn). I used the high silver brushes the motors came with. I tweaked the motor springs to read 4 on the Trinity brush tension gauge. Run the motor in for 5 minutes on the power supply. No fan. This setup, with the gearing we use, is a balls to the wall setup. You only get two runs. Then you need to cut the comm and reseat the brushes. If you start the third run you will fry the comm. The brushes are not burnt. They are holding up very well. Using a lower gear does not help matters much, it just makes the motor feel slow.