John Stranahan

iTrader: (27)

Stlnlst- Thanks for the post. I have not liked the plugs on the orion as well. I think they need to be much bolder markings plus and minus with good color and let the styling slide just a bit more ugly on that end of the battery. Heck a Dean pigtail would be my preference as I don't even like their style of plug. Here is what will happen when you plug that 3200 in backwards. You will hear a light popping sound, maybe a tiny puff of smoke. If you open the pack you will find one of the cell connectors broken in half near the lead wires. I have seen two examples. If you solder this back together and let it sit in your fireproof area over night it might explode and burn to the ground. I have one example.

Race Report
Track Temp 130 F, LRP Sphere TC edition, Novak 3.5 R. 2s1p LiPo.
Nothing like a good race to expose all the weaknesses in your equipment that has been working fine in practice. I only managed to finish one heat but just barely.

The car did fine in practice. I ran the full Nitro course. It turned 19.7's in practice and felt really hooked up. By race time it had heated up 15 more degrees so I put on the RP40's and gave them a couple of laps to scrub them. They seemed to work fine.

First Heat the car did not feel quite as good as in practice although there seemed to be plenty of traction. 20.0 seconds were the best laps. About 4 laps from the end the car started accelerating poorly although it seemed not to be a battery problem. At the last lap it did dump and I barely crossed over the finish line. I managed to qualify right in the middle of 12 nitro 1/10 scale touring cars. I was the lone electric.

I geared the car slightly less for the second run to try and make runtime 87/16 or 10.87 (this is the gear that blew the Sphere X11 rotor) About 7 minutes before my next start I looked at the front home locked diff and it was melted. See the pic below. Apparently there is not quite enough hold for a 3.5R motor. Also I did not tighten it today as was suggested by stlnlst just above. It seemed to work well previously in 19 turn and stock brushed. I plan to get a stronger unit eventually. The diff worked well for a least 40 minutes in practice. I replaced the diff in 7 minutes which is a testament to the good design of the car, Got back on the track just in time, but something was slipping so I packed it up. I did not have a new pulley.

I will measure the pack to see how much capacity it has. I may just need some new ones as it has been a while. Probably 6000 mA-h would work better in the touring car. I was geared 90/17 or 10.58 for this run. Motor temp was only 160F. That was great. I got compliments on the cars speed. Straightaway speed was the best ever as I put in my best motor and geared it where it worked the best. Battery temp was low as well as the speed control. Things are looking good for the durability of the electronics on the long course. A couple more races will tell the tale.

After a long practice run at the beginning my car started having slight handling problems. This is usually a loose tire bead and was the problem here. Reglue the outside beads before an important race.

John