I agree the batt is garbage. Might as well not even come with one if it's only good for 5 min per cycle.
I contacted HPI about the needle and they said set it in place and put loctite over the needle. Thing was him had that answer RIGHT AWAY. Kinda bothered me. Thats what I did and welll see how well it works. Going to contact them tom about the other issues. Hopefully they make things right.
I've heard there not really known for great customer service tho.

We'll see