TOPIC:

Vintage SRB? What am I missing here, the old Sand Scorcher I am sure had its motor cover of metal. What other SRBs are there? And which ones had a motor cover of plastic?

The endbell of the motors on Tamiya RCs were plastic for a long time. I'm guessing metal endbells came somewhere around 1990 ?

Edit: Looking in the manuals (which are not definitive evidence) it looks like the 58081 King Cab is the first with a manual indicating a metal endbell. (released late 1989)

Same the back of the motor is in white plastic. Like the old johnson

Ok, I see, so the back plastic 'lid' of the motor compartment melted?

Then I understand.

I meant the clear plastic cover that goes over the end of the motor, labelled "A1" in the SRB manuals:




Having said that, I have also seen the black plastic "Wild Willy" type endbells melted around the bronze bearing ... (library photo, ignore the arrow & the lack of melting)

Yup, I clearly see what you mean. Well, it had to be some really intense RPM there manage to melt these items.

I've just now returned from a great test run. I tried my new 5000 mAh NIMH in my Hornet, and wow! did I get a long run time! I was out about 45 minutes, and surely 40 minutes of that was pure driving.

I touched the motor after about 10 mins of driving, it was only a little warm, I also felt the ESC and it was not even warm. Then after about 30 minutes I felt both motor and ESC again, no change, not even warm. So I think that my 5000 mAh NIMH is OK for the ESC and 540 motor. Consider that it's +4*C out now. My ESC is Tamiya's TBLE-02s.

What would be interesting would be to swap the motor for a 540 size compatible brushless sensored motor. And check the temp then.

Jonny, would you have an idea what a good brushless motor I could use?

uncletom wrote:

Yup, I clearly see what you mean. Well, it had to be some really intense RPM there manage to melt these items.

I've just now returned from a great test run. I tried my new 5000 mAh NIMH in my Hornet, and wow! did I get a long run time! I was out about 45 minutes, and surely 40 minutes of that was pure driving.

I touched the motor after about 10 mins of driving, it was only a little warm, I also felt the ESC and it was not even warm. Then after about 30 minutes I felt both motor and ESC again, no change, not even warm. So I think that my 5000 mAh NIMH is OK for the ESC and 540 motor. Consider that it's +4*C out now. My ESC is Tamiya's TBLE-02s.

What would be interesting would be to swap the motor for a 540 size compatible brushless sensored motor. And check the temp then.

Jonny, would you have an idea what a good brushless motor I could use?

If you want to brushless, I've been impressed with the Turnigy Trackstar motors @ Hobbyking (be sure to select UK as your location, GBP as the currency & UK as the "shipped from" location if you do buy from them), prices have gone up but at around 35 GBP posted they're pretty good value, though you will have to do some soldering...

21.5T : this would be pretty much equivalent to the standard silvercan kit motors in terms of performance, so not really worth getting;

17.5T : probably a 15% increase in power/speed;

13.5T more like 30% power increase, but as gearing choices are very limited on the Hornet (18T(eeth) or use Lunchbox parts, 11T I think?) there's a small risk of the motor never getting to efficient revs & overheating on 18T (and being really undergeared on 11T, imagine your car going past at peak revs, slowly: nnnnnnneeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee ... TBH this is probably the one I'd suggest as I think you'd get away with it - but it is pushing the envelope a little;

10.5T : As far as you could go without frying the Tamiya ESC - but only on a car with more gearing options, not the Hornet

Don't overlook Tamiya's venerable old brushed Sport Tuned Motor - around a 30% increase in speed/power & will work fine on standard gearing.

Have you put metal bearings in? You really ought to do that before increasing performance...



ps did you try the Lipo battery? That alone will give an apparent 15% or so edge over NiMH...

Thanks again for your quick and thorough information, Jonny.

I looked up the Turnigy Trackstar 21.5 and 17.5 motors and one of them seems to be the one for me. Maybe the 17. Soldering isn't a problem for me. My only worry would be the size, they type : "The TrackStar brushless motors make a great upgrade for 1/10th short course trucks, buggies, touring cars or anything else that uses 540 size motors." , but in the specs the size is :

Can Diameter: 36mm
Can Length: 53mm
Shaft Size: 3.175mm

My 540 motors are (mm):
Diam: 36,0
Length: 50,5
Shaft diam. 3

Will the trackstar fit out of the box, without the need of any mods on motor or the plastic cover?
And the Tamiya ESC TEBLE-02s has this sensor tech to match the trackstar motors?
Will I need to buy any extra sensor wiring, or does that come with the motor?

If I get time this evening I will be trying my Lipo batt. I am still testing the 5000mah nimh here, I charged it last night but it seemed to end prematurely after about 20 mins, at only about 1200mah, although I set the charger to 5000mah. So now I must check if it has any thrust in it. Then maybe discharge it, and recharge it .. ?
How long should it take to recharge a 5000mah batt after running for about 40 mins with this Maxam 5000 Pro charger?

uncletom wrote:

Thanks again for your quick and thorough information, Jonny.

I looked up the Turnigy Trackstar 21.5 and 17.5 motors and one of them seems to be the one for me. Maybe the 17. Soldering isn't a problem for me. My only worry would be the size, they type : "The TrackStar brushless motors make a great upgrade for 1/10th short course trucks, buggies, touring cars or anything else that uses 540 size motors." , but in the specs the size is :

Can Diameter: 36mm
Can Length: 53mm
Shaft Size: 3.175mm

My 540 motors are (mm):
Diam: 36,0
Length: 50,5
Shaft diam. 3

Will the trackstar fit out of the box, without the need of any mods on motor or the plastic cover?
And the Tamiya ESC TEBLE-02s has this sensor tech to match the trackstar motors?
Will I need to buy any extra sensor wiring, or does that come with the motor?

If I get time this evening I will be trying my Lipo batt. I am still testing the 5000mah nimh here, I charged it last night but it seemed to end prematurely after about 20 mins, at only about 1200mah, although I set the charger to 5000mah. So now I must check if it has any thrust in it. Then maybe discharge it, and recharge it .. ?
How long should it take to recharge a 5000mah batt after running for about 40 mins with this Maxam 5000 Pro charger?

I though you were talking about putting a brushless motor on the Hornet, if you want to fit one to the Fighting Buggy then that's a whole other thing - it's been done but typically involves modifying the gearbox casing and making a new end cover, it's not something I want to try TBH.


The sensor cable supplied with the Trackstar motor plugs into the TBLE02s ESC - I'm sure I posted pics here but I can't find them


I found the manual for your charger, although it looks to use exactly the same software as the Imax B6, I found it even less helpful ... I'm pretty sure that what you've set as 5000mAH is just a capacity descriptor for saving/loading charge setups, not a setting that's referenced in the charging process.

There are 1 or 2 things possibly happening here - firstly that you didn't use very much charge from it and it only needed 1200maH putting in to fully recharge it (seems unlikely) - or that you've set the charge rate to something low enough that the default 2 hour "safety timer" setting has come in to play & cut of the charging before the battery is full.

Ignoring the saving/loading of setups, I'd go for an NiMH charge @ 1C - to do this on a 4 button charger:

Press leftmost button ("Batt type") until "PROGRAM SELECT NiMH BATT" is shown, then press rightmost button ("start")...

Press "Inc" button (if necessary) so "NiMH CHARGE Aut" is shown on the top line, press "Start"...

The numeric value on the 2nd line will start to flash - use "inc" & "dec" to set to 5.0A (This is referred to as "1C", where the charge rate = battery capacity & is reckoned to be a decent balance between speed & safety, and will charge a battery in around an hour) - long press of "start" to start & it should plod along happily

My Hornet is kind of an experiment, but I wouldn't stick a faster motor in it due to its fragile nature. I am afraid the gears and shafts inside will spin appart, unless the whole car crumbles. It's all plastic, it ages and cracks. The SBRs are metal, and if only gears and shafts are looked after, lubed and perhaps swapped for brass gears, these cars are infinity-machines. I may just get a couple of RS-540 Sport Tuned motors for my SRBs.

Great! So I get a sensor cable with the trackstar motor. Good to know.

Thank you for your advice on the charging. I just returned from a rather short run, so now I'm discharging the 5000mah batt to recharge it again. My guess is some charger setting too. I will interrupt it once it is completely discharged and try your thing.

Is the charger supposed to get hot? Mine gets very warm after a while. The battery not so much. I remember the first time I charged my 5000 mah, it got pretty warm, and it took about an hour I think, and it stopped at the "5000" A count.

And how long does it do the discharging? It says "Nimh 0.7A 7.73V 00318", the 00318 is increasing slowly. It's been going on now for 28 mins!