Help me choose a motor for my Mini-T

[jim007]

I have just over one week to choose a motor for the car. I have the losi 7.2v battery and want to set the car up for racing.
Yes i know the raptor is a good motor but what else is out there and for a similar price?
I would really like a list of what's available, how much and what their specs are so i can make an informed decision.
And i'm not interested in brushless as i can't justify the price at this stage.
A little help?? :?

[BALISTC]

For a cheap upgrade for the time being, get a Losi Speed motor for $15.

[jim007]

the losi speed motor is $27 at my LHS !!
but i'm not looking for a temporary fix... i want something with a bit more go

[Bowling Ball]

Look at the Trinity Monster and Termination Motors.

Also have a look at the Orion offerings.

You will pay around $50 - $80 for the motors I mentioned in a LHS

BB

[justo316]

http://www.one18th.com/forums/showthread.php?t=9392

Another thread with some dyno results for the Beast vs Peak Raider vs Turbo 900RR

[opAsx]

those graupner motors are $16 USD from rcmart too. and they deliver pretty damn quick. but id go with something a little better than that.

[Bowling Ball]

The Trinity motors are available from RCMart too. $45AU plus delivery. I am thinking of getting the high powered Termination motor.

Sticking with brushed motors in the RC18T myself. Will be investing in a brushless for the Maxx tho :)

BB :D

[opAsx]

brushless brushless

on the emaxx, t3, mini-t, rs4 and rc18t :P

NEED BRUSHLESS!!!!!!

but i will have a cheap brushed motor for the b3 so i can jump it off the roof :P

[jim007]

Buying from overseas seems a waste of time as the postage and taxes they put on them double the price of the actual motor!!! Limits the choice though...

[justo316]

nah, OS all the way dude! Especially if you're after a few hop ups as well.

There won't be any tax/customs on a motor if that's all you want.

[davetripoli]

Has anyone heard of the venom fireball motors for micro, I've seen them in OS mags but not in the LHSs.

[opAsx]

yup the fireball 370

RMS had them and a few of the LHS do have them.

they are pretty cheap and not a bad little motor.

I had one in a venom mini giant and the difference was insane. wheelies galore and almost uncontrollable speed.

was a great little motor for the price and quite possibly a really good interim upgrade for jim here.

i dont think they are more than $20 from memory and would work for him until a beast arrived from OS :P

[jim007]

I have just spoken to the Hobby Man store in Melbourne and they recommended the Venom Fireball for $29.95 as a very good cheap motor and the Peak Raider at $89.95 if I want something more serious... I think i will give the Fireball a go then upgrade a few other things (oil shocks, full bearing kit, aluminium swing arms etc)
After that i will consider if I need to spend more money on the motor or just start working on the bling factor...

[opAsx]

im pretty sure you will be impressed witht he fireball after using the stock and seeing the improvements with a stock motor + better battery pack.

it gets even better later when you start adding really good battery packs to it :P

but it will be a step in the right direction and be more than cheap enough to keep the car in a good budget :)

[jim007]

Well it seems i'm getting a good deal on a peak raider from a friendly member from this site so i'll skip the cheaper option now and hopefully have a motor which will satisfy my need for speed a bit longer.

[opAsx]

youll be happy either way, enjoy the fun that is "the T"

[James]

now you need some KAN1050 batteries... :) cheap cheap

[jim007]

The poor little stock motor is getting damn hot... seems to run the battery down quick too. Will the new motor give me longer running times or shorter?
It's a matter of time before I fry the poor little stocky I reckon.

[anson]

The newer motors would take some out of your run times, because they spin faster needing more power, but still close to the same effiency. So you get faster for shorter. Next step is brushless for a nice 70% effiency, with about the same runtimes but with faster and more uncontrollable high speed FUN

[justo316]

Jim, how long is "too quick"?

[davetripoli]

I just had a run with my mini t, with the losi sport motor and 1200 venom battery pack I got about 10 mins.

[jim007]

I'm getting about 10 mins on a team losi 7.2v pack and a stock motor... Don't like the idea of getting even shorter run time with a faster motor!!
But if that's the price of speed... I'll buy more batteries!
What's the go with these gp's and kan's.
Can someone post a link for me so i can read up on them please??

[justo316]

Geez, 10min is HEAPS for a crappo battery. Granted you are using the stock motor though. A faster motor will definately drain the batt faster. But that's life. I've never timed it, but you'll get more than 5min at the very least. I would estimate somewhere around 7 or 8 min stil depending on the motor.

I can't remember seeing specific information about GPs and KANs, but just rest assured, GP1100's are the best you can get and KAN1050's are almost as good. That's all you need to know. And that's all you will probably hear. Just check out one18th and wade through all the crap. I highly doubt you'll be able to tell the difference without a brushless setup so go for whichever you can find cheaper (probably KAN's).

[James]

GP's will definately be better for a brushless setup than KAN's, the KAN's are good, but the GP's 'start' the brushless motor better from what I can tell...

For the price, the KAN's are difficult to beat. They are so cheap. there's 1400mah 2/3a cells on the market now too.

I'm now using my KAN pack's both in my mini-T and in my TLT-1 climber.. They are a pretty good cell :)

[BALISTC]

I wont use anything but GPs in my Mini-T, because of the brushless motor...cogging is a bitch, and GPs reduce the cogging somewhat..

[jim007]

Justo316 said "...I highly doubt you'll be able to tell the difference without a brushless setup so go for whichever you can find cheaper (probably KAN's). "
Are you saying i wont tell the difference between kan's and gp's? or between them and my 'crappy' 7.2 battery unless i go brushless?

[jim007]

and what is cogging exactly??

[anson]

KAN and GP cells are quite similar and ahead of other battery packs that don't use these cells. GPs give more amps usually, which gives mambas the needed kick start to prevent cogging, I think someone said that above. So yeh, KAN good for mucking around with nice power, GP if you want the best NIMH cells.

[justo316]

I meant the difference between KANs and GPs is negligable when dealing with brushed motors.

Cogging is a brushless thing. When you hammer the throttle from a standstill, the motor tries to draw too much juice and it stutters off the line. You need very high output batteries to fix this (ie. LIPOs).

[jim007]

righteo then... gp's are on the list now...
so far i have the wheel bearings and the oil shocks 9not installed yet) and this week i'll have a peak raider motor... i was going to start on the long list of aluminium bits but now i might get a new battery first. I'll see how quick the raider is with the losi battery. Might be quick enough for now.

[opAsx]

where do you have them for sale RC_King?

i looked through classifieds and i am as blind as all hell

[opAsx]

hehe, im hoping thats the case as i have a shit load of gear being listed there tonight and tomorrow.

all the old gear i dont need any longer :D

[jim007]

Well I am after a bit of bling. Will be getting aluminium hubs, swing arms, shock towers & motor guard. Also a nice set of alloy wheels when i find the right look. Have a nice pearl blue paint job in mind for an aftermarket shell too.

[opAsx]

have you seen the mini-t for sale in the classifieds here?

i dont think you could get more bling than that... and for the price!!! omg :P

cheap bling bling bling :)

[jim007]

A lot more fun to do it all yourself though...

[opAsx]

buy it, pull it all apart then build it again :P

[jim007]

yeah that would work if i had $250 to spend right now... i assume you are talking about bb's mini t?
My car will take months to get anywhere near that stage... and yes, end up costing me a lot more than that.

[jim007]

Peak Raider arrived today... soldered up a new plug and let it loose on my street. VERY quick take off! Wheel stands galore and very easy to flip the T on it's roof. It has a 12 tooth pinion at the moment... I think i might try 13 for more top end as I reckon I can afford to lose just a little take off speed. Especially since traction is one of my biggest issues on the local dirt track.
Looking forward to some big air tomorrow!!!


... !amazed ______/ \____ %-6 ____

[davetripoli]

Does the peak fit strait in or do you need a big block mount?

[jim007]

Yeah it's a screamer alright. Ended up being late for work as I just had to get the motor in and give it a run. Damn I hate night shift!
No sleep in the morning!
Straight to the track...

I think I have a problem.

[BALISTC]

I think I have a problem.

Welcome to the world of Mini-Ts ;)

You will get addicted very soon, trust me..

[davetripoli]

How much did you pay for the peak? if you don't mind me asking

[jim007]

50 smackers.
and i'm already addicted! !lmao

[jim007]

Had some fun today until the steering servo started playing up... Only seems to turn when it wants to now!?!? Sent the car off the edge of the table top and into the tyres at full noise... Not sure what's wrong but it's damn annoying. Think i'm going to have to replace the servo. Is there aftermarket servos I can use without having to change the receiver?

[justo316]

nope. Gotta change the lot if you dont want to use the losi one. I think there is a mod that you can do(I never found it), but I think it might be a little more trouble than it's worth.

[opAsx]

maybe mashed the gears in it? i had similar problems with a 5 minute old servo for my rc18t :(

[jim007]

Yeah I think they might be 'mashed'. When it does work it seems a little noisier than it used to be. I had a few good stacks on the track today trying to get a handle on the new motor (and bald tyres) so I probably hit something at just the right angle to stuff it.

[opAsx]

if in doubt open it up.

i think you may have voided your warranty by jumping it :P

open it up and have a look, depending on the servo etc you can buy replacement gear sets for some.

mine was a cheap servo so its not being missed :P and it used plastic gears in it which had just stripped instantly (cheap POS )

good luck with your servo :)

[opAsx]

i actually posted a response to the end of the 1st page... Im a fking nub :(

[jim007]

hee hee been there done that. I took the servo out but it didn't look like it's meant to be cracked open. Looks more like a throw away item. Anyone know how much they are to replace? (standard team losi one)

[opAsx]

the standard one was tiny wasnt it?

RMS have them listed at $15.85 + postage. so should be similar locally for you Id hope.

not so bad after all :)

[jim007]

Price not so bad :|
But not being able to fang it is unbearable &|

[anson]

I feel your pain. My is mamba getting shipped back to BPP tomorrow with a broken shaft. :(

[jim007]

the pain........ the paaaaaaaaiiiiin!!!!!
Guess I'll just spend extra time on the new shell tomorrow. Clean the edges up with the dremel and then on with the paint. Got a purple/pink chamelean over blue paint job planned. No idea how it will turn out!!

[jim007]

Well it's raining here now and the paint job is done so I might as well pull it to pieces.
What's the WORST that could happen... lol

[atz 242]

What do you guys think of the motor/ESC combos Novak and Tekin offer?

[jim007]

~:( %-6 &|
I don't think I can last till wednesday to get my new speed controller...
nice new motor just sitting there in my mini t and i can't use it!!!
:(

[BALISTC]

What do you guys think of the motor/ESC combos Novak and Tekin offer?

Supposed to be pretty good...The Castle Creations Mamba is the tried and proven brushless setup around at the moment.

[anson]

The tekin brushless system isnt out yet, and will cost a bit more then the current mamba lineup. Just read a 17page thread on it. But it isn't supposed to cog out of the box, but I have heard the motor is the same as the ones used in the Mambas, so its really just the ESC which is changed. Its got more programmability when out in the field, but it doesn't as yet have a computer GUI to tweak with.

[atz 242]

What do you guys think of the motor/ESC combos Novak and Tekin offer?

Supposed to be pretty good...The Castle Creations Mamba is the tried and proven brushless setup around at the moment.

Just I have a soft spot for Tekin stuff, Novak are just as good, price wise, who knows, as for the motors being the same, thats nothing new, a motor is a motor, there isnt too much that could be tweaked in a brushless motor unless your going to rewind it....

[justo316]

The Mamba is tried and proven.....to cog! hahaha....

I would have settled on a lower performing system if it was cog-free (without going to lipos).

[BALISTC]

hey lipo is the way, no cogging ;)

[jim007]

OK got the new servo, but can't seem to get the wheels straight.
Is there a specific method to line up the new servo?
I can't seem to find a happy medium where i can adjust the trim on the controller to get the damn thing to go straight. It's either too far left or too far right!!! !rant

[opAsx]

take the servo horn off the servo and then centre the servo, then reattach the horna dn try then.

also make sure your camber etc is set right (is it camber?)

[jim007]

That's what I've already tried to do but it seems to go too far either way... maybe i'm not holding my tongue right.

[opAsx]

can you see if its just one wheel that isnt centring?

like one wheel will be | and the other might be slightly \

that was what gave me the same prob on my rc18t and took me a little while to figure it out :(

[jim007]

No they both seem to be off. Spent half an hour at the track trying to sort it on the bonnet of my car. I'll have another go tomorrow in the workshop...
Thanks.

[jim007]

All sorted! Time to go and break something else. yippee!!!!

[James]

a pin dropped out of one of my CVD's yesterday while I was blatting my 'T around out the front. doh. not happy. i swear I loctite'd it in.

[jim007]

What bits do you guys recommened should be loctited??

[opAsx]

any non moving metal on metal.

[BALISTC]

Yep, Loctite all non-moving metal on metal. I learned this the hard way, I've replaced countless screws before I bit the bullet and loctited everything carefully!

James, to prevent the pins dropping out of your CVDs, you can put some heat shrink over the CVDs to prevent the pins going anywhere :D

[jim007]

Woo Hoo!! My aluminium swing arms arrived in the mail today. Front and rear in polished (silver)aluminium. Bling!! well getting there...

[jim007]

Yeah i'm more than happy with the peak raider.
9 pages and a few different topics... i think i got good mileage out of this thread. Check out my new pics in the members rides thread if you are at all interested in my S-L-O-W build up. lol

[jim007]

RIP Peak Raider.
Was fun till my first race day... My mini-T versus a savage and a 1/8 nitro buggy. They kept losing me on the straights but then i could rip around the corners quicker. I could have had them if i had the straight line speed.
Solution?? Mamba 8kv Comp x!!
Even with my 6 cell batteries the car flies.
Now if i can keep a handle on it I should be a little more competitive. I'll find out next race day.
Since i got the car i've replaced the motor (twice), shocks, tyres, servo (twice), reciever and of course the mamba esc. Think i should have started with the mini-t pro...