what speed controller what motor and what batteries?

antonyb123 · #1 20-12-2013

hi guys

new on here so bare with me
After returning to racing after a lengthy 10 year break, i have seen all sorts of new electrics being used.
Now......i started racing my xray t1 last night, (with all my old electric) and unfortunately for me, my motor got that hot it burnt itself out, but also very kindly unsoldered its wires from the motor connectors, it smelt....well.....expensive.
so after speaking to someone down at the club, i have realized that my knowledge of electrics for rc cars is, lets say, none existent. The days of plug and play seem to of gone to some degree.
So rather than throw money at "old fashioned" motors and batteries, I've decided to bite the bullet and buy a new speed controller, motor, batteries and charger.
Now to my question....... i was being told to buy a certain amperage speed controller, which, depending on which one i buy will determine what motor i can buy. and correct me if im wrong it also means i can only buy certain 'capacity' batteries (i may have misunderstood the battery side of things)
Could someone kindly give me a detailed lesson in the electronics as i dont want to buy a speed controller to then blow it up the minute i start racing because i have bought a motor to powerful.

Thank you in advance

Antony

OneKiwi · #2 20-12-2013

Hi and welcome.
First, don't feel jumped on but there are a lot of threads with just this topic, so searching is your best option, while you are browsing oople anyway.

Didn't the club members give you tips on what they are running? Do they have used stuff?

There are a lot of factors.
Wallet
Taste, what you like the look of. colour /classic look/how you want to program it etc etc
Wallet

What class are you running? stock, blinky, 17.5/13.5/10.5 or mod???
That makes it a little easier to narrow down.

There are a lot of esc/motors to choose from that all do a good job.
Orion R10 is what I am using and very happy with it, same with motors.
I can recommend
Hobbywing V3/v3.1/v2.1
speed passion reventon/gt pro

Batteries are a little easier, get something around the 5000mah and high C rating.
Nanotech, gens ace are cheaper but not less better... again wallet

Charger again there are heaps of good ones , im currently using the skyrc 7A one with built in PSU and like it.
Hobbyking have a few good ones as well... and again wallet/taste

Hope that helps a bit

mattr · #3 20-12-2013

Quote:

Originally Posted by antonyb123

The days of plug and play seem to of gone to some degree.

TBH, after coming back to it after 25 years it seems to be much more plug and play than it ever was! I've not had to rebalance/build/wind any motors or dismantle my batteries and match the cells! Its just a matter of not trying to put a mental motor into anything that won't handle mental.........

But, once you can work out what class you are racing, you should (with a little nudging) be able to find a motor/esc combo that *will* be pretty much plug and play.

antonyb123 · #4 20-12-2013

Hello

Yes they did recommend certain products, one being the hobbyking esc ..... http://www.hobbyking.co.uk/hobbyking...nsorless_.html
i will not be racing in nationals or any championships so i dont want to pay a stupid amount of money for top of the range when i can get one for say £30/£40
Motor wise, i was running a stock motor from 10 years ago (weather or not a stock motor 10 years ago is the same as a stock motor now, i don't know)
As long as the speed controller can accept different motors then that is all i'm really bothered about, i wanted to start a little slower before i jump into the faster motors, i remember running a 12.5T motor years ago and that was fast, so that's as fast as i would want to go in the near future, perhaps a little quicker.
With regards to esc, the one mentioned above is a 120A, but i cannot see any info on motor limits and what i can go down to.
So am i right in saying that i can buy any lipo batteries for the esc and it will run perfectly fine?
Sorry for all the questions, i am a little green on the electric side of things
I just dont want to buy all different products and find that they are not compatible with each other.

But like you also said when i have got to grips with what esc i need and motor i want, then i can imagine it will be plane sailing.

cheers for the help guys

Tony

antonyb123 · #5 20-12-2013

oh, forgot to mention, the gent at the track was really helpful, i just need a little more insight into the electric side

mattr · #6 20-12-2013

The manual is on http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/s...X606372X41.pdf and apparently it'll run down to a 5.5T in an on road chassis, so pretty much anything you want will be ok. (A 5.5T brushless should be good for ~100kph or more, flat out, given a big enough track.) So anything 10.5/11.5/12.5 will be fine. Hobbyking/Turnigy motors aren't bad either (Trackstar is their in house brand, but they have others)

If you are going to buy from Hobbyking, their nanotech batteries are good, something like a this, with a reasonable burst rating (the 50/100C bit, 50C is continuous, 100C is burst) if you get too weedy a battery you may damage it by pulling too much current from it. So a reasonable size and rating is worth looking for. Any LiPo won't do) http://www.hobbyking.co.uk/hobbyking...Lipo_Pack.html isn't bad.
You'd just need to add some 4mm bullets, 12awg wire and you'd be pretty much good to go. Except for a charger http://www.hobbyking.co.uk/hobbyking..._DC_w_PSU.html this is a copy of the UAC50 charger, which is a good all in one mains charger.

You can get all this sort of stuff from UK based shops too. Might cost a bit more, but you get the back up and some help with what to buy.

mattr · #7 20-12-2013

And just to expand, batteries have two (or three) important bits.
The capacity, mAh. 5000 mAh (milli Amp hours) will run a TC, with an 8.5T motor for around 20 minutes (well, thats about what i get!) until you hit the Low Voltage Cutoff (this is to protect the battery, going below 3.2/3.4v per cell doesn't do them any favours) The LVC is usually integral to the ESC and can quite often be programmed.

The continuous current rating:
Usually the lower of the two "C" ratings e.g. 50C. If you multiply this by the Ah rating, you'll get the continuous current the battery can produce, so a 50C 5000mAh battery can give out 250 amps, in theory.
The other rating is the instantaneous or burst rating e.g. 100C, this means your 5000mAh battery can give out 500A for a very short time.

The C ratings are a bit crap to be honest, as most manufacturers lie/make up the numbers, or measure them in different ways, but any major manufacturers batteries *should* be up to the job (Gens Ace and Turnigy Nanotech are both cheap and good, which is unusual!)

antonyb123 · #8 20-12-2013

Thank you very much, that is exactly what i needed.
As much as id like to think of myself as a speed demon, im not, and would not like to try and handle the car doing 100kph, i am no pro

so like i said a 12.5 motor will be perfect if not still a little fast to start with.
Regardless, thank you for your help. it is much appreciated!!!!!

Mike Haswell · #9 20-12-2013

Batteries the Gens Ace 5300 65c are very good and only £36 a pack - better than their higher capacity lower C rating packs.
http://www.giantshark.co.uk/product/...-hardcase-pack
Chargers - wide choice from less than £20 up to £200 - you can pick up a ac/dc dual input for around £30 such as -
http://www.giantshark.co.uk/product/...6-dual-charger
Motor - if you are running tc at a club then the most likely class will be 17.5 blinky (bit like the old stock class) or 13.5 boosted - you can pick one up in the for sale section on here for a reason price.
Speedo - Hobbywing extreme stock is good and Demon are doing them for £57 and you can set them for blinky or boosted.
http://demonpowerproducts.co.uk/prod...oducts_id=7920

CrashBangWallop · #10 22-12-2013

There are bargains to be had on the for sale section on Oople. Keep an eye out as stuff appears and get sold pretty quickly.

ESC - Tekin RS, this will run down to a 5.5 brushless motor, this ESC can be programmed either by pushing loads of buttons or by a gadget called a Hotwire which is plugged in to a Laptop or Netbook and you can program it via your PC - there is an infinite amount of adjustment.
Hobbywing Xtreme stock is a good ESC also and can be programmed via a small handheld LCD display box so no need for a PC
There are loads of others out there but I would run a Sensored system as these tend to give better 'feel' and have better control at lower speeds.

MOTOR - I would start off by using a 13.5t sensored motor, this can be 'tuned' by the ESC to be as slow or fast as you want really. The hobbyking Trackstar 13.5 is a great motor for the money - £22 +P&P. Again others are available at more money !

BATTERYS - 2 Cell Li-Po is where its at. 5000Mah 30C + is a good start, higher the 'C' rating the more current you can draw, higher capacity (Mah)= more run time. I have found that the recent 6000Mah & + cells are getting heavier like Ni-Mh's / Ni-Cd used to. Hobbyking cells are excellent for the money.

CHARGER - This is the one bit to spend some decent money on, generally the cheaper chargers are cheaper for a reason - they are good value for money but sometimes accuracy of the voltage readings can leave a little to be desired and this can affect the overall life of your new Battery's. Been there done that !!!

Hope this helps in some way

jaank · #11 23-12-2013

Tekin RS limit for 4WD is 7.5
I wouldn't go further down from 8.5 myself.

luniemiester · #12 23-12-2013

Deleted

mattr · #13 23-12-2013

Quote:

Originally Posted by luniemiester

You haven't mentioned the class you are looking to run in

the OP is driving an x-ray T1. That's a TC.

terry.sc · #14 23-12-2013

Quote:

Originally Posted by antonyb123

Now to my question....... i was being told to buy a certain amperage speed controller, which, depending on which one i buy will determine what motor i can buy. and correct me if im wrong it also means i can only buy certain 'capacity' batteries (i may have misunderstood the battery side of things)

Over the years we have run many brushless motors, the fastest motors used these days are 13.5T, and Craig is just as fast with a 17.5T as it has a better power delivery and others are moving up to a 17.5T. Any motor below 13.5T, while they have more speed and power, are much more difficult to drive around Cheadle.

To run a 13.5T motor then any ESC over 60A should do the job. The Hobbywing Xtreme Stock is pretty popular and quite a few are running Speed Passion Reventons. The Hobbyking ESC you linked to is a copy of a Hobbywing v2.1, which can use Hobbywing software which is useful as the Hobbyking ESC doesn't even come with a manual. You can pay a little more for UK supplied electrics, such as this and this, but they do have the advantage of UK backup and repair of anything goes wrong.

Batteries, you can use whatever capacity you want. Any capacity will last no problem, and anything over a 25C rating will do just fine with the motors we use. I would suggest the Turnigy saddles from Hobbyking, either the 5000mah/30C or the better spec 5100mah/60C. make sure you buy the lipos from the UK warehouse as there are restrictions on sending lipos by airmail. The rest you will probably have to buy separately from the international warehouse in Hong Kong.

For a charger I would usually recommend the Core-RC UAC-50 due to its reliability and reputation, built it looks like Hobbyking is now also selling their version of it. It has a 240v input, a lot of the cheap ones run off 12v and you need a separate 12v supply, which adds up to more than the Hobbyking charger I linked to.