Steering upgrade completed.
 

I just upgraded the steering in my xmod by putting a 1/4 Watt 3.3K Ohm resistor on the brown and orange wire of the servo (1 on each wire, in line) and this is the most kick ass mod I've ever done, and it only cost me $1.07. Somehow I de-centered the servo in the process, but after adjusting the controller this car turns like nothing else...No more wide ass turns for me.

Now you know why this is the first mod I do to any of my XMods. :D

Just a question, Have to take 3.3kohm or 2.7kohm resistors? Some people says that if you take 3.3 the servo is oversteered and it hit (a little) the pieces of plastic used as limit.

It hits the little pieces of plastic. I can only testify to the 3.3k Ohm.

I use the 2.7kohm resistors, and it stops right before the plastic stops on the servo casing. I suppose you could trim the stops a bit and get a little more steering range, but the 2.7kohm resistor is perfect. It handles more like a bigger RC now.

Steering Mod and Servo Chatter?
 

How should you modify the steering mod resistors when you are using increased voltage systems?

Obviously it would be preferable to electrically isolate the steering electronics from the rest of the car so that it has the same voltage as under normal power conditions, and eliminate servo chatter; but I imagine that someone would have tried to do that already.

So since that hasn’t been tried yet, there must be some other change to be made to the steering resistors when higher voltages are used. The extra voltage will increase the voltage across the resistor and the current flowing through the resistor. Obviously, this affects whether the value of these resistors are the right choice using higher voltage power.

Anyone have any thoughts?

Steering Mod by Server Gear Changes?
 

Anyone tried using different gear sets in the XMODS steering servo to get similar results to changing the steering resistors? All in all, isn’t it better for the life of the car?

Well, I just ordered 100 3.3K Ohm SMDs to replace the 820s on the PCB. I'll let you all know how it goes and how it improves.

the atomic mod SMD resistor is 4. something ohms

Uh, you should cancel that order IMMEDIATELY. The 3.3kohm resistors are ONLY if you solder them inline with the servo and the original resistors still on the board. You need 4.7kohm SMDs to get the right results.

Ok, thanks for that info. I can probably solder the SMDs inline to the servo pot wires. Add some HST to cover the wire and resistor and I'm done. :) If that doesn't fly, I'll just RMA those and get the right ones.

Thanks.

Well, no one seemed to notice my posts the first time, so how about this time?

I don’t post just to hear myself type, you know...

Where are you going to get different gears for the stock Xmods servo?

You can get an aftermarket servo, but then you have to worry about how to hook it up to the stock electronics.

I don’t know. It is why I asked. But I doubt that Radio Shack is going to reinvent the servo when there are plenty of useful servos of this size, especially in model airplane circles.

I did the 4.7K ohm SMD replacement and wow, what a difference. I get a 1ft turning radius in both directions if the controller steering trim is set to max. More responsive because if the decreased radius. I have to start trimming the body/side skirts because the wheels turn so much that they rub. :)

I pulled some resistors from an old video card, LOL. If anyone is looking to pull some from old eletronics, the ones to look for are ones that are marked 472.

I got some 3.3K CFT (old style) ones to put in line with the servo pots as well for those not looking to get a 180 motor. If you have a 180 motor, replace the ones on the PCB only.

Stock ones are 820 ohms.

Good info, Devryn...Those resistors are easy to wire into the servo wires. Those things that you need to solder on the board are too damn small. You would have to have excellent soldering skills for that.

Thanks again.

No problem. I got the fix from another board, so I can't take any credit. :)

http://www.xmodworld.com

Warning though, there are alot of newbs there, and they can get really really annoying.

Where did you get this info? I have a 180 motor in my Mustang with the inline resistors, and it works fine.

Oh, I'm not saying they won't work, just saying the ones I got were quite big and there was no way the ones I had were going to fit with the 180. I'm going to use the 3.3K ohm SMDs inline with the servo pot. At least it will put those to use. :)

Anyone know offhand if Fry's or comparable stores sell 472 SMD resistors? I guess I could always order the kit from AtomicMods, but I was doing some XMODS errands tomorrow anyway so I figured if I could pick them up somewhere to go ahead and get a bunch of those, too.

Figured "to hell with it" and ordered the AtomicMods resistors. There are 3 to a pack, and I got 2, so really, I can do 3 ESCs. I practiced soldering some spares of the same size (about 1.25mm by .75mm...REAL small), and it went remarkably well, getting a very tiny but complete dab of solder on each side. The trick was to tape half of it down to solder one side, then do the other once it's secured. Took a split second dab with the iron tip set at ~280 degrees C. Actually was harder getting the originals off than putting the new ones on.

hey guys i just want to post again that i have the 2.7k resistors. i'm selling them for $2 shipped for 2 resistors. you can e-mail me or hit me up on aim.

Put the surface mount version of tight turns into my car. Damn, what a difference! That almost doubled the steering range.
It actually wound up being much easier than I expected. I cranked up my soldering iron to 290 degrees Celsius. I then lightly pressed the tip against an edge of the existing resistor. It comes off in a half second or so. Next, I get some thin masking tape (scotch is too rigid), cover half the new resistor, and secure it to the board. Next, I got some RS silver-bearing solder (.015" diameter, 62/36/2), lowered the temp down to 270 degrees or even less. Put the tip on the pad in front, touch the solder on it and push in a touch of it and take both off. The actual act of soldering is literally done in a moment. Do that 4 times, and you're done. I also got my newly designed wire layout in there, using very minimalize wiring that I prebent, so my ESC is officially done pending a final range check. For those intimidated by surface mount board work, it's actually much easier than I expected it to be.

Sounds like to need to re-center your servo. The easiest way is to adjust it via the controller, but there is a way to take apart the servo to center it permanently.