ZZSE many modding questions
 

I have been looking at these boards for months, but am a new member. I have alot of new ?'s and old ones I can't find answers to.
-Where can i find a schematic or diagram for ZZSE car?
-Under the black clip that holds in the PCB is what looks like a frequency crstyal. Is it actually that? (i want to change it to work with a standard set)
-Has anybody tried to mod through the LED connector on the top of the PCB?(i think there is some potential there)
-What is the fastest/most impressive mod out there?

Re: ZZSE many modding questions
 

Welcome :)

I am not aware of a complete schematic, but I've done the h-bridges, mostly for the purposes of documenting the mosfet mod.

You can find the schematic in this thread

Yup, thats a 4.000Mhz crystal. Without a schematic I couldn't tell you what exactly its connected to, but I suspect its for whatever ICs the SE uses, one of which decodes the serial data from the RF stage, and one that I haven't done anything with that I guess has something to do with the RF receiver.

To accomplish what?

I'd say the mosfet mod including jumpering the n-channel gates to the p-channel gates (which we generally attribute to cyborgZero).

Note that even with the mosfet mod the ZZSE still only runs the motor at a maxium 30% duty cycle (for year '03 cars, I haven't checked the new ones), so when I finish my CPU replacement it will be, IMHO, the most impressive :)

My thought for the LED connector is that you could run the motor through two relays and some diodes from there. It just wouldn't be propo. It could be removed easily and wouldn't interfere with the existing motor clips. I don't see any other uses but to create plug-and-play solderless mod.

You could use the connector to run a motor, but it seems that it would simply run in forward or reverse with the car. Forgive my lack of imagination, but I can't think of anything particularly useful to run with such a motor :)

i have been having a problem with the back of the car moving up and down as it goes forward. It seem that the wheels are misshapen, but i cant tell. I took off the tires and caps, now runing on just the rims, it does the same thing. I've used many different axles and still the same. Is this a common problem and is there a fix?

It will hop from some small flat spots where they cut the wheels off the sprues. With the tires make sure they are on perfectly flat and straight!

I've gotten some (bit clones) where the rear end did the same thing, but in my case it was the rims not being perpendicular to the axle-shaft.

I don't know about the power take-off plug, but I'm sure there's something really cool that could be done with it.

I was thinking that if you take a similar female plug, and some Transistors, you could add on some "booster batteries" to just power the motor. But I haven't taken a meter to it to see if you still have propo current.

I did notice something odd about the plug used for the lights. My FC3S body has the headlights on all the time, but my AE85 and AE86 bodies only have them come on while running.

I just bought some relays and have some cells coming in the mail. I hope the relays are the right ones I need. I also have an oversized motor that is small enough to fit under the body, but not in the standard clip. It will take some work. I tried the same motor, boched into a cheaper car, and it went slightly faster. The test car is a single cell, so with more current and correct gearing it will fly. We'll see how it works in a zip zap.

I just tested the output on that connector and it doesn't seem to be propo. My meter read about 2.5V no matter what possition the throttle was on, besides the nuetral possition. I couldn't read the amperage , because it was to high for my crappy meter. There was no motor in the car at the time of the test.

The only thing I've done with the LEDs is move the rear lights to the bottom of the car in attempt to get some underglow action.

I had the thing mostly together, it was beautiful, but I have a small problem. The oversized motor turns the wheels nicely with penty of torque (hard-wired to 2.4V). The problem it that the relay used to switch the motor is only half triggered. I can hear it click when I move the trigger on the remote. But the normally-open part of the relay doesn't close with the current of the LED connector. I used the relay with the lowest triggering current that I could find at RadioShack. I need one just slightly smaller that what I have.

The relay needs 3.5V at 89.3mA

Im trying a large FET that I have in place of the relay, but I can't get it to work either.

Any ideas? The LED connector puts off 2.4V

IMO your best bet is the mosfet. You could find a lower voltage relay, but the relay coil is going to eat a heck of a lot more power than the motor. Your 90mA coil is taking nearly half what the regular motor would.

I'm still not sure what you are trying to accomplish though. Why not just connect your new motor using the existing motor connections?

Im trying to avoid permanently changing the car and any way by limiting my changes to the LED connector and motor clip/heatsink. Also because nobody has done it exactly this way as far as I can tell. I am trying to use a relay instead of a FET because of the high voltage I plan on using and because I understand their function better.

Do you know where I could find a FET that serves the same function, and how i would use it? I've been trying the FETs with no success.

This is a blurry view of the car in progress. The green things are 2.4V dual cells. Four external cells total. There is still a stock 2.4V battery in the car, so this will be a 6-cell car. I'm not saying that it will be superior to the quad cells, because it does weigh alot. Putting the cells outside the car is the only way I could think of to keep all that weight close to the ground. I'm going to paint them like giant Nos bottles.

PROJECT SUMMARY

-Goals-
create the fastest "1:64" rc car ; )
make it look cool while achieving first goal
keep upgrades modular, and reversible
keep compatible with existing zip zip parts(motors,gears,etc)

-To Do List-
larger controler antenna
increase controller transmitter power
wire batteries
devise an speed conroller(fet/relay)
link internal batteries to existing one without effecting pcb
devise streamlined on-controller charger
fix stearing knuckle
make it look cool

-Done-
mount motor
adjust motor spacing
find correct gear ratio
wire motor
mount batteries