Here's my first stock DTM ..I love it!

[TJFBryant]

Here's a problem for you. This shows you exactly what I don't know..lol

AS mentioned with my setup earlier in the thread.
I have a 600 mah pack, standard sized Futaba rx, novak spy and a hitec 55 micro servo.
So heres my problem.

When I run the throttle full speed holding it in my hand and I turn the steering servo all the way left and right...everything happens as it should....NOW
When I run full throttle or kick the gas trigger going to full throttle my car wildly fishtails ALWAYS to the right as the steering servo appears locked in that position until I let up on the gas down to a minimum 20% throttle speed. Then I can turn the wheels. Otherwise, my steering remains locked to the right no matter how much I turn the tx wheel.

I am buggered...really confused...now I usually know some $hit when it comes to this stuff...I ve done it for over 18 years...you think I would have run into this problem already..lol

SO anyone have any suggestions??
Could the engine be messing with the radio signals at full throttle?....is the esc disrupting something.

One NOTE: When my batteries appear nearly dead the servo locking to the right at full throttle rarely happens at all.....what the heck...if you gentlemen have any ideas...let me know. I am glad to see these DTM threads re-invigorated.

[cdog4w]

Redrider: did you custom make that rear suspension mount? Looks very nice if so. Much cleaner than my hack job.

I posted pics of the aluminum upper deck I made. Not pretty, but it seemed to work well. (http://tinyrc.com/forums/showthread....&postid=176163)

TJFB: I had the exact same problem. What motor are you using? I had a lot of trouble with the stock motor in the same way. Perhaps bad capacitors? If you're using a different motor, check those out. Another thing I did to help clean up the problem was add a 4700uF capacitor, tho that is dual purpose. Gives a nice kick on acceleration, but also smooths out the voltage drops, which will make things happier overall. I think that was the biggest cause, voltage drop on full throttle. You don't need to go so large, but if you're interested, potentiality found the caps which are 10V, 4700uF, low impedance and pretty small for their capacity.

Now on to the exciting bit, I had a fantastic race night tonight. I dunno if it was the non-torn/super glued outer wall front tires or the new aluminum upper deck or both, but the car ran beautifully tonight. New personal best lap time of 16s. As a side note, potentiality ran a 12 flat as his PB, which is 1/10 stock sedan speed (with his 1/18!). So I can vouch for hard foams up front (not sure what I have in back), and I have soft springs up front still I think. I also ran without the upper portion of the damper spring assembly (the long one that attaches to the very top ball/socket). I'll test out the hard fronts (35 whatever) from ABC I just got next time I go, and see how a non-superglue tricked set of hard foams do. Also thanks to the new upper deck, I seem to have lowered my CG. I rolled once or twice, but instead of going all the way over, it sat back down and kept running. Maybe its just that I'm not rolling as hard :P Anyway, I bumped up to a 12T pinion/40T spur and wow can this thing fly. Time to see if they make 14T pinions for the rs4 :P

[potentiality]

Cdog was having somethng similiar happening originally. It was hard to pin down, but we thought it might have been the 130 motor. That or we did add a power cap at the same time..

Try putting some resistance on the rear tires while holding it up, and then punch it. If it does it then its something with amp draw I would suspect.

BTW he did great tonight! (Well except forgetting to peak his battery before the main, gearing up, then dumping in the last minute of the 8 minute race).

[2000-redrider]

Cdog, Yeah I made the rear mounts with sheet aluminum. It works as a mount but I think it allows too much chassis flex. I was thinking of making a deck that went all the way to the front brace, but I like how you used the DRR king pins.

That picture is of my car when I first got it. I'm still using aaa's but not in a saddle pack config. I'm also using a shredder receiver, instead of that dcx.

Good to hear your making progress with you set up.

[cdog4w]

We did an 8 min main again? I guess from now on, cool :P I had geared up for the second heat, but only ran 4-5 laps, which is why I didn't think I'd need to peak for the main. Bah...

Oh yea, and I dumped for the last 2-3 min of the race :P My final lap was 45 sec or so! (compared with a personal best of 16s) It was pathetic, but I made it across the finish line.

EDIT: Thanks redrider, so where do you run your SP? Any tracks? I'm looking for some good SP stories now that I've got a stable racing SP. Also, what kind motor do you run, and which pinion/spur? Your rear suspension mount is amazing, what did you do to cut it out/bend it? I used a tinsnip/vice to cut/flatten my plate, it may not be pretty, but it seems to work. Going to clean it up with a file later when I add the battery mount stuff.

[TJFBryant]

thanks for the reply guys....yeah I have the stock 130..cause I wanted to test out its capabilities....which I might add is fine for running in a small kitchen but crap when running a road course on a large tennis court.

I haven't soldered on one of the caps yet ( 2 are standard on the stock)....but I am going to add a third cap to see what happens.
If it coninues I ll just say "screw it" and modd the DTM the way I want it..

Mamba esc and 180 brushless system..
creating own upper deck using CF.

[cdog4w]

Yea, give the third cap a try, but I'm waiting for your latter suggestion :P

I thought you'd already ordered the mamba? I can't wait to see that thing in action, its going to be RIDICULOUS on a car this small.

So do you know how to work with CF? Are you doing it somewhat professionally or you attacking it with a dremel? :P

Regardless, good luck on getting the 130 running properly, but unless you're stuck in your kitchen, you'll have it working for 5 min before you start installing the mamba.

[TJFBryant]

hahaha,,yeah I have the mamba and all the items I need to mod this DTM up the wing wang. I just wanted to see it run stock first. Now that I know it runs faster than a stock Z but just slightly slower than a X speed Z.....I think it'll be time soon to add a little punch to her system.

I do want to try the 3rd cap...so I ll solder it in a few minutes and give you my results.

Otherwise...its mamba 25 time.

As far as CF goes....I know nothing about the stuff...I just know where to get it, and what I want to shap it like... so I am dremeling away at it probably.

[cdog4w]

Cool. Yea, I guess I never tried stock on mine. Then again, I can't compare to a Z since I've never seen one :P Good to hear some perspective.

/me chants "MAMBA MAMBA MAMBA!"

I didn't have the nerve to plunk down $25 on a sheet of CF to play with, I got my aluminum sheet for $1 :P From what I understand you should get a face mask as the CF powder from cutting it is bad for the lungs, like asbestos.

What I really want to find is a 2mm drill bit for my dremel so I can put real holes in my aluminum. Right now I don't have any bits that small so I use, ahem, more imprecise methods. Aside from that, its tinsnips and a set of hobby files. Rocket science here I come :P

[TJFBryant]

sounds good thanks for the tips about CF....

Well, here's another major problem.

I soldered the cap on the motor...
assembled everything....and apparently...
the reason why my servo locked up is because the motor is shot.
I tried everything to get power to the servo I have....its a no go.
So I have to put more money down on another (perhaps) more powerful servo.
I just don't know what caused burn out of the servo.
Maybe it was the lack of the 3rd cap on the motor...but somehow I doubt it.
So, I am back at square one temporarily....which micro servo motor do you prefer.

BTW...I think I know what happened...I installed a Hitec HS 55 servo (JR, RCD). I have a FUTABA receiver...and should have put in a Hitec HS 55 servo (FUT). Do you think is was the problem....incompatibility? I think maybe

[2000-redrider]

Cdog, I basically only run my sp on my drive way and the occasional parking lot. Unfortunately I haven't been able meet up with other SP owners that often. I did meet up with MicroRCEngineering once and all I can say is that his car is FAST!

I'm runnig a 12T/40T gear combo with a GPM high rev motor.

TJFB, it could be an incompatiblity thing. Just check that the wires are in the correct order. I had to switch mine since I use an airtronics receiver and use a Hitec servo.

[cdog4w]

I'f you're using the Rx from your 2PL, I think the manual has instructions on wiring for the dif. servo types, you can always check that. If not, mayber your spy manual does?

I'm not exactly clear on how you burned it out though. It was working fine with the stock 130 motor and the HS-55, but after you soldered on the new cap it burned out the motor and took the servo with it? Had you changed the wiring into the Rx before it burned out? Try unplugging the motor from the ESC and test out the servo that way. (I'm sure you've tried already but...)

As for which servo I have, its the Hitec HS-56HB, got it at servocity.com. Another cheap one that I've heard good things about are the bluebirds: http://www.av8hobbies.com/blue.html

Some people use hobbico cs-5's (which are futaba servos in this case from my understanding, and slightly higher qual than normal hobbicos).

red: Yea, I don't have any other SP owners to run with either, last night it was 2 M18's and a MRS4. So did you get to look under the hood at MRCEngineering's car? I've heard good things about the GPM high rev. I'm hoping I can run 15/40 with my Elite Modified :P I need the speed to keep up with those damn M18s! One is running a speed 300, the other a "beast" which I *think* is a dyno tuned 280.

[TJFBryant]

sorry I need to clarify...

umm.. Before I soldered anything and did my first full range test run yesterday. My servo motor kicked the bucket after the batteries died out. I thought it was because of the batteries, but when I charged them up again to test out the reason for the servo locking....it didn't do anything. No start up glitch, no movement nothing.
So I looked at the box I purchased it in and it said Futaba Hitec HS-55 (JR, RCD). I didn't switch around the wires or anything because I thought it was the servo I ordered correctly. I wasn't.

SO I am going for another servo, hopefully this time the right one.

Its totally shot.

I also thought maybe it was the heat. Remember it was 95 degrees yesterday and probably about 125 on the tennis court surface. I dunno.

On another topic, it appears I am the only one in my area that has a DTM also (NY), I check with the track owner I go to, and he said only one man he knows of owns one of these...and he is in NH. Its all good though because I feel priveledged that I have something not everyone has.(a.ka. mini z)

[cdog4w]

Sucks that your servo is shot. As for the racing situation, you should check with your track and see if they'll let you run a micro class if you can get 3+ people. Thats what our track did anyway. Then its just a matter of drumming up support. When we started out it was only two of us seriously racing, not to mention different scales. We'd have one or two mini-t's run with us, but the drivers weren't serious and were just having some fun away from their 1/10's. In the meantime, potentiality has been constantly dropping his lap time and has earned some respect, we're getting more serious competition to show up. Some people are starting to bring in more m18's and we had the guy who announces the races run an old MRS4 last night. So if you work at it, you will hopefully be able to drum up some fellow racers :P

[TJFBryant]

Your right , the only problem is the track owner only allows Z's on the track. No xmods, no DTM (yet heehe), no clone Z's like the Iwaver. Only Kyosho products. Which personally for me and alot of other people are very disappointed in that idea.
Why not open up other classes and races.

The track is an Indoor 40' RCP track modded to look like a road course. It really is quite good, but again, disapointing because us hardcore micro hobbiER's can't enjoy the RC the way it was meant to be.
What can I say NY sux. :-)

although I think I ll drum up my own interest in the area by telling other racers about my 25' RCp track in my basement. They can race as much as they want for free, (as long as I am there to supervise...:-))

One more thing...While I am waiting for my next servo to come...I successfully modded the stock motor mount to gently hold a 46 t spur and a 15!! t pinion gear...man oh man....I cna't wait to put in that Mamba.....pics, then videos to come if I don't crash it first. :-)
Ginve me a week or 2 to get this modification panned out..lol