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I think that I'd be much more interested in buying little toy-like cars if there were a way to hook up a standard receiver. I'd be fine with soldering new connectors to the main board, but most of them seem to use some weirdo custom logic (or custom linear servos etc) so you're kind of stuck. I have a nice transmitter with a 9-model memory and only 4 models...I don't want yet another cheapy radio set to remember to charge and carry around. The 1/18 and similar scale cars are tempting to have as something to drive for fun but the price ranges there are getting pretty high. [e] does anyone know where I could get a 1/18 touring car (or other on-road thing) roller? It seems like everywhere I look the choice is either RTRs (goddamnit no more radios), trucks, or SUPER PRO ANODIZED CARBON FIBER COMPETITION TEAM MODEL. [e2] found some chinese clones of the XRAY M18 on eBay. Any experience with these? Not competition-grade obviously but they seem just about right for scooting around the office. orange lime fucked around with this message at 04:09 on Sep 2, 2010 |
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Sep 2, 2010 02:35
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Ordered 3 LiPo's and a charger from HobbyKing today. Picking up a Slash 4x4 tomorrow. Excited to get back into RC!!! Haven't touched one in probably 10 years.
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Sep 10, 2010 06:11
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    Plastic bumpers are for pussies 
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Sep 10, 2010 07:17
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orange lime posted:[e2] found some chinese clones of the XRAY M18 on eBay. Any experience with these? Not competition-grade obviously but they seem just about right for scooting around the office. e: Would like to add I say this because clones tend to come partially assembled, and normally the jobs are half-assed at best. Burn the Priest fucked around with this message at 11:56 on Sep 11, 2010 |
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Sep 10, 2010 10:43
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orange lime posted:I wonder what a nice powerful aircraft brushless motor would do to it? Aircraft brushless are not that great in cars because they are sensorless. Sensorless brushless motors rely on feedback from the motor to tell the ESC if it is spinning the right way on startup. The brushless motors for cars have an encoder that sends the feedback so they can get going full bore even at low RPM. Also most sensorless controllers don't have reverse. I am just waiting on a motor for a new little plane I bought. Should be fast as hell for such a small plane. Ity bity brushless motor 12x30mm putting out about 25 watts. http://www.stevensaero.com/StevensAero-Adrenaline-Rush-Electric-RC-Airplane-Micro-Pylon-Hotliner-SA-SKIT-MINIHL-p-16631.html
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Sep 10, 2010 20:49
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Hell yeah plane people  Who else is flying here?
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Sep 13, 2010 18:01
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evobatman posted:Is it OK to talk mini-z in this thread, or do you consider them just toys? It was fast enough, and had enough traction that it would roll when turned on carpet. :-) I really miss my pan car. I think I need a new one. I also had a Mini-X that I could never get to run well. 4wd with no center diff, and super low ground clearance didn't work out so hot. Eventually I fried the ESC. Phat_Albert posted:Hell yeah plane people I have built and flown a few planes: Future Flight thermal thing - Kit - I learned on this thing, and caught my first thermal. Super low stall, and they bounce well. I have lots of silly crash stories from mine. Ace Littlest Stick - This was a mistake, and flew like a brick. <Insert several silly designs built from scratch> Ace Puddlemaster - Kit - Only marginally flew due to overweight parts and a very marginal design. With lipos I'm sure it would be an amazing plane today. Great Planes Spirit - Kit - This is a beautiful glider, a little heavy, but so long as you keep it moving fast it's got a great glide ratio and flys like it's on rails Future Flight thermal thing - Kit - I built a second because I screwed up building the first. It flew well enough, but it wasn't right. I need to kick some warp out of the wing before I'll call this a complete success. Chinese 4 Channel Helicopter - RTF I learned to fly it. I could reliably hover in my living room. My dad crashed it. Chinese means hard to get parts. Syma S107 3 channel heli - RTF This is a ball. Super easy to fly, and really entertaining while watching tv. I have a slightly stretched Bandit pylon racer in my dads basement. Completely scratch built. And I have a .061 to put on the front of it. .... I'm not sure i'm going to be able to fly it without finding the ground at high velocity. I'm looking at getting a new plane. Prices are so low now it's hard not to. and hey, I'm damend near local to you!
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Sep 14, 2010 21:01
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I fly...but no planes here! (not yet, anyway) Click here for the full 640x480 image.  Click here for the full 640x480 image. Align Trex 500 ESP. I love this thing. I'm currently building his little brother, the Trex 250 SE.
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Sep 14, 2010 21:04
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Phat_Albert posted:Hell yeah plane people Me, although I sold my DX7 and all I have is a 3DHS EBT and SHP, and an unbuilt Ritewing Zephyr FPV platform. I really need to get a better job so I can do more with them. I haven't flown either of the operating planes in about a year.
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Sep 14, 2010 21:06
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So, I'm done with on-road for the most part and I've got a couple of Nitro RS4 2s (one racer, one plain) and a whole fuckload of parts for them to get rid of. Like, I must have at least 5 full sets of arms, 3 full sets of hinge pins, 4 ball diffs, 3 two-speeds, a one-way, 3 full sets of belts, a billion clutch bells, and a whole bunch of hub carriers. Oh, and a really smooth running HPI T3.0 engine that has about a gallon through it. Anyone interested in rolling a vintage nitro ride? Anyone collect RS4s for that matter?
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Sep 15, 2010 17:16
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I still have my original (gearbox) RS4 from 1995, I used to have just about one of every model but this is the last one I kept, except for the RS4 Rally and Super Nitro, because it helped me get my job  The next most recent model I have is a Sprint 2, I think the Savage line was the only one I skipped before I started selling off my collection so I could have some drat room. The Nitro RS4 line is probably still really good, it sounds like you have the belt drive version, I used to race my Nitro and Super Nitro all the drat time. Then the mini-Serpent foam tire chassis started popping up and it was lights out for the RTR models for a while.
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Sep 15, 2010 18:22
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Really, part of my problem is that I bought that T3.0 when I got back into the hobby and it's the wrong engine to be racing with. (That and nitro on-road is dead here) It's too big, and it throws the balance off. I wanted to throw a normal .12 on it (and thus lower the cg as well) but I don't have any with a long crank and I'm not really willing to invest further in nitro. The racer chassis is pretty classy, really. The rear diff is still hard to get to, but that's not that big of a deal.
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Sep 15, 2010 19:00
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Burn the Priest posted:I fly...but no planes here! (not yet, anyway) Great lookin bird. I have a 450 SE v2 (it was the hot poo when I got it). I also have a TREX 500 Carbon Fiber (the original belt drive one) with all of the aluminum parts on it, sans torque tube that I have not yet flown. You can get the biggest rush from flying helicopters. Planes are too boring for me.
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Sep 15, 2010 21:10
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I flew helis through high school and the first few years of college. Took a break and am now starting to get back into it. Still have the Raptor 30 v1 I started on, still runs and flys great after lots of crashes. Also have a LAheli Maxir electric heli for indoors and mild weather flying. Recently picked up a parkzone Radian sailplane and have been flying that a few times a week. Really a nice change of pace from the helis. Pull out the lawn chair and just float around the sky for an hour at a time.
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Sep 15, 2010 21:17
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kuffs posted:Really, part of my problem is that I bought that T3.0 when I got back into the hobby and it's the wrong engine to be racing with. (That and nitro on-road is dead here) It's too big, and it throws the balance off. I wanted to throw a normal .12 on it (and thus lower the cg as well) but I don't have any with a long crank and I'm not really willing to invest further in nitro. Yeah the crank was/is one of the limitations of the design, mainly because the SG cranks didn't become available or affordable for small block engines until well after the Nitro RS4 design was well-established. When the Serpent-type cars started getting made in touring car size that's when all the engine manufacturers started doing SG for .12 engines... I'm still a little surprised no one in the aftermarket scen made a rear bulkhead in 4 pieces with lower halves and upper halves split horizontally so you could take out the rear diff easily, that was the other drawback of the design. I guess nowadays with CAD and CNC stuff much easier to find from small operations it would get made pretty quick, but back then it was one of those 'final straw' type of things the serious racers really wanted resolved before they moved to a Mugen or Yokomo car. I think the only nitro car I have left that's a runner is some random 1/16th scale 4wd buggy, the Super is in a box somewhere, but I recently got a Mini-Trophy and a Switch so I'll be busy with those for a while and the LRP crawler system for my Axial scale truck, I have yet to try it with the alloy wheels I got for it ages ago.
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Sep 15, 2010 23:48
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As far as I can find, there's no coherant r/c car racing group in northern illinois. That's frustrating. If there were anything to go do a couple times a month, I'd pull together a rig to race with.
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Sep 16, 2010 03:48
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Phat_Albert posted:Hell yeah plane people Waiting for some replacement parts to arrive for both my aircraft, ugh, then I'll be back in the air. I think I like flying planes better than helicopters -- just something elegant about things that glide and soar, where choppers always seemed sort of brute-force -- but then again I can mount a fancy camera on my helicopter (TREX 500 clone) where my plane (electric Cessna 182) is too small. I'm looking at some of the EDF stuff that's available on Hobbyking...seems like a fun thing to get into, but I'll have to find a different field. My current field is big enough, but actually right under the approach path for the airport, so I'm not 100% clear about how legal it is to fly stuff there. I feel pretty safe at the moment but an 80mph EDF jet is quite different from a 25mph park-flyer.
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Sep 16, 2010 05:20
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orange lime posted:I think I like flying planes better than helicopters -- just something elegant about things that glide and soar, where choppers always seemed sort of brute-force -- but then again I can mount a fancy camera on my helicopter (TREX 500 clone) where my plane (electric Cessna 182) is too small. That is simply because helicopters don't "fly", they beat the air into submission
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Sep 16, 2010 15:16
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Somewhat Heroic posted:That is simply because helicopters don't "fly", they beat the air into submission This is such an apt description.
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Sep 16, 2010 16:03
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Nerobro posted:As far as I can find, there's no coherant r/c car racing group in northern illinois. What part of Illinois are you in? Outside of southern California, you are like in the Mecca of R/C Hobby places to be (Champaign of all places?). If you are near Joliet, then you have Leisure Hours which is an amazing facility. The guy running that place knows what is going on. Also, check out the Wisconsin/Illinois regional forum at R/C Tech here: http://www.rctech.net/forum/wisconsin-illinois-racing-11/ there is bound to be a bajillion people around you. I know that for a time there was some good racing in Rockford.
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Sep 16, 2010 17:33
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Just north of the city. Joliet is 70-90mins away, so is rockford. Champeign is more like 2-2.5 hrs. I love being in the same state as tower hobbies, it's like having free overnight on all my shipping. Edit: hah, Leisure hours is right by illinois autobahn and challenge park. Edit again!: http://www.harbor-hobby.net/Services.html 30 miles, but 30 miles in a direction that won't make me rip eyes out due to traffic. I gave them a call, it looks like transam is about $600 to get into. I think the 1/12 might be a bit cheaper, but something about running 4 cell lipo's in a 1/12 car scares me ;-) Nerobro fucked around with this message at 19:45 on Sep 16, 2010 |
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Sep 16, 2010 19:01
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After many months of lurking this thread and lusting, it looks like I'll finally be able to get my own R/C car sometime in the next month or two. From what I've gleaned I'm leaning strongly toward something waterproof Traxxas (because I love mud/water), offroad, and brushless. The Slash is an obvious choice, but I'm wondering how it does it really loose stuff like soft sand with it's narrow tires. Would one of the other trucks like the E-Maxx, E-Revo, or Summit be better? I'm probably going to try to pick up something on Craigslist to save some money and get parts with it. Is there anything to look out for in terms of wear and damage like when checking out vehicles? So excited 
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Sep 17, 2010 04:57
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Well I went to harbor hobby tonight. Their popular classes are the Vintage Can Am, and Minis. The mini's seem a whole hell of a lot cheaper. I got to drive both classes of car tonight. Both were rather difficult for me. The mini was amazingly tail happy. And the can-am car was somewhat unpredictable. I had some little kid with really twitchy fingers run the can-am car a bit. After the tires were warm it was much better to drive. Sadly, I don't think I can throw $4-600 at this anytime soon. ... however this is encouraging me to spend $40 to get my mini-z and xmods going properly again.
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Sep 17, 2010 05:09
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Somewhat Heroic posted:Great lookin bird. I have a 450 SE v2 (it was the hot poo when I got it). I also have a TREX 500 Carbon Fiber (the original belt drive one) with all of the aluminum parts on it, sans torque tube that I have not yet flown. You can get the biggest rush from flying helicopters. Planes are too boring for me.  It was a fun heli though. Maybe in the future I'll grab a 450 Pro. The 500CF is 99% as good as the ESP especially for the price, just be sure to ground your boom as the CF version is known to build up static in the tail.
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Sep 17, 2010 19:03
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Sloppy posted:After many months of lurking this thread and lusting, it looks like I'll finally be able to get my own R/C car sometime in the next month or two. From what I've gleaned I'm leaning strongly toward something waterproof Traxxas (because I love mud/water), offroad, and brushless. The Slash is an obvious choice, but I'm wondering how it does it really loose stuff like soft sand with it's narrow tires. Would one of the other trucks like the E-Maxx, E-Revo, or Summit be better? The Revos are fantastic. I've got a 3.3 Nitro one, and the thing is utterly insane. They're almost unstoppable, and with the right batteries, the brushless ones are stupid quick. From what i've heard, the Maxxs are pretty nice as well, they're true bashers.
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Sep 17, 2010 20:45
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Yey! Found my 1/28 scale and 1/64th scale cars. Here's the best part, they all work. (mostly) I should post pictures. in 1/28th scale. 1. Kyosho Mini-Z Skyline. Bearings, fiberglass t bar, new springs, ball diff. And a shot steering pot. I have a new pot in the mail. 2. Xmods Skyline. It has bearings, 4wd kit, and upgrade motors. 3. Xmods Evo Hummer. It's stock. I have the 4wd kit for it, but i'm so displeased with the one on the car... 4. Xmods Evo Scion tC. It's new, in box. The rest are all Bit Char-G. Sadly, about half have had their nicads fail. It seems I will need to get some more nicads for them if I ever want to run them again.
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Sep 18, 2010 04:57
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I said something about pictures right? Tomy BitChar-G, and some accessories. Those multi colored tires were awesome... they're all hard now.  Xmods and Mini-Z tuning parts. And for some reason, spare parts from my mini-x. Which has been thrown out I think.  A few more BitChar-G parts, and most of my Xmods parts. I shattered a knuckle on my Xmods skyline, and thankfully I had the spare part ready. It drove 4 feet before I did that.....  Here's my collection of runners. I tested, but did not drive the mini-z tonight, as it's steering servo is completely screwed.  I just love how the chassis looks. It looks the business of being a road car. And it really handles quite predictably.  Brand new in box. It's been opened, but it's never been run. Nor had it been assembled.  The steering on the xmods sucks. On the skyline it's got like 5 deg lock to lock. And the truck, while better, has wheels that wobble like the word bearing was a sin.
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Sep 18, 2010 05:44
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Nerobro posted:
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Sep 18, 2010 08:35
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Man, i'm sad I missed the days of X-Mods. I was looking at Amazon and thinking about picking up one of the old kits, but goddamn sourcing parts to modify it would be a bitch... 
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Sep 18, 2010 20:22
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Does this seem like a good deal for a used 2WD Slash? http://salem.craigslist.org/tag/1954311541.html
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Sep 18, 2010 20:50
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Sloppy posted:Does this seem like a good deal for a used 2WD Slash? It looks pretty good, but he's going to want at least $400 for it, and it's going to be completely undriveable. Flipping over backwards constantly is only fun for a little while.
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Sep 18, 2010 20:55
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Hypnolobster posted:It looks pretty good, but he's going to want at least $400 for it, and it's going to be completely undriveable. Flipping over backwards constantly is only fun for a little while. He's asking $330. Is the motor more than I'd want?
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Sep 18, 2010 21:16
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Maybe not, but it won't be the kind of thing where you can just pick it up and go race around at full throttle and have a good time without worry. You'll flip it very easily and sliding around corners and looking badass will take some practice. That said, it will be very fast and fun. $330 is a great deal, too. The charger that comes with it is braindead easy, having lipos is wonderful, Just keep in mind that it won't be water/mud/snowproof anymore, which (for me, anyway) is a major bummer. e: I don't know how I missed the starting $330 price in the ad the first time 
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Sep 18, 2010 21:58
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T1g4h posted:Man, i'm sad I missed the days of X-Mods. I was looking at Amazon and thinking about picking up one of the old kits, but goddamn sourcing parts to modify it would be a bitch... no, you're not missing anything. If you want a good small r/c car, look at mini-z. They're still in production, and they're actually usable out of the box.
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Sep 18, 2010 21:59
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Hypnolobster posted:
That's a dealbreaker for me, for sure. What about the new motor makes it not -proof anymore?
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Sep 18, 2010 23:27
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Sloppy posted:That's a dealbreaker for me, for sure. What about the new motor makes it not -proof anymore? The stock slash speed controller/reciever/servos are all waterproof because they're all either in a box or well sealed from the factory. The new motor is brushless and water will short it out. Normal brushed motors will actually run underwater. I can't see from the picture, but a lot of the time when people change stuff on Slashes, they don't spend the time to waterproof the speed controller.
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Sep 18, 2010 23:32
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Hypnolobster posted:Normal brushed motors will actually run underwater. I don't think this is true at all, unless you're talking about some special sealed system. A stock silver-can motor is certainly not designed to run underwater.
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Sep 19, 2010 01:09
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Sure they do. How do you think the stock Slash works underwater? In fact, that's how a lot of people (mostly people who've been in the hobby for a long time and have a lot of holdovers about specific motor break-in) break in brushed motors. Throw 3v or so on the motor and let it sit in a glass of water for an hour or so. It's not something you want to do endlessly, but electricity isn't going to go jumping around through the water when it has a perfectly good motor to be running. e: as far as I know, brushless motors will work underwater as well, but the sensor electronics are delicate enough that it causes problems and shortens the life.
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Sep 19, 2010 01:21
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Electricity follows the path of least resistance. Dropping a motor in distilled water is a great way to break them in and keep them cool.
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Sep 19, 2010 02:16
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Hypnolobster posted:Sure they do. How do you think the stock Slash works underwater? In fact, that's how a lot of people (mostly people who've been in the hobby for a long time and have a lot of holdovers about specific motor break-in) break in brushed motors. Throw 3v or so on the motor and let it sit in a glass of water for an hour or so. It really only takes a matter of seconds to do. And yes, they run quite fine under water. Just don't use a 12v battery pack.
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Sep 19, 2010 03:35
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