Brushless MBX-5
 

I've been racing my electric Revo for a few months now and am having a blast. My second project is my brushless 1/8th scale buggy. I picked up a MBX-5 from ebay for $400 bucks and sold the nitro stuff off for $100.
My buddy helped me fab a chassis plate using the original as a template. Here are some pics of the maiden voyage...
http://home.earthlink.net/~j1138/evo/em0.jpg
http://home.earthlink.net/~j1138/evo/em1.jpg
http://home.earthlink.net/~j1138/evo/em2.jpg
http://home.earthlink.net/~j1138/evo/em3.jpg
http://home.earthlink.net/~j1138/evo/em4.jpg
http://home.earthlink.net/~j1138/evo/em5.jpg

Unfortunately I fried the controller on the day these pics were taken so I am going to re-fab a center diff mount and use a 62t center diff to lower the gearing.
The tricky part of this whole setup has been the gearing. The 13t pinion gear was taken off the primary gear shaft of an emaxx. I haven't found any 1mod pinion gears with 5mm bores smaller than 13t.

I'd appreciate if someone could point me in the right direction.

I should have the new mounts done in a week or so...

Cheers :cool:

Here's a few pre-electronics pics
http://home.earthlink.net/~j1138/evo/mbx0.jpg
http://home.earthlink.net/~j1138/evo/mbx1.jpg
http://home.earthlink.net/~j1138/evo/mbx2.jpg
http://home.earthlink.net/~j1138/evo/mbx3.jpg
http://home.earthlink.net/~j1138/evo/mbx4.jpg
http://home.earthlink.net/~j1138/evo/mbx5.jpg

Wow, cool conversion. Looks clean.
I would love to have something like that. If I would have a track here, a BL 1/8 buggy would be a must.

One thing I thought by looking at the pics: Imagine side-by-side packs, and then those slots in the chassis (e-maxx style). That would be cool.
But not to complain, just a thought.

Great work. Good luck with the gearing!

btw: that buggys structure looks awesome. I like those CF parts, and the chassis braces look very good. Gotta keep an eye on the ´bay;)

looks great bro real nice work.
phil

Nice work! I have a 5mm bore 12 tooth mod1 pinion, but it won't hold up to the steel spur gear. If you can find a plastic spur gear for the center diff, it would work very well, though.

Mike, what material is the pinion made out of??

One thing I must ask is that if the metal of the spur and pinion are the same, wouldn't the chances of it surviving be better?

The pinions are alloy steel, but not hardened. They work fine on plastic/delrin, but the hardened steel spur of a 1/8 buggy will eat them pretty quick. I think ideally you would want the pinion to be a harder material than the spur, as it gets 3-4 times more wear (12 pinion on a 46 spur - the pinion must turn 3.8 times to each one revolution on the spur, so it would stand to reason that it would wear out 3.8 times as fast).

I have to make room for new parts for my Revo so, unfortunately I have to say good bye to this buggy :(

If anyone is interested, PM me.

Just a re-cap, the chassis is custom made using the original chassis as a template. The motor mount is also custom made and solid/bulletproof.

Here's some recent pics of the MBX-5:
http://home.earthlink.net/~j1138/evo/mbx5_1.jpg
http://home.earthlink.net/~j1138/evo/mbx5_2.jpg
http://home.earthlink.net/~j1138/evo/mbx5_3.jpg
http://home.earthlink.net/~j1138/evo/mbx5_4.jpg
http://home.earthlink.net/~j1138/evo/mbx5_5.jpg
http://home.earthlink.net/~j1138/evo/mbx5_6.jpg

PM sent!

Too bad to see you have to part with this lovely piece of workmanship. Do you ever had it on the track?

Apparently you like the Revo better. But this MBX5 is pure eyecandy to me. I hope it finds a good home ;)

:) Hey guys, I thought you wanted to see other brushless converted MBX-5. Here is a place: http://www.offroad-cult.org/Special/.../Mugen_BL.htm. Hope you like it. And StarScream, say Hi to MegaTron for me;) .

Nice buggy!

What motor is it? I love the shiney blue. :D

Its the Plettenburg Bigmaxximum, I guess. Serum has the same motor, too.

It isn't the BigMaxximum (that has a built-on cooling fan). I think starscream said before that it is a sensored system (as can be verified by the extra wires from the motor).

I could not see any extra wires at all.

Nice looking conversion. I need to get my hyper 7 conversion project out and finish it.

Look at the closeup pic of the motor without a heatsink on. You will see thin multi-colored wires exiting the rear endbell.

Nice thread Captain, Megatron sends his regards :cool:

MetalMan is correct, this motor is sensored.
The motor is a Maxcim N32 made by a fellow in New York (Maxcim Motors) He no longer makes them but will service the existing ones. I would say this motor probably compares closley to the 7xl with its 2500kv and 18 cells. So, once I got the gear ratio/cell count right, it powered the buggy around very nicely.

I did take the buggy to the track a few times but never got a chance to race it.

In the recent pictures you can see its setup with Mikes 10t mod1 pinion and the ofna 51t plastic spur. I found an ofna solid axle spur gear plate that I modified to work with the mugen center diff and the 51t spur gear. I only needed to offset the diff height slightly to get enough clearance for the spur.

The body I have for it is pretty sweet too. My buddy air brushed it for me. I'll have to post a pic of it later :)

And a few pics of the body:
http://home.earthlink.net/~j1138/evo/bbody.jpg
http://home.earthlink.net/~j1138/evo/bbody3.jpg

drool :Love:

That is sweet. IF I had a buggie. I wish I had a top that looked that nice.

Indeed.

What body is that? It looks a bit like my Proline Crowd Pleazer 7.5/9.5, but i can't quite tell.

Very Clean looking dude... Nice job on the Chassis plate.. I gotta do something like that too...

Looks a lot better than my Brushless 1992 Inferno.. hahaah :)

Starscream,how do you like the solderless power tubes?

I'm considering getting some gp2200 packs of theirs so anything to bear in mind with them?

Hey Gustav,

I really like the solderless power tubes. For NiMh batts, they are the only way to go IMO. They are all I currently run with.

I can't say enough about the GP2200's. They are a great weight savings, especially when you are running higher voltage systems.

Are you going to run these in a buggy? How many cells are you planning on running?

The GP3300/3700's have a bit more punch but with the weight savings, in my experience, they are pretty equal in power output.

I am planning on getting the FMA Skyvolt lipo's soon.

Thanks starscream,

i'm going to run an xxxt MF2 on 8 gp2200s,with a basic4200,a 8 cell stick pack should fit if i can get their race end caps/contacts.In another truck (LST front and rear end)i'm either going to run 24 gp2200s or a pair of 4s skyvolt packs in series with a lehner 2240/12.

I'll try those solderless power tubes.It'd be handy to be able to reassemble packs so easily since we're always trying different set ups/cell counts.

I measured the difference between the six cell GP3700 pack and the 8 cell GP2200 pack. The gp2200 pack is just about 5mm longer.

Wow, the 2240/12 is an awesome motor. I'd run lipos in that bad boy ;) Either way, that truck is going to be a beast.

I was looking at the lehner 2240/10 but my budget won't allow for that right now. Especially looking at the price of the skyvolts.

I'm not sure what kind of runtime you'll get with the 2200's but I get about 14.5 minute racing runtimes with my revo on 18 cells.

When I first saw the mention of GP2200's, I thought it was a typo....now that you've talked about them a bit more, it's apparent that it isn't. So now my question is: where you get these things? I've never heard of them, let alone understand why they get nearly 15 minute of runtime!

Higher voltage is the key for longer runtimes. I not only get 14+ minute runtimes but beat nitros with these little guys. With higher voltage you can make more power with less current (Amps) thus achieving better efficiency (runtime)

You should see if Mike can get you some 2200's otherwise pm me.
These cells cost around the same as GP3300/3700's but they weigh a third less. I notice a definite performace gain with less weight.

Here's the list of GP batteries: Gold Peak

Here's the specs on the 2200's: GP 2200's

Gustav,

I just remembered one thing about these cells...
In order to get these to make contact in the power tubes you will need to remove a very small portion of the shrink wrap on the negative end of the cell. An exacto knife will do the trick. Just hold the knife in place and spin the cell to cut the plastic wrap. Its not hard to do at all, pm me if you need help.

If you get these from Pete, they should already be done this way.

I have the gp2200s here. Just haven't listed them . LMK how many you need.