Brushless Losi 8ight
 

I got a Losi 8ight for xmas and converted it to Brushless.
I modified the fly wheel to work with my motor so I am utilizing the nitro clutch as a slipper/one way system. The feel of the clutch is going to take a little while to get used to. I guess if you drive nitro, it feels normal but to me its a new feeling. Man is this thing fast though :028:
I'm running 5S Lipo and the buggy is 8lbs RTR.
I wanted to run dual packs for weight distribution (one on each side) but this configuration turned out to be too difficult for me due to the unique dimensions of the chassis. The 5S pack on one side isn't too bad though. I'm taking it to the track tomorrow so this is the last time anyone will see the buggy this clean :)

Here's some pics
http://home.comcast.net/~jrwoodjr/rc/TL8_1.jpg


http://home.comcast.net/~jrwoodjr/rc/TL8_2.jpg


http://home.comcast.net/~jrwoodjr/rc/TL8_3.jpg


http://home.comcast.net/~jrwoodjr/rc/TL8_4.jpg


http://home.comcast.net/~jrwoodjr/rc/TL8_5.jpg


http://home.comcast.net/~jrwoodjr/rc/TL8_6.jpg


http://home.comcast.net/~jrwoodjr/rc/TL8_7.jpg

Nice! holy cow ! that pinion is sitting far from the motor!!!!! is it an fd conversion?

I dont think so. He said he converted it himself.

BTW, StarScream, this thing is so damn good indeed. You need to make the wires look neater, though..:)

The motor mounts are from FD but the clutch bell is home grown. You know me, I usually do things different.
I bought an aluminum gear from sdp-si.com and mounted it to the fly wheel. I mounted a revo primary shaft from the fly wheel through the clutch bell using a plastic gear as a shim for the revo shaft inside the front of the flywheel. I also used a 3mm revo hing pin to attach the fly wheel to the revo shaft (I had to drill out the revo shaft to 3mm) You can see in the pics that the clutch bell is supported by a mounted bearing in the front of the buggy. I bent one of my motor shafts in the process of testing so I added the mounted bearing in the front to alieviate the weight. It works quite well now :017:
I'm waiting for my bent shaft to come back from Tom but luckily I have a spare motor

Making the wires look neat has always been a challenge for me. As long as the wires are secure and won't get caught in moving parts, I usually call it good :005:

I also forgot to mention that I removed the clutch springs so that the motor will engage the clutch bell faster. I haven't tried this system with the springs installed but my theory is that the springs can only delay the engagment process so I removed them for quicker response time.

thata a good looking buggy bro.. nice work.
phil

That looks really nice! This maybe a stupid question but, is that a sensored motor? I see the bundle of wires coming out or the back of the motor, or is that hooked up to an eagle tree or something...

Bye:018:

Hm, so you are still using the mechanical brakes on that thing? Interesting. Seems to me that you could shed a bit of weight by going direct drive and getting rid of all the stuff required to run the brakes and let the motor handle the braking? Seems to me that going through a clutch is just another point where you lose energy transfer, but that's just me...

I'm with ya on the wires tho! If they don't get caught in the gears, it's a perfect installation! :D

Sleeb

I just did the same thing last week. had mike make the motor mount though. I will see if I can get some pictures and attach.

What motor is that. Also what battery are you planning to use. It looks like it will fairly small.

Id love to see some more detailed pictures of you clutch bell mod you did. I love the idea if it works. Kinda like a poor mans slipperential for a buggy.

Let us know how she runs. Nice work!

Mabye CC should make a conversion for using the nitro clutches like this.... that should eliminate any cogging problems LOL!

Seriously, having the working clutch really should stop any potential cogging because there is no load on the motor until it spins up some.

Having to use the nitros brakes is a big thing... although there are certain advantages to that, most of us don't want the extra complication and weight, etc.

I think it would be pretty good for the big monsters, but not for buggies.

Clean up the wires and it's prety a cool and unique ride. What brand are the lipos? They must be some really good cells, no?

Thanks everyone.

The Motor is a maxcim N32 sensored motor (~2000kv). The Lipo Pack I am using is a FMA Balance Pro HV (Kokam 3200's). You can see the FMA DPM attached to the splash guard. I usually get around 15 minutes runtime with this pack in my G2R so I'll see how it goes in the 8ight.

sleebus, I hear your concern with the power loss. I was just thinking about that this morning. If I could somehow attach a oneway to the clutchbell, I wouldn'l loose an power. I don't know that the power loss is that much though since the current with very little load is probably very small. I'll see how it goes with this setup and make changes if neccessary.
In order to utilize the center diff's capability of brake bias you must use mechanical brakes. A direct drive with brakes won't give me the brake bias functionality I am looking for.

I'm getting ready to go down to the track now so I'll let you guys know how it goes.

CC should make these? Do you mean Castle Creations or Coolhand Country? :005:

The Cells are 20C Kokam 3200's.
I am running the Nomadio sensor so there are extra wires for the sensors.
I'm not sure what to do with the wires as they are very secure and I'm not a neat freak :007:

Any vehicle using a center diff should utilize brake bias, IMO, so it makes even more sense to use mechanical brakes in a 1/8th buggy.

I also have a micro servo that I may replace the large brake servo with for reduced weight.

looks nice!

Good work star!

I don't see cogging as any issue for our RC.. cogging is bad for crawlers maybe, but i personally don't see the use of a clutch in a BL truck. (not saying i don't admire your work StarScream!)

You are absolutely correct. That is a bit of a concern of mine with my conversion, but I'm trying to not let it bother me that much, haha. I don't race, and this is just going to be a fun toy. :)

Sleeb

True in theory, and I was concerned a little about racing without the brake bias. But after racing a few times I don't think it's a big deal at all.

When you grab a lot of brakes you can lock em up and cause the car to push bad for a second, but there arn't many times you need to do that. In fact, this is usually due to coming into the corner too hot and having the brakes too strong. You really only need a quick stab of brake to settle the car so it will dive into the corner.

Bottom line is I've never felt that the brakes were a problem on the track... my car handles and corners awesome. It would be cool to be able to try it with mech brakes though just to feel the difference.

Well, the maiden voyage was a success. I still have a few issue to work out but the 8ight ran really well and I am very happy with its performance so far.

The clutch needs a little adjusting and it doesn't seem to engage as soon as I'd like. I'm not sure if running 4 shoes instead of 2 will help but I may give it a try.

I also lost my brakes because my servo seems to have died.

I was tempted to stay and race but these little issues kept me from participating.

The 8ight is an awesome buggy, kudos to Losi :017:

My system doesn't suffer from cogging as its sensored.
Maybe its just my setup but if I use a direct drive setup (without a one way or in this case a nitro clutch) The motor slows the wheels down on jumps causing me to always give the motor throttle during jumps or the vehicle will nose dive. A free spinning pinion correcxts this issue for me.

Glass, I actually ran with no brakes today, as my brake servo seems to have died. I really only need rear brakes for racing but even with just rear brakes I still need a free spining pinon.

If I could get a oneway setup for just the front end, then I could use the motor for rear braking only.

This issue is probably more apparent for me since I'm using an airplane ESC but I do remember experiencing this with my Quark as well, it just wasn't as bad.

Does anyone else notice this effect from the motor slowing down during jumps or is it just me?

Do you mean sensored?

Good catch squee, indeed it is sensored.

I bet that's your problem. It's probably braking when you are off the power. I run a mamba max 5700 in a rc10 t4 and i don't have nosedive problems, because it freewheels nice when i get off the throttle. Most of the time I have a nose up problem because I don't get off the throttle.

Sleeb

That was quick, Starscream, I remember when you picked it up.
Good to hear it's working out for you!
I have a hard time figuring out what is what on your buggy, though... somehow the wires obscure the nice view :) But if it works, it works!

I agree on the brake bias thing, and my next conversion will have mechanical brakes too. But, I found the centerdiff/motorbrake does just what I want too.

Thank you for sharing the pics and all.
DAF

Yeah, that's one thing, but its just a matter of giving a bit of throttle. With electric you can correct the diving/back flipping easier and quicker. at a certain point the centrifugal clutch will stay engaged. i think this point makes it harder to have air-control.

The guys at BPP made their (initial) truck using a mechanical brake too, but after getting it up for testing they ditched the whole mechanical brake thing.

Damn that thing looks awesome. As for the clutch, off the line, I wouldn't suggest dropping full throttle. The motor will hit relatively high RPM's well before the clutch will full engage and it will glaze/wear the clutch shoes quite quickly.

havent some people blew esc's because of it?

what makes you think that?

Thanks DAF,
The pics were a bit darker than I'd like so it's a little hard to see.
I worked on mounting the batts on both sides of the buggy but the buggy is so compact that its a bit too hard to accomodate that setup without major modifications.

I'm running the RTR setup so its only got two aluminum clutch shoes. I have to hammer the throttle to get this thing going but its quite a ride. I ordered a new flywheel and set of aluminum clutch shoes so I can run 4 shoes instead of two. 4 shoes should help engage faster and lessen the wear.

I also removed the front brakes and installed a micro server for the rear brakes to cut down on the weight.

I also picked up the sweet looking JConcepts HD body and wing :017:

I would think 4 shoes would help the clutch grab better... but also, you can add weight to the shoes. That's one of the tuning options for nitros, either drilling out some material to lighten them or adding something to make them heavier. I've never done it myself so I could only guess how it's supossed to be done. A nitro guy could tell you...

Does the car nosedive if you hold the throttle steady over the jump? If you are hitting a jump full throttle then try to only back off to like half throttle in the air... never let off all the way... and you should be fine. It should fly pretty level without extreme throttle inputs.

As for the brakes, you might want to check out the "building losi eight" thread at rctech.com forums... there is a lot of talk about the brake servos dying in the 8ight. You also mentioned using a smaller servo fo rthe brakes..... don't do that. You want a good strong servo there.

You're right. You can add or remove weight from the shoes to change how they grab. There is actually a company making some that have like 3 or 4 set screws in them that you can remove to change that. He might want to look into that.

Very nice i love the eight series but especially the truggy one.

Thanks for the advice on the clutch shoe weights
I've got plenty of set screws on hand so I'll mod a couple shoes with them and see how it goes.

Thanks!

I am also looking into a one-way solution for my motor.
All of the one-ways I've seen use 6mm shafts.
Does anyone know of a one-way that uses a 5mm shaft?

The one on the center 2 speed for the XTM Mamoth or XLB uses an 8mm shaft. Not 5 but different from 6mm.

:smile:Nearly done, just waiting for my MGM esc which my LHS cocked up the order on and I'm there, hooorah!
http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/j.../TeknoRC8T.jpg

http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/j...tingforesc.jpg

http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/j.../15151YNeu.jpg

TeknoRC 8ET conversion, Neu 1515-1Y motor, Track Power 5000mah 4S lipo and soon to be MGM 16025 esc.:yipi: