My E-revo Thread - Budget But not Really Budget Build

[Metallover]

Well, I got an 8ight roller for $125 and traded it for an E-revo roller. I got a 30c 5000mah 4s zippy flightmax battery for $75. I got a used Medusa 36-60-2000 with a RCM heatsink/clamp for $70. I had a mamba max from my crt .5 that i got used for about $85. If you wanna be picky my new servo and battery tray cost about 20 bucks combined.

Grand total comes to about $375. Oh yeah.





The Medusa has some soldering in it best seen in this pic. It doesn't seem to affect performance too much, so I'm not going to take any action now. I don't know who did it or why...



The revo roller came with cvds (a little bent), a tekno wing deal, dyed parts, red anodized rod things, a custom painted truck body with yellow flames (the body's a little too short), and 23mm crimefighters. I might downgrade on the axles so I can use my 17mm e-maxx wheels for bashing in loose stuff... Don't think I'll snap to many on 4s.



I got the battery and taped the cells together then re-shrunk it. It doesn't fit in the compartments. Instead of cutting up the nice chassis, I found a different solution using a Tekno v3 battery tray I stole from my crt .5.





Here it is as it sits now




I haven't ran it real hard yet, but in light bashing the esc never topped 140 and the motor less then that w/o the heatsink. Haven't ran it with the new arrangement yet. Zipties held the battery on. A stripped crappy servo ended my run doing a cartwheel. I am going to replace it with my hxt 12kg servo (from my crt again) that has metal gears, but I still want to loosen up the servo saver. How do I do that?



The other problem is the diffs. The rear one went so I took a couple hours and switched them around, but the front one is still stripped. I want to get a LST diff and put it in the rear. If I get a lst diff off of ebay, what will I need to do to run it?

In unrelated news, I made a torch today and I plan to do it again when it's dark out. It worked really damn good!

[lincpimp]

If you plan to run lst diffs you will need to do both front and rear as they are different ratios to the revo diffs. Not much work, but you will have to do some grinding of the stock bulkheads with the dremel, and figure out what center drives and driveshafts you plan to use. Mistercrash has a nice writeup on all of the cool revo mods...

[Overdriven]

The only way to adjust the servo saver is by changing the spring, or cutting it down if you dare. As far as I know there is only 2 availible, stock, and a stiffer one by traxxas meant for metal gear servos. I think the only way to tell them apart is by part number.

[Rebelgium]

Great job on getting that so cheap!

I wouldn't recommend making the servo saver spring softer though, a decent servo should be able to withstand the shocks with a normal servo saver spring.
A metal geared servo can handle the stiffer spring (which results in crisper steering).

[Metallover]

Ok, thanks for the info guys. I plan to stick in a metal gear servo and see how that holds up.

I'll try to get a cap/fan for my mamba max. Where is the best place to find these? I know the store here has the cap, is 1 all I'll need?

I also need to get some thermal paste and repair the front diff. If it's too expensive to repair ($25+) or if I blow one again, then I'll really look into getting a pair of lst diffs.

How can I mount my antenna? I've got a 75mhz fm futaba radio.

How can a lower my revo a little so it's more like a truggy?

[Metallover]

Got some running in today. Front diff is still shot so only rwd for now. Speeds were estimated in the lower thirtys. Temps for the motor and esc were both about 120. I'm going to put some thermal grease on the motor between the heatsink and get a fan for my mamba max, so I may be able to gear up. The front diff working might heat things up though, so I'll wait and see what it does.

I had several battery ejections due to crappy straps. I'm working on fixing it. Some of the ejections were on cement, but I put another layer of heat shrink on it and there's no visual damage.

I also experienced quite a bit of "cogging", but I think that was because my batteries were low in my radio. I'm under 10v now.

One problem I may have - My rear diff is "loose". Everything is installed as it should be but if I wiggle the outdrives the diff moves with them. Should I be concerned?

[sikeston34m]

What gearing are you running?

I am running the very same motor in my E Revo on 4S using the MMM. It is geared 18/52 using Mod 1 gears. Great Motor! You're gonna love it.

Oh, on the soldering inside the motor you were looking at, the factory did it. That's a wye wind termination. They all have it.

One suggestion for your setup if you don't already have it, You need to run a BEC with that ESC on 4S.

[Metallover]

I've got a bec, and THANKS for the info about the soldering. Man that had me paranoid.... Next time I take the gear cover off I'll let you know. Should be soon cause I have to put heatsink compound on...

Where's the best place to get a fan for my mamba max? orrrr can I remove the heatsink and put a copper one on. That's a great idea...

I'll shoot griffin a pm.

[sikeston34m]

Originally Posted by Metallover

I've got a bec, and THANKS for the info about the soldering. Man that had me paranoid.... Next time I take the gear cover off I'll let you know. Should be soon cause I have to put heatsink compound on...

Where's the best place to get a fan for my mamba max? orrrr can I remove the heatsink and put a copper one on. That's a great idea...

I'll shoot griffin a pm.

The fan that fits the MM the best is the 25mm fan. The mount holes in these line up perfectly with the fins in the heat sink. The 25mm fan that Novak sells puts out more air than comparable versions.

Seems like I've seen pictures where a 30mm fan was used also. It has to be turned diagnally though so I opted for the 25mm square fit. There is risk of damaging fets if you try to remove the heat sink. I wouldn't risk it.

One way to drop temps on the MM with 4S is to add a low esr cap to the power leads. 1000uf or more total.

Are all of your cvd's bent? I just installed mine, and already have one that's bent. If you have a few that are good and straight, I might be interested. I ran into something hard and bent one.

[mistercrash]

That Zippy battery you have is the exact same thing I ordered thinking that they might fit in the ERevo's battery compartments but they didn't so I split them into 2S packs. They now fit and they are very good packs. You might want to think about splitting that pack so you can put the batts in the compartments.

[Metallover]

Only 2 of my cvd's are bent, the ones on the left side. I think I'll keep the cvd's for now though..

I looked at the novak fan. It says it pouts out 2.8cfm. All the other fans seem to put out 1.2cfm. Should I trust the ratings? Has anyone compared the two?

And MrCrash, I would love to slplit my zippy, but I don't have the tools or skills as of now. I don't want to send it to linc either because The pack only cost 75 bucks and I don't want to spend any more on it.

I'll be getting a cap and fan soon,, I hope. I keep procrastinating..

wow dude you got a bargain on that e-revo.

what radio are you going to be running with that thing

[Metallover]

I've got a futaba 3pm.