The Traxxas E-Revo is a pretty flexible truck when it comes to power sources. Out of the box, it can use 7.2v or 8.4v NiMh packs, but I’m fast becoming a LiPo convert, so I wanted to use LiPo with my E-Revo. Here’s how I did it.
Browsing Posts in Radio Control
As blogged earlier, I’ve recently decided to give radio-controlled touring cars a try. I’m starting out with the Xray T2R Pro 1/10 Touring Car. I’m classing this as “a beginner’s experience” as I’ve never built one of these before – I’ve built a rock crawler recently, and a Tamiya kit many years ago, but this is in an altogether different league.
In the first of a short series of posts talking about how I built the kit, I’ll go over the stuff you need to buy to be able to build the kit. continue reading…
Spektrum DX3S transmitter
After unpacking, charging up the batteries and checking everything worked, the first thing I wanted to do with my new E-Revo was replace the radio gear. Don’t get me wrong – the transmitter and receiver that come with the model are fine, and I’ve not read any complaints about them, but since I bought a Spektrum DX3S for my touring car, I’d much rather use that.
The main benefit of using the DX3S is that it’s a 2.4GHz system – so it should have a greater range, and no risk of interference from other transmitters. There are other benefits too – it only needs 4 batteries, not 8, and since has a 10-model memory, I can set it up to work with the E-Revo and the T2R Pro straight away using the two receivers it came with, and by picking up another receiver I can control the AX10 with it as well. I might even use it for the boat – one transmitter for all my non-flying models…
Anyway, the point of this post is to describe how I got everything set up to use the DX3S with the Traxxas E-Revo, so let’s crack on.
Looks like a fair bit of traffic hitting my site from people Googling “T2R Pro”, but getting the main page instead of the posts being referenced. So here’s links to the relevant posts – there’s more to come now I’ve built it and got some pointers, so check back soon!
Getting into r/c touring cars
General musings about how to go about starting in 1/10 touring car racing
Which radio control touring car for a beginner? Pt 1
Should you buy a ready-to-run car, or build a kit?
Which radio control touring car for a beginner? Pt 2
Choosing the chassis, motor and speed controller
Which radio control touring car for a beginner? Pt 3
Batteries, charger and radio decisions
Traxxas E-Revo
Over the last year or so I’ve been getting back into radio controlled stuff , and have been building up a collection of helicopters and cars that I never could have managed when I was a kid.
As you might be able to tell from other posts on this blog, I already have an Axial AX10 Scorpion rock crawler, and an Xray T2R Pro 1/10 touring car. But… I wanted another one. Why? Put simply, I want one for bashing. The T2R is only usable on a racetrack, and although the AX10 is great fun on rocks, it’s a bit too slow for any other scenario. For general messing around in the garden or elsewhere, I wanted something with a bit more grunt, so I started looking around.
What to choose?
Ok, so far we’ve looked at the chassis, motor and speed control side of things. The next two big choices to make when building your own car are batteries & charger and radio gear.
So in part 1 I talked about whether to buy a RTR kit, or build a car from scratch. I’ve decided that I’d rather build one from scratch, and this next post details the various choices I made, and why. I’m not saying these are the only choices, or even that they’re the best choices – but they made sense to me!
That was the question that was on my mind recently. In an earlier post, I described how I’d liked the look of 1/10 scale r/c touring car racing, so having been to a meeting to see what happens, the next step was to go ahead and buy stuff. Since the whole point of my blog is to write up my experiences and learning curve in the hope it might help someone else, here’s how I went about it. In this first post, I’ll talk about RTR (ready-to-run) packages, and the kits you build yourself.
Ok, so there I was, all set to go buy a Traxxas E-Revo. I had even picked out the batteries I was going to get and what colour shell I wanted. I was tidying up the computer/hobby room ready for the new car, and I came across a DVD I got with an old r/c car magazine, showing all sorts of radio control stuff – including about half an hour on racing touring cars.
It looked like fun! The only thing that had been bugging me about the E-Revo was that it would probably only ever get used when I was on the beach in Bournemouth, whilst my wife was off enjoying the sand and sea and whatever else it is that women find fascinating about beaches. It’d be fun, but I just kept thinking that it would be even more fun if I could race against someone else or something.
Now, watching this DVD, I was starting to see that there might be another option. I already knew there was one r/c car club in my area, but it met in a school sports hall, and I was hoping to find somewhere with a proper track that I could go and practice on – I didn’t want to turn up at my first meeting and not have a clue how to drive, and just get in everyone’s way.
However, a bit of Googling later, and I came across the a club less than half an hour’s drive away, with an outdoor track that was available all year round. I can go along whenever I like and practice – fantastic!
I did some more research, quite a bit more in fact, and slowly began to get an understanding of what was involved in racing touring cars. There’s a lot to take in, so I’ll be keeping this site updated with what I learn and how I get on.
I’m starting to run out of space to fiddle with my vehicles – the workbench I had set up in the computer room is now taken up with the boat, so when I needed to swap out the motor on my rock crawler I had to take over the dining table and get dirt and sand everywhere! However, I’ve found the ideal solution – a portable tray thing from a local garden centre. It’s actually designed for use when potting out plants, but there’s no reason why it can’t be used for anything else that needs some way of keeping mess under control, and even has an optional raised shelf attachment for putting tools, components etc on. It’s the perfect size for Thunderchild, too!
I bought mine from Shoots garden centre, but it’s not on their online shop. However I have found another company selling it – for less than I paid! Check out the Stewarts potting tray on the Ruxley Manor Garden website for more details.
The empty tray
...and with Thunderchild parked up
