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.
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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.
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?
Traxxas E-Revo in red
Here’s my next big r/c purchase – a Traxxas E-Revo!
As much as I love my rock crawler, there are times when I’d like to go a little bit faster. The E-Revo should fill that gap nicely. Originally I was looking at the E-Maxx, which looks like it has much more ground clearance, but looking the specs it seems there’s on a small difference between the two, and the E-Revo is apparently a much more robust machine.
So far, though, it’s just in the “I want to buy one” stage – until there is more Traxxas stock in the UK (I’ll be getting it from Modelsport, I’ve used them before), all I can do is look…
I’m also thinking of getting the Spektrum DX3S controller. The E-Revo comes with everything, including radio gear, but it would mean carrying an extra transmitter if I took this and the crawler to the beach at the same time. With the DX3S, though, I could set it up for both cars and just use the one controller, since it comes with two receivers. I already have the DX6i controller for my helicopters, and that works nicely. Which is more than can be said for my flying skills at the moment…! Also, the DX3S can use sensors on the car to send data such as temperature and RPM back to the handset. Ok, that’s not really much use if I’m just pratting about on the beach, but it’s interesting…
