Finalizing my purchase/ best battery, charger, and steering servo...

[high plains drifter]

Rather than start another thread... Maiden run for my TRX4 today! I'm in love with it of course, but I wanted to throw out some questions now that I've had a chance to familiarize myself with the initial procedure of charging/ running lipo.

I'm using the Imax B6ac V2 and started with a Turnigy 2c 2200mAh battery ( 25-35c discharge). It took just under an hour to charge and stayed cool... no issues. But the run time was very short... under 30 minutes by the time the light on the receiver was flashing red. I DID run it pretty hard so I'm guessing that had something to do with the lackluster run time but still... seemed pretty short.

The thing is, that when the pack was done charging, the charger read 1730mAh. I thought that it would be at or close to 2200mAh. So... not sure if I did something wrong or what? I charged it at 2.2 amps fwiw.

Let it rest for about 30-45 minutes then hooked it up to charge it again. This time it only took about 15 minutes to reach full charge and the reading was 337mAh ( 8.39v). Ran the vehicle again and only got about 15-20 minutes before the receiver light was flashing. Am I doing something wrong or is the battery just not that great or what?

Anyway... I love this vehicle and can't wait to run again next week. I'm really hooked hard! If anyone could shed some light regarding anything that I did wrong ( if that's the case), I'd really appreciate it.

Another quick question- My buddy also started running his new trx4 yesterday and after a couple hours ( maybe 2+ hrs) he burned up his stock steering servo. He asked if I might inquire here as to whether his 5000mAh lipo could've shortened the life of his stock servo? I told him that I didn't think so but that I'd ask on rcc. He was running his truck pretty hard too fwiw.

Thanks guys! And a few backyard pics:

 

[StomperCrawler]

Lipo batteries usually come with some charge in them.

Always use the "lipo balance charge" function rather than "lipo charge".

Stock servos stink and often burn out quickly. The cheap option I use is the $12 JX 6221 20kg (not 360) from Banggood from China; it'll run ya $15 from USA eBay sellers.

 

[magic_yeti]

As a cheap replacement for the stock servo i used a powerhd 20kg waterproof servo day and night difference to the stock one, and cheap under 20$:mrgreen:

i don't have experience with 2s 8) but my 2700mAh 3s 65c lipo lasts min 1.5 hours (mostly round 2 h). Even not gentle with the throttle or the truck. so 30 min out of a 2200mAh sounds very short too me. but i had a similar behavior as i used my drone lipos (3s 1800mAh 25C) at the beginning, i think the truck demands more A as the lipo could deliver which is causing the symptoms. your lipo is able to deliver continues 55A and for a short time 77A. if you have a lipo with a higher c rate on hand try this one. did your buddy has the same behavior with his truck? if not maybe you can test with his bat"thumbsup"

 

[Stewdog]

Congrats on the new rig!

I thought the LVC on the stock ESC was a bit early too. Mine got a little better with a brand new battery, but still a little short on the run time, I think.

I also had my stock servo just up and die while I was running very slow and straight in the backyard. I stopped the truck after running a very small rock pile and when I tried to run the truck again the servo was completely dead. I was going to get it warrantied from Traxxas, but it's such a piece of junk I don't need to wast time with it.

 

[high plains drifter]

Lipo batteries usually come with some charge in them.

Always use the "lipo balance charge" function rather than "lipo charge".

I balance charged the 2.2 and it took almost an hour so I was pretty disappointed with such a short run-time. Good thing is that it's a really cheap battery so not a huge deal. Next battery I'm going to try is a Zippy 3s 2700mAh. Hopefully I will get better results with that.

Stock servos stink and often burn out quickly. The cheap option I use is the $12 JX 6221 20kg (not 360) from Banggood from China; it'll run ya $15 from USA eBay sellers.

I've got a 20g servo ready to drop into mine although I didn't immediately burn mine up. Just a matter of time, I'm sure lol.

As a cheap replacement for the stock servo i used a powerhd 20kg waterproof servo day and night difference to the stock one, and cheap under 20$:mrgreen:

i don't have experience with 2s 8) but my 2700mAh 3s 65c lipo lasts min 1.5 hours (mostly round 2 h). Even not gentle with the throttle or the truck. so 30 min out of a 2200mAh sounds very short too me. but i had a similar behavior as i used my drone lipos (3s 1800mAh 25C) at the beginning, i think the truck demands more A as the lipo could deliver which is causing the symptoms. your lipo is able to deliver continues 55A and for a short time 77A. if you have a lipo with a higher c rate on hand try this one. did your buddy has the same behavior with his truck? if not maybe you can test with his bat"thumbsup"

He had MUCH longer run-time with the Traxxas 5000mAh lipo and as soon as my 2200 mAh lipo died, he allowed me to try it to make sure that my issue was indeed the 2200mAh battery. Truck fired right up and ran without issue. I'm definitely steering clear of the cheap 2.2 lipo's from here on out.

Congrats on the new rig!

I thought the LVC on the stock ESC was a bit early too. Mine got a little better with a brand new battery, but still a little short on the run time, I think.

I also had my stock servo just up and die while I was running very slow and straight in the backyard. I stopped the truck after running a very small rock pile and when I tried to run the truck again the servo was completely dead. I was going to get it warrantied from Traxxas, but it's such a piece of junk I don't need to wast time with it.

Thanks! I'm absolutely loving the rig. I really hope that the 20g replacement servo that I have ready to drop in ( whenever mine finally dies) is able to be run directly through the Traxxas esc/ bec. I know it's only rated at 1a so my fingers are crossed. Until I can upgrade to a Hobbywing 1080 or Mamba X, I'm not going to get any super-high torque servo.

 

[AnimalHippie]

Love this thread guys! Has helped me tremendously. I'm working on my list for my purchase of my first rc crawler (trx-4 kit). High plains drifter, out of what you bought. What is your opinion as far as battery/charger & servo? I am buying the kit due to price, my enjoyment of tinkering & I don't care much for the stock bodies. It's crazy that the charger is one of the hardest things to make a decision about.

My list

Trx-4 kit $370
Body $60
2- ZIPPY Compact 2700mAh 3s 60c Lipo-Pack $50
Still figuring out a charger $60
Unsure on a steering servo $30
Brass knuckle weights or portal covers $40
Total $610

Any suggestions or advise is much appreciated. Super stoked to get into this hobby. Can't wait to get out there & get to crawling! Thanks for all the help everyone! Have a great day!

 

[high plains drifter]

Love this thread guys! Has helped me tremendously. I'm working on my list for my purchase of my first rc crawler (trx-4 kit). High plains drifter, out of what you bought. What is your opinion as far as battery/charger & servo? I am buying the kit due to price, my enjoyment of tinkering & I don't care much for the stock bodies. It's crazy that the charger is one of the hardest things to make a decision about.

My list

Trx-4 kit $370
Body $60
2- ZIPPY Compact 2700mAh 3s 60c Lipo-Pack $50
Still figuring out a charger $60
Unsure on a steering servo $30
Brass knuckle weights or portal covers $40
Total $610

Any suggestions or advise is much appreciated. Super stoked to get into this hobby. Can't wait to get out there & get to crawling! Thanks for all the help everyone! Have a great day!

Besides the enjoyment, I think that the best thing about building from a kit is that you become SO much better familiarized with everything regarding parts and how they all go together. The subsequent reward is upgrading, performing repairs, etc with a much more educated confidence. I guess that's all obvious but still... felt like mentioning it. Good choice!

Honestly I could not be happier with my SkyRC Imax B6AC v2. Using this thing is so straight fwd and simple. The fact that it's an "intuitive" balance-charger also means that my lipo's are being maintained better and will hopefully have a longer life than using a charger with no balancing capability. Deans, XT60, EC3, etc... most popular adaptive connectors are included. Anyway... it feels very well-made and professional-grade ( something that some other chargers like the Traxxas EZ-Peak ID lipo/ nimh charger lacks). One thing to keep in mind though ( probably mentioned somewhere in this thread already), is that it's only a single port charger. This limitation hasn't bothered me at all since I'm fairly proactive... making sure that I allow myself plenty of time before a crawling/ trailing session to get everything charged and ready to go... But for some people this might be an inconvenience.

As I also probably mentioned, I'm running a Traxxas 5000 mAh lipo ( along with my Turnigy 2200 and Zippy 2700) and for that battery I'm still using the Traxxas EZ-Peak Plus charger but if I could go back and do it all again, I would ditch the Traxxas lipo and EZ Peak and just go with a 5000 mAh pack that was equipped with an XT60 connector. Traxxas batteries are WAY overpriced and even though I've had zero issues, I still don't feel like the EZ-Peak is a very solid charger. I guess that when I was still learning, that I felt as if part of me wanted to possibly keep everything Traxxas brand. In hindsight now, I feel that money could've been spent more wisely with an aftermarket 5000 mAh pack ( equipped with an XT60) and the Imax charger.

I'm sure that I've also mentioned it but I also am using an XT60 to Traxxas adapter in my TRX4 so that I can run the Turnigy and Zippy batteries as well as the Traxxas battery ( obviously the Traxxas battery connects directly to the vehicle/ Turnigy and Zippy utilize the adapter). With the appropriate connectors and/ or adapters there's no need to solder so it's all plug-n-play.

As for the other things... My $18 DS3218 20kg steering servo is so far proving it's worth although it's not exactly a super high-torque servo so I'm able to [so far] utilize the stock XL5 ESC. When I eventually install my Hobbywing WP1080 ESC, I'll upgrade my servo at that point to something much better. Regardless, this cheap-o DS3218 is still noticeably better than the stock 2075X from Traxxas.

To add some weight to all 4 corners of the rig, I went with LockedUP RC ( LURC) steel portal covers because I liked the thought of steel over softer brass. I'm so happy with the quality that I also purchased their steel C-hubs up front as well. Great company and great products although I will say that I also have some ( LURC) 8mm brass hex-hub adapters that I don't care for. I got them to widen the stance of my TRX4 but problem is that I can't keep the wheels tight because they push the wheels out too far to be able to get the nuts as far onto the axle-shafts as they need to be. So just be aware of this in case you're wanting to go with wider hex-hubs.

I think that's about all that I can think of now lol.