So not to long ago the stock ESC (EVX-2) in my Summit failed. And after a lot of research I settled on the MMX as its replacement. I had planed to run the ESC with the DeWalt 14.4v motor I already had. But when I was at my LHS to buy the ESC they had a good deal on it with the 1515 2200kv motor.
I was a little hesitant as I did not want to give my ability to crawl, and I was not sure how the truck would perform with the non sensored motor.
I took my time, and got every thing installed and did the initial set up on the ESC. Bench tested it and every thing checked.
So I took the Summit out for a little over an hour of bashing last night!!!!!!!
So Ill start off by saying I am vary VARY impressed with this system!
It crawled almost as good as stock in both 1st and 2nd grear. It will cog a little if you try to go supper supper slow. But giving it just a tiny bit more throttle stops this without making the truck go much faster, or jump forward. Really easy to adapt to. It almost never cogged in the first half of my run, and by the last half I had figured it out and had NO cogging at all! I think that I can make a small change to the throttle mapping and remove almost all cogging by changing the low throttle ramp up.
Its power was perfect! It had a bit more then stock power, but was not so much that I was in fear of braking the truck. And it had a little higher top speed then stock with near stock gearing in 1sr gear. (I geared it 13/62)
In 2nd gear it had plenty of go! But again not to much. It topped out around 28mph, had the power to get the front wheels off the ground, but again not so much that I had to fear it would brake at any second. It was vary smooth in both 1st and 2nd gear. And my run time was increased by a lot more then expected. I'm not sure how much at this point as I was not able to fully drain my packs as it got dark before I ran out of juice. But that was by far the longest run I have ever gotten out of those packs.
Ill post up how much of the packs I used when I charge them. (I'm using 9,400mah SMC 2s Lipo packs that are about a year old, and have about 25 runs on them at this point.)
My running buddy ran threw a set of stock Traxxas batteries, and a set of 5000mah 2S Lipos and I still ran for another 15 min or so before we called it do to light.
I am SUPPER happy with this system!!!!!!!!!
I plan to make a few small changes to the settings in the ESC at this point. And a change to the gearing.
First the ESC settings.
Right now I have the punch control set to 60%. I think this a little to conservative. I could get the front wheels off the ground, but not right off the line. I had to get moving to a point where the punch control started to roll off. So I plan to dial it back to 50%. I think that will be perfect as I was close to getting the front wheels up in the air from a standing stop, but fell just short. Seeing as the stock system can pull them up from a standing start this should not cause any problems.
Next will be the above mentioned change to the throttle mapping to smooth it out a little and remove the little bit of cogging it did have. (Vary little.)
I plan to change the drag brake from 10% to 20%.
And last will be to back the brakes off another 10% from where it is now. (I think its set to 50%) The truck endowed really easy under braking. And the brakes came on to fast, so a small change to the braking curve will also help fix this.
ESC settings are critical for a non sensored brushless system to work well in this truck without giving up the ability to crawl, or adversely effecting the reliability of the truck. Get them right and this thing is a BLAST with out braking it at every turn.
Gearing is just as critical to this truck working well with a non sensored brushless system as the ESC settings.
For the gearing change I plan to move to 13/60. This should increase my top speed by 1mph with out much if any effect on my ability to crawl. My reason for this change is mostly do to the slipper clutch. In top gear if I hooked up it would slip really bad. But I could not tighten it any more as I had the spring bottomed out already. This slipper is not new, and is about done anyway. It has well over 50 runs on it, and I have not been nice to this truck.
I want to move to a Robinson Racing slipper and the best fit for my truck will be the 60t model.
I plan to test this gearing before I order the RR system. If it doesn't work good, my back up plan is to go to 14/65. This will give me a .8mph increase in top speed. 60t and 65t are the largest two options RR makes for this truck. So one of them has to work with the above gearing or I will have to back the pinion down and lose a little top speed to make it work if I want to run that slipper clutch.
The new Savox SW-1211SG Water proof steering servos LOVED 6v! They where faster, and had no problems turning the wheels even when they where a little bound on logs, rocks, dirt, what ever. The new Hot Racing steering rack with the servo saver shimmed worked great to! My buddy has all stock steering and he had a hard time in the sticks and logs do to the servo saver not letting him turn at times, and the weak stock servos not having the guts to move the wheels when lightly bound.
The steering servos are powered off a Castle external BEC. The rest of the truck is powered by the BEC in the ESC and set to 5.5v. This was the lowest setting option in the ESC.
The new ProLine Moab XL tires I installed for this first run are AWESOME! They had better grip then my stock tires in dirt, leaves, sticks, logs, and mud. Only losing out a little on the rocks. But not by much. And they handled better at speed then the stock tires did to. (Tho they still ballooned more then I would like, it was not as bad as the stock tires tho.) It's a shame they stopped making them because there the best tire I have used yet!
And I have a lot of tires for this truck! I liked them so much I just bought two more sets of them!
I have them mounted on a set of Axial narrow beadlock wheels. They held up to the brushless power with no problems. Tho I do run on 4s, and my gearing is not what you would expect to see with a system like this. So they may not hold up to doing 60mph. I will never find out, as I do not plan to ever run this truck on 6s, or gear it to go much, if any faster then it dose now.
Sorry there are no vids or pics from this run. It was a shake down run that was not supposed to last that long. LOL But everything worked great and I was having to much fun to stop! I will get some vids of the truck after I make the above changes and test them out. I want the ESC setup finished before I make any vids of the truck as I want this system to show what it really can do!
If your on the fence about buying this system, just get it! Its much better then even I thought it would be, and its really a PERFECT fit to this truck! If you are concerned about cogging, don't be. 95% or more can be tuned out, and the rest is so miner you will almost not even notice it unless you are trying to make it cog.
So unless driving a 1/100 of a mile per hour is your thing, you have nothing to fear when it comes to cogging from this system!
And if you really want to be sure you have 0 change of cogging, just get a sensored motor and the sensor harness for the ESC.
This is by far the BEST ESC I have ever owned! And this motor has plenty of power, and is smoother then any other brushless non sensored motor I have used so far.
The system also ran vary cool. I had a small heat sink on the motor with no fan, and the stock fan on the ESC. Both ran much cooler then my buddies stock Summit system. His motor was a good 20* hotter then mine, and that was after I did I bunch of 2nd gear full throttle runs. And his truck had been sitting for about 10-15 min.
When we where just trailing his motor was a good 45* hotter them mine.
His stock EVX-2 with no fan on it was also much hotter then min when we where trailing. About 34*. After I did some full throttle runs while his truck sat, his ESC was still a good 15* hotter then min.
Over all I am vary impressed with the system!
It was money well spent as my Summit is now exactly what I have always wanted it to be! A great all round truck, that can still move when I want it to!!
I was a little hesitant as I did not want to give my ability to crawl, and I was not sure how the truck would perform with the non sensored motor.
I took my time, and got every thing installed and did the initial set up on the ESC. Bench tested it and every thing checked.
So I took the Summit out for a little over an hour of bashing last night!!!!!!!
So Ill start off by saying I am vary VARY impressed with this system!
It crawled almost as good as stock in both 1st and 2nd grear. It will cog a little if you try to go supper supper slow. But giving it just a tiny bit more throttle stops this without making the truck go much faster, or jump forward. Really easy to adapt to. It almost never cogged in the first half of my run, and by the last half I had figured it out and had NO cogging at all! I think that I can make a small change to the throttle mapping and remove almost all cogging by changing the low throttle ramp up.
Its power was perfect! It had a bit more then stock power, but was not so much that I was in fear of braking the truck. And it had a little higher top speed then stock with near stock gearing in 1sr gear. (I geared it 13/62)
In 2nd gear it had plenty of go! But again not to much. It topped out around 28mph, had the power to get the front wheels off the ground, but again not so much that I had to fear it would brake at any second. It was vary smooth in both 1st and 2nd gear. And my run time was increased by a lot more then expected. I'm not sure how much at this point as I was not able to fully drain my packs as it got dark before I ran out of juice. But that was by far the longest run I have ever gotten out of those packs.
Ill post up how much of the packs I used when I charge them. (I'm using 9,400mah SMC 2s Lipo packs that are about a year old, and have about 25 runs on them at this point.)
My running buddy ran threw a set of stock Traxxas batteries, and a set of 5000mah 2S Lipos and I still ran for another 15 min or so before we called it do to light.
I am SUPPER happy with this system!!!!!!!!!
I plan to make a few small changes to the settings in the ESC at this point. And a change to the gearing.
First the ESC settings.
Right now I have the punch control set to 60%. I think this a little to conservative. I could get the front wheels off the ground, but not right off the line. I had to get moving to a point where the punch control started to roll off. So I plan to dial it back to 50%. I think that will be perfect as I was close to getting the front wheels up in the air from a standing stop, but fell just short. Seeing as the stock system can pull them up from a standing start this should not cause any problems.
Next will be the above mentioned change to the throttle mapping to smooth it out a little and remove the little bit of cogging it did have. (Vary little.)
I plan to change the drag brake from 10% to 20%.
And last will be to back the brakes off another 10% from where it is now. (I think its set to 50%) The truck endowed really easy under braking. And the brakes came on to fast, so a small change to the braking curve will also help fix this.
ESC settings are critical for a non sensored brushless system to work well in this truck without giving up the ability to crawl, or adversely effecting the reliability of the truck. Get them right and this thing is a BLAST with out braking it at every turn.
Gearing is just as critical to this truck working well with a non sensored brushless system as the ESC settings.
For the gearing change I plan to move to 13/60. This should increase my top speed by 1mph with out much if any effect on my ability to crawl. My reason for this change is mostly do to the slipper clutch. In top gear if I hooked up it would slip really bad. But I could not tighten it any more as I had the spring bottomed out already. This slipper is not new, and is about done anyway. It has well over 50 runs on it, and I have not been nice to this truck.
I want to move to a Robinson Racing slipper and the best fit for my truck will be the 60t model.
I plan to test this gearing before I order the RR system. If it doesn't work good, my back up plan is to go to 14/65. This will give me a .8mph increase in top speed. 60t and 65t are the largest two options RR makes for this truck. So one of them has to work with the above gearing or I will have to back the pinion down and lose a little top speed to make it work if I want to run that slipper clutch.
The new Savox SW-1211SG Water proof steering servos LOVED 6v! They where faster, and had no problems turning the wheels even when they where a little bound on logs, rocks, dirt, what ever. The new Hot Racing steering rack with the servo saver shimmed worked great to! My buddy has all stock steering and he had a hard time in the sticks and logs do to the servo saver not letting him turn at times, and the weak stock servos not having the guts to move the wheels when lightly bound.
The steering servos are powered off a Castle external BEC. The rest of the truck is powered by the BEC in the ESC and set to 5.5v. This was the lowest setting option in the ESC.
The new ProLine Moab XL tires I installed for this first run are AWESOME! They had better grip then my stock tires in dirt, leaves, sticks, logs, and mud. Only losing out a little on the rocks. But not by much. And they handled better at speed then the stock tires did to. (Tho they still ballooned more then I would like, it was not as bad as the stock tires tho.) It's a shame they stopped making them because there the best tire I have used yet!
And I have a lot of tires for this truck! I liked them so much I just bought two more sets of them!
I have them mounted on a set of Axial narrow beadlock wheels. They held up to the brushless power with no problems. Tho I do run on 4s, and my gearing is not what you would expect to see with a system like this. So they may not hold up to doing 60mph. I will never find out, as I do not plan to ever run this truck on 6s, or gear it to go much, if any faster then it dose now.
Sorry there are no vids or pics from this run. It was a shake down run that was not supposed to last that long. LOL But everything worked great and I was having to much fun to stop! I will get some vids of the truck after I make the above changes and test them out. I want the ESC setup finished before I make any vids of the truck as I want this system to show what it really can do!
If your on the fence about buying this system, just get it! Its much better then even I thought it would be, and its really a PERFECT fit to this truck! If you are concerned about cogging, don't be. 95% or more can be tuned out, and the rest is so miner you will almost not even notice it unless you are trying to make it cog.
So unless driving a 1/100 of a mile per hour is your thing, you have nothing to fear when it comes to cogging from this system!
And if you really want to be sure you have 0 change of cogging, just get a sensored motor and the sensor harness for the ESC.
This is by far the BEST ESC I have ever owned! And this motor has plenty of power, and is smoother then any other brushless non sensored motor I have used so far.
The system also ran vary cool. I had a small heat sink on the motor with no fan, and the stock fan on the ESC. Both ran much cooler then my buddies stock Summit system. His motor was a good 20* hotter then mine, and that was after I did I bunch of 2nd gear full throttle runs. And his truck had been sitting for about 10-15 min.
When we where just trailing his motor was a good 45* hotter them mine.
His stock EVX-2 with no fan on it was also much hotter then min when we where trailing. About 34*. After I did some full throttle runs while his truck sat, his ESC was still a good 15* hotter then min.
Over all I am vary impressed with the system!
It was money well spent as my Summit is now exactly what I have always wanted it to be! A great all round truck, that can still move when I want it to!!
