My Bomber Build

[angrchair]

The savox took a pretty big hit today from a 3 foot tumble and survived. Hard enough of a hit to the wheel to knock the lower link off both ball ends and I had to pop it back into place. So I'm impressed.

Having some minor brown outs, nothing that makes driving bad, but going to go ahead and order a BEC.


Changed my mind, instead of spending $50 on a BEC and adapter I wanted to run, I'm going to put that $50 towards a Castle Mamba X and 1406 2850kv combo. Wasn't 'quite' ready to go brushless, I wanted to upgrade a few more things before going to more power but it on 2s there is nothing to worry about, just have to be careful on my 3s.


Recommended gearing?

 

[angrchair]

UPGRADES

1406 series 2850KV

 

[Jboucher]

No love for the holmes puller pro?
I heard it beats the crap out of the castle motors...

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

 

[durok]

There's nothing wrong with the new Slate CC motor lineup, lots of people are happy with them and they're inexpensive.

The newest firmware on the X-series CC ESCs is so good that it works wonders with a decent sensored motor.

Holmes does rule, tho'!

 

[angrchair]

Yeah I would love a Puller Pro but for $190 for the Castle ESC and motor, it was hard to beat. I already needed at least a BEC to run my Savox servo, so instead of spending money on that I just put it towards the upgrade since it's not really needed with the Mamba X.
Along with the Castle setup I installed VP motor mount and cam. Sway bar and Castle Link will be here tomorrow so I can set up the freakin Aux on my 3rd channel finally.

The Castle setup beats the heck out of the Axial 35T brushed setup that is for sure. I put 2 hours on it today just on 2S to get the feel for it, crawling granite glades and some rock bouncing at the old mine by my house. More power and torque on 2S than the brushed setup had on 3S.

When we left my house today at 2:30pm it was 44 degrees and by the time we got to the granite glades 10 minutes later it was snowing and 33!!!
So we put up with it for about 30 minutes before heading back home , and by that time the snow had stopped so we went to the Bonne Terre Mine for some rock bouncing. Destroyed my cheap light bar finally, it lived for 5 batteries, which was pretty impressive imo.

 

[rm25x]

Nice build. Just picked up a Mamba X 2280 combo for my TRX-4 and I’m so impressed with it I am ordering a second Mamba X combo to replace my MMP/Tekin motor combo in my new to me Bomber.

 

[Jim85IROC]

I have the same Mamba X & 2650 setup in my Bomber and I love it. I'm quite happy with how it behaves at startup, as well as the top speed performance I get out of it on 3S. One thing that I really appreciated with the Mamba X was the ability to set the throttle curve in the firmware. This gave me the ability to have a real shallow rate down near 0% throttle, and a steeper rate near 100% throttle. That translated into super low speed control, and at anything above 2/3 throttle, chances are I was going to go WOT anyway, so I don't really miss having more control in that last 1/3 of the throttle band.

 

[rm25x]

That and the aux wire is really cool too. On my TRX-4 I have it tied in with the shift servo. First gear is crawl mode and second it changes to rock race mode.

 

[angrchair]

Yeah I didn't mess with the throttle curve yet. I just got it set up for rock race/ crawler mode on my 3ch, and put back together for testing. Hopefully tomorrow when the LHS is open they will have a castle link Y adapter so I don't have to keep taking my rig apart to get to the receiver, otherwise I will order one.
I got the VP sway bar installed, and yeah what ever strength bar it came with is definitely too stiff, but I will run it and see if it breaks in a little before I go looking for a softer bar.

Currently my 3ch is setup backwards, so down/off is rock race, and up/on is crawler, I want to flip it, I believe it's just a matter of resetting the endpoinds opposite on the Tactic from programming mode. I will mess with it later tonight, by the time I got it all back together after setting up the castle link and sway bar install it was time for work.

 

[Jboucher]

Yeah I didn't mess with the throttle curve yet. I just got it set up for rock race/ crawler mode on my 3ch, and put back together for testing. Hopefully tomorrow when the LHS is open they will have a castle link Y adapter so I don't have to keep taking my rig apart to get to the receiver, otherwise I will order one.
I got the VP sway bar installed, and yeah what ever strength bar it came with is definitely too stiff, but I will run it and see if it breaks in a little before I go looking for a softer bar.

Currently my 3ch is setup backwards, so down/off is rock race, and up/on is crawler, I want to flip it, I believe it's just a matter of resetting the endpoinds opposite on the Tactic from programming mode. I will mess with it later tonight, by the time I got it all back together after setting up the castle link and sway bar install it was time for work.

If you find a softer bar for the Currie antirock, let us know.
I think it's currently one of the softest on the market.

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

 

[angrchair]

If you find a softer bar for the Currie antirock, let us know.
I think it's currently one of the softest on the market.

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

Really? It feels super stiff to me. Assuming I have it installed correctly. I'm still able to get about a tire height worth of articulation before a rear tire lifts so I guess all is good.

Also got the rock sliders installed, a bit of a pain to get to fit, took a little finess/bending.

 

[angrchair]

I stressed over where to mount my Mamba X on/off switch without causing more effort when removing the cage. I debated just cutting it off and hot wiring it. I temporarily mounted it to the cage, and i was going to cut a hole in a side panel and mount it there, then it hit me...I already have a perfect place on my aluminum interior panel.

Have my wiring all cleaned up.
To remove the cage now I just have to remove the normal 8 screws and shocks, as well as the 2 screws for the switch which are easy to get to, and my KOH lights which require me to remove the passenger side body panel(4 more screws) then the cage comes right off easy.

KOH plug sticking out of receiver box, rest of wires tucked inside clean.

 

[angrchair]

Just ordered a SSD 2 speed kit and a Savox SC-0252MG for shifting.

Glad I'm not married sometimes.

 

[angrchair]

Any tips on setting up 2 speed shift servo with Castle Aux wire for crawler/rock race mode on the same channel???
What subforum should I ask about this in?

I want low to be crawler mode(drag brake engaged), and high to be rock race mode(no drag brake)

I know it's possible but....

I know I will need a Y adapter to plug the shift servo and aux wire into the receiver. I currently have crawler/rock race setup and working on my 3rd channel, just have to make it work with a shift servo too.

 

[MasteroFlego]

Any tips on setting up 2 speed shift servo with Castle Aux wire for crawler/rock race mode on the same channel???
What subforum should I ask about this in?

I want low to be crawler mode(drag brake engaged), and high to be rock race mode(no drag brake)

I know it's possible but....

I know I will need a Y adapter to plug the shift servo and aux wire into the receiver. I currently have crawler/rock race setup and working on my 3rd channel, just have to make it work with a shift servo too.

Electronics is where you should make a thread

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

[angrchair]

Installed my SSD 2 speed today. Was fun to put together and compare versus stock. Zero assembly issues, went together fine. Ended up with an extra C clip? Instructions only called for one.

Having all the trouble in the world with servo linkage binding the shift arm. The included yeti arm is way too long to use on the Bomber, so I used a piece of all thread I had that came with something else along with rod ends.

I have my endpoints adjusted fine, but it binds up really bad when shifting. None of these setups worked. Basically out of ideas.

 

[angrchair]

Kind of have it shifting consistently.
New problem: lost my drag brake from aux wire since i set new servo points, yay.. this part I totally don't understand how to reprogram it.

Before I had rock race / crawler mode working fine.
Installed Y harness to connect servo and aux cable.
Mamba X detects aux plugged in no error beep.

I thought I used one endpoint from before which was drag brake on for first gear, which WAS crawl mode with drag brake. It must not be totally at the end point anymore. Now no matter what gear I'm in no drag brake. don't know how to test/set endpoints for aux to work.

Just probably end up buying a f*kin 5 spektrum dx5c and be done with it, put them each on their own channel which I'd rather not do.

angrychair is angry.

 

[Jboucher]

Lots of people got it working.

Basically you don't set end points. The Mamba software does it for you with the crawler / rock racer mode.

You need to find the right lenght for the shift link so it matches the AUX "forced" end points.

Am i making any sense?

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

 

[angrchair]

Lots of people got it working.

Basically you don't set end points. The Mamba software does it for you with the crawler / rock racer mode.

You need to find the right lenght for the shift link so it matches the AUX "forced" end points.

Am i making any sense?

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

I know I don't know why it's giving me so much trouble. I do have the transmission shifting smoothly now.


The aux forced end points are suuper far apart there is no way that would work, the shift distance is like 1/4" like 10 degrees at the servo.


Like, when I had my end points set previously with crawler / rock racer mode working, it was min/max endpoints.

Independently both function properly.

I can set the channel 3 endpoints to min/max wit the servo arm disconnected, and successfully switch from crawler mode to rock race mode. However these end points do not work for the transmission.

I can set the end points for the servo and shift properly, but I either lose drag brake or am stuck with drag brake in both gears.

 

[angrchair]

I knew I was missing something.

So in the castle link settings you can set the drag brake %.

but if you are using the aux for crawler/racer toggle, it overwrites the 0% and makes it the end point adjustment, per Robert at Castle:

The switchover point of the 2 modes is set by the drag brake setting. If you have it at 0% or 100% you have to hit full range on your signal to get it to toggle. Setting it to 50% ensures that it will always switch between the two modes. This value has no affect on the actual drag brake strength because the drag brake is being set by the AUX wire, but if the ESC loses connection to the AUX wire it will default to that value.

Not exactly how it is explained here, which is why I didn't try it.
http://blog.castlecreations.com/2017/06/castle-crawler-scaler-series-get-the-lowdown/

But so far I have tried 5%, 20%, 50%, 80% and 90% and 95% I still have drag brake/crawler reverse or no drag brake regular reverse no matter what.


Tried different servo positions etc etc nothing works. LOL. Throwing in the towel at this and buying a new radio. 8+ hours of taking it apart, setting end points, setting brake % with castle link, putting it back together enough to test trying to get it to work is where I draw the line haha. Getting a DX5C and putting aux and shift on their own channel.

I did get tired of remounting my on/off switch every time I took the cage off, so I used a PC fan extension I had laying around as quick disconnect. So I can leave my switch mounted now, still reaches while connected if the cage is next to the chassis for testing purposes.

I also had another idea that I am testing to fix a small non issue, there is a hint in that picture, I will post more about it soon.