Defblade Posted February 14, 2014 Share Posted February 14, 2014 About time I did a build thread on here for my wraith, now it's been out for its maiden run. First off, days of agonising over which bits to buy, and from where. All over the world (Ok: UK, USA, HK); paypal account in meltdown! A mix of cheap and top-end! Parcels were arriving every day or so for a while... Staying brushed, and NiMH, a bit for cost reasons (I've got a pile of NiMh batteries and charger); a bit as serious LiPo seems to break Wraiths fairly quickly unless serious trans upgrades are made; also I'm not interested in massive speed - I'd rather this climbed rocks than smashed into pieces on them. Also... I live in Wales... so I decided "waterproof" was a good thing to aim for Choose a Novak Eiger ESC for flexibilty, price and waterproofness.... I've only since seen some poor reviews of reliability so we'll see how it goes... Orion 27t motor for speed/torque balance... more on that later. Nice shiny Axial beadlock wheels: About this point, I saw Krawler Konceptz' inside skins on RCcrawler, so more budget was put aside and a long exchange of emails started with Michelle as she turned the ideas I had for a Welsh themed car into art. The actual build started; the standard shocks are absolute pants and after just the one run I have ordered some replacements! I spent more time trying to get them to work properly than any other single part of the build... Knocked up a battery tray in the front: Then came my ultimate waterproof idea for the electrics: a sealed up box, to be fitted in the back of the car. So I bought a wp box, and immediately drilled a load of holes through it! Mounting the aerial had my flummoxed for a while; a root through my shed came up with half a nasal canula as the perfect flexible right angle. Swapped everything to Deans (including my old MantaRay, now all my batteries are Deans) and quick link up to check it all works: Having a clear box means I can keep an eye on the ESC's lights while running, which is handy. Despite my slight concerns, no sign of the ESC overheating in use - I'm not pushing it hard with this car. Found a driver, gave him a 3/4" tummy tuck so he fitted nicely; also I liked those ally sills AJ had You can see the stickers for the interior Michelle did to complement the outside. Then spent a while cutting out the lexan (not my favourite job) and fitting the vinyl stickers (also not my favourite job). A rather stressful couple fo hours or so... but worth it! let the photo-whoring commence And some close ups of the stickers: they're on metallic, almost reflective, backing and it's hard to photograph just how shiny they are without the ligthing swamping the picture with reflections. Having been out for my first run (cold and wet, between gales): as mentioned, the sad PTFE taped shocks are for the bin asap - piggybacks on order instead; and... she's just a bit too slow for my taste, despite saying at the start I'm not a speed demon. I'm running that 27t motor on 56/14 (32p) gearing at the moment; I've just got off the MS site ordering up a 23t and a 16 tooth pinion. I've got a 12 tooth kicking around as well so hopefully between the 2 motors and 3 pinions I can find something about right. If 27t + 16 is still too slow, and 23t and 12 is too fast the it'll be back to MS for a 25t Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Defblade Posted February 15, 2014 Author Share Posted February 15, 2014 Settled on ordering a 25tx2 motor, along with the extra pinion, and after today's outing (with my daughter) over slightly more technical terrain, I'm already glad I didn't go down to 23t. It drove up this rock, we didn't pose it! And a couple of vids (only camera phone, excuse the quality): Water splashes: And my daughter's first go at driving anywhere at anything other than full throttle (although she forgets that idea from time to time...): Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
n_d_fox Posted February 15, 2014 Share Posted February 15, 2014 Nice Wraith buddy, my girls lack throttle control too although the youngest is getting better Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Defblade Posted February 15, 2014 Author Share Posted February 15, 2014 I might start turning down the max thottle on the Tx before I hand it over Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Defblade Posted February 23, 2014 Author Share Posted February 23, 2014 Got the replacement shocks on. An improvement from the start - they're not leaking! They are cheapie aisatees ones; the piggyback is connected and has a foam, but the whole piggyback cylinder comes off rather then just the top end, so you can't bleed them like you would a normal piggy. There's a bleed screw in the top of the piggyback, although the air comes out nicely, you can't top up fluid through it (maybe I'll get a syringe from work and try sometime). So after a bit of head scratching, I pulled the seals out of the bottom of the cylinders (I wanted to grease the o-rings anyway); filled the piggies and the cap piece with as much oil as I could get in, then made a mess bringing them together keeping as much oil in as possible. Then I angled them so air came out of the piggy through the connecting channel. Then much the same with the shock body, with piston installed but not the seals at the bottom. Keeping them upside down, I was able to work piston and add oil to get the air out of shock via the cup the seals sit in. I'm not 100% sure they're quite as they should be, or that the 30wt oil does much other than lube them. If it's too bouncy, I may just get a bowl of nice thick engine oil from the garage, and assemble them completely under oil... that should sort out any air! I think it's sitting a little higher. The shocks were officially 105mm IIRC but seem to be slightly longer than the OE ones off the car; the design of their tops between the 2 caps means I had to use the middle shock mounts rather than the lowest ones I had the OE shocks on. If they're too stiff, there is the option to take out the second smaller, firmer spring (I think the idea is to have the 2nd spring to soak up bigger bumps while running softer overall) and wind the pre-load down to hold in a single spring (the kit came with 3 strengths for the main springs - blue are the softest according to my fingers). Anyhow, they're fitted, but it's too cold and wet to want to bother going out to test them. The same applies to my other change today - now running a 25x2t motor on a 16 tooth pinion (against a 56 spur). The motor's rated about 8% faster than the 27t, the pinion gives 12.5% increase so the speed should be about 20% faster overall. Torque will hopefully be similar, or possibly even slightly improved. The only running I've done was briefly in the kitchen - I must say it feels more controllable at just-enough-to-move throttle; no idea about the top end yet! The new shocks didn't photo too well - firstly, black on black; secondly my M-in-L has borrowed our camera so I'm back using the phone which doesn't really "do" macro Articulation doesn't seem to be affected one way or the other (for posing, anyway). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
demondan866 Posted March 15, 2014 Share Posted March 15, 2014 great looking bit of work fella.Keep up the good work Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Defblade Posted March 20, 2014 Author Share Posted March 20, 2014 The new shocks worked well once I'd taken the black stiffer springs out and wound the top collers down to work with the blues. Then I stripped my servo... opened up, turned the bad gear around 180' and took out the VP top link for the kit bendy plastic. That lasted another pack and a half.... So now I've got a savox 1270tg, a servo saver, and a castle BEC and link coming (slowly) from amain. Planning to run at something like 6.6v which should be plenty of torque, whille keeping some overhead space (goes to 7.4v) to lessen the load on the gears a bit. Anyhow, it's raining again and I've been having to work on my (proper) motorbike for its MOT the last few days off, so not missing the wraith too much Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Discovery-paul Posted March 21, 2014 Share Posted March 21, 2014 Nice build and the body panels look great Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Defblade Posted March 29, 2014 Author Share Posted March 29, 2014 Postie came Just about room to squeeze the BEC into my waterproof box; decided to just power the servo with it, leaving the ESC to power the Rx, and then I don't have to worry about overvolting the Rx - no problem to wire as I already had a servo y-lead. I'm not pushing huge power, either, so once again not worried too much about heat in there (no 5mph breeze...) Then mounted up the mighty Savox: BTW, I'm now using split pins on the front shock upper mounts and rear shock lowers, which makes taking the body off much quicker and less painful - the wheels can stay on, for a start. I set the BEC to 6.8v - well up from 6, enough down from 7.4 that I know the servo is not going to be running up against its limits. The saver was a tight fit, no bad thing I guess... like others have said, this servo is noisy! Sounds like it's spitting electrical sparks, even at idle. However - it is also the boss No worries about turning the wheels at standstill on carpet now Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.AJ. Posted March 29, 2014 Share Posted March 29, 2014 (edited) Nice update, I'm meaning to program my CC bec, it's still set at 5.5v and I want a bit more Powar! Edited March 29, 2014 by .AJ. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Defblade Posted March 29, 2014 Author Share Posted March 29, 2014 (edited) Well, the castle link is a bit pricy for the sake of a BEC, but I've got it in my head that if my ESC burns out, I'll go to a holmes hobbies job, which will use it as well. Anyhow, it was as easy to use as it could be, definitely owrth getting if you're ever thinking of getting more stuff that would use it (otherwise, see if anyone near you will let you plug in for 10 secs!) ETA: hang on, you're running HH already - you need a link if you've not already! Edited March 29, 2014 by Defblade Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.AJ. Posted March 29, 2014 Share Posted March 29, 2014 I haven't got a PC only a iPad and a andriod phone and I'm not sure if the Field Programmer works with the BEC Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Defblade Posted April 19, 2014 Author Share Posted April 19, 2014 Something's getting too hot in the box now after about 10-15 mins, messing up the servo response, so I'll run with it open now it's stopped raining for a bit, just clip it closed for river work. In the meantime, also playing with my HD micro camera and its waterproof case - strapped inside the roof - unedited video of water splash, log ramp (the hole is new since last time I was there, I couldn't see it where I was standing!) and then stream bed crawling. Going to go down 2 more teeth on the pinion I think. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwSAfW_QI5g Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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