Lipo

Greyfox · Lipo

Have decided to install Lipo on my MRE, but without the need to dremel any of the metal away from the rear mount. I've initially made up to brackets to hold a 4900 Trakpower, one in the traditional 'lie down' position for the battery and the other with it standing on edge. Having looked at it carefully I think standing up will be OK as all the extra weight from lead weights required to bring the car up to the minimum 1500g's will be stuck to the middle of the chassis under the belt.
I'm now just trying to source a couple of aluminium posts to secure the plate to and then should be ready.
If you can suggest any car compomemt that is 15mm tall and around 5mm in diameter that has either M3 thread at both ends or a hole through to allow a M3 screw to pass let me know. Or know anyone that has access to a lathe that could make a couple of these items for me that would be great.

El Capitano

I think that I have something similar in my pitbox that could be modified to perform this easily, and.... it is Tamiya blue as well.. YAY :smt002

No. 46

I will make you some this afternoon Ian along with my new cross brace after my impact on sunday

Greyfox

Cheers guys, and thanks for the offers of help.
I'll bring the brace that I have made to club on Sunday and see what fits best.

Greyfox

2 x 4900 Trakpower Lipo's arrived today - so all I need now are the additional posts that No. 46 is kindly making for me and I'll be ready for West London.
Interestingly when I spoke to Mike at Modeltech this week and told him how I intended to mount the Lipo's in the car he stated that this was their chosen method for the Corally as well - and we all now how well they are going in the STCC- so it doesn't appear to adversely affect a car's handling at all.

stephen

Hows the mod going on the lipo cells ian. would be good to see some pictures of it. i looked at my car and had some idears of myself of how to fit the cells myself (not that much diffent to what you are doing but maby a stronger way of holding it). i shall show you what i (with help) have manged to make when it is a bit more finshed. BTW incase you have not gussed by the post this does mean that anther preson has gone lipo.

P.S There not trackpowers :smt002

admin

Yes I agree with Stephen we need photos of this Excelente mod :smt003

Greyfox

Ok, here are some photos of the mounting I have decided upon.
First photo is of the two brackets I made from 3.5mm GRP ( I had this lying around from the days I raced 1/8th off-road and used to make by own disc brakes), with the one on the left being on 10mm posts to mount the Lipo flat, but it did stick out a fair way from the chassis, and the second mounting is for the Lipo to be side on.
The second photo is of the mount on 15mm posts, the third with the Lipo taped in place. This seems to work OK but have decided to put a top brace on to really secure it, with photo four showing how the brace will eventually be positioned once I get some posts made up for it.

Good luck with sorting out the mounts for your own Lipo, we'll compare notes at the next club meeting.

stephen

nice one looks relly good what iv done is vrey, errr protopype and needs to be made neater but never the less i think it should work and will hold.i have also gone for the top plate idea but only in the middle so im going to have to not roll the car to hard. :smt003

stephen

ok so this is what iv got

this shows the bottem of the car where iv have made bits of plastic to protect the cell balnceing lead at the frount and to make it more airodynamic

this is showing bacily what ian has done but just a bit higher i think also you can see at the bottem there is a mount that goes around the cells to keep them relly tight and as i mentioned the plate at the top is only in the middle

same with cells can you guss what the cells are

and thats about it, but dw this is more of a template atm the final parts will be made out of somthing alot cooler.

admin

Looks like the Demon 5000 pack there "S" :smt040 :smt040 :smt040 :smt040

stephen

indeed it is. the balancing lead is in the way a bit but other than that they seem ok kinda thought that if demon recomend it, it cant be that bad. it had 5C less dischage rate than the trackpowers but has 100m/amps more capacity and comes with deans conters so i cant plug them in the worng way ,witch i was always worryed about doing. have not tryed them yet so im not going to go tell you al about how good they are because i dont know yet but i can tell you that they were cheaper than the trackpowers and are the same colouer as the alumim on the tamiya (sort of) lol

admin

Sounds like you got 2 of them there "S" did you get the Demon Charger also ??????? looks like a good price for 2 packs and a charger :smt002 :smt002

stephen

nah i only got the one pack was asured that would be ok and yeah i got the chager that demon sell the "yuntong" one dads bought it for me so i dont think we got any deals. This does mean that im totaly riping him off, his getting my old cells and chager for the buggys (witch i do belive was bought for me dono what happend to that), i also sed i would go halfs on the bill if he bought a bushless system as well but i am yet to see any brushless system so i think my moneys safe for the moment (yes i do know that would have been a vrey cheeky deal if anyhting brushless did turn up lol)

Greyfox

Like the idea of the bottom plate attached to the chassis to locate the cell into. Apparently that is a similar concept to how the Corally's are doing it, only they have simply stuck a strip of lead weights either side to hold the pack in at the bottom.
Putting the other plate near the top is a good idea also - be interesting to see if there are any handling differences between the two.
We'll do a comparison at the next club meeting.

Jimbo

Ive also just ordered my lipos and Ill be fitting them in with some right angled Ali Sections and then using tape over the top as usual. I will then be running lead down the sides of the cell holder that this will make to balance the car up and bring it back to weight limit.

Well thats the plan any way :smt038

stephen

hmmm lead. might try and do somthing like that on the side closest to the blet. the second lipo holder that im making i hope to race next week it is going to be made out of the glass they put in phone boxes, it pretty hevey and vrey hard to breack so im not sure how much lead i shall need

p.s dont worry its not glass it just transparant plactic.

admin

We are not worried about the Type of material S But which phone box is it coming from :smt018

Greyfox

stephen

indeed dad saw it in the BT yard skip i think so its gone to a better home. This stuff is hard as nails i dont know why people dont use it more offten also as its so thick im going to try and run it with out the bit in the middle. so just the bottem locating bit and then some sort of bar at the top. and yes the lexen does look alot better than the frist bits i made. I thinik i need to stop worrying about the cells falling out so much (because we did just use tape for nomal cells) and make somthing that is not over coplex and just holds the cells tight, This should save weight and mean it looks a little nicer

Trigati

I thought this looked good.

http://www.bittydesign.net/prodottiPortaLipoINGLESE.htm

The metal version will also help with the weight.

stephen

did think about doing somthing like that but the cells look like they are way off the side of the bottem deck witch could unblance the car, but thats not to say the way there being monuted now wont unblance it ether.

Trigati

I think half the idea is to put them off to the outside of the car, as they're lighter you need them to be further from centreline to balance.

It's one school of thought anyway. How many people actually balance their cars left to right I wonder?

Greyfox

Have balanced the car once using 4 x 500gms digital scales, one under each tyre, and it's amazing how far out of equal balancing left to right it was. So don't bother too much with it now.
However I an working on the basis that by having the Lipo on its' side and then adding the lead ballast weight on the centreline under the belt might be a good way to go. Weight further out or higher up is OK in the wet where you want the car to pitch more to try to get the steering to work better, but I'm wanting to set the car up for dry racing as I won't be using it in the wet due to the brushless motor being installed in it.
We'll see this Sunday at West London

Trigati

I've got this little balance stand, and I had it all perfectly balanced with NiMh but when I switched to Lipo I just couldn't get the lead mounted far enough 'from' the centreline to balance. I think it does make a difference having more weight on one side. It seems to understeer more on right handers.

Greyfox

OK here is the final version installed in the car ready for the STCC round at West London tomorrow.
No. 46 did a superb job (thanks again George) in manufacturing the posts for me, in fact they were so good I didn't have the heart to drill and cut the longer posts he made for the top bracket, so for the time being I have used some old aluminium body posts I found in a drawer. The top bar has had a piece of foam rubber glued to it to stop the Lipo moving around and it is all secured with body clips. Because of the weight of the brackets/posts etc. it only needed an extra 85g's to get it up to weight, so the lead for this has been spread around the centre amd cell side of the car.
It'll be interesting to see how it performs tomorrow, and if the handling has been affected at all.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/27237570@N07/2557501681/sizes/l/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/27237570@N07/2558322992/sizes/l/

Greyfox

Having run the car at the STCC at West London with the new Lipo brackets it performed very well, with no adverse effects on handling.
However I'm now experimenting with a Mk2 version where the Lipo pack is flat, but sticks out a little further at the side. The two posts are even Tamiya originals, in blue bling, so they look pretty good on the car!
Here are a couple of photos of the final version:-

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3156/2598069468_f4a06a7ba8_m.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3179/2598078196_5c550e65c6_m.jpg

I'll see how it goes at club next weekend, as I can use it for practice prior to the Snetterton round of the BTCC the following week.

Greyfox

Couldn't wait until the club meeting next Sunday to try the new modification, so went over to Colchester and had a run in 10.5.
It worked fantastically well, car handled brilliantly on STCC tyres and there was no hint of tweak or bias at all so I am really pleased with this new set-up.
Oh I ended up 7th in the A final, just 3 secondes seperating me and third, so it was close - after the two finals in which I came fourth and sixth I am certain that I will now run the car in this configeration in the future.

admin

Secret Testing I SEE ummmmmmmmmmmmm

Well When you need to find some speed I supose you need to do secret test sessions I could not have came even if I had been invited as It was Jacks Birthday and at this time I have NO Touring Car , Its on loan to someone for Secret Testing LOL ( & thats No lie )

q56

Glad to here its all going well though ....I felt it would have been the better design

Greyfox

So Team Cutting Edge Racing is expanding! Including secret testing sessions and driver sounds just like proper F1 - make sure it is worthwhile as I'm a lot more confident now with the car and feel that the gap between us in performance terms is closing.
May go to club this Sunday for a quick practice, but doubt i will be racing so the BTCC at Snetterton is the first real test.

Greyfox

So Team Cutting Edge Racing is expanding! Including secret testing sessions and driver sounds just like proper F1 - make sure it is worthwhile as I'm a lot more confident now with the car and feel that the gap between us in performance terms is closing.
May go to club this Sunday for a quick practice, but doubt I will be racing so the BTCC at Snetterton is the first real test.

markw

o yeah secert testing , i thought u b the one wanting to test ur car instead of someone else coz they might like the car differernt to u ... lol

admin

The GreyFox NOT Racing oh dear sounds like ummmmmmmm I don't know somthing is not quite right maybe Wendy has other plans .......

Looks like there might only be 5 runners Sunday then q11

There is nothing Secret about my Team Testing as I have told you its happening

markw

trev r u racing next sunday ?

Greyfox

Only 5 racing on Sunday?
I was simply saving my car for the following week at Snetterton, but you may have just tempted me out to race rather than just a quick practice. Have to put an old body on it as a new shiney unblemished one sits on it at the moment.

admin

Ill Be there Sunday If I can get the Car Built by then its in a lot of bits at the moment all over the bench ,,,

And making wierd noises which I don't like the sound of I am hoping its just the Spur or Pinion But it does sound like a Sanders SD at the moment q25

1 Day of testing with Team Sanders and its cought there hatfull noise and its got such a vibration at the moment ( Due to H putting a Screwdriver into my ESC Fan and taking out one of the Blades ) q11

Weight saving he said ...................

Got realy Bad Interferance as well so I need to rebind the Reciever and rewire her too....................

BUT ON THE UP SIDE MY MOTOR COOLING SYSTEM IS FITTED AND WORKS GREAT q14

Greyfox

Sounds like the secret testing went well then!!!