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View Full Version : Range problem? Is it my receiver, ESC or something else?



JasonH
03-18-2007, 03:22 PM
So I just got my Mini Inferno (Nano Dragon 2, but most of the stock bits are gone) all set up with a Wraith 7k, Mamba 25, 3s lipo and a JR R125 receiver. It's running an 11t pinion and has a roll-over antenna so the antenna wire wraps around it and dangles from the top about 5 inches. I'm using a stock Nano Dragon radio (AM 27mhz Futaba clone) with good batteries which seemed to work fine and have no range problems with the non-brushless setup.

I just took the car for a little spin and it's blisteringly fast and I even got it to wheelie a couple of times, but it seems like my range is only about 50 feet, and after that it becomes unresponsive.

Do you think it's the receiver? I got it from eBay cheap. Or should I be doing something else with my antenna?

Also, my Mamba 25 seems to get really hot. Is it a good idea to attach some sort of heat sink to it? My battery gets warm and so does the motor, bnut the motor has two 3Racing heatsinks attached.

Thanks!
Jason

JasonH
03-19-2007, 12:36 PM
I found a small nick in the antenna insulation, so I'm going to try replacing it. I alos think I'm going to keep the roll-over antenna and instead of legging excess dangle from the top, I'm going to wrap it completely around the rod and heat shrink the whole thing. I'll post a report and maybe some pictures when I'm done.

JasonH
03-28-2007, 12:27 PM
I replaced the antenna on the receiver but it didn't seem to make any difference. I swapped the reciever with a Traxxas receiver that I know is good and it did the same thing. I believe the Mamba ESC and brushless motor just make too much electrical noise to use them with an AM radio system. I just got a 1/8 Sportwerks Turmoil with a Spektrum DX2 system, so I ordered the micro receiever to use in my Mini Inferno. With any luck it will give me the range I'm looking for without all these problems. I'll keep updating this thread when there's any new news.

tanandy09
03-29-2007, 03:28 AM
Yep, you can't go wrong with spektrum.

Try to put a small heatsink or a fan on that mamba, many people had fried their mamba esc before. Careful of the temps if you are running on grass..

crymynal
03-29-2007, 07:11 AM
I never really liked the mamba. You really have to be carefull of the temps. Go ahead and add a heatsink to it. It can not hurt.

I currently run the Mini Rage with a Walkera motor.

JasonH
03-29-2007, 01:47 PM
Yep, the Spektrum made all the difference in the world. Now this thing is scary fast and the range is excellent. After a few test runs the Mamba 25 was by far the hottest thing on the car (motor pretty cool with two heatsinks and a cutout in the body, lipo slightly warm.) I pulled the shrink off and attached half of an old PC heatsink (happens to be blue anodized aluminum, so it as a bonus it matches the rest of my aluminum.) Not sure if I'll try to heat shrink the ESC/heatsink combo, or if I'll leave the heatsink exposed and just wrap the ESC with tape. Probably the latter.

Does a Quark Procar stay much cooler? Does it have all the programmability that the Mamba has?

tanandy09
03-29-2007, 03:29 PM
I've had the Quark33A in my car with the wraith 7k. It's extremely hot too. But it does comes with a built-in heatsink and has temperature cut-off. I need to put a small fan on top of the heatsink on my Quark33A to run my buggy in the grass.

The quark has lots of programmable features to tweak, but not as much as the mamba with castle link. It has more than all I need, programmable brakes, punch, li-po cut offs, battery types, etc. And best of all, I never had problems with cogging, even with 6 cells.

alfreddajero
04-05-2007, 04:28 PM
Make sure to keep all the elec's seperated, and make sure nothing is close to the antenna like the batt plugs and the esc wires, you want to keep them away from the rx. ;)