I have in my possesion a Box Stock RTR Mini Inferno ST. I bought it with a PN1250 nimh battery. I plan to use it to test and upgrade this truck for use as a stock 4wd race truck with a little playing around on the side.
I charged the batteries and loaded the TX bat. holder with rechargeable nimhs. I use a Vision Peak Ultra for my charging chores.
We took it outside and it ran slowly and for 2-3minutes. Not a real satisfying start. We let it cool for a few minutes, charged the battery (1amp) and took it out for its second run. Not very fast and maybe a little slippage in the slipper. It ran a little longer, the tx showed good range. We cleaned it up and put it away after the battery discharge to the point that it just wouldn't run any more.
Saturday is race day in my house. We traveled to the 1/8 track that is covered and enjoys year roung very competative racing. Once in a while some electrics show up and make a class for them. Indoor track is smaller and is not a bad 1/10 scale buggy mod and stock track.
We put the ST on the track after a full charge. Truggies and 1/8 scale buggys were flying everywhere. Open practice can be brutal. The ST was run over many times and kept on ticking. I mean litterally run over. Most of the drivers couldn't see it because it was so small in comparison to the other vehicles on the track. We did maybe three laps, held our own and had a little fun. In the end the wing got eaten and it was a dangerous situation for the ST. Willie had to hide it a couple of times to avoid being hit full throttle by a group of fast 1/8 scales.
During qualifying breaks, we took the ST out on the track and did some laps. Other electrics do this from time to time and this day there was a 1/10 stadium truck, a mini LST and a full boat Mini T. The mini T was very fast but couldn't take the bumps. The ST beat it by nearly half a lap. The miniLST just wasn't in the running with Willie running rings around the MLST and driver at times. He often waited.
The run times were getting much longer with each charge and it was taking a longer fuller charge each time. The slipper slipping was getting noticeable, clearly. Second break of the day, some interested was expressed in the ST, one of the traveling hot shoes wanted to drive it. I charged it at 2amps this time and it soaked that up nicely. I was thinking it may provide more punch though that wasn't really the problem. The top speed was much higher, probably double the speeds we saw when we first ran the ST.
It traveled the track at full throttle all the time. This is a 1/8 nitro technical track. 30 sec laps was average to make the A main. The ST was running about 45 seconds. Not that fast but the handling was really good. It flew straight and true, it landed without any muss or fuss. Steering was good, not too jumpy, but responsive. I think the gyro effect of the tire/wheel package helps these things a lot.
So, in the end: Stock out of the box, nimh 9.6v bats. it is reasonable and not a bad setup. No adjustments, no tweaks. It runs really well, much better than I thought it would. The slipper was slipping lots at the end of the day. Acceleration was limited and jumping was minimally affected because of it. Top speed wasn't a problem because once it stopped slipping and caught up with itself, it maintained top speed well.
It took a beating it shouldn't ever see and survived quite well thank you. The next step will be tweaking the slipper based on this board's posts, a URC GP1100 9.6v batt. and change over to Dean's ultra connectors for rec/esc and batts. I will pull the shocks apart and put silicone shock fluid in the reservoir. I will also put Kyosho general purpose grease in the f/r diffs. (no silicone weighted fluids or grease yet) as well as the ctr diff.
I want to slowly bring it up to speed with basic things. I also have a aluminum motor mount and X-Speed motor with ST's name on it. I am wondering how much performance there is with batt. change and slipper fix. With a little grease to smooth things out maybe it will be faster.
I have used a Tekin MOT950 motor analyzer to break in the motors. I set the voltage to 2.5v and watch the amp draw until it drops to a stablized amperage. Usually this takes about half a 1250 pack. The motor is free runing, without a load on it. This is per the instructions delivered with the motor analyzer. I have used it to breakin many motors and it gives good uniform results. I have used it and this method to setup up reversed brushed motors set timing on tuneable brushed motors.
I have decided to name the ST WinSTon for silliness.
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