Thursday, 28 February 2013

RC electronics Part 2 - Battery charging

The popular four-button-chargers support charging of different battery types. This article examines the different charging strategies applied for NiMH and LiPo batteries.

1-charger-battery-sensor

Wednesday, 20 February 2013

RC electronics Part 1 - Tenth scale 4WD Buggy power consumption

When it comes to RC electronics there is not a lot of technical information available. Not many RC enthusiasts are experts in electronics and the manufacturers only provide very few data-points for their products.

Recently I got the opportunity to acquire a second-hand Eagle Tree Systems eLogger. This device can measure battery voltage, current draw, motor RPM, temperature and throttle input while you are driving your vehicle.

My first target was our 1/10 scale buggy. A Tamiya DB01 Durga: belt driven 4WD, running a sensored 10.5T Turnigy TrackStar motor with a 60A Hobbyking X-Car ESC. The buggy is geared with a 23T pinion on the 97T spur, giving a final drive ratio (FDR) of 8.13. Power was supplied by a LPR 2S LiPo rated 4600mAh 30C.

Monday, 11 February 2013

2.4 GHz receiver antenna repair

Notice something missing?

RX FS-GR3C case

Yes, the antenna has been cleanly ripped out of this poor receiver. Time to get out the soldering iron...

Thursday, 7 February 2013

HobbyKing HK-310 throttle return mechanism repair

Can you spot the problem with the throttle trigger in the following picture?

If you look carefully, you can see that the throttle trigger on the right transmitter is slightly depressed towards the grip. This is due to a fault in the mechanism that returns the throttle trigger to the centre when you release it.

Fortunately it is not difficult to fix this issue.