RC Electric Car Upgrade Help - New n00bie

[anarklov3r]

Hey every1 im new here.
i bought a RC car a few years back for $150... not start of the art but it was fun.

it goes around 20km/h atm.. but i want to up it alil more since im not a little kid..

atm the car takes 8x AA batteries and receiver takes a 9volt.

what i want to do is:

1) put a new motor into it (i was thinking a RS540?? they look really good)

2) replace AA battery compartment with a battery pack (something really good to last a while and easily switchable)

3) get further reception from the controller. atm its around 30-40 meters at fullcharge.



ive pulled apart the rear or the car to expose the motor.. it seems like a standard round motor. if i were to change it there might not be enough juice in the batteries for the new motor.... which is why i wanted to change batteries.

im pretty clicked on when it comes to electronics and soldering and stuff.... ive built those radios n stuff from dicksmith lol n ive done alot of computer mods n wiring.



What would you guys recomend i do? i dont really WANT to buy a new car as i dont see that there is anything wrong with this one. i will supply internal pics if u require them...

Thanks alot, Anarklov3r

[wyattburp]

Which RC car do you own (brand, model)?

[anarklov3r]

umm its a Radioshack Evader i believe..i know its not hobby grade... but that doesnt mean i cant upgrade the motor with another higher performance one with same dimensions..

[tadium54]

actually, it pretty much does. the speed control and reciever are inegrated into eachother. as a result, the esc would probably fry with any other motor. your aa batteries would also be drained very fast, and would probaby be damaged by the draw from the motor. to use another motor, you'd have to get a decent esc, a reciever, servo and battery, in essence

[anarklov3r]

well i dodntthink this has an ESC to tell u the truth... i think its mechanical... or however u put it.. because i push the remote trigger up... i get normal speed then if i go to the end
i get fastest.. its not smooth movements

wats rong with the servo n receiver though???wouldnt i be able to just hook up a new ESC and motor to the current circuit board? by passing the old one?

[tadium54]

unless you knew how the board was programed, i dont think so. a bypass isnt as simple as it may sound. if youre an electical engineer, you might be able to do it

[anarklov3r]

ok well assumiung that i cant put a high high end motor into this thing, what would be something i can look into? maybe if i removed the 8 AA batteries and replaced with 2X 9volts?? would that be betteR? or would i fry something :hehe: ??

[tadium54]

8x1.2=9.8, the current voltage the batteries you have put out. 2x9= 18 volts. my guess is you'd fry it, if you ever got it to move at all lol

[rcguy2477]

Honestly, this just isn't going to work. If you did end up modding it, the final cost would be more than the cost of a new car.

[Neon_Dave]

Two 9Vs will not last you any more than 3 seconds in there.... :p ;)

I think the most feasible choice would be to completely switch all the electronics, as in change the servo (as most radio shack servos have the 5-wire setup) to a regular, switch the board with an ESC + Receiver, then you can easily put in a normal battery pack and motor, assuming they fit.

Good Luck
-Dave :)

[guver]

It sounds like you are ready to upgrade to a hobby level car. I know you don't want to , but once you do you will probably never look back.

There is 1 upgrade that may hold up ok and is cheap and easy. This is to add 1 cell or maybe 2. It will give you more power and more speed. Look into some nimh AA with 2500 mah. They are rechargeable to.

[anarklov3r]

It sounds like you are ready to upgrade to a hobby level car. I know you don't want to , but once you do you will probably never look back.

There is 1 upgrade that may hold up ok and is cheap and easy. This is to add 1 cell or maybe 2. It will give you more power and more speed. Look into some nimh AA with 2500 mah. They are rechargeable to.

well what if i bought a nimh battery pack? with the same voltage as 8x1.5volt AA's?? (12volt) and as u said 2500mAh? would that be ok? like wouldnt it just be more power??
and also i had a look at my local electronic shop they have a motor that looks identicle to mine and has 18,500 RPM... im assuming since this isnt a modded motor i wont need an ESC?? maybe just getting these two things would be sufficient... i just want it to be a bit more fun thats all

[tadium54]

its not as simple as straping a higher powered motor in. your car has an esc already and again, i doubt it would work well with anything other than a stock motor. the battery question is alos a little weird. rechargebales are sold in 1.2 v, not 1.5, leading me to think that youre using alkalines for it. if so, not a good idea. my guess is your esc will fry wit that much extra power

[apollotrance1]

i recently just modded a radioshack rc car/buggy thing 2 days ago. I took out the circuit board, old servo for steering, and the motor. But a Futaba steering servo in, Novak XRS Sport, with a Speed Gem 14 Double in the tranny. To be onest with you, it sucked. Thankful for me I didn't actually buy these parts to mod this thing, but were just spares. Dont even waste your time. I thought I would have something fast, but I think it was even faster when it had all the radioshack crap inside of it. The tranny on that thing was terrible..

[apollotrance1]

save your money and buy a TC4 or a old TC3, or an HPI

[anarklov3r]

:| wait... so if i use 8 1.5v alkalines.. i cant put in 8 rechargables..???

[anarklov3r]

oh n ps, can you guys point me to a good, decent cheap hobby car tats pretty fast and avail;able to australia and ill look into it

[tadium54]

where are you in austrailia right now?

[guver]

8 or 9 rechargeables will replace the alkalines just fine.

[anarklov3r]

in melbourne, Victoria

[jacteh]

I found that buying internationally, even with some pretty decent postage costs, was $125 cheaper than buying from the LHS.

eBay is good. I can reccommend a couple of sellers if you're interested.

Australia sucks for things like hobbies :(.

(I'm in Brisbane btw, where are you?)

[tadium54]

im in canada. theres a few members on here from down there, thats why i was asking. fluke and kawasakirider are i know

[anarklov3r]

im from melbourne... and maybe some links to something good?

[tadium54]

whats your budget(in usd would be good for now) and what do you plan on doing with it

[anarklov3r]

well, id like to spend as LEAST as possible, i dont plan to do mass upgrades, i just want something around the 40km/h area... something thats fun to muck around with. i dont want to be getting new engines and gear boxes etc...

i like my car but its abit slow... 20km/h ish so i thought maybe just vamping up the power or a slightly better motor would be sufficient

in USD .. id say up to around 60-70