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Old 10-26-2002, 08:42 PM
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aktiondan aktiondan is offline
Micro Hybrid Master
 
Join Date: Jul 2002
Location: AZ
Posts: 610
380 motor (again) it's all about gearing!

Well as some of you may know, I stuck a 380 motor in my Micro last month and was somewhat disappointed with the outcome. Running a 16T pinion and 8 cells, it was just about as fast as any Speed 300/Watt-Age 370/TOBB with a 14T running only 6 cells. Not all was lost however, my run times went up to over 1/2 hour and nothing on the car even got hot or warm.

At any rate, I thought that this motor had to be capable of more if I just could dial it in right. It's not always about "unloaded RPM" after all because yes, this motor has fewer rated rpm's than pretty much any other 280 motor out there. So without breaking my wallet, I popped on a 20T pinion I had laying around which brought the gear ratio down to 2.90:1. Which is very tall by most RC car standards which vary anywhere from 5 to 9:1. Unbelievably enough, this is where the 380 really shines. It's got so much torque that driving this gear ratio with the added weight of the car itself poses no problems. I went for a drive tonight with it and I have to say that this my fastest setup by far. The thing screams and still has plenty of torque to peel out on dry pavement. All I can say is, it is very fast. And the gear ratio is what did it.

Now this is what I propose if anyone wants to take the challenge. This motor needs more cells. My ESC can barely handle 8 yet I know that with 9 or 10 cells and maybe even a 21T or 22T pinion, it would absolutely SCREAM. I'd do it if I could, but not at the risk of frying my ESC. If you're getting bored with your Micro and want to try something insane yet totally feasible, then this is the setup to try out.

For more details, visit www.danmarx.org/micro/

Thanks for reading!

-Dan
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