Brushed Motor Break In. Part 2

Continues from last post.

M03 Break In: Bolt brand new motor into M03, Run for 3 hours and 20 minutes in Whangarei Winter 200.

Bushing Break In: Apply Brasso to bushings. run for 3-4 minutes at 3.3v. Clean thoroughly and re oil. You can use this same method for breaking in brushes, just clean regularly and don't apply oil.

Brushed Motor Break In.

Ever wanted to know how to break in a motor? I will not be telling you how you should break in your motor, I will tell you various methods and you can choose for your self.

Method 1: Water dip.

Grab a jar of water. Submerge motor in water completely except for wires. Attach 2-3v power source. Run until brushes are broken in completely. Do Not take out without switching power source off first. Clean Motor with motor spray or co-contact cleaner thoroughly to remove water. Oil Bushings.

Method 2: Dry Run.

Attach motor to 2-3v power source, oil bushings. Leave running 8-12 hours oiling bushings periodically. Clean comm with Brasso and clean motor with motor spray afterwards.

Method 3: Slave Run.

Attach an old motor to new motor via the piece of tube on the end of the motor's shaft. Connect old motor to 2-5v power supply. run for 8-12 hours. Polish comm with brasso. Clean motor with motor spray.

After this all that is left is to install in your car and choose gear ratio, I recommend using a gear ratio that is slightly less than your usual one. And now that you have a new motor with a (hopefully) shiny comm, I recommend cleaning between rounds with brasso. For a gear ratio try, 4.3 or 4.4 FDR.

Also, Clean the bushings and oil them frequently to keep the motor at the top of its speed range.

I will post new and different methods frequently so check back.

Stock Driving.

In Stock, you need to drive so that you are getting around the corners with as much speed as possible. You want to drive so that you are making the corners as straight as possible and so that are taken without slowing down your car to much. See the video below for an example. Video from Rcracer.co.nz <a href="http://video.msn.com/?mkt=en-US&playlist=videoByUuids:uuids:0ca4e8bd-4a0d-426d-923c-c6ce3119fa9c&showPlaylist=true&from=msnvideo" target="_new" title="HD international Stock Misc 3">Video: HD international Stock Misc 3</a>

HPI Spring Rate Chart

This is a chart of the different weight shock springs that you can get for the cyclone s. The springs that come with the car are 8.6 weight.

RC Beginner Tips and Tricks.

To a beginner RC car racer, the first race meet can be daunting. But it doesn’t have to be. I recommend that if you are feeling unsure about your car or something to do with the racing, you ask someone, usually one of the guys who bring everything but the kitchen sink to race days as they will usually be able to help you.

If you are racing stock or another class with adjustable chassis, I recommend asking one of the top guys, mentioned above, to help you with setup changes and to get your car handling right. They should be happy to help you, but sometimes this is not always the case. If they aren’t happy to help, try some one else who races that class.

The most important thing to remember is to keep your cool and you’ll be winning races in no time!

RC Handling

If your car isn't handling properly at the track that you race and you want to know why, then you might want to have a look at the link below.
RC Car Handling

Stock Ratios

Here is a table of ratios for racing in the stock class. The one in red is the one that I was running, whereas the one in blue is the one that I am running.

Stock racing

Stock racing is all about driving. There is me, and then there is Luke. Our cars are identical speed on the straight. So therefore it proves the fact that in controlled racing, like stock, you have to have a good car setup to win. Now, my setup, as you have previously seen, allows me to competitively compete. So what’s the problem? Its not speed, its not setup, well it might be setup, but more on that later. It’s driving skill. I have only been racing in the stock class for 6 or so months. Luke has been for 2 years. It’s all about driving, if you went to the nationals, and the top guy, who had qualified 1st for the finals had to give you his setup, and you had the best motor in your car out there, you most likely would still finish below him. Why? Because these are the people who have been driving for 5 or 10 years and have the accumulated skill.

You may ask, Why bother going to a national or regional event, if you’re only going to be fighting for 14th or 15th place. Well, accept it. Go, have the experience and gain the track time. Who knows, you might even have some one there that is about the same skill level as you and you can have a great battle with them for 5th or 6th place. At the 2008 HD/RL International, held at NHRCCC, I was racing TT01, and I was evenly matched with Barry. It was the last final, and we were on the second to last lap. As I had been unable to complete the prior race, I had a little bit more grip left on my tires. I passed him on the chicane, and the pressure was on to keep infront of him for the last lap. Knowing that I would need it, I had skimmed my motor earlier on in the day and it gave me slightly more acceleration which, by the end of the straight, equaled about 2 metres. Having slightly more grip allowed me to get round the tight bits a little faster. But then, disaster struck, at the top of the chicane, I hit the curb. Fortunately for me, Barry, was still a couple of corners away. And with his worn tires, he wasn’t able to catch enough time to pass me. I maneuvered through the chicane and around the last corner and nailed it. Full Noise under the transponder loop and with Barry about 20cm behind. This is one of the reasons that I keep going back to these meetings.

Also, it could be that your setup is causing your car to be slightly slower through the corners. If this is the case, talk to the guys that keep winning, find out what caster and toe in settings they are using and change the car to these. If it improves the cornering, keep it. If it decreases the handling, go back to your old setting. Remember, change one thing at a time, and always write down what the car was set up to before.

Cyclone S Stock Setup

For my setup, I am running a gear ratio of 4.206 or 4.254, equaling a 88t Spur to 51t pinion or a 89t spur to a 51t pinion. I am going to try the latter gear ratio at club next weekend to see if it is competitive, and hoping so, it will give slightly more run time, as even with the use of the SSS Racing Motor Cooler, (site to be online soon), It is still a little to hot at the end of the race.

The Camber is set to 1 degree all round, and the toe in is set to 0 on the front and 1 at the back. Front shocks: Top, third hole in, Bottom, 2nd hole in. Back Shocks: Top: 3rd hole in, Bottom: Middle Hole.

Shock Oil. All Shocks are filled with the standard shock oil supplied with the car. If I can find out the weight of this, I may go down slightly to get better cornering.

Tires: These are currently HB Standard slicks, but probably going to get some 26 degree slicks.

Weight. My weight, all 58 grams of it, is all positioned at the front of the car.

Motor: Johnson RS540, with a 3 racing fan Heatsink

Speed controller: Mtroniks Tempo11. Soon to be upgraded to a IP6 Sport as the Tempo11 is going into my F1.

Radio gear: 27 MHZ with Futaba 2PL hand piece and HPI micro receiver.

Servo: Futaba S3003, Possibly being upgraded to Tower pro MG995 metal geared.

Well thats about it for the stock setup, Batteries are the same as they always have been, Sanyo 1300 SCR's and if I need another pack I have a Panasonic 1400 SCR side by side.

Computer PSU Conversion

A computer power supply is a dedicated power supply. It may be for running a computer, but you can harness this and modify it to run your chargers and other items that need a 12v source to run. Also, because it has a 5v rail, you can use it to test out radio gear such as servos and receivers and use the 3.3v to run your motors in. (do not do this if you are not confident in the voltage produced by the psu/power supply. If unsure DO NOT ATTEMPT. This Blog is intended to help. Any damage to your equipment/self will be solely your fault and will not be the responsibility of this blog.)

Parts List:
Equal or Bigger than 300w Power Supply
1x Green Led
1x Red Led
5x 10ohm 5w resistor
SPST toggle Switch
1x 1/4w 510 ohm resistor
1x 1/4w 100 ohm resistor
3x Black Binding Post
3x Red Binding Post
Super Glue


Step One: Find a suitable p.s.u. It should have 10 amps or above on the 12v rail. Depending on the charger that you use, you might need more than this.

Step Two: Check the wiring on it. It should have a 20 Pin Connector that usually goes to the motherboard. Now check whether or not it has a brown wire connected to an orange. If it does remember which wire it is. If not, continue on to the next step.

Step Three: Make sure the 240v lead is unplugged and power supply has been sitting for a while Open the case up. Locate the PS On wire, usually green or grey. Cut this off at approx 5cm from pcb. Remove all unneeded
wires, except for the Standby power, usually Purple, 2x Red +5v wire, 4x Black/Gnd wires. Cutoff -12v (dark blue) -5v (white) All except one Yellow/+12v and all all except one +Orange/3.3v (if there was a brown wire connecting to a 3.3v wire before removing the 20pin plug, leave 3cm of another 3.3v wire connected and connect this to the brown wire.)

Step Four: Put heatshrink on to the green wire and solder one side of switch attach a black wire to the other side.


Step Five: Solder the Orange and Brown wires together if present.
Solder the 5w Resistors together in Parallel, and put heatshrink on One of the Red wires and One of the black wires. Attach wires to the the resistors and shrink heat shrink.

Step Six: Drill Holes for binding posts, the switch and LED's and bolt in binding posts and switch.

Step Seven: Solder remaining wires to the binding posts, black to black, yellow to red, red to red and orange to red. Slide in LED's and apply a drop of super glue to the base to hold it in. Leave for ten minutes to dry throughly. Also if you want you could put some epoxy around the base of the led to anchor it better. Solder the 510 ohm resistor to the negative leg of the Red LED and attach to one of the ground binding posts. Attach positive to the 12v binding post. Attach 100 ohm resistor to the negative leg of the green led. Attach to one of the ground binding posts. Attach the Purple wire to the positive leg.

Step Eight: Put it all back together. Make sure that the case is closed before trying to test as you can easily brush something and get a nasty zap. Switch it on, and if the secondary switch is off, the green led should only light, but if it is on, the red and green should both light and the fans should go. Test that you have got the correct voltages with a multimeter.

Cyclone S Stock Setup

Here is a setup sheet detailing the basic stock setup for a Cyclone S at WRCCC. This setup is what suits my driving style and also what I think makes the car handle well. On the handpiece, the EPA is set to 100% out of a possible 120% and the Dual Rate is set to 58% of a possible 120%. Throttle is set to Maximum. There is also a heatsink and fan on the motor to keep it cool.

Regular Maintenance

In order to keep your car in top racing order, you need to regularly clean the motor and clean the diffs after ever 10 runs. The Cyclone S needs these regular diff rebuilds because of where the diffs are located and the fact that they have no cover on them at all.

Fortunately the diffs are easy to get to and rebuild and it should take only about 15 minutes per diff to get it out of the car, rebuild it and reinsert it. The Cyclone S suffers from the problem that the plastic outdrives are known to melt, and also for the middle shaft that makes the diff spin snapping, leaving you with a 2wd drive car.

The other reason for regular diff rebuilds is the fact that once the grease evaporates out of the diff, or is absorbed into the plastic, it tends to get dirt inside it. This leads to worn diff pulleys and the your diff balls being flat spotted.

Therefore when rebuilding differentials you need to make sure that they are completely clean and are free of any grit.

Whangarei Winter 200

The Whangarei Winter 200 was a very successful event. We had 8 Teams show up to race for 3 hours and 20 minutes. The winners were Craig Pullar, Kelvin Chapman and Colin Storey.

The race itself was held indoors at the Whangarei Indoor Cricket pavilion on Astro-Turf or Artificial Grass. It was run successfully using Dargaville RCCC's Infrared Transponder system.

The Race was very close with only a margin of 10 laps separating the race leaders and the second place getters who were: Stuart Cooper, Dave Blowers and Cody.

And when you are racing in an enduro, the difference between a Win and a 2nd can be a bad pit-stop.

The Race ran without a hitch, with every competitor getting a competitive stock motor, and being competitive.

Race on!

Driver Etiquette

Driver Etiquette is something which is often talked about.

If you have good driver etiquette then,
If you take somebody out, you say sorry and wait for them to be turned over.
You don't purposely take somebody out to get around them.
You pull over, or hold your line when somebody is lapping you.

Basically drive cleanly and have fun. And remember, transponder systems will catch you if you jump the track.

Cyclone S Tips: Drive to Win!

"To finish first, first you must finish."

This saying is one all to commonly used. And with good reason.

If you can drive reasonably well, and you keep clean lines and don't crash, there is no reason why you can't win. As long as you are of competitive speed and are able to drive reasonably well, you should be able to WIN!

No matter how good the top guys are, they always will occasionally slip up and will crash or have a breakage, and if you are there to seize this opportunity it will give you a chance to win. It takes me back to one race that I ran in. I had made some silly mistakes, slipping from 1st to 3rd, and there was only 30 seconds to go. Fortunately for me, the guy that was in 2nd was not so far away from me and I managed to get past, and remember, this is spec racing, at the time it was with TT01's in the NZ Tamiya TT01 class. The guy in 1st was half the track away from me. But then his transmitter batteries went flat. And because he uses Ni-Cad rechargeable batteries, he had no prior warning before the race. And because of his mistake, I was able to catch him in the middle of the straight and get round to lap counting to finish first.

Also, in Stock, once you get the car handling right, Leave It! and if you are going to change the setup, make sure that you've recorded what the setup was previously.

When driving, also try to keep as much speed on in the corners as possible in Stock.

Cyclone S Tips: Motor Cooler.

This is my home built motor cooler.

Cyclone S Tips: Toe In. How it affects your stock car.

The Cyclone S comes stock standard with 3.0 degrees toe in on the rear and 0 degrees on the front. Whilst this is good for Pro-Stock or Mod, it slows you down to much in the corners in Stock. What you want, is the minimum toe in through out the car. This will give you maximum steering and allow you to get round the corners quicker and without losing to much speed. If you have toe in on the rear or front of the chassis it will slow you down! This is useful in Pro-Stock and Mod because it means that you have to slow down less for the corners and therefore lose less speed on the other side of the of the corners. Currently my car is running with 0 degrees on the rear and 3 degrees on the front.

NZRCA Remits. How they have affected us.

The A.G.M of the New Zealand Radio Controlled Car Association, or the NZRCA has just passed. I am pleased to say that the rules for pro stock, and stock have stayed exactly the same, with the exception of there being open batteries up to 4600mah cells with a nominal voltage of 1.2v being allowed in Pro Stock.

This means that when you are buying new cells you can buy cells for pro stock which would have been illegal before the A.G.M. But if you are buying new cells for Stock, you are still limited to 1500mah maximum capacity.

Unfortunately the remit concerning 5000mah maximum cells did not get through and means that we will be stuck with lower capacity cells for another year.

Cyclone S Tips: Stock Racing. The Right Gear ratio for the job.

The point of the stock class is to create a touring car class, with cheap batteries and motors so that newbies can get into the hobby cheaply. It is a class that has grown astronomically and has been the strongest class at the National On-Road Champs for several years now.

The gear ratio is very important. When running in stock, you want a good compromise with speed and battery drain. With out the right ratio, your car may be slow, or you may not be able to finish the race. A good ratio to start at would be 4.5 final drive. This in a Cyclone S would equal a 90 tooth spur and a 49 tooth pinion. If you want to get down to 4.3 which is approximately what is being run at WRCCC you will need a 51 tooth pinion to 90 tooth spur. Of course there are many other ways of getting to this ratio, but this is the most efficient one as it is using the biggest pinion.

A gear ratio can make or break your race, and if you do not have a heatsink or heatsink fan, you may end up with an inefficient motor, drawing more current as it gets hotter and hotter. Another way to get around this is to use a thermal electric motor cooler to cool the motor prior to the race.

Cyclone S Tips: Stock Racing, How to do it Cheaply

To race in the stock class, you are required to have up to 1500mah sub c batteries with a nominal voltage of each cell being no higher than 1.2v. I recommend that you get the side by side 1300 cells from Speedi Models in Auckland, or Frankton Models in Hamilton. These cells mean that you can easily discharge them after each race day, in a discharger which will discharge each individual cell, making them last much longer.

You are also required to have a "stock" motor, which is often called a silver can motor. The part number for this is: #53689 Johnson RS540 motor. This motor is sold under the Tamiya brand name.


This motor will set you back $30 but if it is run in properly and not over geared, it will last several seasons.

Motor Cooling during the race, can be achieved via a heatsink with a fan, or a heatsink without a fan. Otherwise, take a look at my guide on building a thermal electric cooler here.

Cyclone S Tips: Mtroniks Tempo 11 Speed Controller

The Mtroniks Tempo 11 Electronic Speed Controller is the best in it's price range. It is a speed control with down to 11 turn capability and forwards only. It will run successfully in any chassis and with any motor down to 11 turns. The Speed Control is one which is easy to set up and use and has full punch control, which makes it useful when wanting to get a faster start of the grid, or when you want to try to counter wheel spin.

I am currently running one in my Cyclone S and it is running a Reedy Stockstar, which is a 27t 24 degree fixed end bell motor.

Motor Cooling and how it affects your performance.

I personally find, with motor cooling in stock, you will notice a little more "kick' off the starting grid. This is slightly increased in pro-stock, but it also increases your acceleration and how efficient your motor is through the laps that it takes for your motor to warm up to the temperature that it would be usually at the start of the race. I find that while the motor is colder at the start of the race, that it is still the same temperature at the end of the race as it would be if it had not been cooled down. You might wonder why you should bother cooling your motor then, well, whilst motor cooling is Not required to run in stock or pro-stock, it does extend the life of your motor, by keeping the magnets cooler for longer. The heat from the brushes/commutator is slowly heating up the brushes and magnets and this can cause a motor to loose any competitive edge that it originally had, and cause it to lack acceleration.

A commercially available cooling solution is the Much More Thermo-electric Motor Cooler. Now, I am not recommending that you go out and spend $75-$150 dollars on this gadget. I personally have found that a home made alternative made using a 33w Peltier, motor clamp and heatsink to cool the peltier is just as good, if not better.

The only thing that you have to watch out for is that you do not allow ice crystals to form on the motor cooler, as this is to cold, and will actually decrease your performance. Condensation is perfectly alright, but when it begins to freeze the condensation it is to cold. I have found through testing, that a good voltage is 5v for the peltier, which stops it from getting to cold.

Now, you could either attach a voltage regulator to the Pelt, to get the 5v or you could convert a computer power supply to provide you with a dedicated supply for battery chargers and also the Pelt motor cooler.

Just a couple of pictures of my Hot Bodies Cyclone S:

Setting Up A Cyclone S

Throughout this article you will find many Cyclone S tips. They should hopefully help you to setup a Hot Bodies Cyclone S so that you can race it in Pro-Stock. I personally find that a good gear ratio to run for the Cyclone is with a 27 turn 24 degree motor is around 6.5. To achieve this with the stock spur, you will need a 36 tooth pinion. Or if you do what I did, because I only had a 37 tooth pinion, I needed to get a 99 tooth spur to get a ratio of 6.52, and I am currently running a Reedy Stock Star motor. It is running well, although I do not know how many rpm's it is producing. The Shocks are running standard shock oil and the front shocks are in the second hole in on the top and the first hole on the bottom. The Rear shocks are in the second hole in on the top and the second hole on the bottom. I am currently running ATS 33 Shore foams all round with 1 degree negative camber on the front end, as it was getting to much grip and not steering properly. However when I race indoors I will change to Frewer Pink Fronts and Gold Rears or HPI Super Soft Racing Slicks when we race indoors on Astro-Turf and if running Frewer Tyres I will move the back shocks in one hole. Another Cyclone S tip is to make sure that all of your screws are tightened before and after every race. The worst thing that can happen is for you to lose a screw which you need to keep part of the car together.

Another tip is to upgrade the stock differentials to the metal Cyclone ones as they tend to heat up and seize together.

I am currently running a Mtroniks Viper Tempo11 Speed Controller which can handle motors down to 11 turns and will allow room to move up to a class which is higher up using a faster motor. Another Cyclone S tip is to run a motor heatsink, for example, there is a 3 racing motor fan on the motor and a cooler master computer cpu fan to help suck air in to cool the heat sink. This will help to keep your motor cooler, and will lengthen it's life span.

Come back soon for More Cyclone S Tips.

Cyclone S Tips

This Blog is dedicated to bringing new r/c racers tips on setting up a Cyclone S chassis to run in Pro-Stock. It is intended to help people get their Cyclone S's running well.