I didn't want to hijack the M-05 thread that's going, so started a new one. This is mostly aimed at AustinMiniMan98, but anyone is welcome to chip in...

I have a 1/8 scale TG10 petrol mini, and the engine has mostly had-it as of a couple of years ago. The noise and smoke is cool, but it's a bit annoying to clean it, put fuel in it, start it etc. etc.

the big orange one in this picture, the blue one next to it is an M-01 the same size as the M-05. It's a far bit bigger



I'd like to convert it to electric. A friend gave me a 3S LiPo battery and a snazzy charger that does all of the balancing etc., and I'd like to know what sort of motor and ESC would suit. Obviously I have a transmitter/receiver etc.

I'd like to use it for rallying, or at least fanging around the local club's dirt track - I looked at buying an electric chassis to go under the shell, but they're too expensive for anything that looks rugged (think tamiya XV-01). Also I don't really know what I'm looking for

this looks like fun - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4glnVDQ8sk

_________________
did I tell you that I won a trophy?

XV-01 is a great chassis but the front mount motor won't take the mini shell.
I would buy an old tamiya TB-01 chassis: was originally designed as a 1/10 rally car but later got lightened into the TB-evo chassis for use, and is currently the chassis for the Tamiya Levant.
In the Levant it takes a brushless motor so it'll do what you want.

Front and rear gearbox and chassis casings are the same as your TG10 too.

yeah, I saw those.... wasn't sure if the size was right, and about finding an old one... not to mention actually affording it

http://www.msuk-forum.co.uk/topic/168365-tamiya-tb01/

_________________
did I tell you that I won a trophy?

Start with this:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Tamiya-TB01-Cha ... 19d99289b4

then find the centre driveshaft and you're 90% there!


Or buy this and pressure wash it:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Tamiya- ... 3f375106ed

maybe, but it's always that last 10% that kills you...



you must ebay better than me, didn't see that one. I've sent the guy an email to see if he'll post here. I see what you mean about the similarities

So, what kind of motor and ESC would suit that and my 3S battery?

_________________
did I tell you that I won a trophy?

how similar do you reckon this would be to the original EVO rally version?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Tamiya-58298-RC ... 3f208d00e0

_________________
did I tell you that I won a trophy?

The Enzo is the same car, though when it was sold as a rally car it included a polycarbonate lid and shaped sponge inserts for the chassis to keep dirt out.....not that it really worked.

For the motor and speed control: personally I havent walked past the Traxxas Vileneon System.
I even run the VXL-3s speed control for my brushed cars for the low voltage cutoff and safety features.

The thing about your friend giving you a 3s battery is it's like a mate giving you a 1.4 Barina engine and saying 'here, you can put this in your mini'. It's the cheap bit of the system and depending on its capacity and discharge rate may not be suitable to the car you want to put it in.

ahh, good info - well, now that I'm home the battery is:

Redback 2200mah Flight Pack 3s 11.1v 20C - http://www.hhq.com.au/batt-111v-lipo-22 ... 11230.html - about $32

and the charger is a Cellpro Revolution 4s (which I don't understand how to use anyway - very confusing)

I'd asked him if I could borrow one of his aeroplane batteries for something I was making out of lego, and he went to the hobby shop and came back with this stuff and gave it to me

_________________
did I tell you that I won a trophy?

I would look for a matched motor and esc. Cheap too at hobbyking for what youre after.

_________________
SooperDooperMiniCooperExpertEngineering

All garage work involves equal measures of enthusiasm, ingenuity and a fair degree of irresponsibility.

Alot of good suggestions here. That video you posted is pretty cool, i remember watching it a few months ago. Anyway that track they were racing on was a purpose designed scale course. Most tracks you go to, be it on road or offroad(more offroad) are far from scale. With huge jumps and large-ish rocks which are more like boulders scaled down, you need good, offroad suspension with a fair amount of travel. Frankly most of the reviews you will find on youtube will all say the same thing; good on even ground terrible on everything else. If you want to drive on proper tracks instead of just some random field, you need to be getting a chassis based on a buggy or truck. they are also very rugged and most truck chassis have guards to stop the rocks and dirt getting in. The more modern ones are generally waterproof/resistant aswell.

Depending on how much you want to spell, you can go from something like the traxxas velineon system to castle creations mambas. Huge motors and a HELL of a lot of power. My little M05, now i plan to take that on my club's 1/5 track. It is smooth enough for 1/10, just but it still has big jumps. I have the power but i need to upgrade it to sustain anything the track and others on the track can dish out. Because i've seen my chassis(i'm not changing the chassis, i want to modify it instead of putting the body on something else.), i know what needs to be strengthened and swapped. I am looking for the suspension off a 1/10 truggy or a 1/16 rally car/short course truck for it to be ideal. obviously offroad tires and also guards for the electronics as it is an old chassis designed for on road so it is far from water proof or airtight. Dust gets in very easily and never comes out.

Modifying the current chassis is always going to be cheaper than swapping it for another one. Unfortunately there aren't many upgrades for the TG10 chassis but i'd recommend looking at another nitro engine instead. Of course electric is much more practical and if the club you have in mind doesn't allow nitro then fair enough, however like you said, the noise and smoke is what amplifies this hobby up to 11. Unfortunately i don't think there are going to be too many other chassis that will fit the body mounts for the mini body. Unless you are happy to simply tape the existing ones up and drill new ones to fit the chassis you buy, you aren't going to have a lot of options.

_________________
Why Drink And Drive When You Can Smoke Dope And Fly!?

I'm pretty much set on going to electric, the noise and smoke is cool, but I'm over it having problems. I have another one (1/10 buggy with a car shell) that did the motor, then the clutch went and I haven't looked at it for at least 12 years

I won't actually join the club, just use the track, but more likely run it up and down the street. I only ever use it for a few days every couple of years, then put it back in the cupboard.



What matched set is going to suit the car in terms of having enough grunt, and the voltage of the battery?

AND is the battery I have actually of any use?

I've looked through the vilenoeon offerings and they all look great but way too expensive

_________________
did I tell you that I won a trophy?

would this sort of thing give reasonable performance?

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/stor ... V_60A.html

_________________
did I tell you that I won a trophy?

It depends on how much you are willing to spend. Velineon might be expensive but in relation to everything in this hobby, they are cheap. That buggy you had, i don't know what brand it was but i wouldn't expect it to hold tune if you only run it a couple of times a year. Mind you, anything that old is bound to turn you off nitro a bit. They are far more reliable these days. Probably is better off for you to go electric but no, that link you posted wouldn't really be powerful enough. It's not only down to the amount of thousands the motor has.It also needs to fit properly. If you are converting to electric you need to consider linking to the driveline, motor mounts, possibly cooling, protection for the gears. I think this would all be handmade because i don't know of any electric conversion kits available for the TG10. It is 1/8 scale, your mini which begs the question as to why they called it a TG10 but you probably would be looking for something more along the lines of this: http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/stor ... _120A.html

KV refers to the size of the motor a bit like cc really. you need to be looking more at the amount of turns and the poles. for instance, i would say that the minimum for a 1/8 rc would be about 16 turns. Otherwise it will be sluggish and unresponsive. If you want to look into EZ-Run as well as they do quite cheap motors and hobby wing for ideal ESCs. Also for the batteries. I would start off with getting a cheap 2s LiPo, seeing how that does, then try that battery your mate gave you and see how hot it gets. If it is fine to touch then stick with 3s but higher mah. You can get far higher, I think maybe even more than 7000 and that'll keep you running for a good 40 mins providing it stays cool enough.

_________________
Why Drink And Drive When You Can Smoke Dope And Fly!?

That's great, just the sort of detail I was after - thank you very much.

The scale for the TG10 is confusing, I believe it's actually a 1/10 scale chassis, but the mini shell is 1/8 scale

For example I think this is the same chassis the mini uses, but says it's 1/10. It says its a TG10 Mk1, and the wheel base is 257mm. The track is a bit skinnier which may just be the offset of the wheels

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Tamiya-44028 ... 4897.l4275

_________________
did I tell you that I won a trophy?

I think you may be right, Minis always were alot smaller than most of tamiyas cars. They have offroaders on 1/10 chassis that look more like 1/12 in size. Because they don't change the size of the wheels, they have to change the size of the body.

_________________
Why Drink And Drive When You Can Smoke Dope And Fly!?