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Big Rig Builder 61

MFC-01 with Brucshless Motors

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So, I'm building a custom Grand Hauler,  and he only plastic is the Body shell. The entire truck & trailer are  either aluminum or stainless steel. Lesu axles & suspension , The truck weighs 16 lbs, the trailers are almost 5 lbs each.  It would not move even with the recommended Torque Tuned 33T motor.  It has 2 - 5000 mah batteries onboard.  I did a wye  connector off of the receiver to the brushless ESC, but the MFC-01 kept shutting down. I achieved some success by adding 2000 uF cap across the MFC power wires so it would not see a voltage drop or current draw,  but even with 2 batteries it still has a shut down issue. Has anyone had any success at all running a brushless motor with the MFC-01? What is the best alternative? One of the GT Power units ? I'm not looking forward to having to change it out. I'm working on an all wheel drive tow truck and hope to get any insight on which way to go.

Dan

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I am running a Lesu sound unit and light unit on my Kenworth w900...  the only issue i have is the backup "beep" doesn't like to work 100% of the time.  very finicky setting up when that is supposed to come on instead of brakes.    I am using a Castle Creations Copperhead ESC with a 1200kv brushless motor and a stock tamiya gearbox.

I do have a strange arrangement for the steering servo and ESC vs the sound  & light units.  I am using a spare set of channels to duplicate steering and ESC for the sound and lights.  since they are separate units, they share a set of Y cables...    channels 1 & 2 go to steering and ESC,  channels 7 & 8 each go to Y cable for sound and lights.

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Just saw this.

The MFC-01 is not made for a brushless motor. (won't work) The MFC-01 takes a brushed motor, 27 turn or higher (27T - 80T). The MFC is an ESC and light/sound kit all in one. 

It sounds like you are running the MFC-01 with a brushless ESC.  Can not do that either. Also if using 2 batteries are they wired in parallel (Y) or your voltage will double and overload MFC. One 5000 battery should be plenty battery with long run time to make truck run. The capacitor is fine and not the problem. So you have got something wrong? Need more info. from you. May have understood post wrong?

My recommendation other  than MFC would be a "Beier" system. A lot of computer play though to set it all up. Not really for beginners. The Mfc is plug and play, the Beier is not, but can do a lot with the Beier. The "G.T. Power" stuff I would not recommend, I was never happy with it. Always lacking and a pain.

The bottom line from what I read, I think you have something wrong. Sight un-seen hard to say. Give me more information and I'll try to help. MFC is pretty solid as long as you PLAY BY IT'S RULES.

On the black King Hauler did use a MFC, and if so are the extra lights connected to MFC or via another source? Just curious.

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The MFC with the Tamiya Torque-Tuned 33T motor it would not move.  ( that's the motor developed for the tractor trucks ) Way too heavy.

The drive train is the KYX aluminum transmission housing with the aluminum shifters & brass gears, all waterproof sealed bearing, ( super smooth shifting ) Lesu driveshafts, axles & rear suspension.  Michelin Super Singles up front on 30mm rims. Coil-over front shocks. Heavy duty.

The motor wires from the MFC are now fed to the tiny fan in the smoke unit only.  I used a wye to connect the ESC to the receiver. It appeared that the issue was that the MFC did not like to see any voltage change when the motor circuit began to draw.

I had a Copperhead 60A ESC with a Holmes Hobbies 3300KV motor, and I had set the throttle curve slope as smooth as possible, but kept having issues where every time it powered up,  the MFC would shut down. It pulled with no problem though, plenty of torque. .

I pulled it out, and   I swapped in a Hobbywing Xerun 1800kv matched ESC & Motor, it has a Bluetooth link for tweaking the settings. Then I added 2 -10,000uF caps in the battery circuit to prevent any voltage drops when the ESC started drawing current. No more shut down. Problem gone.

Throttle sound comes up a little early, but it has a smooth start so you don't notice it. I still have to tweak the MFC settings. But it pulls with no problem.

One battery feeds the MFC & the ESC.  The only lights off of the MFC are the turn signals & reverse lights.

One battery feeds the all the lights ,smoke generator , motor fans, and revolving lights. I used a 12v to 5v auto inverter to supply all the 5 v power. I used a remote switch off of channel 5 to switch the secondary battery  circuit on & off.

 

 

 

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Wow, you have a huge set up going on there! I am amazed the MFC works at all. The MFC is an older design ,it likes to be in control (the brain of things) Esc, sound, lights, not a half kind of thing. It works off of feedback from transmitter, and it's temperamental. Your not using it's potential. There are cheaper ways to go and probably work better with functions. It might allow you to go even farther with motor set up. MFC was designed before the stuff your using even existed. I don't think it would like sharing power with another ESC, even with separate batteries, because they would be sharing the RX. You should remove red wire from one ESC to and the MFC won't work if that is done to it. didn't when I tried once any way.

With what your trying to do I would recommend to remove the MFC and save it for another build. Go with a light/sound kit from Beier, G.T. Power, or Ob-1, that would be cheaper and probably work better. There is also a sound only kit (stand alone) that you can download different sounds for it. I forget the name of it. MFC is expensive and isn't being used the way designed. May fail big also? Some light/sound kits have hook up for smoke unit also. Stay away from something with an ESC in it.(your all set there) As it will want to control things. Then they fight each other. (2-Brains)

Your all set it looks like with your setup for what you want, motor wise, and the MFC is odd ball piece.

I like the front tire look the truck. Are you building it for torque/pulling or faster/speed? Post pictures when you finish. 

For a Tow truck build you asked about, I would go with a Beier SFR-1 (has to be programed w/computer). It has more expandability and can handle upgrades with out issues the MFC will create. For that you have extra motors, actuators, servos, etc.

Hope this helps.

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Yes, there's a lot there. The MFC is already integrated in, so it stays. I have a forklift,  a Hunia crane & a Hunia excavator so, I updated to a Radiolink AT 12 Channel.  Huge difference. The only issue is the Radiolink is digital, so I have a turn signal issue to iron out,, but otherwise it works flawlessly. Smooth operation, good sound and vibration. The MFC ESC is hooked to the smoke fan, and the smoke  is proportional. I'm building it to pull 2 trailers with heavy loads,  so fat tires for control are a must.

I still have to put lights in the dolly, but all the trailer lights are done.

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Looks good! Seems to be working fine for you. The lighting for road train trailers is a hard one to accomplish with MFC. Like everyone says, have fun backing up.

The Radiolink being digital is fine. It's a good radio .For turn signal issue, have you set the MFC to the radio by pushing the button and moving levers on Radiolink? That might be why?

Nice job!

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