Nikko Bobcat 99 - Dicator variant. This was supposed to be straightforward...

[nowinaminute 3358]

14th July:

 

 Whew, what a buzz!

That was really, really good fun, and satisfying!

There's still  room for improvement, as the even the brushless motors ended up getting a bit toasty, but then again, was it any hotter than my brushless slash, or any other brushless rc I own, after such a thrashing? I guess it's easy to be over paranoid and lose sense of what's normal and abnormal.

Now that I watch back the video footage I took, the first clip alone is 8 minutes of non stop hard driving with brutal punching of the throttle over and over, especially on the loose gravel, so it's not as if I was going easy on it. I was mashing the throttle fully open, over and over, trying to get the car to power slide on the looser dirt, so it's probably not wonder they got a bit hot.

It was an absolute blast to drive, power on tap! And although the motors got a bit hot after prolonged abuse, it never caused any issues. They cooled down quickly, too, when I went back to driving on-road and being less brutal. 
 

They were the cheapest brushless 540 motors I've ever gotten, so it might be worth taking a look inside, just to see if they have undersized rotors (like those finned 540 motors but being less honest about it) I also noticed the motor wires were much thinner than I'm used to from a brushless 3650, which might be another clue. But either way, they worked great, and I doubt anything could take that kind of abuse and not get hot, anyway! If I determine there are better budget motors out there, so be it, but if not, I think they will do the job just fine.

I even tried them on 3s, but the ESCs didn't seem to like it. For some reason, cogging on 3s was much, much worse than 2s, especially the one driving the back wheels, but both were worse. Never experienced an ESC like that before. Usually if a cheap one doesn't like 3s it will die, but these ones just didn't like moving off the line. Once they got going, you could be as rough as you wanted and they delivered totally decent performance, and like with 2s, you could go anywhere between barely moving and full throttle and the cogging was gone until you came to a full stop and then started again. Quite odd.  Once they car actually got moving, it worked just fine and the power was superb. And for all the talk of motor temps, I still managed to have a quick bash on 3s, including mashing the throttle in the dirt, without anything catching on fire!

Some 3s footage.....probably a bit too much power, but addictive! I left in some of the cogging to show what I mean. 
 

Star of the show should probably be the Nikko itself for putting up with it all! Even the handling surprised me, considering it has a lot of slop and as a later dictator variant, a lot of the plastic is that really flexible stuff, so wobbles about a lot. All that considered, it does an amazing job, especially now with the oil shocks I added actually working at least somewhat properly. And the gears can take a lot of power, as long as you don't do anything wreckless.

So, yeah...that was really fun! Great to see that larger than life body shell actually moving around with the kind of performance it's OTT looks promise, too!

Plenty to do with the car, still, including a better servo saver and proper steering links, which should sharpen the handling up nicely. 

Will also take a nose inside the motors at some point, just to compare the innards to other cheap ones. They seem to work fine as they are, but if I can get better ones by spending literally a few £ more on superior cheapos, I might go for it.

As it stands, though, with them being literally the cheapest brushless 540 motors I've ever purchased, I'm pretty impressed.

[nowinaminute 3358]

21st July:

Went to test new tyres out and take a few photos.

Wheel nut came loose.....left Tamiya wrench and a few other tools on the rug by the front door when I was loading my backpack up!!! Nooooooooooooooooooooo

On the plus side, I got through a pack before the wheel started flapping around, and I got some nice photos and I'm pretty sure some good video, too.

Stay tuned!

[nowinaminute 3358]

22nd July:

 

Just a little bit of the video I got last night. Loving this thing. Plenty of work left to to, but already so much fun.
 

Really getting short on places like this to drive local to me. And even this place now has a load of fly tipped rubbish covering it so it's basically a few sq meters of nice loose gravel.

All I want is a nice patch of dirt/gravel lol. 

Once place I used to go is now fenced off and used to store plant machinery. Another has mostly been covered in tarmac. 

Need to get on google earth and start prospecting again.

[nowinaminute 3358]

[nowinaminute 3358]

 

[korreka 54]

On this site you can see an analysis of the Dictator's electronics:

https://reparar-cochesrc.blogspot.com/2017/02/mantenimiento-reparacion-de-emisora.html

 

[nowinaminute 3358]

Looks like I missed out some posts from last year!

July 27:

Tried to see if if I could fit two Hobbywing ESCs in my nikko project....

Like a glove 

Now, I wonder if there will be any improvement on the cogging with those cheap Chinese moto....wait a minute!!

Testing the cheaper motors will have to wait.

But I can tell you the combination of hobbywing esc and motors is much, much, much better.

Probably the best I've seen outside of a sensorless system!

Just about to take her out for a run! 

[nowinaminute 3358]

July 27:

 

Omg that was fun and eventful!

Broke the goofy back bumper off 

Made the fatal mistake of trying a little jump and realising it jumps quite well for what it is. Then the whole "treat old stuff gently" wisdom got lost in red mist for a while. 

I usually keep it off for running, cause it's asking to be snapped off, but I keep it on when I make videos cause it's all part of the look. 

It's ok, though, I have plenty of spare parts.

The hobbywing ESC/motor combo is superb. I still think the other gear is great for the price, but there's a clear difference. Much smoother startup and it's just as smooth on 3s whereas the other controllers I had in there seemed to cog more on 3s.

I'm interested to try the cheaper motors with these escs, and the cheaper escs with the better motors etc.

Very fun and interesting drive. I'll elaborate a bit more soon. I went to a place that has short, bumpy grass. Suspension is better than stock but definitely needs more tuning.

[nowinaminute 3358]

July 28:

 

Ok here's yesterday's run with the Hobbywing motors and ESCs.

It starts off with a little demonstration of how free of cogging it is. A great performance for a sensorless setup, especially considering the weight and gearing of this vehicle made life really difficult for the cheaper ESCs (which work much better in lighter stuff)

Some stupid clouds went in front of the sun while I was at it, so I might go back later today and try and get more "pretty" footage, I wasn't about to run around behind it with a selfie stick in anything but perfect light, I already looked like a plonker with the head cam as it was!
 

 

[Freizeitprojekte 6]

It looks like it runs quite well with that brushless setup.

I also have a Dictator platform vehicle, a gen 1 per your nomenclature, but have been struggling to package a hobby grade servo for steering into the standard chassis tub without modification. In your setup on the Bobcat, did you have to alter the tub for the steering servo to fit?

Thanks.