Yet another Scorcher Brusnless conversion

[Fuijo 643]

Warning! There may be evidence of severe Tamiya OCD in the following post.

 

I liked the neatness of Tamiya's recommended LiFe battery for the re-release SRB's. The little foam protector thingy, the smallness and relative friendliness of the battery, and the lightness.

But I never used it for my beach trips because 6.6v just didn't really cut it for sand-flinging drama. So instead I used a hump-pack Nimh, which was ok for a while, but ended up using my Fighting Buggy with a LiPo and sport tuned most of the

time because it had just that little bit more oomph, and so was a lot more fun.

I could have just fitted a sport tuned and bought a shorty LiPo for the Scorcher, but I already had a couple of the LiFe batteries knocking around which weren't exactly cheap. So I wanted to use them if I could.

All I needed was equivalent performance to a sport tuned/2S LiPo with the smaller 15 tooth pinion, which I hoped would be a TBLM02S 15.5t/Tamiya 1100 LiFe with the larger 20 tooth pinion.

I figured I'd get more rpm/volt, enough torque to easily cope with the larger pinion, and slightly better efficiency to get just a little more out of the 1.1Ah battery.

So here goes. -

P1010821 by James H, on Flickr

I liked the motor cover from Shapeways, so decided to use that rather than modify the kit part.

P1010822 by James H, on Flickr

The spacer is moulded inside the cover which is neat.

P1010823 by James H, on Flickr

There was no way I was going to get all the wires through the existing hole in the radio box, so some butchery had to be performed. Hopefully in a way in which others suffering from Tamiya OCD would approve.

I think it looks pretty much like the existing hole the other side.

P1010825 by James H, on Flickr

P1010827 by James H, on Flickr

After that, fitting was straightforward. But the cover is very close-fitting indeed and required equal parts care, brutality and swearing. There is still a tiny gap about the thickness of a piece of paper between the cover and the gearbox housing, that

I think is just down to slight differences in the blobs of solder for the wires.

P1010828 by James H, on Flickr

I apologise for the horrible screws. I have some button-head hex screws arriving sometime next week. But they'll do until then.

The cover does bend the rear guard upwards very slightly.

P1010829 by James H, on Flickr

All ready to go.

P1010831 by James H, on Flickr

P1010830 by James H, on Flickr

 

Performance exceeded all my expectations. From my limited testing around the house and garden I think it's a little bit faster than my Fighting Buggy mentioned above. Acceleration to top speed is pretty much instant. I like!

I suspect the battery wont last much longer than the 1.2Ah NiCads did back in the day. But that's ok, I'll just buy more LiFe batteries to add to the list of far too many monies thrown at this car. Hobbies + lockdown = financial ruin.

 

[Re-Bugged 3758]

Great Scorcher 👍🏻, I had every intention of converting my SRB to brushless but just never got round to it.

Very neat indeed. 

[ploots 155]

Looks great we need more scorcher chat on here,mine is my go to buggy every time 👍

[ruebiracer 613]

Excellent Scorcher, really clean build! Exhaust color is great, any details on painting it?

And I also really liked the small Life battery that Tamiya intended for it. Just the 6,6V ruined it for me. But yours setup levels that out! Great idea. I even think you will have good runtimes compared to the 1100 Nicad as the Brushless is really efficient. Maybe you let us know, how many minutes you get out of a run.

And what would be aslo interesting for me: I had in the beginning 2010 always some thermal cutoffs with my Scorcher after some minutes, because ther is no airflow in the box at all. That was also one reason, why I switched to Brushless and put a fan over the ESC. After that, no problem anymore. Was just annoying, that after 10 minutes I always had the cutoff on sunny days, stopping the fun for the moment.

So if you are facing the same problem maybe, you can add the Tamiya additional fan kit for the TBLE02S, just plug&n play on.

Do you also add lights in the rear? 

Kind regards,

Matthias

[ruebiracer 613]

And another great idea to just double the wire outlet in the rear, I may steal this idea for mine when switching to sensored mode!

Saves me from rerouting my LED wires...

[Fuijo 643]

47 minutes ago, ruebiracer said:

Exhaust color is great, any details on painting it?

I used Alclad chrome through a rubbish airbrush. Tamiya fine surface primer - Alclad gloss black - Alclad chrome - leave for 1 day then Alclad aqua clear.

 

47 minutes ago, ruebiracer said:

I even think you will have good runtimes compared to the 1100 Nicad as the Brushless is really efficient. Maybe you let us know, how many minutes you get out of a run.

Yeah I don't know. I ran it for about 5 minutes, put it back on the charger for storage voltage and it was already there. But we'll see.

 

47 minutes ago, ruebiracer said:

So if you are facing the same problem maybe, you can add the Tamiya additional fan kit for the TBLE02S, just plug&n play on.

I have one already just in case, but thanks for the tip.

 

47 minutes ago, ruebiracer said:

Do you also add lights in the rear?

I have. These, as they are up front, and painted red at the rear to dull them slightly  - https://www.componentshop.co.uk/12-v-warm-white-micro-led.html

They are about the same size as scale bulbs would be.

 

[ruebiracer 613]

1 hour ago, Fuijo said:

I used Alclad chrome through a rubbish airbrush. Tamiya fine surface primer - Alclad gloss black - Alclad chrome - leave for 1 day then Alclad aqua clear.

 

Yeah I don't know. I ran it for about 5 minutes, put it back on the charger for storage voltage and it was already there. But we'll see.

 

I have one already just in case, but thanks for the tip.

 

I have. These, as they are up front, and painted red at the rear to dull them slightly  - https://www.componentshop.co.uk/12-v-warm-white-micro-led.html

They are about the same size as scale bulbs would be.

 

Really cool. Did you somehow make a reflector in the rear light housing, to only illuminate the red section? or is the light so straight forward (LED angle), that it is not needed?

And thanks for the Alclad tip. Will have to try this. Didn´t know they have an Aqua clear coat...

[Fuijo 643]

1 hour ago, ruebiracer said:

Did you somehow make a reflector in the rear light housing, to only illuminate the red section? or is the light so straight forward (LED angle), that it is not needed?

I didn't make a reflector. The light from the bulbs is very diffuse, so with a reflector the headlights work very well and look realistic. At the rear they were far too bright for 1970's single-candle-power rear lights, so without a reflector and covered in red paint

they lose the diffuse effect and are more just pinpoints of red light. Because thay are so small they fit directly behind the red part of the lens and not the white or orange part. The effect is good enough to be convincing.

[ruebiracer 613]

Thanks for reveiling the details on your light installation! 

[Mirrorman 125]

On 9/26/2020 at 7:50 PM, Fuijo said:

 

P1010828 by James H, on Flickr

All ready to go.

P1010831 by James H, on Flickr

P1010830 by James H, on Flickr

 

Performance exceeded all my expectations. From my limited testing around the house and garden I think it's a little bit faster than my Fighting Buggy mentioned above. Acceleration to top speed is pretty much instant. I like!

I suspect the battery wont last much longer than the 1.2Ah NiCads did back in the day. But that's ok, I'll just buy more LiFe batteries to add to the list of far too many monies thrown at this car. Hobbies + lockdown = financial ruin.

 

Looks great - that brushless set up must give it a real punch in the rear. 

 

Yes - I've purchased many new projects . I didn't even make of the last projects yet ... 

[GooneyBird 819]

Very cool mod! Next year (when the world has gone back to normal levels of insanity) we'll need to hit the beach again, see if she'll pop a wheelie in the sand.

[Fuijo 643]

@GooneyBird Sand Scorcher? Beach? Wheelies? I'm in!

 

[Raman36 623]

On 9/26/2020 at 3:55 AM, ruebiracer said:

And another great idea to just double the wire outlet in the rear, I may steal this idea for mine when switching to sensored mode!

Saves me from rerouting my LED wires...

I concur, brilliant idea on the additional hole.. beautifully done