Light bars, batteries....action.

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Alexander_0_1

Alexander_0_1

"Roads, where we're going we don't need roads"
Messages
2,301
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Location
Frog Lake A.B Canada
RC Driving Style
  1. Bashing
Hey guys what's the biggest 3s lipo people have crammed into a wraith cage?, in the forward mounting location.

Heres my issue: I'm about to buy a pair of 4" MORE/VP light bars that as far as I can tell...if I'm reading it correctly, each 4" bar puts out 500 lumens @ 800mah/1h, which should be damn bright on its own...right? But I wanna try and put both of these suckers on one rig, which means they will/should be doing 1000 lumens @ 1600mah/1h, correct so far?...rrright, but to top it off, I still wanna be able to use the axial L.E.D kit.......I think rock lights are out of the question at this point.

Now I don't intend on running them for a full hr, at least not intentionally, but I'd hate not having at least tried to maximize my playtimes, Yes! I did commission a custom controller from heyok to augment brightness, but he went on vacation, and I'm waiting till the 28th for more details.


I was going to do the 5" but I'm just not convinced on the mounting durability while using the VP JK mounts, it just looks too vulnerable for my tastes.
 
I plan on an Axial Rubicon build this winter, I plan on some VP Rigid Industries light bars on as well as the Axial NVS unit. Is the Axial NVS the kit you plan on running? Either way I'm following this thread now.
 
Yup, the full NVS system is what I'm thinking too, wacmartin if you got time google MORE/VP light bars they look ridiculously bright. I placed my order after I posted my question, I hope I don't regret it....lol.
 
Alexander_0_1 said:
Hey guys what's the biggest 3s lipo people have crammed into a wraith cage?, in the forward mounting location.

Heres my issue: I'm about to buy a pair of 4" MORE/VP light bars that as far as I can tell...if I'm reading it correctly, each 4" bar puts out 500 lumens @ 800mah/1h, which should be damn bright on its own...right? But I wanna try and put both of these suckers on one rig, which means they will/should be doing 1000 lumens @ 1600mah/1h, correct so far?...rrright, but to top it off, I still wanna be able to use the axial L.E.D kit.......I think rock lights are out of the question at this point.

Now I don't intend on running them for a full hr, at least not intentionally, but I'd hate not having at least tried to maximize my playtimes, Yes! I did commission a custom controller from heyok to augment brightness, but he went on vacation, and I'm waiting till the 28th for more details.


I was going to do the 5" but I'm just not convinced on the mounting durability while using the VP JK mounts, it just looks too vulnerable for my tastes.
Click to expand...

I dont have a wraith I can't answer your question about the biggest lipo you can fit in it but I can address the electrical side of it for you.

First off just as an educational point 800mAh/1h is a redundant statement. 800 mAh means 800 mill amp hour or 800 milliamps used per hour. so saying 800mAh/1hr is the same as saying 800 millamps per hour per 1 hour. :)

1000 Lumens would be bright as hell. I have a cree flashlight that is (if memory serves) soemthing like 1200 or 1600 lumens and the thing will illuminate half of a mid sized room. and yes if you ran 2 devices that are rated at 800mAh it would double that to 1600mAh. I'm not familiar with the wraith but if you have a multimeter you can measure the mAh draw that the other light systems put out and then add the total to the 1600mAh if you're trying to figure out how much run time you could get on all the lights given a certain size battery.
 
A 4000mah 3s pack is a very tight squeeze when mounted up front. A 3300mah 4s is a better fit. :D

With all that amp draw, if you're running one pack to power everything I hope you have a helluva BEC in there.
 
That current draw seems awfully high for LEDs. The average LED draws less than 15 mA @3-4.5 VDC. So unless there are 53 LEDs or a very inefficient dropping resistor (the way to drop voltage so the LEDs don't fry), it should draw much less.
 
Greywolf74 said:
I dont have a wraith I can't answer your question about the biggest lipo you can fit in it but I can address the electrical side of it for you.

First off just as an educational point 800mAh/1h is a redundant statement. 800 mAh means 800 mill amp hour or 800 milliamps used per hour. so saying 800mAh/1hr is the same as saying 800 millamps per hour per 1 hour. :)

1000 Lumens would be bright as hell. I have a cree flashlight that is (if memory serves) soemthing like 1200 or 1600 lumens and the thing will illuminate half of a mid sized room. and yes if you ran 2 devices that are rated at 800mAh it would double that to 1600mAh. I'm not familiar with the wraith but if you have a multimeter you can measure the mAh draw that the other light systems put out and then add the total to the 1600mAh if you're trying to figure out how much run time you could get on all the lights given a certain size battery.
Click to expand...

Thanks Greywolf74, I suppose that's is what I'm trying to figure out, but I'm also hoping to find out if they will tax anything like the servo, the winch (if I get one)

HPIguy said:
A 4000mah 3s pack is a very tight squeeze when mounted up front. A 3300mah 4s is a better fit. :D

With all that amp draw, if you're running one pack to power everything I hope you have a helluva BEC in there.
Click to expand...

I was just going to ask about the BEC, and the battery options, as it stands the RX8 ate up a decent portion of my Rear Da Tray, and I'm not sure if there can be more space for another lipo. I do have 2 of those 6s CC BECs, do you think I need the 12s?
 
Alexander_0_1 said:
Thanks Greywolf74, I suppose that's is what I'm trying to figure out, but I'm also hoping to find out if they will tax anything like the servo, the winch (if I get one)



I was just going to ask about the BEC, and the battery options, as it stands the RX8 ate up a decent portion of my Rear Da Tray, and I'm not sure if there can be more space for another lipo. I do have 2 of those 6s CC BECs, do you think I need the 12s?
Click to expand...

That's the reason for a robust standalone BEC, for running lights, winches, etc without browning out the puny BEC's in the RX. My servo alone will brown out a good RX.

First rule of rock bouncers / racers (which is what I consider a wraith) you need as much power as you think your drive line can take. :D In all seriousness though, my Wraith is hella fun on 4s, it's stupid power, and never fails to put a smile on my face. But my entire drive line was beefed up before going brushless and 4s.
 
Alexander_0_1 said:
I was just going to ask about the BEC, and the battery options, as it stands the RX8 ate up a decent portion of my Rear Da Tray, and I'm not sure if there can be more space for another lipo. I do have 2 of those 6s CC BECs, do you think I need the 12s?
Click to expand...

The standard CC 10A 6S max BEC will be plenty of BEC. 10A (minus the motor draw) should be able to handle anything you could fit into a wraith and then some.
 
Alexander_0_1 said:
Yup, the full NVS system is what I'm thinking too, wacmartin if you got time google MORE/VP light bars they look ridiculously bright. I placed my order after I posted my question, I hope I don't regret it....lol.
Click to expand...

So from my understanding these light bars are just the VP Rigid Industries light bars with a more powerful led light strip.

I really need to look into BECs and how to wire them up, I plan on putting a winch on and a light kit on.
 
wacmartin said:
So from my understanding these light bars are just the VP Rigid Industries light bars with a more powerful led light strip.
Click to expand...

You are correct sir, be warned, I had to read the full thread to find the link to the review, which says that these lil buggers can give off up to 180 degrees of heat, so mounting them in a confined space is outta the question.
 
Do you have a link to the review? All I saw was a thread with one post on RCC, from I'm assuming the guy who sales them.
At nearly double the cost of a stock light bar I'm wondering if they're really worth it.
 
wiring up the BEC is easy. You can either just solder it right onto the ESCs battery connection (In my case a Deans connector) along with the ESC battery wires or if you want something less permanent you could make a "Y" adapter and put your battery connector on one side of the "Y" and a smaller connector (In my case a micro Deans. doesn't need to be very big to handle 10As of current) on the other side of the "Y" Then you can plug you ESC into one side the BEC into the other side and then you LiPo into the single side :)

Once you do that then you just plug the BEC into the battery slot on your RX and you will need to rig up a connector that will connect to the RX wires coming out of the ESC to channel 2 of your RX but the only wire that should actually have connection is the signal wire. The ground wire is ok too as long as the red power wire is not connected. You dont want power going into your RX from both the BEC and the ESC or you'll fry it. Easiest thing to do is to take an extention wire with futaba connectors on it and simply remove the red or the red & black wires from it. Let me know if you have any othre questions. :)
 
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