T4 Issues

[godale03]

My dad's T4 is starting to have some issues and I am not quite sure what is causing the problem. The problem is the car is cogging quite a bit, especially on take off, as well as acting like the battery has no charge left. I thought the problem was a battery issue but the packs were reading almost 8 Volts when the battery was tested. The slipper seems ok, and the mesh does not seem too tight. It is a brand new Castle Sidwinder speed control, and 5700kvm motor. Any ideas guys?

 

[Lessen]

Has the problem just begun with the brushless system?

 

[CharliesTheMan]

Are you running LiPo or nimh? I have a T4 with a sidewinder in it, and Smaxxin and I built similar stadium trucks with identical motors. I got mine and ran it and it was fine, and he was cogging like crazy. It turned out, he didn't have his LiPo yet and he was running nimh. When he switched over to LiPo most of the cogging issues were corrected. Also, are you running the castlelink programmer? The new firmware update a few months ago that you can download from castle is supposed to relieve some of those cogging issues.

If you don't have a castlelink programmer let me know, I might just happen to have an extra one. I think I gave about $15 new for one of them on ebay but I'm not sure. But if you don't wanna buy one, let me know, and we can work out a tradxe or something so it doesn't cost you anything.

 

[godale03]

Hey Lesson,

Yes.... the problem has just begun, and it has had about 2 packs run through it before the problem started.

Hey Charliestheman...

We are running 4200 NiMh cells. Going lipo is not an option for my father at this point. For money and simplicity issues on his part. It would cost him more than he wants to spend at this point. We do not have the castle link, and to honest with you, my father is not going to want to spend the money to get one, and he does not have a computer to hook it up to, and again he is not going to buy a computer either. He has never used a computer in his life!... believe it or not. LOL I on the other hand would be happy to give it a try but at this point not having access to his car at all times would make it difficult to program, although I think I could figure it out. I am also fairly certain I have nothing to trade you lying around. I will have to add the link to my list of "RC stuff"... my birthday is about a little over a month away. )

 

[sweetdiesel]

Is it possible he inadvertently changed the settings on the ESC? If it didn't cog from the very first pack I wouldn't expect it to suddenly start cogging unless there is another reason, possibly radio interference? I'd double check your ESC settings, and check all wires and solder joints.

 

[godale03]

Thanks SweetD.... He is bringing the car over this weekend. I will double check the connections and solder joints. I did notice that there is a bit more solder wicked up into one of the ECS wires, but it is only about half and inch into the wire from the connector... could this cause an issue? I would think not since it worked fine from the onset. The first thing I was going to try was to change the channel. Kinda start simple and go from there.

 

[godale03]

Changing the channel on the reciever and the radio seemed to have corrected the clitching. I am glad it was that simple! LOL Thanks for all those who posted advice.

Tom

 

[CharliesTheMan]

I know how frustrating it can be to chase down a glitch. Shortly after getting my 5b SS, I started having major glitches. I probably shouldn't have been running iti at all because I didn't have much range and every once in a while it would stick at WOT for a few seconds. When I would start running to it, it would stop. On the gasser motors, you have an ignition system so everyone was telling me about that and that the spark was causing current in the frame, etc... I spent a few days trying to fix the glitch. I ended up taking the throttle linkage off and insulating the whole thing in fuel tubing since it touched the motor and went to the radio box. I tried insulating everything and couldn't get it. I couldn't change the channel with a crystal because I had a 3PK, so I bought two PCM receivers hoping that would fix it. Still nothing. I noticed that my antenna was just a tad bit loose on the transmitter, and sure enough that was the problem. I took the radio apart and tightened the antenna screw, and haven't had a problem since.

 

[MrClean]

Changing the channel on the reciever and the radio seemed to have corrected the clitching. I am glad it was that simple! LOL Thanks for all those who posted advice.

Tom

Glad to hear it was something simple................too bad they aren't all that easy to figure out/fix.

 

[godale03]

Problem's are definitely not always that easy to figure out for sure... but troubleshooting is one of the things I like about this hobby... albeit sometimes very frustrating! LOL

 

[MrClean]

Problem's are definitely not always that easy to figure out for sure... but troubleshooting is one of the things I like about this hobby... albeit sometimes very frustrating! LOL

And sometimes costly. I kept tearing up spur gears and even ground a hole in my air filter neck, then I realized my motor mount was cracked in 2 places. Luckily there wasn't any visible damage inside the engine when I took it apart, but yeah you're right sometimes frustrating, but always educational and I agree with you, it's one of the things I like.