ASK Cub Reporter, A Weekly Q & A Session- Version 10.07.2010

A teacher once told me that “there is no such thing as a stupid question”. Well folks, I beg to differ…

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Cubby my charger keeps telling me i have a connection error every time i try to charge my lipo and my guess is that there is a bad connection inside the pack. It’s a Turnigy 3S. Can i repair my lipo?

Sam Berkins
Colorado

Cubby– Can YOU repair your Lipo? I’m going with a big NO on this one. If you have to guess what’s wrong with it, I’m gonna say you aren’t smart enough to fix it. Could someone else repair it? Perhaps, as fixing a bad solder joint isn’t rocket science for someone that is well qualified. But (and there is alwaysssss a BUT) I’m gonna go out on a limb and guess that it’s not just a bad solder joint, I’m going to guess it’s a burnt tab, which might very well not be repairable. And on top of that, you might have another problem with your electrical system that caused you to burn that tab in half. Hard for me to say sitting 1500 miles away and without the car (and battery) sitting in front of me, but that’s my guess.

So, to boil it down, Sam You should Replace the pack, not try to fix it (and that goes for 99.9993% of everyone that is reading this). Fixing Lipo batteries can be a dangerous ordeal, one not worth the risk, so just replace’em.

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Brian told me to email you because I have a question. I just bought my first nice servo and want to know what type of regular maintenance I should do to get the longest life out of it?

Thanks In Advance,
Rickey H.

Cubby– Well if you just bought a good servo, that means you just bought a Hitec, so congrats! 🙂

And here’s more good news for ya Rickey, there is No maintenance to do! Isn’t that awesome? You’ll never need to crack it apart unless you blow the gears up and decide to replace them, but if it’s a Hitec, that will be highly unlikely. Yes, I dig Hitec, and no I don’t get paid sh*& to give them props, they are just that good.

But I do have a couple recommendations (which are mainly set-up) to get the most out of your servo.

1. Set your end points correctly
2. Set your servo saver correctly
3. Make sure there is no binding in your steering (or throttle linkage)
4. Use a tiny bit of Loctite on the servo arm screw (if metal geared) and check the screw after every few runs
5. Enjoy, a good servo is one you never notice or have to work on

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We are getting a lot of readers around here now days, so don’t be shy, send me your questions, lies, half-truths, and comments to Cubby at BigSquidRC dot com!

YOUR Cub Reporter