ASK Cubby – More Questions, Less Answers

“Where Are Belted Badlands???

Cubby,

Pro-Line just released 3.8″ belted Trenchers, but where are the Badlands? I want belted Badlands right now! I needdddd to give them my money!!!!!

Robin B.”

Cubby- Ummmm, well, hello to you too Robin! Thanks for writing in, like always, your snail mail will get ya one of our super cool sticker packs. In fact, our sticker packs have been used to hold together literally dozens of busted up bodies across the globe.

Anywhos, when will Pro-Line release a belted version of their epic Badlands tires? I have no inside info for ya Robby, but I am right there with ya. IMO, Badlands are THE BEST off-road bash tire of all time, and I can’t wait to try a set that handles real power in perfect form.

“Tamiya lunchbox esc

Hello, I’ve got a Tamiya lunchbox with a broken esc, it’s well within warranty, and I shipped it to Tamiya and I’m pretty sure they sent the exact same one back, the batteries I’m using are charged to about 7.7 volts instead of 7.2, could that be the problem? The led responds when I pull the trigger, it just doesn’t give the motor enough voltage (we tested it with a multimeter.) Should we call them and tell them what happened? What should we do?

Matthew G.”

Cubby- Hey ya Matty, thanks for the email. You know the drill, your home addy for one of our sticker packs. A sticker pack that will in look pretty sharp on your Lunchbox, in fact.

So, you got a new Tamiya Lunchbox! Nice, a true classic! It sounds like you are having a small electrical issue. Also, a true classic! This is rc, where small issues help you learn all sorts of things that you can use in “normal” life.

After reading your email, where do YOU go from here?

My first guess is… wait for it… sooooo close…. is you have a battery issue. Your ESC is brand new, and has been checked an extra time at the factory (when you sent it in), so unless you have it calibrated or set incorrectly (have you programmed it yet?) it should be good to go.

You don’t mention what type of battery you have. If it is LiPo, put it on a LiPo charger and fully charge it. On a 2S LiPo pack (7.4v), it will come off the charger at 8.4 volts, and will be fully discharged after driving, to around 6.6 volts.

If you are using a NiMH pack, you need to know this. Many new NiMH packs are hard to charge. In fact, they will often “false peak”. When a NiMH “false peaks”, the pack does not get fully charged, yet the charger clicks off like it did. How can you tell if your NiMH is fully charged? It will be warm to the touch. If you pull a NiMH off the charger, and it is supposed to be full, it should be slightly warm to the touch. If the NiMH is room temp or cold, and your charger is beeping saying it just finished, it may have false peaked. If you try to use a NiMH that has false peaked, it may have very little energy inside it, but perhaps enough to make the lights come on, but not enough to power the car.

Checklist-

1. Check radio settings
2. Re-program ESC
3. Make sure battery is fully charged
4. Read more BigSquidRC

So there ya go bro, let me know what it ended up being.

Need a question answered? Do you just like talking shop? Do you have an rc rant that everyone just has to see? Email me- thecubreportrc at gmail dot com.