Kraton NewSensei's Kraton 6s build thread

[NewSensei]

Haven't seen anyone doing this for some reason so figured I'd add my two cents.

The RPM bumper fits fromt and back without any modding.

I put stainless steel skid plates on top of the RPM bumpers skid plate which requires grinding the ridges off the bumper so the plate would fit.

The front two screws are too short even at 16mm so I put 18mm in there so they would pull out from just barely being screwed in.

The Outcast bumper literally fits right into the holes on the stock "bumper" which is held on by the screws and locking nuts provided with the oitcast bumper. It's an extra step but it has added another layer of stiffness but still springy to take hits. So far the combo works really well.

Also added a heatsync to the motor (because of course I did) and I put silicone earplugs into the center diff.

Parts list:

Outcast bumper:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B06W9NSZ4G?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title

RPM bumper (x2):
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B06XK72XSH?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title

Steel skid plates:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B01EILWUYA?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title

Wheelie bar:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B01NC24EDQ?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title

Heatsync for motor:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B08BHL8V6H?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title

Silicone ear plugs:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B003LZQGN6?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title

 

[Russ39]

Spot on
The bottom of my rig looks very similar to yours haha..u know you're stuff sensei?
For some reason i also thought the rear arms of the kraton look much more durable then the front so i changed only the front

 

[NewSensei]

Just got a light bar and it fits like a champ! Had these little "clips" that came with a roll of LED lights, mounted to those and mounted those to the outcast bumper and it is a perfect fit...also, this light bar is blinding!

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B07TTZX5TC?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title

 

[NewSensei]

Spot on
The bottom of my rig looks very similar to yours haha..u know you're stuff sensei?
For some reason i also thought the rear arms of the kraton look much more durable then the front so i changed only the front

Just realized, you don't have a rear bumper! Easy fix

 

[NewSensei]

working on a method of moving some air around inside the Kraton (he gets hot while being sent to the stratosphere) and have decided on a 12v 2 inch ducted fan. Running at 6 volts this thing was move serious air and no louder than the fans on the esc and motor. I figure if I can get it mounted solidly enough leaning towards the esc it should pull air from the front in across the esc and motor. I will be putting a steel screen mesh over the front and possibly the back of the ducted fan to keep debris out with the added benefit of the fan being right in between the shocks effectively closing that opening for debris to get into the cabin from the front.

Since it's running at half speed it should help the ducted fan's motor last longer and it is not as noisy as it is at full speed (it's stupid noisy).. i put foam around it with some 3m spray glue (rubber bands are temporary while glue cures) to help mitigate some of the noise and cushion the fan from shock.

Still working out jow to mount it with what I have in the garage but I'll get that figured out sooner or later. I also ordered a peltier cooler kit that would benefit from the extra air flow, gonna experiment when that gets here...some time in the next month or so

 

[NewSensei]

it's a little janky looking but as a proof of concept it works

The body butts right up against the foam, perfect fit, just enough room to hopefully protect the fan a bit.

 

[Sandracer_NL]

ducted fan

Before I decided to go with a couple of high rpm fans I tinkered with this as well. But it seems those use a very high amount of amps. How much amps does that edf use?

 

[NewSensei]

Before I decided to go with a couple of high rpm fans I tinkered with this as well. But it seems those use a very high amount of amps. How much amps does that edf use?

I honestly don't know but I was running it on a 4xAA battery pack during testing so it can't be drawing too much..

 

[Sandracer_NL]

must have misread then. Thought such a fan would drain a lipo in like 10 minutes. Are you keeping it hooked to AA batteries or to a separate lipo in the future? If you do run it of a lipo I’m curious about the power consumption. My high rpm fans run on a 2s lipo and use little over 0.6A each, so my 3000mah 2s lipo can power all four of them for about 70minutes.
For now I will be investigating the edf. Maybe one connected to the 2s lipo as well???

 

[NewSensei]

must have misread then. Thought such a fan would drain a lipo in like 10 minutes. Are you keeping it hooked to AA batteries or to a separate lipo in the future? If you do run it of a lipo I’m curious about the power consumption. My high rpm fans run on a 2s lipo and use little over 0.6A each, so my 3000mah 2s lipo can power all four of them for about 70minutes.
For now I will be investigating the edf. Maybe one connected to the 2s lipo as well???

I'm going to probably hook it up to my car. Using a seperate pack temporarily for now but that might change to a small 2s battery.. i have several 2200mah 2s batteries but I'm trying to avoid putting extra batteries in if I can. The ducted fan has a brushed 12 volt max motor so I imagine it will drain the batteries a little faster but at 50% power it shouldn't lose me more than 5 or 10 minutes of run time. Considering, on average, I get at least 30 minutes of run time on 4500mah batteries I'm thinking it'll be okay since right now I'm hitting thermal cutoff at about 15 or 20 minutes of use anyhow because we're living under Satan's grundle apparently and it's over 100°f every day here...

If not, I can throw a seperate battery pack in, will be connecting everything with futaba connectors anyhow so I can always disconnect it if it is too mich during testing

 

[Russ39]

Looks a bit like a rc batmobile?

 

[Sandracer_NL]

I just found that an edf uses about 40-60A and a guy using it in his rc plane got about 3 minutes flighttime with it of a small 4s?.

 

[Russ39]

very cool sensei

 

[NewSensei]

I just found that an edf uses about 40-60A and a guy using it in his rc plane got about 3 minutes flighttime with it of a small 4s?.

Jeebus! Nah, this thing is tiny and not quite that powerful but more than powerful enough to push air through the cabin of the kraton, even at 50%...time will tell ultimately, and since I bought this edf in a pair some 6 or 7 years ago God only knows what the actual draw is on this thing

All I know for now is a two inch edf fits perfectly in the front of a kraton and pushes a lot of air even at 6v

I may even stick with the zip tie method of mounting as it's easy and cheap

Still a work in progress fo sho

EDIT: I just thought about it, if I connect directly to a lipo, how do I limit the battery drain to not kill the battery? This is why I really want to connect it to the mains power of the RC...or maybe AA pack...

 

[Sandracer_NL]

EDIT: I just thought about it, if I connect directly to a lipo, how do I limit the battery drain to not kill the battery?

I solved this with this lipo alarm (only a few euro/usd) connected to the balance port. Very easy to use (1 button only?); you just select your own low voltage alarm setting.
See youtube for explanation. Alarm is quite loud so you can’t miss it.

see below for the one I got. I actually bought one at a LHS online.

 

[NewSensei]

I solved this with this lipo alarm (only a few euro/usd) connected to the balance port. Very easy to use (1 button only?); you just select your own low voltage alarm setting.
See youtube for explanation. Alarm is quite loud so you can’t miss it.

see below for the one I got. I actually bought one at a LHS online.

View attachment 95142

Thanks, I'll check these out if I find running through the esc is too much

 

[Sandracer_NL]

I used it once so far to see how long it would take for the 3000mah lipo would get into alarm (70 minutes bashing) and check the sound. After that I knew that each fan uses around 600mah and that I can safely use all four of them for 60minutes (within the 3000mah lipo capacity) which is my typical bash time. Depending on weather I run less than four and when motor gets a bit warmer or do more full throtle runs I turn them all on again.

 

[NewSensei]

Not done yet but wanted to check electronics and the like so I got it all rigged up (minus the screen which should be here by this weekend) and it runs perfect off the receiver and so far as I coild tell through the test run I'm only losing about 5 minutes of run time having this thing on all the time! Very acceptable results so far, will know more the more I run it but things are looking promising...also, to the point of this thing, it does seem to help with controlling the temp, on average my temps can get over 200 on the motor (if I'm not careful) in the blistering heat so today I wasn't careful and it never got above 175°f! Ran a second time without the fan to get the difference, same batteries but fully charged and it got to thermal cutoff after 15 minutes which initially means it is working

Anyhow, thought y'all would get a kick out of what this things sounds like LOL!

 

[Sandracer_NL]

Sounds nice! Saw on youtube someone who put a ‘normal’ fan in front on the edf and got an even more jet engine sound ?

 

[NewSensei]

Sounds nice! Saw on youtube someone who put a ‘normal’ fan in front on the edf and got an even more jet engine sound ?

Not really going for the sound but it is kind of funny hearing the turbine whine