Senton Senton 4x4 Mega : Journey from stock breakages to brushless and beyond.

[Skroonk]

The warranty department just got back to me regarding the blown motor:

"Situations that result from usage, such as debris getting into the electronics. Would not be covered under any type of warranty.
Those are just the types of factors and hazards to be considered during use.

Warm Regards"

...I hope the "warm regards" wasn't a pun about my overheating issue...

Anyways, I'm happy my brushed motor burned. My Castle 3800 flies. Even on 2s.

Brushless is the only way to go!

 

[Skroonk]

Update:

The replacement servo they are sending me is a REFURBISHED stock 4.5kg plastic servo. Blech... Not the customer service I was hoping for.

Don't waste your time, and get the 7kg or 15kg Arrma replacements. Or a different brand, since Arrma doesn't prioritize loyalty.

 

[Curvin]

@Skroonk ,

Thanks for all the info, very much appreciated.

Very interesting that ARRMA are replacing your Servo with a 7KG metal version, ( which should have been on the truck standard ). I was simply told that it was not under warranty , as its regarded as a consumable ? . Engine was also refused warranty as it was after 30 days from purchase, even tho it had less than 2 hrs use. To be honest I wouldn't bother replacing any of the broken parts with ARRMA parts , even if they were available.

*Oops , quick edit, just read you later posts they are sending a "refurbished" original garbage Servo, bin it !!

As noted I have already replaced the Servo with a 20KG part and have a brushless GoolRC 3900KV Combo on the way , so that should at least give me some level of durability. I also have a fan a heatsink/fan on the way for the engine , so hopefully temps will be more manageable with the Lipo 2S.

I have a Lipo charge bag on the way as well, to be honest I am a little concerned of the whole area of Lipo's being so volitile, so taking as many precautions as I can. Still need to decide on a battery/charger, have a few earmarked.

Local shops are not overly well stocked and expensive here in Australia , so I am running the gauntlet with online at present. I am taking the extended wait time to completely strip the unit and have learned a lot in the process.

I do have one question, and forgive me as its a newb one, is it possible to run the new 3900KV engine also on the existing NiHM battery , seeing I have a new 5000mah that has literally been used once or twice ? Otherwise I'll pop it up for sale as it will be on no use, the original 2400mah I found to be near useless.

 

[Skroonk]

What's the point of sending me another plastic stock servo? It's just gonna break again and I'm gonna be disappointed in parts quality and warranty from Arrma.

You are correct, I replaced the old servo with an Arrma 7kg - locally, and Arrma is sending me a 5kg refurbished plastic replacement. Unless they rebuilt it with metal parts, which wasn't mentioned in their emails.

I'm not sure if the NiMH will be compatible. I would ditch them and go LiPo all the way. More power and more constant power. I store/charge mine in LiPo bags, in an ammo can from a surplus store. I can slam it shut if anything goes wrong.

 

[Skroonk]

Another note about the design...

The short course bodies collect so much debris by bouncing dirt back into the chassis. I've seen other SCT people use a buggy body over the internals and SCT body on the outside. That's the way I'm going to go since I drive in a lot of gravel. My drive shaft has a couple really deep gouges from rocks getting jammed between the servo or ESC and the driveshaft.

 

[Skroonk]

As for a charger, I use the HiTec RDX1.

It has fast charge, balance, storage, discharge, and regular charge mode. Everything I want to take care of my expensive batteries. Units are $70 in Canada.

It also has LiHV charging capacity. Which is the brand new Lithium High Voltage batteries everybody is dying to get their hands on.

It's super easy to use, pretty small, and I'm brand new to LiPo batteries. Highly recommend.

 

[Dollar51]

Purchased a Senton 4x4 Mega for my son , within the first week we had stripped the standard Servo within an hour of total usage. Replaced with a Power HD 20KG metal geared Servo with a matching Glitch Buster.

Purchased a 5000 NiMH battery as the standard supplied 2400 NiMH was already noticeably dropping off.

Next outing within 20 minutes it had snapped a front shocker at the bottom eyelet, no spares available locally, all the rest of the shocks were leaking oil as well. Decided to upgrade the shocks using HSP Aluminium bodied shocks that were recommended on this forum.

Finished the shocker install this morning, minimal bashing, few small jumps , after about 20-25 minutes , started noticing an electrical burning smell as the car was going past , still seemed to powering along fine , plenty of charge left in the battery judging by speed of car. Car got caught on a small tree branch which had some smaller twigs/leaves on the ground , we pulled the car free, but it was no longer responding to forward or reverse commands, steering was fine. Engine and battery were noticeably warm, both smelled.

Hoping it had powered down due to overheating, we shut it all down, let it cool, recharged battery and tested the unit again. No go, steering is OK, ESC lighting up and responding to controller inputs, no drive from engine, so I can only suspect the engine has blown.

So in the whole time we have owned the truck, we have managed under 2 hours total , doing very minimal bashing, and its literally blowing or breaking something every time we venture out.

This is our first RC car, and will be our very last with anything to do with ARRMA , the componant level on the standard truck is garbage IMO.

I have no choice to now replace the engine as I have already invested too much money into the truck to just bin it, but I am seriously considering it.

Is anyone else having the same level of issues with the truck, or have we just been unlucky ?

I have had the exact same experience ... I have already sold it..

 

[Curvin]

@KMS ,

GoolRC Combo arrived today, kind of caught me by surprise as I was thinking it was going to take longer , so I might not be getting the LiPo 2S battery in time for the weekend when I'll be doing the install with my son.

Specs for the ESC list being able to use 4-9Cell NiMH Batteries, so the question is whether I can test with the 5000 NiMH battery in the interim?

Doesn't seem to be any settings for battery type on the ESC as delivered, so most likely only available via the program card which I don't have.

Sorry for the newb questions , still very new to RC's and getting my head around as much as I can , as quickly as I can.

 

[mrbelloso]

You can use the NIMH battery but it will cut when the voltage gets low. You should buy the program card and you can find it on Amazon or ebay.

 

[Curvin]

You can use the NIMH battery but it will cut when the voltage gets low. You should buy the program card and you can find it on Amazon or ebay.

Thanks for the reply , much appreciated.

I just found and purchased a program card locally for under $20.00 delivered, so happy with that.

I will be using the Lipo mostly, but will give it a run up on the NiMH quickly to test the engine/esc install on the weekend.

 

[Curvin]

Brushless upgrade completed , pretty straight forward , immediately fired up and worked off the bat. Lipo hadn't landed in time so did a quick test run on the NiMH , re-oiled the HSP aluminium shocks as well , 40/50 wt oil front/rear , and took it for bash. Absolutely belted the car, good number of jumps, high speed runs on gravel/grass, flips , etc. Ran for a good 15-20 minutes on the NiMH, motor was still very cool thanks to the additional heatsink/fan

Very happy to see the car survive a bash session without breaking something, looking forward to take it out again tomorrow.

ESC did shift during one of the flips , I may not have clipped it down hard enough with the Scotch 4.5KG interlocking strips.

Car was flipping in hard cornering a lot easier than before , so I have swapped the springs over using the stock springs and adjusted them accordingly, fingers crossed with it being a bit lower and with the softer springs, it will stay on its wheels a little better.

Thanks to all who helped along the way with advise and recommendations.

 

[KMS]

Have you upgraded the shocks yet . Happy to hear motor/esc is working out good on NIMH battery . My brother in law used to race with me back in early 90's wants one gonna try to get him setup for under 350.00 , using the Arrma senton mega [ blue ] ,, Were the old guys over 60 with grandkids that love RC ,,

 

[Curvin]

@KMS,

Re the shocks, yes as noted I am running the HSP Aluminium shocks that several others here are running , but replaced the oil the shocks came with. On delivery ( unknown to me initially ) the shocks only have very minimal oil in them, of questionable quality. I replaced the oil with 40/50 wt Losi oil.

Re the ESC/Motor working on NIMH, yep, not a problem straight out of the box, very happy with that as I can now use either the new NIMH or the Lipo.

I do have the programming card on the way , but not really sure I need to adjust anything ?

 

[KMS]

They say you wont get full run time from the NIMH battery cause of lipo shut off rate set in ESC , but if it's making JR happy Dad's happy too .. Happy Father's day ..

 

[Curvin]

Total run time was fine with the 5000 NiMH , looking forward to the Lipo. just need to be weary of the total run times /heat , but the fans should help there. Fingers crossed the lock strips hold the ESC in place better on the next run.

Didn't get a chance to take it out again on the weekend due to rain, so next outing will be with Lipo.

 

[Photoman]

You are not alone Curvin. My stock motor smoked within a month of use. Called for warranty and ARRMA said they will replace both motor and ESC. Received motor but the ESC is back ordered. Still waiting and it has been around 3 months.

 

[Curvin]

@Photoman,

You did better with warranty than I did, but in all honesty I wouldn't bother with the ARRMA parts.

Have a read back through the thread and checkout the brushless GoolRC Combo I installed from a recommendation from KMS.

Truck is now flying on both NiHS and Lipo 2S , have given it 2 hard sessions since installation, both motor ESC are performing great
and stay very cool with the additional fan on the motor.

 

[Photoman]

Have you blown out the spur gear yet? It gets me mad that ARRMA is slow at restocking parts.

 

[Jerry-rigged]

I need to make an edit to this video - for the spur spacer, instead of using the spiral aluminum spacer, I now use a strip of SS 0.018 /24g plate. The aluminum wears out quick, the SS should last a long time. At least until the BLX4 parts are released.

 

[Curvin]

@Photoman,

Haven't blown a gear as yet, fingers crossed I get some more life out of the stock one just sticking to 2S.

No parts available here locally either at present, planning on just sticking with the standard for now and will stock up on spares when available, unless forced to an alternative.

Jerry's mod looks great if you are planning on running 3S.

As a follow up after the Brushless install, my OCD kicked in after we broke a wire to the engine fan , so extended the cable, protected it further with some spiral binding and also fitted a standard computer fan connector. Replaced fan with a high end 40 mm Noctua fan ( painted black ) , neatened up the cable bundle with some velcro and locked it to the base of the chassis with the original bracket , repositioned to suit