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

[Curvin]

@Jerry-rigged ,

Never saw the old website, but the new one is designed to frustrate you to the point of giving up, LOL.

Did a live chat with a rep who was as clueless as they come, juss kept giving me canned responses and sending back into a circle of dead ends. He then closed the chat without actually resolving anything for me. Best was the message at the end to rate his support ?!

You can no longer upload a video, has to be a link to a dropbox file, etc , which I found out only after I had already created 2 warranty claim tickets. One of the reps via non reply email ?? informed me he created a support ticket for me to discuss further, but no one can tell me where to access said support ticket.

Seriously , I am about to just bin it , its not worth the time and energy , not to mention the expense of returning it if I can get some sense out of them.

I'll steer clear of HobbyKing in future.

On a more positive note, the local RC community came to the rescue with some near new high end servo's. I have a Savox 1257TG unit ( with a Hitech HS-645MG unit thrown in Free as a spare ), and a Team Associated TS1015 XP unit for less than what I would have paid for one of the above. There is no point going around in circles with cheaper/lower grade servos IMO. At this point I don't even want to put the Savox of the XP in the Senton until I find a solution ( if there is one ) for the rock jamming.

Also need to figure out what happened to the slipper, buts that the other thread.

 

[Curvin]

For those still reading in.

A few updates, I finally managed to resolve the warranty with Hobby King. They just credited my account the value of the Servo ( less freight ), and I didn't have to return the unit. Happy with that.

On testing one of the new servo's I experienced the same issue with centering and not getting full range turning right, and bingo, the light bulb went on that the issue may not be the actual servo, but the radio/controller. Flip the Power HD back in, same behavior. Confirmed.

Pull the Radio/controller apart and find a small piece that has been broken off of the steering mechanism that was causing the lack of full motion turning right. I also noticed on the steering wheel safety stop had been smashed, so obviously my son with his gorilla hands had forced the steering so hard it smashed past the safety stop and snapped the mechanism internally.

TTX300 bites the dust , the mechanism is not available separately and the wire is soldered to the board ( which actually looked like a clipped connection but I found out otherwise when I butchered it ) , so now I am up for a Radio Controller/Receiver.

This truck is jinxed !

 

[bicketybam]

Sounds like you our son is really hard on the truck.

 

[Jerry-rigged]

Glad hobbyking made it good. Store credit is their normal policy. Although with my 1/16 MT kit - it was missing some bearings, and they said they would send me the bearings. Instead, they sent me a whole 2nd truck kit... LOL The second kit had the 2 missing bearings...

 

[Curvin]

Yeh Hobby King redeemed themselves, just need to figure out what to put the credit towards.

Good score on the 2nd kit.

I also managed to score a barely used TTX300 TX from a dude who lost a RX , so perfect timing , I'll just rebind the new TTX300 and we are back rolling again. Well once I flip the PowerHD back in and fix the slipper.

I'll need to teach the boy to have more mechanical sympathy , wish me luck.

The XP and Savox can go on the Hunter , as it will be less likely to break them.

 

[KMS]

radio

 

[Jerry-rigged]

If you want to drop the money on a radio, I like the TS4g from Hobbyking - I have 2 of them. The one listed now is the v2. This radio is made by Radiolink, also sold as the RC4GS. There is also a 6 channel version, the RC6GS.

But then, my last recommendation worked out so well for you... LOL

 

[Cheapbastard]

If you want to drop the money on a radio, I like the TS4g from Hobbyking - I have 2 of them. The one listed now is the v2. This radio is made by Radiolink, also sold as the RC4GS. There is also a 6 channel version, the RC6GS.

But then, my last recommendation worked out so well for you... LOL

The Radiolinks are nice for the price I like them over the FS-GT3's for budget radios the gyro in the receivers can also be a added bonus. I got too many Flysky receivers slowly leaning to more Radiolink receivers.

 

[Curvin]

@Jerry-rigged,

Ha, I think I'll tread a little more cautiously with HK for electronics , not sure what I'll use the credit on just yet.

 

[Curvin]

Slipper reassembled, fresh bearings, slipper nut and slipper hub , and I reversed the slipper pad to a clean side.

Quick experiment at a stone guard to protect the servo horn area from the top.

Servo /Electrics module still not screwed in as I need to center the servo and set the saver with the new TX when it arrives.

 

[Curvin]

I think I can safely say my slipper clutch repair held up by flipping the worn pad over. I can also conclude that I may have been a little over zealous ensuring it was tight this time, LOL !

I just can't win with this truck, I spent a fair amount of time adjusting the slipper, looser would slip, this tight destroyed the spur in less than one 2S pack.

I have replaced it and again spent some additional time to find some happy balance. the difference between slipping badly and seemingly over tight seems to be a bee's peepee.

I have come to the conclusion these trucks are just not meant for anything past a brushed system, without significant modification in this area. Question is whether I can be bothered at this point, I'd rather bin it to be honest.

On a side note , steering still doesn't consistently return to center, and I had an instance just testing the slipper in the back yard, where a slight bump caused the servo saver to slip across, and I am sure I had it as tight as possible. Need to remove that whole module again and check whats what there. Has to be some way of improving the slop /tightening that stock saver, surely ? !

I am at a loss what to do there as well, except get a Kimbrough saver which is not easily available locally, or I would have already swapped out the stock one months ago :-(

 

[bicketybam]

You're running a brushless system on a 48p pinion/spur and it looks like the red shaft of the assembly has been run over by a dump truck!?

 

[Curvin]

You're running a brushless system on a 48p pinion/spur and it looks like the red shaft of the assembly has been run over by a dump truck!?

Ha , par for the course then !!

Not sure the shaft is actually bent, might be the photo, no idea how I could have possibly bent the shaft. Either way, so you are saying I need to go back to brushless and call it a wash ?

 

[bicketybam]

Ha , par for the course then !!

Not sure the shaft is actually bent, might be the photo, no idea how I could have possibly bent the shaft. either way, so you are saying I need to go back to brushless and call it a wash ?

I'll give you $50 US for it. That like $400 Australian!

 

[Curvin]

I'll give you $50 US for it. That like $400 Australian!

Ha, I take it global currency exchange isn't you strong suit LOL !!

 

[bicketybam]

Ha, I take it global currency exchange isn't you strong suit LOL !!

Ok,$60US!

This has been some journey. Like Moses leading his people thought the sands of Egypt for 40 years!

 

[Curvin]

Ok,$60US!

This has been some journey. Like Moses leading his people thought the sands of Egypt for 40 years!

O.K, I stand corrected, your analogies are even worse than your currency exchanges, LOL !

It must be like a train wreck in slow motion for you, you can't look away

 

[Jerry-rigged]

9 pages of train wreck... LOL

But I am also the type, I just can call Uncle on a problem child car. I gotta keep modifying till I get it mostly right. For way too long, my Archenemy was a 1/16 Turnigy mini-Trooper SCT. I reworked, rebuild, repaired and almost trashed that truck in so many different ways it was ridicules. I think it originally cost me like $85, but I bet I dumped about $300 in 'fixes'. I had a page over on URC as a build thread, like this one, it was 10 or 15 pages. But in the end, I got the win, sort of. I got it mostly reliable, converted it to a truggy, and for a while it became one of my favorite RC's. But, I don't think I would wish all the frustration it took me to get there on anyone... LOL

 

[bicketybam]

I think the Senton and Granite Megas are going to go the way of the Dodo. The Mega series in stock form just isn't worth $230 and poor Curvin paid even more due to living in Australia. In the US you can get a brushless version with a much better driveline for $70 more. You would be hard pressed to convert the Mega to a brushless version for $70. You would have to use bargain basement electronics and you're still not going to get it done.

The biggest problems with the series is the motor and servo. Everything else is fine for BRUSHED power. I am not sure why Arrma designed the Mega with no real path to 3s. Maybe they thought it would hurt sales of their planned brushless version. I bought the Granite first and ran the brushed motor for 1 or 2 days. It didn't fail, but it was just too slow. I went to a Castle SW4/1405-4600Kv combo and ran on 2s problem free. Any breakages were due to driving. When I tried 3s I stripped the spur and that's when I decided to go with the 32p mod. When I bought my Senton I didn't even run it with the brushed motor. Out it came and in went the 4600Kv I had in my Granite (I put a 3800 Kv in it). I also put in the 32p gears. I beat the hell out of the trucks and they have held up. 4s has been tearing up wheel driveshafts but I can't blame the truck for that (not even the new truck is designed for 4s).

I have enjoyed my experience with the Mega's even though I have spent a ton of money on them. I could have bought an Outcast for what I spend on my Granite alone. But I learned a lot. I LOVE the new BLX version. They addressed everything they needed to address with the Mega and delivered it at a very reasonable price. If I wasn't so emotionaly attached to my original Granite I probably wouldn't even drive it. And the Senton? I am not a fan of SCT's I will probably use the chassis and build a Big Rock when they become available

As for poor Curvin, I would throw in the towel. The fact that parts are nearly impossible to get makes it a very difficult truck to run. Every RC breaks at some point and if you can't get parts without being bent over a barrel, then it's time to get something else.

 

[Curvin]

9 pages of train wreck... LOL

But I am also the type, I just can call Uncle on a problem child car. I gotta keep modifying till I get it mostly right. For way too long, my Archenemy was a 1/16 Turnigy mini-Trooper SCT. I reworked, rebuild, repaired and almost trashed that truck in so many different ways it was ridicules. I think it originally cost me like $85, but I bet I dumped about $300 in 'fixes'. I had a page over on URC as a build thread, like this one, it was 10 or 15 pages. But in the end, I got the win, sort of. I got it mostly reliable, converted it to a truggy, and for a while it became one of my favorite RC's. But, I don't think I would wish all the frustration it took me to get there on anyone... LOL

I am much the same, I don't like being beaten. I did get this truck to a point of being reasonably solid , had a decent run running on 2S until that first spur let go, since then its been a bit of a comedy of failures with the slipper , etc. I am still not 100% with that slipper area, its either slipping badly or too tight , I have lost confidence in getting that one right.

I am going to call it, as soon as there are some spares available locally for the front bumper/skid , shocker shaft/eyelet to bring it back to stock I will most likely move it on, or I may just shelve it.