Vorteks terrible battery run time on Vorteks

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icumpd

icumpd

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Arrma RC's
  1. Vorteks
I just recently purchased a Arrma Vorteks roughly 3 weeks ago. I also purchased Spektrum 5000mah 50c 3s lipo batteries 11.1V. Today I finally got the batteries and made my first run with it. After about 10 to maybe 15 minutes at the most the car slowed down and the remote said the battery was depleted Now mind you I am aware that driving style and what not have an effect on battery life. So to be clear I was running across a very short grass (not even green yet) running basically 3/4 throttle runs across about 60 yards of grass and gravel. And temperature outside of 71 degrees. Is this the best I can expect for run time with this current setup? I am hoping that you can tell me to adjust something or better batteries. I own a lot of Traxxas Rc’s on of which is the Rustler a very similar vehicle and that one I can run 30 to 35 minutes on. Please if you can help me, I wanted to try a Arrma to see if I would like them better but as of now greatly disappointed.

Thanks for your help
 
icumpd said:
I just recently purchased a Arrma Vorteks roughly 3 weeks ago. I also purchased Spektrum 5000mah 50c 3s lipo batteries 11.1V. Today I finally got the batteries and made my first run with it. After about 10 to maybe 15 minutes at the most the car slowed down and the remote said the battery was depleted Now mind you I am aware that driving style and what not have an effect on battery life. So to be clear I was running across a very short grass (not even green yet) running basically 3/4 throttle runs across about 60 yards of grass and gravel. And temperature outside of 71 degrees. Is this the best I can expect for run time with this current setup? I am hoping that you can tell me to adjust something or better batteries. I own a lot of Traxxas Rc’s on of which is the Rustler a very similar vehicle and that one I can run 30 to 35 minutes on. Please if you can help me, I wanted to try a Arrma to see if I would like them better but as of now greatly disappointed.

Thanks for your help
Click to expand...
Did you check the voltage of the battery after the run?
 
No I did not but I did try my second battery 5 minutes later and the same thing 10-15 minutes.
 
They are like that. My son's Granite 3S has a much longer run time than my Vorteks with the same battery.

At first, I thought maybe there was something wrong with the motor, but everything seems fine. I think they just come overgeared, which drains the battery faster. If that's indeed the case, using a smaller pinion should help increasing the run time.
 
I’m not impressed with the run time of mine either. mine is cutting out when the battery hits 11.2V, so it’s probably hitting 11.1 during use when it happens. I’m pretty sure there’s nothing that can be done about that though, sadly. Everything else about the truck is great though, so I can forgive it.
 
This seems to come up a lot. I did a comparison with my Big Rock and it was inconclusive. Arrma 3s are just hungry little beasts.

To be fair bro the Vorteks has 30% more power than a Rustler so what do you expect 🤣
 
Same here, had a friend who bought the vorteks, gets 5 minutes of run time and it hits lvc at 4 volts per cell for whatever ungodly reason. Check your voltage at the end of the runtime, the firma 100 has seemed to be pretty glitchy in a lot of the vorteks
 
15 minutes is what I would expect for 3s 5000mah running on grass at 3/4 throttle. Which is why I run 7200mah and minimize going fast through grass.
 
GRC said:
15 minutes is what I would expect for 3s 5000mah running on grass at 3/4 throttle. Which is why I run 7200mah and minimize going fast through grass.
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Which battery is that? Looking for something with more capacity that still fits. Thanks.
 
I am skeptical of the Spectrum batteries. Horizon used to offer batteries under the Parkzone and Eflight brands for rc planes and Helicopters and they were overpriced, and underpowered. I have trouble thinking they have changed much more than the wrappers on these things. I hate to say, I think the whole smart system they are offering is just a gimmick.
 
Mine was getting UNDER 5 minutes of run time with 50c 5200mah batteries using a hideous Reedy 123 charger. Swapped to a better (but still not great) charger and it increased run time to about 5-6 minutes. All wires and ESC were pretty warm to hot.
 
I used to fly rc helis also so i know a thing or two about the older eflite batterys yea they sucked....but i will say the new spektrum packs are prretty good.. i fly edf jets now when i am not driving and edf are the most demanding on lipos for a fact....the only packs that don't puff on me are the spektrum lipos... My zee, pH, yoowoo, have all puffed within 5 cycles
 
15 minutes is not out of the question especially on grass. Have no experience with Spectrum lipos, but I would try another quality lipo like SMC or gensacearespammers to compare runtimes.
 
I use a Zeee 3S 8000mAh 100C battery and obtain 25 to 35 minutes pending driving conditions.

I do think these Spektrum ESCs may have a glitch where it's kicking in the LVC prematurely. Unfortunately it's not an adjustable setting. I don't have anything scientific to base this theory on, just something I've observed with the particular ESC in the Vorteks.
 
arrmadillo said:
15 minutes is not out of the question especially on grass. Have no experience with Spectrum lipos, but I would try another quality lipo like SMC or gensacearespammers to compare runtimes.
Click to expand...
I would agree with you if I didn't run 3s 5000mah 25c batteries from Traxxas in a Slash, Hoss, Rustler, Maxx, and a bandit. that all can run minimum 30 minutes at mostly full throttle runs. I am going to check to make sure gear mesh isn't to tight again but if this is all I will get off Arrma I believe my time with the Vorteks will be short lived and I will sell it.
 
Checking the mesh and slipper clutch seems like a good idea to me. My Big Rock slipper is out almost two turns and it still wheelies and backflips easily and I'm getting about 20 minutes out of my Spektrum 5000mah packs. I do have a warranty claim in on one, as a cell is showing around 3.2v while the other two are 3.6v at LVC on the 120a Firma ESC.
 
icumpd said:
I would agree with you if I didn't run 3s 5000mah 25c batteries from Traxxas in a Slash, Hoss, Rustler, Maxx, and a bandit. that all can run minimum 30 minutes at mostly full throttle runs. I am going to check to make sure gear mesh isn't to tight again but if this is all I will get off Arrma I believe my time with the Vorteks will be short lived and I will sell it.
Click to expand...
Isn't 25C discharge pretty light for these machines? The manual recommends 50C or higher, I believe. Maybe it's putting too much strain on the battery.
 

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