Whats the best gearing

[Ari33]

There is debate on this, and in my opinion those who claim increased speeds are saying that to sell more products.
My opinion is the cap pack provides ripple voltage protection to reduce stress on the esc. I personally (have an EE Degree) do not believe that a setup of parallel capacitors can provide any amperage benefits worth noting. I do believe they help smooth out oscillations and that high quality batteries also help.

Charge up a cap pack and connect it to something and you can see. It does not have the power to run a 40mm brushless motor for even a second.

Castle ESCs are the ones that seem to need cap packs or they will burn up. For whatever reason the HW ESCs can take the abuse of ripple voltage better.

There is no real debate to be had on this. You are 100% correct. Anyone who says that besides smoothing there is also a performance advantage to using cap packs, either has no basic EE understanding... or must have a financial interest vested in them, to lie.

 

[SrC]

My overall understanding is that caps are just band-aids for sagging lipo cells.
Some Cap users run them as a failsafe for power to the Steering Servo if LVC interrupts a speed run. You will get several seconds of servo control after Full LVC. Makes some sense to me as an advantage.. Anyone else agree or not?

 

[LibertyMKiii]

There is no real debate to be had on this. You are 100% correct. Anyone who says that besides smoothing there is also a performance advantage to using cap packs, either has no basic EE understanding... or must have a financial interest vested in them, to lie.

There is debate with the speedrun guys... There is a ton of drama with this FloPacks cap packs guy.
It shocks me how much trash talking they do over who is the fastest or reasons why. Phillip Jolley had to make a video showing that he runs up a hill with an altitude meter because people didn't believe his videos. Although I have to say it didn't help they still talk trash.

My overall understanding is that caps are just band-aids for sagging lipo cells.
Some Cap users run them as a failsafe for power to the Steering Servo if LVC interrupts a speed run. Makes some sense to me as an advantage.. Anyone else agree or not?

Eh.... its not just the sag. I didn't keep any logs of it, but there was some crazy ripple going on without a cap pack on my 8s XLX setup. (and it had SMC True Spec Extreme packs in it)
After adding a capacitor pack it smoothed right out. This was with Panasonic Low ESR caps, which resolved the issue. All of my packs have been in the 7,000 - 12,000 uF range and resolved the ripple issues. My results with the Panasonic caps have been better than I have seen of any others data log posts of name brand cap packs!

 

[SrC]

Most if not all ESC's integrate a Cap bank in parallel with power IN. So many would logically think a higher capacity, low ESR Cap pack added in parallel would be a benefit. FloPack blew up the speed run segment. But I read between the lines also.

 

[Ari33]

My overall understanding is that caps are just band-aids for sagging lipo cells.
Some Cap users run them as a failsafe for power to the Steering Servo if LVC interrupts a speed run. Makes some sense to me as an advantage.. Anyone else agree or not?

In theory your steering should remain unaffected by hitting LVC.
I'm not a speed runner to know if the ESC's BEC can be affected by severe voltage droop or ripple enough to cause that though.

I'm certainly not against cap packs, high V Ripple is never a good thing for electronics to deal with. I just hate false advertising.

 

[LibertyMKiii]

Most if not all ESC's integrate a Cap bank in parallel with power IN. So many would logically think a higher capacity, low ESR Cap pack added in parallel would be a benefit. FloPack blew up the speed run segment. But I read between the lines also.

I am not 100% against the guy because he is sharing a lot of info and uncovering some of the secrets. (which I plan to also)
I just don't like the language and behavior. It is unnecessary.

I was pretty surprised when I first ran the XLX seeing all the built in caps I assumed it would be fine, but I was pulling something like 3-4v of ripple, which was close to 10%. As you can see in the log image I was under 1v during the actual run. The only time it went over 1v was during the start up from a stop. I don't love that Max values line because each row of data occurs at a different time. I usually reference the mouse pointer (top line) on my peak rpms of the run and various points during the acceleration.

 

[SrC]

Like you said earlier, some ESC's ripple out worse than others.

 

[LibertyMKiii]

Like you said earlier, some ESC's ripple out worse than others.

I have not done many comparisons of motors in the logs but I suspect the motor plays a big part in that also. This log was a MONSTER TP5670

Great questions and discussion guys!

 

[SrC]

I am not 100% against the guy because he is sharing a lot of info and uncovering some of the secrets. (which I plan to also)
I just don't like the language and behavior. It is unnecessary.

I was pretty surprised when I first ran the XLX seeing all the built in caps I assumed it would be fine, but I was pulling something like 3-4v of ripple, which was close to 10%. As you can see in the log image I was under 1v during the actual run. The only time it went over 1v was during the start up from a stop. I don't love that Max values line because each row of data occurs at a different time. I usually reference the mouse pointer (top line) on my peak rpms of the run and various points during the acceleration.

You got that ripple down low. Can it get any lower?

 

[LibertyMKiii]

You got that ripple down low. Can it get any lower?

I suspect so, but the problem is real-estate. Those cap packs take up some serious space lol.
For me they never seem to fit anywhere in the car nicely.

 

[SrC]

I am not 100% against the guy because he is sharing a lot of info and uncovering some of the secrets. (which I plan to also)
I just don't like the language and behavior. It is unnecessary.

I feel the same way. He can put you off at times. Some people are just full of themselves and their point is often missed or objectionable at times. Even though its a positive and time consuming effort to share that info.

 

[Ari33]

You got that ripple down low. Can it get any lower?

You can keep adding more capacitance and ripple will probably reduce further but there is a cut off after which there are no real benefits... then you start running out of space.

 

[SrC]

In theory your steering should remain unaffected by hitting LVC.
I'm not a speed runner to know if the ESC's BEC can be affected by severe voltage droop or ripple enough to cause that though.

I'm certainly not against cap packs, high V Ripple is never a good thing for electronics to deal with. I just hate false advertising.

Receiver BEC brownouts can occur with some ESC's hitting "full" LVC. IMO. Am I wrong? Happened to me a few times, albeit with lower end ESC's.

 

[Ari33]

Receiver brownouts can occur with some ESC's hitting "full" LVC. IMO. Am I wrong? Happened to me a few times, albeit with lower end ESC's.

Yes, thats certainly possible.

 

[Badmofreaker]

You can keep adding more capacitance and ripple will probably reduce further but there is a cut off after which there are no real benefits... then you start running out of space.

Now, I have never used a cap pack,hobby store said I wouldn't need, do I need this for my typhon to go faster or not? I have been playing with rc cars for a long time and do my own stuff but the typhon is the first I built to go really fast.

 

[LibertyMKiii]

Receiver BEC brownouts can occur with some ESC's hitting "full" LVC. IMO. Am I wrong? Happened to me a few times, albeit with lower end ESC's.

I think it depends on the context. For speed runners we run a fully charged pack and once it hits 4.0 V per cell we are done .
With voltage sag I rarely go below 3.75v per cell. I also turn off LVC protection as it is not needed and could potentially harm the speedrun.

 

[Ari33]

Now, I have never used a cap pack,hobby store said I wouldn't need, do I need this for my typhon to go faster or not? I have been playing with rc cars for a long time and do my own stuff but the typhon is the first I built to go really fast.

It wont do any harm, it will smooth out the voltage, which will be more gentle on every single electrical component in your rig.
Just don't expect it to raise your top speed.


Edit- Well maybe your lipo connectors wont like the connection spark/Arc a Cap pack will give, quite so much..

 

[SrC]

Now, I have never used a cap pack,hobby store said I wouldn't need, do I need this for my typhon to go faster or not? I have been playing with rc cars for a long time and do my own stuff but the typhon is the first I built to go really fast.

Cap packs wont increase your speed. They will enhance the ESC's ability to sustain lower ripple volts. A cap pack only works as well as your lipo pack can handle your setup. If your lipos are questionable for your setup, no cap pack will truly make up for it.
I ordered several types of Panasonic Caps. I settled on these 6 35v/1000 mF's. I have 10 guage wire and the pcb to play with. I plan on soldering very close to the ESC board. Running 6S on my Limitless.

 

[LibertyMKiii]

 

[Badmofreaker]

It wont do any harm, it will smooth out the voltage, which will be more gentle on every single electrical component in your rig.
Just don't expect it to raise your top speed.


Edit- Well maybe your lipo connectors wont like the connection spark/Arc a Cap pack will give, quite so much..

I have the big castle conn,they are a pain to get apart, I just received a pack of the xt90 conn i am going to put on everything this weekend

Cap packs wont increase your speed. They will enhance the ESC's ability to sustain lower ripple volts. A cap pack only works as well as your lipo pack can handle your setup. If your lipos are questionable for your setup, no cap pack will truly make up for it.
I ordered several types of Panasonic Caps. I settled on these 6 35v/1000 mF's. I have 10 guage wire and the pcb to play with. I plan on soldering very close to the ESC board. Running 6S on my Limitless.View attachment 59225

Thank you, everyone on here seems to be very helpful and I'm so glad I bought the two arma vehicles,they are both awesome