Hopping up the ol' Micro-T (Updated 5-16)

[crazydave]

I really, really like the Micro-T as is, had a little trouble getting motivated to mod it. That is until I saw ph2t's Micro-T last week. He was kind enough to hook me up with some stuff, and I went on a little shopping spree, so now here's where I'm at now:

-Ripper7's Exo-T chassis
-BRP bearings
-Atomic shocks
-Atomic BB motor
-Hot racing rear pivot block
-CAT5 antenna
-Nylon guitar pick steering linkage







ph2t hooked me up with the chassis. It took a little work to get together, but I think it looks really nice when its done. The front end has a little too much flex for my taste, but it doesn't seem to effect handling, these cars are so light. The Micro-T handles sooo much better with this chassis. Seemed a lot less twitchy, but the steering was more responsive with the front end planted better. It took jumps nice and level. Jumping the stock micro-t often ended with a cartwheel or an uncontrolled landing, but not now.

I went for the Atmic shocks after seeing LRBC's write up compareing to Hot racings shocks. I could see just by the picture how sloppy the HR shocks were, so I decided it was worth the extra money for the Atomic ones, and I am not disappointed. They are much more smooth and precise feeling than the stock ones, and the provided grease worked well for damping the shocks. My car lands with a plop now instead of a slap boing.

The Hot Racing rear pivot block is shit. Way too much slop. With the car off the ground you can see the supsension arms pull back several mms when you goose the throttle. That's gonna lead to supspension arm breakage. I'd yank them right back out if they were not replacing a broken part, so they are just tiding me over until I'm ready to place another order.

The Atomic motor is punchier than stock. I'm pretty satisfied with it. It didn't seem like a big difference until I tried the stock motor again.

The guitar pick steering linkage have been my best deal so far. They are nice and stiff, thin, and they'll bend before they ever snap, because they're nylon.

Here's my power options:


Got some 180mah packs from BPHobbies. They were kinda bunk. There were some bad cells, and the others had very little if any voltage left in them. But I managed to revive enough to make this 4 cell pack and a 6 cell pack. The 4 cell one is good because I can move it forward or backward to tune my handling. I thought it would be uncontrollable running the 6-cell 7.2v one indoors, but this chassis handles really good, and it was no more uncontrollable than the stock car. Though I rarely saw full throttle. It was great because I could clear my little double jump with almost no run up. I even breaking the rear end free on the carpet, except it caught a few times and ended up sliding across the carpet on its roof. Good times.

ph2t also hooked me up with the 300mah cells. The Losi charger wont charge them to capacity. I don't think its a peak charger at all, I think its just on a 25 minute timer. But damn do these batteries punch. I thought the weight would slow me down a bit, but it didn't, it actually seemed quicker. Hey ph2t, is that because these are good batteries, or is it just because larger cells just have more current to give?

Then I got this IPS motor from him. I think I need to drill my motor plate to mount it. I'll probably end up sticking with this motor and stick the Atomic one in my mildly modded Micro-T. We'll have to get to that.

I still got a few more thing I want to try, but I have to say, I'm extremely satisfied with my car right now... I might even go so far as to say the perfect micro RC.

[crazydave]

Got some more stuff today.

Got the Atomic 1 degree pivot block to replace that crappy Hot Racing one. Much better, lot less slop. I like that Atomic has blocks with different amounts toe in. More rear toe lets you get out of corners faster with more stabilty on loose surfaces. I went with 1* because I get plenty of traction on carpet, but they also have 1.5* and 2* blocks too.

And just to rationalize the shipping, I got some other goodies too. I got the Atomic adjustable rear turnbuckles. They fit nicely, and the fine threads should offer precise tuning.

Got the Atomic spring sets to go with the shocks. For the rear shocks, the green seems a tad stiffer than stock. Orange are medium, and the blue are the stiffest. I went with the blue. As they get stiffer, they have less coils, that also changes the compression ratio. Stiffer at first, but less as they compress compared to more coils. They front springs are actually the short rear ones. They were sld ot of long front sets, which are the same length. The short sets are a lot stiffer. I used the medium one. So its a bit stiffer than the rear, but that's how I prefer it.

Then I got the Hot Racing heatsink motor plate because the Atomic BB motor runs a little too hot with 7.2v, and my 7.2v pack has become my pack of choice. Thought it would just be silly, but its actually pretty controllable. Ordered Hot Racing again by mistake, thought it said 3racing. But it fits good, and looks nice. A lot beefier than stock.

So here it is. Everything seems to be in the rear end. Should be interesting to see how well the Micro-T responds to suspension tuning.

[BilboBaggins]

Dave, what is the Exo-T chassis made from? Is it Lexan, and how thick?

[crazydave]

Dave, what is the Exo-T chassis made from? Is it Lexan, and how thick?

I dunno. Clear plastic, so its more than likely Lexan, or some form of polycarbonate.

Little too much flex for me, I'm gonna use it as a template to make my own out of something stiffer.

The bottom plate is 1/16th inch thick, the top is 1/32nd of an inch thick

[BilboBaggins]

Dave, what is the Exo-T chassis made from? Is it Lexan, and how thick?

I dunno. Clear plastic, so its more than likely Lexan, or some form of polycarbonate.

Little too much flex for me, I'm gonna use it as a template to make my own out of something stiffer.

The bottom plate is 1/16th inch thick, the top is 1/32nd of an inch thick

Sounds like .060 for the bottom and .030 for top. I was thinking of making my own chassis (to cheap to buy one ) but I needed approximate thickness of lexan or a cheap source for Carbon Fiber.

I'd use strips of styrene to reduce the flex.