How do you guys wire up your receiver packs? A separate switch,into the speed control switch,red-red-red,black,black,black,etc.

Plug into your "Batt." on the receiver, with a switch in-line to your receiver pack.

Later, Bret

DK, You have mail

Make sure you remove the power wire on the ESC connection.
For Keyence, its the red wire.

NH

So, take the red wire out of the ESC plug? btw,it's a Q2.

So, take the red wire out of the ESC plug? btw,it's a Q2.
I pull the red wire out of my Q2 also, dont forget you have to use both switches..Jeff

I would assume the red wire on all ESC's is probably the power.
Remove it with a xact knife by lightly pushing on the tab to pull the pin out of the connect, then tape it, or use a piece of heat shrink tubing.
You will need two switches for on/off, usually not a problem
You can prbably find a micro switch from the liks of Mouser/Keystone, etc, that has dual contacts -- so you only need one switch.

NH

10-4!

Just one more reason I like running Novak speedos. You don't have to remove any wires and all you need to use is the receiver pack switch.

I've used the quantums since they came out (both 1 and 2) with a receiver pack and have never removed a wire.Just use a switch on your receiver pack like valentine said and your good to go.

OK, I've got 2 cars both with receiver packs, one with a GTX & one with a Q2. Both have 2 switches. Both have all the plugs in the receiver. Both have power to the ESC with the ESC switch off and the receiver pack switch on. They both seem to run fine wired that way. One I have run for 6 months that way. What is the advantage or disadvantage of unpluging the ESC pos. wire from the receiver? Have I just been lucky and these things are going to go up in smoke?

Thanks,

If you don't run a receiver pack, then some of your racing pack's juice is being used to power the receiver part of the car's radio system. The main purpose of running a receiver pack is so that 100% of your racing pack's energy (or at least as much as is possible) is being used to power the motor and not "wasted" on powering the receiver. This is especially critical in modified where run time can be short and you need every last bit of battery.

The "red wire" in the lead from the speedo to the receiver is usually the wire that supplies power from your racing battery pack through the speedo to the receiver. Therefore, when you disconnect it, you can be sure that no juice is being transferred from your racing pack through the speedo to the receiver. When you use a receiver pack, it powers the receiver and not your racing pack.

Some speedo's (like some old GM's) require that you disconnect the "red wire" in order to use a receiver pack or it will burn up (lesson learned). Others don't. If you disconnect the "red wire" and run two switches, you may also need to be careful about the order in which you turn them on. Sort of like not turning your car on before your radio.

Personally, I don't mind disconnecting the "red wire" and using two switches because then I know, for sure, that no power is coming from the racing pack.

If you don't disconnect the "red wire" and still run a receiver pack, how do you know, for sure, that the speedo isn't still supplying some small amount of power to the receiver ? Are you basing it on the fact that the receiver pack needs to be charged every run or two, so therefore, it must be supplying the power to the receiver ?

The way I look at it, running 4 cells anyway, the rx pack voltage should never get below the voltage of the race pack so the electronics should never be using the race pack for power. Maybe I am wrong. I have had an rx pack go bad before during a run only using one switch. So now I have all wires hooked up and still turn on both switches incase something happens to the rx pack. It has worked fine so far and my runtime hasn't suffered at all.

The way I understand it is if you keep the red wire connected, you turn the car off and on with the reciever pack swith and keep the speedo pack in the OFF position. If you turn both switches on with the red wire conected, the speedo gets power from 2 batteries and fry's? Please clarify, i have a car with a reciever pack installed, but have not used it because i'm not sure how to use it. I have a quantum-1. Bat? please explain. HB

Your best bet is to remove the red wire from the ESC plug, this way there is not a mistake turning on the ESC switch (say by a turn marshal on the track if you would happen to break and they attempt to turn off the car but instead turn on the ESC). Two things can happen if both are turned on. One is ESC damage. The other is receiver pack failure. Since the ESC is supplying power to the receiver, it is also supplying power to the receiver pack... this can cause the receiver pack to be over charged.

Glad i haven't run it yet!

My question is that if the voltage of the race pack is lower than that of the rx pack how does it over power the rx pack to actually charge it? I use the method I described and always have to put a charge in the rx pack for it to be fully charged, I can go a few runs on it with no trouble but I usually try to recharge every round and it always takes a charge.

The receiver pack can very well have a lower voltage then the race pack if someone doesn't charge it. If both are hooked up and turned on then it is possible for the person not to know the receiver pack is dead. Or the switch to the receiver pack may have not been turned off, or the pack has sit for a couple of weeks and has become discharged, or.... any number of reasons.

Heck, how many times have we seen (or even done it ourself) racers forget to charge a main pack or even install a discharged pack into their car? Mistakes can easily happen, why not just try and eliminate and potental problems before they become a problem?

Of course some ESC don't require the red wire to be disconnected but I do recommend it just to be safe.

Now I won't even tell you about the "pro" guys running 6-cell receiver packs :)
http://www.cefx.net/images/car_cefx12_1.jpg

You should sell the 6 cell ones so that we can all have faster servos. I usually don't forget to charge the rx pack but I will do some testing to see how many runs it takes for it to get below pack voltage...now if I just had one of the telemetry units to monitor the 2 voltages during the runs.....