I was under the immpression that these mini-Ts used a different motor than anything else on the market. I read in one of the mags that none of the other micro or mini motors would fit. This was because losi bought a load of motors without checking what else was out, then made the motor plate fit the motor. This is also why they are releaseing another motor plate to allow the usage of the more common mini motors.

it is a odd screw pattern, but a 300 sized motor. but the trinity monster/team orion baja motors comes with or w/out a new motor plate. and many at one18 have moded the stock plate to hold speed 300 motors. :dude:

Highster,

Im going on heresay as I have not seen one yet. But from what I had heard it used the same size motor as the Micro. In the photos I've seen it looks more like a Speed 300 size as it is a round can.

Fact is I won't know until I get mine. They have not showed up at my LHS yet. I have a Speed 300 I was saving for my Micro. I will trial fit it when my Mini T comes in. :dude:

Our indoor carpet track plans to run them box stock only to build the class fast and keep it fun.

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid89/p55c6e4259802ff1e66c6e5185d8a0dee/fa79e034.jpg

This is our track. Sorry about the blurry figure. I needed a time exposure for my camera to get the picture.

I just got back from work[HOBBY TOWN] and we just got 6 trucks. Had 4 sold before I came home.

Hi,

The motor that is included with the Mini T is a 280 motor. A 300 motor will definitely not fit onto the motor plate without modifications.
If you really want to go fast with your Mini T's modify the motor plate and drop in one of those Krystal3 motors from UnitedRC www.unitedrc.com

Just got my Mini-T Cool little truck.... The Monster Micro moter will fit with minor adjustments....I need the 6 cell plate....
I think Steve will race them at the next HobbyTown race.. :wave:

I got my min-t today with my team orion 6 cell and team orion mod motor.
Its cool. The only thing that is kinda crappy is the shocks. Its bouncy. But its pretty fast for what it is.

Micro-Racer>>> If you stop at HT again could you pick up a Mini T for me since I will be at the champs all weekend. The one I thought was coming for me did not happen :confused:

I got my RED Mini XXXT today here in central Missouri... This is the coolest 'toy' I've ever seen! Even with the stock motor and a 5-cell Orion NiMh pack, it's pretty darn fast! OH -- as an old guy who's been around since the invention of dirt, I had some old 4x8mm bearings left over from my Kyosho Ultima days -- PERFECT fit for the axles! HUGE improvement in performance and smooth driving over the stock plastic bushings!

For those of you whom are not liking the stock shocks and are interested in another alternative until Losi releases theirs, you can use the Associated VCS shocks. You really only need two of them for the rear. They work pretty well and the car can handle the larger jumps without bottoming.

What VCS (I assume the 'micro' shocks, like we use for the side shocks on 3-shock oval cars?) springs do you use?

Oh - a question...

I've had a terrible time getting my new Orion 1100 mAh NiMh packs for my Mini-T to take a charge the first time... Using a Millenium pro on the 5cell "receiver" profile with Nimh2, it took at least 6-7 false peaks before I seemed to get a good charge...?

Any "TIPS"...

Associated VCS. Just like what you are describing.

tfrahm,

NiMH packs take several charge cycles to come up to speed, so to speak. I have a Millenium and since it has some basic charge info differences since it is older, you may wish to consider what I do...
I use the Linear Charging option and reduce the cell peak to the lowest value I can (0.4 mV per cell) and I reduce the charging number of cells by 1 cell.
This gives a much softer peak and I charge at 600-800 mAH until the packs have been cycled a few times. NiMH packs are notorius for false peaks when new. Sometimes they have a tendency to peak so softly the charger misses it.

Don't discharge them below 1.0 per cell for long life as well. You will need to manually discharge them
a few times to get them to accept full charge and to keep them fresh. After the pack is broken in you will not need to discharge the NiMH pack, they don't have a memory effect like NiCads are rumored to have. Good luck!

I just got home from the LHS. I bought 2 of them. One red and a blue one. These are just a marvel. I just can't get the garage cleaned up fast enough. I had to come in to let the dust settle so I can vacuumn up all the dust off of the carpet. He he he, now I remember why I let my son put that piece of carpet on the floor.

Got the red one out and put batteries in and ran it around in the house. Ton 'O' fun!! My wife thinks that I am crazy, but she has thought that ever since I got my first R/C car in 1987. Ya Think ???

Will be waiting patiently for shocks. Working on bearings as we speak.

More later..................... :wave:

Rick

I hate RTR radio gear.

http://www.blindbatts.com/temp/mini-t%20with%20guts2.jpg
http://www.blindbatts.com/temp/mini-t%20with%20guts.jpg

works good now though :D

(Hitec HS-85MG, Tekin Chrome FM rx, *not pictured* GM V3R, 370 big block motor, 6 zapped KAN 1050's)

What type of Mod's did you have to do to get the Hitec HS-85MG servo to work?

:thumbsup:

Just a note::: I put some of the Losi 'White' grease in the shocks and that seemed to slow down the bounce a little. I may try some thicker grease soon. I'll keep you posted. Trying to keep it as close to "STOCK" as possible.

Thanks for the tip on bearings. I found some at the LHS.

Rick

I tore down my rear shocks after trying different greases, and cleaned the shock shaft, and rubber bushings, one small drop of CA to the underside of the "piston" and slid the bushing all the way up. after the CA set, I reassembled the shocks with some grease. It doesn't prevent the truck from bottoming out, but at least it stops the rear from bouncing up and down like a bobble head doll!

Now, I'm waiting on my newly assembled 7-cell AAA NimH cells to charge..........

What type of Mod's did you have to do to get the Hitec HS-85MG servo to work?

:thumbsup:

had to mill out some of the moldings in the front servo area of the chassis, mainly the bar that goes behind the stock servo seperating it from the battery compartment, the 85MG is longer than the stock servo so it sits a little in the battery area.

I'd like to use a servo saver, but it wont fit, so thats why I chose the 85MG and not the 81MG ;)

Bend the end of the body clips 90 deg so you can get them in and out easier. I also used an Associated body clip for the battery compartment/Hold down, and bent it 90 deg too.

Works very nicely.

check here for batts for the Mini T
http://www.promatchracing.com/minit8cell.jpg
They also have a 6 cell pack too
What would be the best motor to balls to the walls fast
Where would I get it and how much
Thanks

Well, I am partial to the Krystal3 motor from www.unitedrc.com =)

I am the tuner of these motors and all that I can say is that they are fast.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask. The retail on the motors is $25.

what is the 4th (tan) wire on the servo for?

I am not exactly sure but it has to do with the fact that the circuit board for the servo is in the speed controller. Usually there is '+' , '-' and signal but it is a mystery to me too.

All the electronics are in the ESC/Reciver combo....only gears in the servo...so you can't just change ONE of the the 3 but all 3 must be changed! :(

Can you still use the speed control with another receiver and different servo?

Well -- we DO love these little beasties, but...

At the local track Saturday night, even in the hands of experienced racers, only one was still going by the end of the night...

Broken front spindle carrier...

Broken rear hub...

Ball cups pop off constantly...

Turnbuckles (actually just threaded rod) bend WAY too easy...

WE still love them, but...

Hey LOSI! The LHS can NOT get parts, so they are almost all "parked" until further notice!

Good point about the availability of parts Tom. Even though my Mini T was still running at the end of the night, I still had problems... Looks like you pointed out the ball cups popping off.... ALL THE TIME! and I had to bend the turnbuckles back straight every few minutes.

On a side note, I cut a MicroRS4 rear pod spring (long one in the back) to fit under the rear MiniT springs on the shock shaft. This seemed to stop the bottoming out and remove most of the bounce from the rear end.

I got MINI T on the brain....!LOL! Lets see...I've already got bearings, mod motor, 6 cell pack...hmmm...what else can I buy...LOL!

Phil

Tie rods and upper links will be one of the first things I look at to make.
Will keep all informed. :thumbsup:

Bud -- you make 'em, we'll buy 'em... Just post to let us know where to send the money... :D

what is the 4th (tan) wire on the servo for?

Just an "educated guess", but...:

A servo normally just needs a 'signal', '+', and '-' and it is happy... However, as someone pointed out earlier, part of the normal servo circuitry is external to the stock "servo" on the mini-T... So at least part of the wiring must now perform functions normally internal to the servo. One of these is that the way the servo "senses" it's position is with a small potentiometer that is under the output gear -- as the output shaft moves, it is changing the position of the potentiometer (sort of like turning the 'trim' knob on the radio to one side or the other). This "feedback" is normally used by the internal electronics to move the output shaft until the position of the output gear "matches" the signal being sent by the reciever. With the electronics now external to the servo, there must be at least one wire that carries this potentiometer "feedback" position reading back to those external electronics...

Does that help?

Broken front spindle carrier...

Broken rear hub...

Ball cups pop off constantly...

Turnbuckles (actually just threaded rod) bend WAY too easy...

WE still love them, but...



I will be ordering the hubs for our shop and my personal use.

As for the ball cups, a trip to the DuBro parts tree may be the answer. I picked up their small ball cups, captured-ball ends and 4-40 threaded rod.

The captured ball-ends use a screw too small to replace the Losi ball-ends. However I was able to drill deeper into the rear bulkhead and mount it securely. At the hub end I just used the included nut to hold it all together. The CBEs are just short enough to allow about 3/32nd of an inch of the 4-40 to be exposed when adjusted for 3 deg neg. camber.

If you wanted to use these in the front you would have to cut them down.

A 4-40 tap made threading the end much easier.

The front links were also replaced with 4-40s. But I used the DuBro ball-cups instead. Although AE ball cups look small enough they are not. The DuBro are just small enough and may hold better than the stock units.

We are racing them on carpet this winter. Can't wait for spring.

Shocks (only did the rear)...

VCS micro shocks, 20 wt oil, 'green' spring (lightest micro VCS spring)...

Cut down Dubro ballcup on top end (shock body). Cut it down until the body threads into the ball cup far enough to bottom out. As Bob T noted, drill out cup 'shaft' with 3/32" bit, then tap 4-40 for shock threads. The Dubro ballcup snaps right onto the stock brass ballstud on the shock tower. One fitted nearly perfect, the other seemed a bit loose on the ball stud, but OK.

For the botton, get Dubro 2-56 rod ends (I believe these are what Bob T was referring to as the 'CBE' ends). Again, cut down until there is only enough of the shaft to thread onto the shock bottom/spring cup. on the A-arm shock mount, carefully shave off the 'lip' around the screws that hold the mount to the A-arm. When you mount the shock onto the lower mount, the stock screw fits very nicely into the 2-56 hole in the CBE/Shock end.

This method leaves all shock tower and A-arm parts 'stock' in case the LOSI shocks (when released) are a better option...

Haven't been to the track, but at home, jumps as small as the cardboard ramp used to cause severe bottoming out and bouncing -- with these VCS shocks on the rear, it jumps and lands just like the big boys...

I just hope my repaired rear hub holds up for Saturday night... :D

CBE=Captured Ball End

Yes they are the 2-56s.

I'll wait for Losi's shocks but I may put some soft foam in the rear shocks to cushion landings a little better. Maybe a little fuel line on the outside shaft would be better.

I have two things for the Mini T on e bay. Just to see what responce would be.
Oill filled shock set ( limited quant.)
Wide front bumper
I'm working on a unisersal body mount set so you can mount our bodies and others. Our bug body looks real cool on the truck.
Also working on heavy duty tie rods, better body clips, teflon sealed ball bearings are coming, battery plugs and packs.

I will spread the word!

Bud,

can you post a pic of your mini t shock you are comin out with ????

You got a link to them?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3162666926&category=44029

wow, those look great :thumbsup: , it really looks like they are made well. Can't wait to get my hands on them :D

I just ran, for the second time, one of Promatch's 6 cell 1100 mah NiMH packs for the Mini-T. The first time was a real disapointment. about 5 minutes and not too much faster than the Rayovac rechargeable 1800's.
This time I charged them on my Trusty Turbo 30 @ .7amps with .03 dropback and it went way over 4500 seconds. I also had a temp probe on it and it went from 74 deg room temp to 86 deg. Then I took to my track in the garage which is a 12X12 carpet track with some goofy obstacles and 2 of the cardboard jumps taped together side by side.

WOW WOW WOW

LIke I exchanged the stock motor for a 10 turn single. I was not able to even open it up all the way for speed but the torque was astonishing. And I thought I was going to have to take a lunch break. 32 minutes before any sign of loss of power. I'm hooked.

Thanks Promatch!!!

Has anyone, besides Bud Bartos discovered Delta shocks. Can you get them anywhere other than Custom Works????

I am supposed to have my mini t on the way
I am going to order some of the 6 cell and the 8 cell packs too
If anybody needs any of these please let me know and I can add them to my order the price is $21 and $29
LMK I am going to place the order on Monday night or Tuesday morning

We have the two new things on the web site.BRP Mini T (http://www.brpracing.com)

Does this batrtery work for the mini-t?? :confused: Any help will be greatly appreciated. http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LL2409&P=1

Yes that will work but it is only 5 cell you may want the 6 cell one.

Bud -- Not trying to steal any "trade secrets", but how are you using what appears to be a ball cup on the bottom of the front VCS shocks for the mini-T?

They must go between two ribs of the A-arm, and that requires an eyelet setup, and I cannot find an eyelet type ball end (tried dubro 2-56 -- too "thick" and too long) that will work...

Hmmm...???? :confused:

We are making them !!! you can install the shocks in about 5 min.

I have the BRP oil shocks...they were VERY easy to install...a perfect fit!

check it out:
http://users.adelphia.net/~melwood/MiniTHopups.html

:thumbsup:

I did soem checking about the 8 cell packs
The ESC will handle the packs The MOTORS will NOT
I ordered 2 6 cell and 2 8 cells to resale

If anybody knows where I can get me an aftermarket motor BY Friday LMK I am going to haev mine up and running and will run a couple of runs witht he 6 cell and than to show off I am going to run the 8 cell So that should be the end of it LOL
SO I NEED A MOTOR
Thanks all