A brushless motor will need an onboard ESC as had been said. If you're going that far you may as well add an onboard receiver then you can race the car with an RC transmitter...programmable traction control, brakes, throttle profiles, ABS and that's just starters. I've used my Sanwa transmitter to prove the idea but the radio gear was intended for 1/12th scale so miles to big for my slot cars.
Brushless Slot cars
Hi All,
I have been looking into other hobbies recently as I saw an RC plane and thought I'd better give that a go too! Anyhow, these days all the electric motors in RC planes seem to be brushless. Is that something that we'll see with Slot Cars in the future? Are there any already?
Obviously they are more efficient and probably more reliable and have less wear, surely that'd be a good thing?
Cheers,
Damo.
I have been looking into other hobbies recently as I saw an RC plane and thought I'd better give that a go too! Anyhow, these days all the electric motors in RC planes seem to be brushless. Is that something that we'll see with Slot Cars in the future? Are there any already?
Obviously they are more efficient and probably more reliable and have less wear, surely that'd be a good thing?
Cheers,
Damo.
1 - 16 of 200 Posts
Brushless motors have left brushed motors waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay behind performance-wise. There's two types used in r/c cars, sensored and sensorless. Cheaper sensorless motors tend to cog at slow speeds and don't have the finesse of the much smoother sensored motors.
Programmable ESC's mean you can go from mild to wild with the same motor just by changing the programmable variables. Typically you use a programming box or a wifi module via a smart phone, can save favourite 'profiles' for different cars or tracks. The range of parameters and descriptions of what these do and how changing them affect the characteristics on the track would fill multiple pages of writing.
...one thing though, the motor would have to be cylindrical.
A brushless motor doesn't need balancing, the rotor is basically a trued magnet so much smoother than a brushed motor. I don't think revs are a problem, even some of the 1/8th scale brushless motors are rated at 60k rpm.
Programmable ESC's mean you can go from mild to wild with the same motor just by changing the programmable variables. Typically you use a programming box or a wifi module via a smart phone, can save favourite 'profiles' for different cars or tracks. The range of parameters and descriptions of what these do and how changing them affect the characteristics on the track would fill multiple pages of writing.
...one thing though, the motor would have to be cylindrical.
A brushless motor doesn't need balancing, the rotor is basically a trued magnet so much smoother than a brushed motor. I don't think revs are a problem, even some of the 1/8th scale brushless motors are rated at 60k rpm.
They're not slot cars then, that'll be another hobby but this is slotforum for cars that run in slots and have done for nearly 60 years and will continue to do so.Slotcars with battery inside, like RC cars.
This is the primary reason to switch to a brushless motor.
Tracks without metal rails, no power drops... but lot of weight inside the car...
Sidewinder has far more efficient gearmesh than inline, with the same motor I'd prefer sidewinder.
One thing to note with brushless motors...they have zero braking! Braking is done by the ESC and is programmable to a point. As far as the ESC is concerned forward only are more efficient than reversing ESC's.
One thing to note with brushless motors...they have zero braking! Braking is done by the ESC and is programmable to a point. As far as the ESC is concerned forward only are more efficient than reversing ESC's.
If you're having to gear it massively high you've picked the wrong motor for the application.
'C' - It was aimed at smegones 'Stevenson's "Rocket"' post.
I thought the reference was totally obvious...🙄
ZERO brush wear, brushless don't have brushes... less carbon brush wear-out...
Scale weight is another can of worms
eBay do 1.5mm pinions too, not specifically aimed at slot cars either.
You don't need batteries, the track carries the power to the car, the ESC distributes it in the car to the receiver and motor.
A few years ago we were still racing brushed motors because the cars (1/12th carpet) were more competitive than the brushless stuff out at the time...that quickly changed now nobody races RC cars competitively unless it has lipo and brushless. Watching the IFMAR 1/12th World's over the weekend shows how far these have evolved way beyond anything a brushed setup could achieve. Brushless will only catch on with us Slot racers if the lap times are quicker and I can't see that ever happening.
Brushless motors rotating mass is much smaller in diameter so can rev much higher. Also the only friction in a brushless are the two bearings. If you use an ESC with turbo timing you can actually rev some brushless motors so high they can explode. So it's a pointless comparison as like for like they can't compare.
You can't scale speed so easily, if it was scale weight (top fuel dragster weighs 1000kg so scale that 1:32 and you have 31kg+) that would be impressive.
1 - 16 of 200 Posts
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