Table Of Contents
Introduction
The
Mini-T
from
Team Losi
is a tiny, 1/18 scale truck. When I got mine, it was the
hottest car in the shop! They still are very popular and
new stuff is coming out for them every day. Seveal version
of the truck are on the market today, and some of them are
as fast out of the box as you can reasonably expect to
drive. This page is about what my wife and I did to our
origonal Mini-T trucks to make them a bit more fun.
My Mini-T
My Mini-T is the most extreem of our trucks. After I got
done with it, the thing would run at about 40MPH and do
rings around my E-Maxx! It has absolutely none of the
electronics that it came with!
- The stock motor has been replaced with an airtronix
brushless motor. This motor is designed for airplanes,
and has significantly more torque and speed than the
motor it replaces and doesn't perform well in reverse.
The stock transmission is just barely strong enough for
this motor. The brushless motor produces so much torque
and speed that the rubber tires expand with centripetal
force to the point that they can pop off the rims, so I
glued the edges of the tires on.
- The gear cover won't fit over the motor pinion gear, so
the transmission plate has been violently drilled out to
make room for it. The gear case cover no longer can fit
on the car as the motor pinion, an 22 tooth aluminum
replacement for this particular motor, is in the
way.
- The Receiver/ESC box has been replaced with a brushless
motor controller and a Futaba, 3 channel PCM 1024
unit. The ESC is designed for airplanes, so it has no
reverse. This requires some programming trickery, but
the 3PK radio I have is flexible enough to manage
nicely. For the steering servo (in blue), I filed the
shaft of a HiTec servo into a hexagonal shape and used
the stock coupling. This has held up amazingly well. I
had to add some plastic fill into the servo housing to
keep the servo steady.
- The transmission heat plate needed to be modified to fit the new motor.
- The power source is an 11.1 volt Li-ion
battery pack with a modified battery connector -- larger than
necessary but I use the batteries in higher current
applications as well.
- The battery tray's retaining bars at the sides of the
body had to be cut away to hold the new battery and
electronics.
Result:
The result of all of this is a little car that will do at
least 40MPH in a straight away. It is also a little car
that will be airborne if it hits, at top speed, even a
small swell in the concrete. I have seen this car do a 15
foot jump after hitting a wavy bit of concrete in my
parking lot at home! This car is VERY hard to drive with
this kind of power. I have three programed modes in my
radio for this little car:
- A 1/10 max throttle only so other people can
safely drive the car. In this mode my mother
in law can drive the car and so can the
neighborhood kids that live around my
home.
- A slow ramp up on the bottom end of the
throttle giving a much slower, and more
controlled, take off. In this mode my wife
can drive the car without hitting anything
or flipping it over.
- A linear ramp to full throttle that I use to
drive with most of the time. I still end up
walking out and flipping the car over quite
often, and occasionally bumping into
something because of a lack of breaking
power. It's great fun.
Notes & Updates:
- The steering servo will break at some point
because of the forces put on the modified
servo shaft. At the time I had no real
choice. I attempted to use the stock servo
shaft by placing it inside of a HiTec servo
case; however, this won't work as the gears
are different. Today we have the option of
simply buying the HiTec servo saver kit from
Team Losi, and that is the best way to
go.
- The ESC is for airplanes, and has no
reverse. This is obviously not ideal for a
car. Today you can buy small ESCs designed
for cars that can drive brushless motors --
get one. Better options exist today from
Castle Creations
and others.
- The only real choice for the new motor was a
small brushless job for airplanes, but today
you can bet a better motor from Team Losi
and other sources.
- The ESC I'm using doesn't understand Li-ion
batteries, and thus I need to be careful not
to run the battery down all the way or leave
the battery hooked up to the ESC -- running
a Li-ion pack below it's minimum will ruin
the pack! Better options exist today from
Castle Creations
and others.
- If you just want your car to go twice as
fast, then just run it off of a 7.4V Li-ion
battery pack. For most people, this is more
than fast enough for such a little car.
Janie's Mini-T
My wife's Mini-T is only slightly modified. The standard
battery plug has been replaced by a two way plug that
keeps the original plug and adds an additional plug for
higher capacity Li-ion batteries. She generally runs a
7.4V Li-ion pack which is about 50% more juice than
normal. This increases the speed of the car by at least
the same percentage (perhaps more as the Li-ion pack is
capable of higher burst current than the standard
packs)
- My Wife's Mini-T without it's shell
- Here you can see the two way battery plug allowing her to use standard packs or Li-ion.
- Power comes from a 7.4V Li-ion pack, or the standard 5V alkaline pack.
