• Welcome to RedcatRampageForum! Are you a Redcat fan? If so you're in luck as you've have arrived to the biggest and best RedcatRampage RC community.

    Come join our community and ask your questions, show off your Recat RCs and share your experience!

my chimera won't start.........just replaced gears....

talunceford

Senior Member
Messages
260
Location
Oklahoma
Ice_2k said:
I thought you meant richer. I never saw someone tune by going increasingly richer, it's usually done the other way around. Start safe (rich) and lean a little at a time.
From what I gathered off the video from OBR is that they recommend going richer until it starts falling on its face a bit. Then back it off. The factory settings on the carb are just a starting point (from what I took off the video). He said that they have seen gains of up to 1/2 a hp by increasing the fuel little by little until it goes completely too rich, then back it off a pinch.
 

Ice_2k

Senior Member
Messages
1,387
my chimera won't start.........just replaced gears....

talunceford said:
From what I gathered off the video from OBR is that they recommend going richer until it starts falling on its face a bit. Then back it off.
Yes, after getting to a clearly rich setting, you start backing it off. But not by a fixed amount, you just lean it 1/16 at a time until you find the sweet spot.
 

Chimera

Member
Messages
43
Ice_2k said:
I have the Hitec HS-5645MG
I had this ordered over the weekend. it's arriving today :)

Excited to have it installed and seeing how it works.

is there anything i can do with my old 'sometimes working' servo? is it possible that it's fine and that i just did something goofy?

Also, do you have a fail safe? as i mentioned, i found my stock fail safe switch and i think i installed it correctly. will it work any differently with this servo?

:)
 

Ice_2k

Senior Member
Messages
1,387
Usually, the failsafe is embedded in the radio receiver. The stock radio also had a failsafe, I'm now using a different radio (FS-IT4) which also has a built-in failsafe. I'm not sure what you mean when you say you "installed" the failsafe.

After installing the new servo, you need to test what the failsafe does. In my case, after replacing the servo, the failsafe would actually move the servo to full throttle which is... well, not ideal :) If you find this to be the case, you need to reset the failsafe. Also, you should get a kill switch. Failsafes protect against lost of things, but not against Rx failure, throttle servo failure or battery failure.
 

talunceford

Senior Member
Messages
260
Location
Oklahoma
Ice_2k said:
Usually, the failsafe is embedded in the radio receiver. The stock radio also had a failsafe, I'm now using a different radio (FS-IT4) which also has a built-in failsafe. I'm not sure what you mean when you say you "installed" the failsafe. After installing the new servo, you need to test what the failsafe does. In my case, after replacing the servo, the failsafe would actually move the servo to full throttle which is... well, not ideal :) If you find this to be the case, you need to reset the failsafe. Also, you should get a kill switch. Failsafes protect against lost of things, but not against Rx failure, throttle servo failure or battery failure.
There is a factory failsafe device that came with mine, I'm sure that is what he is referring to. I use the Superbee failsafe on mine and I don't utilize the onboard radio failsafe as it will interfere with the superbee.
 

Ice_2k

Senior Member
Messages
1,387
my chimera won't start.........just replaced gears....

The one in the pack is for nitro, not sure why they still ship. I also have the superbee killswitch (not simply failsafe) and it doesn't affect the failsafe
 
Last edited by a moderator:

Chimera

Member
Messages
43
Ice_2k said:
Usually, the failsafe is embedded in the radio receiver. The stock radio also had a failsafe, I'm now using a different radio (FS-IT4) which also has a built-in failsafe. I'm not sure what you mean when you say you "installed" the failsafe. After installing the new servo, you need to test what the failsafe does. In my case, after replacing the servo, the failsafe would actually move the servo to full throttle which is... well, not ideal :) If you find this to be the case, you need to reset the failsafe. Also, you should get a kill switch. Failsafes protect against lost of things, but not against Rx failure, throttle servo failure or battery failure.
talunceford said:
There is a factory failsafe device that came with mine, I'm sure that is what he is referring to. I use the Superbee failsafe on mine and I don't utilize the onboard radio failsafe as it will interfere with the superbee.
what talunceford said.

this is actually what mine came with....

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Redcat-Racing-03028-Micro-RC-Fail-Safe/261965534803?_trksid=p2141725.c100338.m3726&_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIC.MBE%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20150313114020%26meid%3D5ece9b4094b545bbaf6a8acebfc8ea96%26pid%3D100338%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D5%26sd%3D351532354955
 

Ice_2k

Senior Member
Messages
1,387
Yeah, I have that as well, it's useless. The receiver has the failsafe embedded.

See this to be sure:

 

Chimera

Member
Messages
43
Ice_2k said:
Yeah, I have that as well, it's useless. The receiver has the failsafe embedded. See this to be sure:

great video.

thank you!

oh, so if it has the failsafe already in there, i just need to set it.....and forget it!!! (sorry, i watch a lot of late night infomercials... :D )
 

Ice_2k

Senior Member
Messages
1,387
Pretty much, yeah :) And retest it after replacing the servo (most likely you'll have to reverse your throttle/brake direction)
 

Chimera

Member
Messages
43
Ice_2k said:
Pretty much, yeah :) And retest it after replacing the servo (most likely you'll have to reverse your throttle/brake direction)
yeah...looking forward to installing it today. hopefully it's not too time consuming. btw, i didn't buy the throttle hardware, assuming that i could just use the old ones with the new servo.

i think by your last sentence, you mean that i need to define what "kill" means before resetting the failsafe. right? (if so, yes, got it.)
 

Ice_2k

Senior Member
Messages
1,387
my chimera won't start.........just replaced gears....

You'll also probably need to reverse your transmitter for the throttle. When I installed this servo, it was reversed compared to the original one so squeezing the trigger (like firing a gun) was now braking instead of accelerating. After reversing that, the failsafe will also now be on the wrong side so you'll have to set that as well. Regarding the hardware, I'm not 100% sure if the Chimera comes with the same servo my Dunerunner did. If it does, you can't use the old horn because there's a different teeth count so it doesn't fit on the new servo (it seems like it does at first but there's a 1 tooth difference so it will start to slip as soon as you apply some force). For my situation, I had to drill a couple of new holes in the servo horn that came with the new servo, to make it match my linkage.
 

Chimera

Member
Messages
43
Ice_2k said:
You'll also probably need to reverse your transmitter for the throttle. When I installed this servo, it was reversed compared to the original one so squeezing the trigger (like firing a gun) was now braking instead of accelerating. After reversing that, the failsafe will also now be on the wrong side so you'll have to set that as well. Regarding the hardware, I'm not 100% sure if the Chimera comes with the same servo my Dunerunner did. If it does, you can't use the old horn because there's a different teeth count so it doesn't fit on the new servo (it seems like it does at first but there's a 1 tooth difference so it will start to slip as soon as you apply some force). For my situation, I had to drill a couple of new holes in the servo horn that came with the new servo, to make it match my linkage.
Are you in my head? is this real life? :D

Good calls man! everything you said is spot on and exactly what i encountered yesterday. I'm so glad i had it on a stool cause as soon as i turned it on, it took off FULL SPEED!!!! and braking made it even worse!

if i had it on the ground, it would have been destroyed or would have destroyed something!

I have to take care of the servo horn. I put it on using the old one cause the holes were too small and just figured i'd use the old one...but given your warning, i'll just make the switch. not a big deal.

I set up the internal fail safe. works great and brakes if radio is disconnected (tested).

I didn't run it last night as it was getting cold and dark and i want to be ask cautious as possible given everything that i've had to go through lol but today i will get it up and running i think after i replace the horn.

Cheers!
 

Ice_2k

Senior Member
Messages
1,387
Glad I could help :) I just went through this myself a couple of months ago when my throttle servo let go so everything was still fresh in my head :D

Chimera said:
if i had it on the ground, it would have been destroyed or would have destroyed something!
P.S. Consider getting a killswitch, for situations just like this :)
 

Ice_2k

Senior Member
Messages
1,387
if you only have a 2 channel radio, then yes, you'll be using the off switch on the transmitter. The question is what happens when you switch off. If there's no killswitch there, you'll just be relying on your failsafe and hoping the failure is not related to the throttle servo or some battery/electric issues. If you do have a killswitch, that'll kill your engine so you'd pretty much be covered.

Here's how my kill switch worked when my car was new (I'm now running a different kill switch and a different radio) - (skip to ~0:30)

[ame]

[/ame]
 

Chimera

Member
Messages
43
Ice_2k said:
if you only have a 2 channel radio, then yes, you'll be using the off switch on the transmitter. The question is what happens when you switch off. If there's no killswitch there, you'll just be relying on your failsafe and hoping the failure is not related to the throttle servo or some battery/electric issues. If you do have a killswitch, that'll kill your engine so you'd pretty much be covered. Here's how my kill switch worked when my car was new (I'm now running a different kill switch and a different radio) - (skip to ~0:30)
I see what you mean....so essentially, what i have right now is that it puts the throttle into brake mode if i switch the controller off, but the engine is still ON. the kill switch would shut the whole thing (ie. engine) down when it loses radio signal. Yes?

can you post the link to the one you bought?
 

Ice_2k

Senior Member
Messages
1,387
Yes. You can get a killswitch from RampageHopups (link) or the k iller rc version from DDM (link). For the price difference you get a few things: a buzzer and a LED that signal the status of the killswitch, compatibility with more radios and the most important one (from my POV), it works if you cut power (e.g. disconnected battery). The 1st one doesn't kill the engine when completely losing electrical power. Which one you need is up to you :)

In the video I posted above, I was using the 1st one. I'm now using the k iller rc version because I'm using a radio that isn't supported by the 1st one.
 

talunceford

Senior Member
Messages
260
Location
Oklahoma
Ice_2k said:
Yes. You can get a killswitch from RampageHopups (link) or the k iller rc version from DDM (link). For the price difference you get a few things: a buzzer and a LED that signal the status of the killswitch, compatibility with more radios and the most important one (from my POV), it works if you cut power (e.g. disconnected battery). The 1st one doesn't kill the engine when completely losing electrical power. Which one you need is up to you :) In the video I posted above, I was using the 1st one. I'm now using the k iller rc version because I'm using a radio that isn't supported by the 1st one.
Yeah, I second what Ice_2k said. The biggest thing you need to think of when deciding between a failsafe and killswitch is this. What will happen if the battery voltage drops to the point of where my servo doesn't respond any more? What will happen if if the voltage drop happens when I am engaged in a WOT situation? That is where the Superbee killswitch comes in. It adds that extra layer of security to be able to kill the engine when: the radio glitches, the battery voltage drops to the preset value or you kill it with the transmitter. This is the value of the killswitch. Even though the failsafe will apply brake, it doesn't account for loss of battery, which can still cause a run away.

Hope this makes sense.

Tim
 

Chimera

Member
Messages
43
Ok, guys, the fail safe works great and i'm done with that part of it.

The servo horn was also drilled and replaced. works great.

BUT, i'm still having an issue and it's made me a bit uncomfortable putting this thing down on the ground just yet.....

when i turn it on (turns on right away btw), it idles fine...sort of....but when i brake, and release the brake, it goes wild and applies gas. i think the back momentum from the brake, pushes the throttle lever to open and therefore applies gas. if i do nothing for 1 or 2 seconds, it goes back to normal. Know what i mean?
 

Create an account or login to comment

You must be a member in order to leave a comment

Create account

Create an account on our community. It's easy!

Log in

Already have an account? Log in here.

Members online

No members online now.
Top