Converting to Epoch ;)

[Draconious]

Adding Epoch to the RC Collection list soon.. I hope ;)

[HammerZ]

Join the club man. I added one to my collection myself not long ago.

[Draconious]

Well I got a few epochs now... I like them. They have a few issues tho...

One has a random issue turning left.. every now and then it basicly wont... cant figure out of its a diff issue, or a front tire issue...

The two Ive charged and ran and cycled a few times, will not charge beyond 70-75mah... or drain beyond 65-70. Where they not supose to be 120-150mah nimhs? They act more like 50-60mah Nicads... And my charger usualy over states the mah being put in/out... it usualy sas 1700-1800 for 1600mah batteries etc..
I am going to play with my charge lead wires... hopefuly its just a resistance issue.

If some one knows a model number, for a charge plug adapter, radio shack etc.. please post it here, ive yet to find it searching forums.

Merry Xmas, hiding in my room waiting for a 8 year old to wake up lol.

[Draconious]

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2102487&cp=2032058&pg=2&f=Taxonomy%2FRSK%2F2032058&y=7&categoryId=2032058&kw=plug&kwCatId=2032058&x=6&numProdsPerPage=20&parentPage=search

Any one try that plug to see if it will work? :)

[LBRC]

About the steering, shouldn’t happen, does more than one car have the same problem? The differential usually doesn’t stop the car from turning mostly when it gets full of lint and hair it just sort of widens the turn or spins out. Could be hair between the front wheels and chassis, but if it’s more than one car it might actually be part of your battery issue. When the battery power gets low the steering can get a little squirrelly.

What type of charger and what is the delta peak and charge current set at?

The Epoch comes with 3 Gold Peak 120 NiMH cells, the car does stop before the cells are completely discharged so I don’t pay much attention to how much of a charge the cells are taking, also I never completely discharge NiMH cells it’s bad for NiMH, so I measure the performance in runtime.

Running on a track I get approx. 13 minutes of runtime out of a stock pack with a Triton set at 0.4 amps and 5mv peak per cell, charge should take less than 12 minutes and the cells should not get hot at that setting.

I believe the size “H” jack at RS is the correct one, but can’t say for sure, I took a car with me and tried them out until I found one that fit.

Hope everything works out.

[Draconious]

Steering... I think there was multiple issues on the same car...
It wasnt steering full left, only like 5% left.. and 100% right...
The wheel flew off once, I put it back on, and it started working again, I figured oh well that fixed it, but It did it again regardless to the wheel being on or off... It would start to work again if I picked the car up an inch off table and drop it, and it would steer again... possibly a nub on the servo gears is what I am thinking right now...

The batteries, 3 cars, all stop at 60-80mah... even after I shortened the very long charge lead I had on it...

Triton Charger, I started off at .1A then .2A then .3A.. once or twice, and back to .2A never went over that...

I did let it discharge but the triton dont discharge very much, it just took 2mah out of it, then went into charge mode. (after the car was run till it was dead)

As for the sensitiviy, I originaly had my charger on 3mv cuz I was doing lipo last time... and I tried 6mv... with no change, still stops at 80mah...

I tried using the epoch charger, once, with one car... just a while ago, and I do not think that even did anything (fresh AA charged)... lite went on for a while, but I dont think it did much...

I would like to know more about the epoch charger... is there any peak detection in it, or anything close to that?

next time i drain a car ill plug the charger in with ac adapter... my adapter from atari lynx fits it kinda... the plug actualy fits the car better, and is what I am using a few years ago I lost an AC plug but kept the cable to make a battery pack for lynx never did, glad I have it tho cuz it made a good charge lead ;)

I am pondering that its my triton at error tho... I do not think it is reporting the correct mah going into the cells... cuz I do get over 5-6mins run time out of the cars... possibly more, but I have not timed it.

I plan on popping the nimh out any way, and replacing with the largest single cell lipo I can fit in there... I might even find a place to custom make a single cell that takes up all the available space in there. This way I dont have to worry about balanced charging :).

I have run each car through at least 5-6 charge cycles... do not think I have gone through 10 yet though.

[HammerZ]

Any one try that plug to see if it will work? :)

I dug around and found my old CD player adapter, it has the plugs you can change for different brands. The one that fits look's very much to have those same specs.

[Draconious]

Yea read another thread on here just now that said "H" is the right size...

The one I am using now is a bit longer and prolly only 3mm. But it works.

Since I have all these bulk foam tiles laying around... I am Currently using one of my old Mini-Z track designs to construct an epoch track.
Gona try for one with more scale apeal...
If I ever actualy make it, maybe I can drain a battery more often ;).
If I dont ill just buy an RCP lol...

[Draconious]

Ok this last charge attempt, on a car that is currently going through its... 3rd charge I think... (3rd one I opened). is currently at 120mah ;) and counting... hopefuly it will stop soon LOL. The triton is currently in its .1A top off mode, for the last 15mah. I changed the tritons sensitivity way up to 10mv (I dont realy like it that high, so going to drop it to 8mv on next car).

Well I pulled it off, didnt wait... lol

[cdog4w]

As for the sensitiviy, I originaly had my charger on 3mv cuz I was doing lipo last time... and I tried 6mv... with no change, still stops at 80mah...

Lipo doesn't use that setting on the triton since it uses a different charge method. It uses constant current/constant voltage - meaning it charges at a constant current until it gets up to the pack's peak voltage (4.2V/cell, so 8.4V for a 2 cell 7.4 rated pack), and then it goes to constant voltage and feeds it 4.2V/cell until the current drops to 0 and its done.

I think I used the I sized plug from RS but I'm not at home and cannot check.

Yea, I hate not having the battery out to feel for heat while charging. How LBRC hurries up with all his epoch fanciness so we can have swappable batteries, motors etc.

You might have a bad cell in your car? It happens... If you have a voltmeter you can test each cell, or just see what voltage the pack peaks at and see if its right for the cell count.

[Draconious]

I knew that about lipo, but a fewmonths back when I first charged my lipo for my plane (3s2200mah) I put it there just out of paranoia.. lol. incase the charger did something stupid, like chnage to 40volts output (wich the triton has done before)

The cars apear to be charging ok, now that I messed with the charger and am forcing more than .1A into them... odd that more worked over less LOL.

Umm the little charger that came with one of the epochs apears to suck LOL... it wont work from any AC adapter I try, and with battery power it turns off if I shake it lol... opened it up to check for loose wires and there are none...

I like the epochs... some small issues I dont like about them, but they are minor issues. I think I will wind up messing with these more than my Z's now... Z's will only be for racing at MZR GTGs ;).

____
Now I need to see if I can source a single cell lipo that fits in them... somethign thicker so I dont need 2 cells.. and then I need to find a bunch of cell phone chargers in bulk/surplus to charge the single cell ;) so I can keep 12 cars on a charger and 12 on the track at all times.

[cdog4w]

The triton tried to overcharge a lipo?!

[Draconious]

the 40 volt thing? no its just known that the triton sometimes outputs too many volts...

[crazydave]

I converted my car to 4-cells. I added a 120mah cell from a bit clone. I use the stock Epoch charger with a 300mah multi-adapter from RS. I charge it for 3 cycles, and the batteries just start to get pretty warm. I get about 10 minute runtimes. When I first got mine, and I tried charging with the AAs in the charger, it seemed like it was trying to charge too fast. The batteries were starting to warm after one cycle, but I was getting under 5 minute runtimes, I'm guessing it was only about 3 minutes.