Spark Spark XB6 Aluminum upgrades

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shortround9191 said:
All I can is amazing how much different the Spark tracks handles now much less even though it’s been 80f and above here no thermal cut off motor feels pretty cool considering. The servo saver spring upgrade I could tell the difference soon as I started driving her, I adjusted the caster a touch in the rear of course blue lock tight on everything now ( tired of screws backing out ) just waiting on the ADU shock supports at this point and again BadLands really feel great for my drive style. Only thing I still want to do is replace the XT90 with a EC5 connector then install the wide body hubs that will arrive today or tomorrow . Have a new body in the box for club days and the original for play days. Such an amazing buggy. Once wide stance goes on I’ll update how I like it not that stock is bad at all but I will be racing this also

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Nice fly
 
Thank ya and the warranty CV collars arrived today also, they look great will be ordering some extras for the Spark too

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Ok guys need some help here the Spark has steering no throttle. I am trying to do the calibration get the blinking red indicator but when I push set again to set neutral position one time it will blink green let me set everything. I turn off back on then steady red light of death then I’ll try to calibrate then now no green light it just doesn’t do anything no matter how many times I try. It has acted weird even with the original remote I couldn’t zero the throttle on it either if I did got the red death light. Possible bad ESC??
 
Horatio said:
Yep! That will be it! How the hell did you manage that? 😅👍
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No idea I’ve never had the battery box out, crazy one I fixed it even the throttle learn did right no more crazy actions at all. Even have reverse again just ran 2 packs through some backflips long standard jumps and the Spark is on fire 🔥
 
shortround9191 said:
No idea I’ve never had the battery box out, crazy one I fixed it even the throttle learn did right no more crazy actions at all. Even have reverse again just ran 2 packs through some backflips long standard jumps and the Spark is on fire 🔥
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Nice one! Love it when it's a simple fix. 😎🤩
 
It was so weird acting like it would hit reverse while sitting still, when I died I was mid air and the lost motor power thankfully no damage at all just my pride was hurt. There must have been some kind of feedback going on since repairing all my trims are neutral now steering and throttle. She tracks perfectly straight and so nice having brakes again without worrying she’s taking off in reverse on its own.
 
Zip ties can cut right though PVC or silicone insulated wires in a high vibration environment it's why with R/C aircraft they either sleeve the wires in braided PET or 1/4" paracord with the strands removed or put a strip of velcro around it and then the zip tie around that.

Now if manufacturers would just switch to tefzel insulation on servo leads then there would be no problems as that stuff is literally stronger than the nylon zip tie (tefzel insulated wire is what they use in fighter jets)
 
When I saw or paid attention to what was happening figured something wasn’t getting signal correctly with the light sometimes blinking sometimes not. I actually removed the ESC is how I found it of course I soldered it then double shrink wrapped afterwards. Hopefully that will take care of it forever
 
shortround9191 said:
When I saw or paid attention to what was happening figured something wasn’t getting signal correctly with the light sometimes blinking sometimes not. I actually removed the ESC is how I found it of course I soldered it then double shrink wrapped afterwards. Hopefully that will take care of it forever
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If the fix doesn’t last you can get replacement power switches for Hobbywing esc. Not sure how easy or not they are to fit though
 
Now that I’ve seen what goes on hopefully if there’s a next time it will hit my brain to fix or check before I keep running them. Nice having all the equipment to do proper repairs.
 
I found the easiest way to splice two servo leads is to cut a section of this stuff with 2x3 holes and then solder the wires into each side and cover it with shrink tubing.

https://www.hansenhobbies.com/products/connectors/pcbs/sc_pcb_pt1inss/

The splice ends up being cleaner and smaller than doing the wires individually and much easier to solder. If I'm worried about vibration damage to the solder joints I will also blob the soldered PCB in devcon 30 minute epoxy before covering it in shrink tubing. (note that if you use epoxy or silicone on electronics you must always check to make sure it's electronics safe, especially with silicone because most RTV silicone formulations are acidic cure and will eat copper unless it's specifically electronics grade )

EDIT: I recommend twisting and tinning the conductor before inserting into the holes otherwise you can get stray wire strands shorting them together.
 
Pretty sure my solder double shrink wrap worked well, my first wrap is standard the second is self sealing. Was able to run 4 packs today zero issues nothing but jumping and my ADU brackets arrived with Tekno pinions. Planning on servicing the center diff in the morning it’s 10pm here and I’m a early bird

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shortround9191 said:
Pretty sure my solder double shrink wrap worked well, my first wrap is standard the second is self sealing. Was able to run 4 packs today zero issues nothing but jumping and my ADU brackets arrived with Tekno pinions. Planning on servicing the center diff in the morning it’s 10pm here and I’m a early bird
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Fir the single cut wire that's the best way, I was more talking about a full splice. using a PC is less bulky than three individually spliced and shrink tube covered wires.

I've been thinking about designing a dedicated "splice PCB" in Easy EDA that people could upload to JLCPCB and have made cheaply. It would have larger holes than the Hansen pin strip PCB that would make inserting the wire easier and a strain relief hole at each end you thread the wire through first before sticking it into the solder hole.

EDIT: Got off my butt and did it. The leads thread through the cutouts on each end and the wires are inserted into the plated slots in the center and soldered form the other side. Then cover with shrink tubing. The PCB is 10mm long x 7mm wide. Going to order a batch form JLCPCB to see how they manufacture, if they turn out ok I will upload the gerber file for anyone to use. Something like this only costs a few bucks to have a couple dozen made.

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Atomic Skull said:
Fir the single cut wire that's the best way, I was more talking about a full splice. using a PC is less bulky than three individually spliced and shrink tube covered wires.

I've been thinking about designing a dedicated "splice PCB" in Easy EDA that people could upload to JLCPCB and have made cheaply. It would have larger holes than the Hansen pin strip PCB that would make inserting the wire easier and a strain relief hole at each end you thread the wire through first before sticking it into the solder hole.

EDIT: Got off my butt and did it. The leads thread through the cutouts on each end and the wires are inserted into the plated slots in the center and soldered form the other side. Then cover with shrink tubing. The PCB is 10mm long x 7mm wide. Going to order a batch form JLCPCB to see how they manufacture, if they turn out ok I will upload the gerber file for anyone to use. Something like this only costs a few bucks to have a couple dozen made.

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Great idea there interested in seeing how it works out
 
Wonder if it will add any more resistance then a normal splice. Normally the wires are twisted into each other so I would think they have more surface contact then with this solution. But you do have the plating here that might help. This wouldn't really be a problem for most situations anyway but there are some servo's that pull amps which are on the edge of what the wires and connectors are rated for.

Anyway it's a good idea worth trying. Maybe you could solder a couple of these and a couple normal splices and test the resistance with a multimeter?
 
Niekname said:
Wonder if it will add any more resistance then a normal splice. Normally the wires are twisted into each other so I would think they have more surface contact then with this solution. But you do have the plating here that might help. This wouldn't really be a problem for most situations anyway but there are some servo's that pull amps which are on the edge of what the wires and connectors are rated for.

Anyway it's a good idea worth trying. Maybe you could solder a couple of these and a couple normal splices and test the resistance with a multimeter?
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The difference will be so slight that it's ok to just call it "zero difference". Or to put it another way with a quality multimeter like somthing made by Agilent that's sensitive enough to measure capacitor values in-circuit the difference is still considerably less than measurable. You'd need lab equipment to be able to see a differemce in electrical resistance, not enough to ever make any practial difference.

Remember that two twisted together wires are still around 98% air gap at the microscopic level, and solder fills up those gaps.

The 0.1 terminals used in servo connectors are typically either Tarng Yu TY5081 terminals or Harwin M20 terminals, both are rated for 3 amps. They used to use the far superior Berg/Dupont/Amphenol Mini-PV terminal but those are expensive (25 cents each if you buy them from Digikey) and when cheap simplified fuction-alikes like the M20s that cost less than a penny per piece came out everyone switched over. Molex SL terminals would be better, they are rated for 4A with their dual contact design and are pretty cheap in bulk, and are perfectly compatable with the square pin headers used on RC equipment but nobody uses them on servos probably because while cheap they still aren't as cheap as the M20s

However, even with a better connector 22 AWG wire is still only rated for 5A.
 
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Going to replace the XT90 today the connector I made keeps having issues no matter how well I solder it. Think it’s all the dinging around it gets, I’d bought one pre made that only lasted a few runs, already did the Kagama4 just less wire to do the Spark but I’ll get it today and post a pic
 
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