Xmod with iWaver guts conversion project….

[ph2t]

After seeing betty.k s success with his conversion I ve decided to run with mine.

The goal is to setup the iWaver PCB as the replacement RX in my xmod and make do with the advantages it brings, including.

1) Way more torque. The iWaver PWM speed controller is of a higher frequency than the native XMOD speed controller. This translates to an increase in average power going into the motor. The actual result? Lots of @#$%^ punch!

2) Can use hobby class TX s and 27mhz standard Xtals.

3) Greater range.

Currently I have a 350z xmod readyset and I have installed the following upgrades for now.

1) AWD with gear diff in rear, ball diff in front.
2) VXD bearings.
3) GPM Titanium driveshaft.
4) GPM alloy driveshaft holders(blue).

This is enough on the upgrade side for now. By the time I ve finished this project I ll probably end up with full alloy in the drivetrain.

So far I have drilled two holes in the motor heatsink that comes in the Stage 2 motor kit to enable front mounting of the ATOMIC can. This gets rid of the need for the rear plastic yellow mount that just takes up extra space.

I have also diconnected the servo from the original xmod PCB. Still planning and testing at the moment, so many things to do!

Here s a couple of pics showing how much I haven t done!

Once I get it all sorted I plan to put a pair of E-Tec high discharge lipo cells in the rig. These cells are mad! The fit the exact profile of the chassis…

anyways…..

Way much more to come!

ph2t.

[betty.k]

looks like i’m in trouble!:shock::8ball:

[leonli17]

not just u betty.k, we are all in trouble.blackeye:

[Charlie Brown]

NICE job ph2t, looks great….can’t wait to see the finished project, and a vid! 😉

[chino]

dammit, haha. wut happened to just making fast 4cells! not immah wannah go faster than wut im already happy with. uve fallen into the darkside(lithium power). take advantage of that 4wd right? haha good sh*7 ph2t. well… not really, ur making me wannah get more stuff(lipo,charger,reg,iwaver and IWpcbs) u and betty… bad influence. i cant wait to see the vid.

ph2t, is that gonnah be nelly powerd?

[betty.k]

Quote:

ph2t, is that gonnah be nelly powerd?

does the pope sh** in his pants?:D:8ball:

[betty.k]

here’s a reference pic of my one

the top chassis is the one modified to take the i waver pcb. as you can see there’s only 3 bits of plastic that need to be removed, fairly simple:8ball:

[merc-blue]

bah i dont think were in trouble i have a 1:18 on its way that will give him a run for his money (plus abit)

[chino]

1:18? thas cheating, i thought it wus a 1:28 race? i guess thas a compliment for ph2t to have to use a 1:18 against him

Edited by – chino on 04 January 2005 02:52:28

[ph2t]

said like a true pro chino, lol…:approve:

[merc-blue]

no its just the smallest i got.. i have alot of BIG things… AHAHAHAHA. plus the 1:18 will be much faster than his 1:24

[jamiekulhanek]

yeah but rohan, any stupid dickhead with a screwdriver can buy a 1:18 and throw in a mamba etc. No skills required…

[ph2t]

hate to get this thread back onto topic but……

Well I’ve done some futher testing to increase the steering throw, so far I’ve not had the greatest luck. I’ve been able to increase the throw by about %20 each way but still it’s not enough to get all the way to the extents of the servo.

What I have found is that on the IW02 pcb the capacitor that effects this steering throw is located in red in the picture below.

The stock value is written on the cap as 684, this is 0.68uF. The value i’ve settled on for the moment is 0.33uF, that’s the cap you see in the pic. If you were to look at the stock cap it is black and slightly bigger than the one in the pic.

After some testing I’ve found that too low a value, ie: < 0.2uF and the steering servo goes to the left and can't be corrected even if you adjust the trimmer pot on the RX PCB or the steering trimmer on the TX.

Too high a value, ie: > 1uF and the steering servo goes all the way to the right with the same issues with trimmer pot correction.

So in the end I think that I’m going to have to have to substitute a spare steering pot from an iwaver into the xmod servo. I dunno yet, I’m going to try adding a resistor in with the xmod pot to see if that helps.

I wanna get this nutted down before I go futher. Betty.k has told me that the whilst the steering ain’t the tightest, it’s enough for the templestowe track. hmm…….. 🙂

more to come….

ph2t.

Edited by – ph2t on 02 January 2005 14:49:14

[ph2t]

I think I’ve got it now…

I replaced the steering motor with an original TOMY BCG 1.6 Motor.

I’ve noticed a couple of things with this change.

1) In combination with the changed capacitor, I now get servo travel to the full extents of its movement.

2) Before, turning to one side wasn’t as quick/easy as turning the other way. Also returning to centre position was quicker one way than the other. After swapping the motor out to the 1.6 it is now quick and even return on both sides! A lot better!

Now to go mount the bugger…..

ph2t.

[betty.k]

phew! lucky you didn’t swap out the pot, the xmod pots are actually pretty good. the xmod i bought off merc blue is still nice and accurate, it’s always the motor that causes problems.

did you notice the servo motor getting hot?:8ball:

[ph2t]

motor ain’t getting hot, yet….

I did some measurements and found that the current peaks at approx 80mA – 120mA in each direction. I’ll see how I go, if I start blowing motors a series resistor might be the go to limit current to a safer level….

ph2t.

[ph2t]

and the saga continues…….

Since I’ve now got the servo down pat I decided to tackle the rest of the setup.

Due to space issue you can’t leave the crystal in the default location, it needs to be moved. Most xmod/iwaver conversion just solder the crystal in and then bend it at right angles to make the space. I wanted to be able to change the crystal still so I came up with the following setup:

I then drilled a hole in the crystal plug and “impaled” it on top of a the plastic that comes up from the bottom of the chassis, neat as! lol….

I also, cut out two other parts of the chassis to help guide the iWaver PCB to where I wanted it to go.

To mount the servo I butched a piece off the original plastic and screwed it in it’s original place.

I also put a bit of sponge spacer in the front bracket to help maintain a healthy level of pressure to keep the servo from going anywhere.

Here’s the setup, all rigged up and ready to be finallised..

Have a look at the setup, nice and neat! you wouldn’t tell the difference! lol…

So far, initial tests have shown that she goes very well. I’ve still got many things to do to this setup including a better motor, nelly turbo, li-poly’s, and other goodies shown below!!!

More to come!!

ph2t.

[leonli17]

this is gonna be scary, very scary.
HINT: Need foam tires big time!!!

[betty.k]

dude, you nailed it!!

hehe, we’re finally gonna kick leon’s butt!:D:8ball:

[chino]

ionnoe i used to flip at hard cornering with big foamies with my 6 cell. jus be sure to bring sum hards with u jus in case the foamies dont work out. hard slicks been a well rounded tire compound for an awd xmod

[ph2t]

yeah, I’m going with my trusty kyosho 40deg fatties all round, :).

ph2t.

[Admin]

Hey ph2t where can I get some 0.33uf caps from?

[ph2t]

Rs………

[Admin]

Are they a ceramic cap?

[Author]

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