[studysession]

Hi -
I am fairly new to CNC'ing and I am trying to convert a 5th scale gas RC car to electric. I need to CNC a motor plate and bottom plate. Along with making some other supports to hold the gearbox. I wanted to make a post about my project and hopefully people here will be able to give me some advice and ideas for what I am working on. I will post updates on progress here.

We will be using the clutch assembly off the gas engine and attach it to the electric motor. This part has already been done. It is extremely important to be able to get the clutch assemble dead center of gear box. To do this, I have to make it where I can adjust the motor up/down/left/right.

Normally with electric cars the motor would also act as the brakes. We will be using propper disk brakes for this electric project.

I will be drawing parts in AutoCAD and CNC'ing them on my mill.

From the pictures you can see the screw holes on opposite side of the gear box. Those are what I will use for the left/right adjustments for the motor. The up/down adjustments will be done from the motor plate I make.

Pictures of the CNC Mill and 5th scale RC car are attached to this post. The mill is a Sieg Micro Mill with a 3 axis CNC kit from SimplyCNC.com.

I would appreciate any advice and recommendations. The parts will be made from 6061 aluminum.

Cheers -

[arvidb]

Hi studysession - cool project!

I've thought some about what would be necessary to convert a 1/8 scale gas truck to electric. It would be a very fun project, but I don't have neither the money nor the time necessary...

What motor will you use? What about the power source? What kind of performance do you expect from the car?

I looked through the data of some typical 1/8 scale gas engines, and they seem to have a power of around 1 kW. I would want my (hypothetic) electric car to have the same "kick" as a gas powered one, so 1st problem I guess is to find electric motors of 1 kW that aren't too heavy or bulky. Small motor means little torque, so to get the power a high RPM is needed. And gearing. I guess that fits nicely with the fact that the gas engines are around 30000 RPM?

Then the problem of power source... 1 kW is a lot of power! I would go for as high a voltage (= as many batteries) as possible. 20 1.2 V batteries would give a current of 42 A for 1 kW... hmm.

Please report on your progress! I'm really curious!

Arvid

[studysession]

THANKS!
I converted a 1/8 scale nitro buggy to all electric and write a magazine article showing step by step of what I have done:
http://www.rcuniverse.com/magazine/a...article_id=467

It is also apearing in Maxbashing Magazine here in the UK.

As for the 5th scale. This is being done as a sponsored project. MTroniks will make my ESC for me and I have a couple of companies in mind for the motor. Right now I am using a motor provided to me by MTroniks. But will try others later after it is running.

I did a revision for for the main motor plate (not CNC'ed). Later this week i will do a drawing in AutoCAD and CNC it. Then need to do bottom plate after that.

Cheers -

[studysession]

UPDATE:
First draft of the motor and bottom plate for the car. Still need to make some final measurements and touches to the drawings. But it is a start.