Zip Zap SE FAQ
 

Q. How much do they cost?
A. $24.99

Q. What models are coming out and what are the part numbers?
A. As of 9/6/2003...

60-7026 Initial D Savanna (White)
60-7032 Initial D Efni (Yellow)
60-7028 Audi TT (Grey)
60-7034 Audi TT (Blue)
60-7027 2005 Mustang (Red)
60-7033 2005 Mustang (Silver)

Q. What upgrades will be released for the SE's?
A. The current Upgrade/Tuner Kits work with the SE's. They will also be releasing an Intital D Body Kit that will include a Toyota AE86 Sprinter & Toyota Levin SR body, a 28K & 34K motor, and complex water tires. Item# 60-7532 @ $12.99

Q. What other body kits will be available?
A. As of 10/8/2003...

60-7531 Initial D Body Kit 2 (October)
60-7533 Euro Sports Body Kit (November)

Q. Which parts are included with the SE starter Kit?
A. It comes with the SE chassis, body, and controller w/ strap, red 21.5K motor, blue gears, factory tires, hubcaps, motor clip, and trading card.

Q. How many batteries does the controller take? What are the charge & run times?
A. The controller holds 4 "AAA" batteries in a little saddle. The charge time is 60 seconds. Run time with the stock set-up is about 5 minutes with the lights plugged in, and 6 minutes without. There is a on/off switch on the bottom of the chassis where you can cut it off and save the charge until it's turned on again.

Q. Does it have proportional steering and throttle?
A. Yes, it has both proportional steering and throttle. There is about 4-5 steps in the steering.

Q. How many frequencies does it have?
A. Each chassis has one frequency with 6 channels selectable on the contoller just before charging the car. The Savanna starter kit is labeled as 27mhz. These are different frequency/channels than the first gen. 27mhz Zip, so in reality, you can race up to 8 cars if you include the first gen. 49mhz Zip. It is not known yet if the other SE starter kits will be 49mhz.

Q. How does the car know what channel to use?
A. You have to choose the channel within the first 10 seconds of the charging sequence. This is when the controller synchronizes with the chassis PCB.

Q. Does it have lights? How do they work?
A. Yes. The front white lights are lit while going in foreward and the rear red lights are lit when going in reverse. They can be unplugged if you wish.

Q. What kind of range do they have?
A. At this time, the farthest I can even drive mine is 15' (limited by kitchen length), but I have had the controller 30' away, and could still here the wheels spinning with the car sitting upside down on my desk in the other room.

Q. What kind of suspension does it have?
A. It has spring suspension in the front, but none in the rear.

Q. What parts are interchangable with the first generation Zip Zaps?
A. All the existing parts are interchangable including the bodies.
The front kuckles are different for all you modders out there.

Q. What size battery is in the chassis?
A. It has a 2.4 volt, 70mah battery. It appears to be 2 smaller cells wrapped end to end. The SE battery is longer than the first generation Zip battery and will not fit in it or a Bit without modding.

Q. What are all those buttons on the controller?
A. The controller has the steering wheel, the throttle trigger, a switch for left or right handed throttle, on/off switch, frequecy selector, steering trim, neutral adjustment, and charger release button.

Q. Is the ground clearance the same as the first generation Zip Zap chassis?
A. Yes, it has the same ground clearance.

Q. How fast is it compared to the regular Zip Zap?
A. My tests with identical motors, gears, and tires show that the speed is the same, but take off torque is lower in the SE.

Q. What is that black stuff on top of the PCB.
A. Who knows? It appears to be some kind of coating to A. Hide the design, B. Prevent interferance with the light system PCB, C. Prevent modding, or D. Appearance.

Q. Will the Bit CharG motor fit in the SE?
A. Yes, it will. The SE motor compartment is identical to the normal Zip Zap except that it has more of a "cradle" for the motor to sit in. I have also confirmed that the Perfection 4.2 motors will fit. I have noticed some issues with the MS motors, they have to be aligned up perfectly to make contact, and they sputter a little.

Q. Which Bit CharG/MS parts are compatable with the Zip Zap SE's?
A. So far I have confirmed that the rear axle and motor from the Bit CharG/MS will fit on the SE's. There sre issues with the motors though. See above.

Q. Will the front suspension springs on the Zip Zaps SE fit on the regular Zip Zaps or Microsizers/Bit knuckles?
A. No, they are too small.


More to come...

thanx bc that awnsered alot of Q.

Yeah, very helpful, but when will the new tire treads be out? What duz the Hubcaps look like w/ the Savannah? Lastly, will they come out with instead of white lights in front, blue and stuff?

Good stuff Bad Company.

sounds good but I want to know:

How smooth is the steering/throttle control?

Are there any noticable steps in the steering/throttle?

The throttle and steering seem pretty smooth. There is a noticable skip in the left hand turning though. There seems to be some kind of issues with the left turning. Got your yet Namuna? Same problem?

I count 4 maybe 5 steps in the steering to the right, but a lag, then about 2 steps to the left. (Added this to the FAQ.)

Bad Company's pics are now available in the Gallery:

http://tinyrc.com/gallery/ZipZapsSE

i say make this a sticky

Yup

bc can you edit your mistake in the question how many frequinces does it have

the anserw is one(27mhz) but there are 6 channels or else the car would have to have 6 frequincy crstalys in the controller and car instead it uses channels(27.1 27.2 27.3 274 27.5 27.6)

edit if some1 would like to say other wise then go ahead

OK, If you want to get technical.
No really, thanks for pointing that out. I was kinda in a hurry putting that together today, and just missed that. I looked it up in the instruction manual and they do in fact call them channels. Thanks for the heads up babykiller.

Anyone feel free to make any sugestions to correct or add to the FAQ and I will do so. Your input is appreciated.

Great faq you've put together here BC. Thanks.:)

Thanks for the compliments guys!

I found the same turning problem with mine while it was working.

Will a bit charg motor fit in these?
And will a bit charg rear axle fit on the new zipzaps?

The answer is yes to both questions.

FAQ Updated.

yea but my question is will the springs fit on microsizer knucles??

No, they will not. The knuckles for the SE are smaller and the springs are too small to fit on the regular Zip Zaps knuckles or the MS knuckles.

FAQ Updated.

MS on left, SE on right. Small SE spring in middle top.

how is the suspension travel compared to a regular zz or a bit/ms?

suspension travel is substantially less than the travel on a bit.

But I have been thinking that front suspension is farily uneffective without rear to allow the car to fully sway.

In the turns yeah perhaps it helps, but it can't help a whole lot.

I had to revise the FAQ. After further research, I found that the MS motors do fit in the SE, but you have to spin them around to make sure the motor contact is touching the chassis contact good, and even then the motor wants to sputter. Can anyone else confirm this or have any input?

Confirmed......I have fiddled with all of my Tomy/MS motors many different ways for many many minutes....they actually fit in the well, however, the car will not move....it stutters when you try to go fwd/or rev.....and does not move...

I believe I have a reason for the sputtering (to be confirmed when I put my DMM on it tonight)...

My theory is that the new SEs suffer the same miserly current output of the 1st generation ZZs...Which limits the SE to being able to only use motors with low power needs.

I came to this conclusion because I pulled out my pink endbell 3.8 motor and a Tomy 2.6...the 3.8 sputtered and barely moved, while the 2.6 was quite spritely.

I'm gonna be quite dissapointed if I find out I'm right.

Maybe....maybe not...

I have tested all Extreme Micros motors in these and they work great. They don't however work well in old zz's older than the gold civic. Newer than gold civic, they work great.

Not sure what that means but I also tested some clone motors with great results...the only motors I couldn't get to work were tomy motors.

Looks like we may go thru the whole deal of new and upgraded generations of PCB again. Maybe by the time Zip Zaps 3.0 come out, the SE's will be good like the later generations of the original Zips.

Zip Zaps 3.0?.....Did I just say that? Here we go again.

Bad

Have you had any luck fixing the sticking steering per the other post saying that the alignment adj under the car fixes it?

I can't understand and the one member said they got this to fix the twitchy/uneven steering....

Any thoughts?

No, not yet. I just read that myself this morning and was going to try it today. I will let you know how it goes.

Actually, I just tried it. It's pretty simple, but hard to explain.

Remember one thing. You have turn the car off and back on after every adjustment made to the alignment dial under the chassis. This resets it to the position you just adjusted it to. The controller also has to be on for the car to reset each time.

When you adjust the dial and reset it, you can visually see where the front wheels are and how centered they are. Do this until they appear centered, then test it by driving it.

The dial on the bottom of the chassis has to be turned almost one full turn to see any movement in the wheels.

I just did this, and now the sputtering has stopped and my car turns both directions pretty equally. I assume that the sputtering may be from not having the alignment centered and the servo? having to adjust for this?

I think the key is getting the chassis adjustment centered first.

Credit Drizz for this as he found this out, I only tested and verified it.

I kinda did mine opposite of Drizz, and used the alignment adjustment for the major adjustment, and the steering trim for the minor adjustment.

Thanks for the help Bad C...and big big ups to Drizz for figuring the whole fix out.....you are a RS saver...


I'll give them a shot when I get to the shop, gotta print the posts out to take, no net at the store...

I'll let ya know what results I have this evening....

And to be honest, if this works on mine and a couple more people get it to work as I supsect it will, I would suggest making the tutorial/fix a sticky as I have a big feeling most like I did will return perfectly good cars that just need tuned.

Thanks again Drizz for the fix figuring out and Bad C for testing and verifying...

No more sticky huh? Also, what happened to the first Savanna SE...COME SEE thread?

Sheesh, Housecleaning ain't supposed to wreck things.

Anyway, the original Savanna thread was accidentally deleted (that might take a little while to get back, my bad on that one).

This thread was copied over to the new Tips Forum, so it temporarily lost the sticky...But it's back to sticky now.

Ah, I see. So, when I update this FAQ or someone replies to this thread, it automatically does the same over there? Will it have to wait for approval?

EDIT: Well, I know now that replying doesn't automatically go over unless it's waiting for approval.

It's not a process of approval, just that there's no link between the 2 threads.

Anytime the FAQ is updated we'll just update the other page too.

hmm wheres a technical genius to get that coating off and mosfet when you need one

Cool, i see you answered my question about the ground clearance. Thanks.

Well, I tested on the original SE I kept that was worse....now, I have the steering so jacked up....:(

When you started, which way did you turn the align knob first, to the left or to the right...?

Also, my newest one actually is straight as a whistle out of the box.

So how would I go about that one?

It stutters when trying to turn one direction...but it turns fairly evenly, maybe stronger one way than the other a bit...

It isn't as bad as the other two were...

I hate to be so sophmoric, but I normally have no problems figuring stuff out....but for some reason, this one isn't sinking in at all....

Sorry...:rolleyes:

In another post i read that a guy was scrapping off the coating with his fingernail.

Anyone have a perfection 4.2 motor they can try?

if you got a twisted chassi just call theshack back up im sure they will ship out to you a brand new mofo

verbalkint:
I don't remember which way I turned it first. I actually turned it both ways to see what it did. If the new one you got is straight out of the box, I would leave it alone. and just tweek on the steering trim on the controller. You may also try tinkering with the nuetral adjustment on the controller to make sure it is dead centered in nuetral.

eman1:
I have tried the Perfection 4.2 motor. I didn't see any significant increase in speed from a 28k which is what I use , but did lose quite a bit of torque.

hmm. Thats strange. Do you have a tomy/ms 2.2 to try?
I wonder if the speed would still be similar to the 28k, but the torque might increase