My 2 SE's, 1 stock and 1 thats not...
 

First I would like to say hello and this is my first post here at tinyrc.

This First pic is of my lastest creation. A SE with a Kyosho MR01 pcb. Fully propo with all the trimmings. Right now it is running off the stock 2 cells, but I have found some nimh button cells that is small enough that I can fit 4 in the battery holder. The SE's steering pot wouldn't work with the pcb so I modded it to work with a pot from a xmod. Trimmed the motor pads off the back of the pcb so it would fit and used heat shrink to secure everything. Used a antenna from a xmod to get better range. Hope you like.....

A pic of it with the body on. If it wasn't for the antenna and the perfex controller no one whould know it wasn't stock.

One more with both of my SE's (the red one is bone stock). also a link to a video I made after I first got it working.

sat274life--

I have some antenna ideas which might be useful to you. Contact me off-forum at one of the following addresses:

webmaster@saturnofterrehaute.com
censusia@stroxel.com

Show us a close up of the guts if you can. Great work!
And, Chili, I like that removable antenna idea of yours. Shear genius! I plan to try it out myself.

Thank you Azimov, I will get a good pic of the inside either tomorrow or saturday when my new batteries come in for it.

chilli_mp138 are you a Saturn fan as well? Thats what the Sat in my name is short for.

Here is a pic of the type of cells I will be using. The measure at 11.5 mm X 5.35 mm (11.5 mm X 21.4 mm for 4). The SE's battery holder is 11 mm X 23 mm. They are 1.2v a piece and only 40 mah :(, makes for a little less run time but 4.8v will be nice.

Here is about the best close up I can get with the camera I have. I will get a inside shot of the batts and servo when I put them in.

I saw the mod over there as well and im still appreciative.
Im really interested in seeing this mod work sans XMOD piece. As you can imagine that would give another life to the Gen 1 SE's that were plagued (and a justifiable reason to purchase a board on top of the initial $25+ cost of the SE itself).

I know what you mean about the cost. The pcb used was at one time thought to be a bad board. About a year ago I got into Mini-Zs and bought a mr01. One evening I was out playing with a friend and we crashed into each other and my car flew into a water puddle. After that I couldn't get it to turn on and that was that. I sold all my mini-z and iwaver stuff awhile back and the was all I had left in a box with a few bad xmod pcbs. So the other day I got bored and wanted to see if if I could get the pcb to work and it did. Then after seeing a ZZMT with a iwaver pcb that was all I needed to try my own, but I wanted to stuff it all in a SE. I still have 2 more SE's with bad pcb's and I am going to try iwaver 02 pcbs with them (I want the brake feature).

I hate to beat a dead horse but can you go in depth regarding why the SE pot and Z board didnt mesh? Getting that problem resolved (read: able to work ) could seriously change the Micro market . How much are Z bards now...(or waver)...8 bucks?

The SE's pot is a 0 - 10k ohm and the mini-z and xmod pot is a 0 - 5k ohm. So what you can do is get a 10k resistor and bridge the two leads on the pot and I believe it should work. I didn't have any at the time and using a spare pot from a broke xmod I had was my option.

I think the mr02 boards are like $70 last time I looked. Iwaver used to sell pcbs but now it looks like you have to buy a chassis set , iw01 $24.90, iw02 $29.90 plus shipping.

Edit: I just tested 3 pots, stock SE pot reads 4.5 ohms - 9.30k ohms. Xmods pot reads 47 ohms - 4.93k ohms, and the mini-z pot reads 2.5 ohms - 5.18k ohms. So I believe adding the 10k resistor should do the trick.

Here is a picture of the Skyline body I will be using as the permanent body when it is finished. So far I stripped the paint off and cut out the front and back windows. I made some new windows out of some thin clear plastic so the insides can be seen clearly. I will do a light sanding and apply some GM Charcoal gray metal flake paint to it and touch up the lights with some brush paint.

Well I got the car painted and the windows installed this evening. I don't like how the side windows look so I am thinking of cutting the out and making a new window set for them as well.

One more pic for anyone interested in what it looks like inside. Getting it ready for its new batteries which will be here tomorrow so I opened it up....

Well my batts came in today and I couldn't wait to put them in.

They all fit in perfectly and now all I need to do is redo my charger to charge all four. The charger is fir a 3 cell and chargered the two ok but not the 4. I think I will use a adjustable power adapter to plug into it.

Here is a pic with the 4 cells installed.

I just got finished putting everything in a newer 2nd gen chassis. The first one I used was a old 1st gen SE chassis which was mainly a mock up chassis. So this time around I got a 10k ohm 1/4 watt resistor and used it on the SE pot (the SE pot is a 10k). Put the 2 cell back in it for right now. I need to get some shrink wrap for the 4 cells before installing them (do it right this time). So other then adding the resistor it is a direct swap now. One thing I like about it now is I can center the servo with the controller and/or fine tune it with the adjustment screw on the bottom of the chassis.

Since the Iwaver pcb is pretty close to the mr01 pcb, it can be used as a substitute (cost reasons). This is by far the best mod for a SE by far.

Also the way the pcb sits inside now all the SE bodies I have fit (5 total) now, after removing the lights and the plastic stuff that holds them in.

I got a break today from class and decided to make a mounting system for the pcb that held it secure, but was easy to remove it if needed. So as you can see in the two pics here I made a small hook on the rear right of the chassis to hold the back of the pcb. On the front left side I made a small mount the turns to release the pcb. I also acts as a small holder for the crystal. It also makes it look more professional then the shrink wrap as well.

Lookin good kiddo! I wish your pics were a bit clearer, but I like what I see for sure.
How much improvement do you see over say a stock 3rd gen SE? I haven't owned one of the PCBs you are using and don't know how much of a functional improvement you are getting. Great stuff!

Yeah I wish the pics were better too, It performs just as smooth as most bigger scale hobby grade cars. It has better speed then a stock SE, handling (due to the fully propo throttle and steering), and range (got about 25 - 30 feet without any problems). Turning radius is the same (limitations of the SE's design) which is about a 10" diameter. Runtime is about the same (depends on the motor) and does rather well with the stock 2 cell battery (although the 4 cells makes it almost out of control).

This mod is awesome. When you're done can you do a write up of exactly how you did it and what parts you need and stuff?? I want to try building one when you finish yours.

The Mini-z and Iwaver boards are pretty easy to find, Iwavers is about the same and cheaper, as far as others I am not sure about this scale, There is one I have seen that uses hotwheels style bodies thats full propo and comes with a li poly battery but not sure how to get them. Other then that there isn't much I know of at this scale. This mod can be done for under a $100 and if you use a Iwaver pcb it would be under $50. Depending on what you have to start with.

Depending on the body you might be able to lower it some. The RX-7 body I have has about 2 1/2 to 3 mm of clearance I could lower it. The Chevelle body I have can be lowered in the front about 1 1/2 to 2 mm but nothing in the back. It is just the back of the board you have to worry about hitting the body.

I can do a full write up and try to get pics of everything either tonight or tomorrow sometime.

Other then getting the shrink wrap for the 4 cells I am finished (4 cells are optional).