7/7 Steering Tutorial

[eternaldragon]

thanks for clearing that up for me. i just dont want to burn anything up. as for the fet mode i can do that with out the bypass right?

[clxfiles]

Yeah, the FET mod is like a base mod that you will wanna do before doing any other power mods for the PCB of the SE.

[eternaldragon]

ok i got it now thanks for all the help.

[davyyd]

I have put the correct fets in place and have removed the resitor - following CharlieBrown's description of Cyborgzero's Fet / power bypass mod. It didn't seem much faster (maybe 10%), so I took a closer look and realized my jumper wire had a bad connection.

I replaced it with a better wire, and found that when it connects the top and bottom fets (per CharlieBrown's photograph) I lose reverse completely. Forward works fine whether or not the jumper wire is in palce (I don't know if it's faster when I jumper since I was testing on the bench, but I think it sounds faster).

Does anyone have any tips on how where to troubleshoot? I am pretty sure I don't have any solder bridges since a) none are visible and b) everything works fine as long as the jumper wire is not in place.

BTW, this is the Starsy and Hutch Torino with a purple motor - unmodified except for adding the mosfets and removing the resistor (and the jumper wire I guess).

thanks tons

Davyyd

[dnuts]

It took me two attempts to get the mosfet mod correct. I had the no reverse problem with my first one also. On mine I am pretty sure that I either overheated the fet, or damaged the surface mount pad on the pcb for the reverse fet drain pin. I started over with a new car for the second attempt and got it right, the car screams like the mod claims.

[frizzen]

Check your chassis tweak? Check your steering knuckles?

[Racer9]

Okay! Could you post more pics of the proper steering fix?

[merc-blue]

post deleated... cause its useless

[clxfiles]

Hey Merc,
I'm not Cyborgzero but I do have 8 ZZSEs all fetted and i have a suggestion about the motor choice. If you can get the purple 3.4 Radioshack motor, it actually works better in an SE than a 4.2, tho I haven't tried the Phast brand. The 3.8 Perfection is the second best I've tried. If you frequent the Ausmicro site, fellow Aussie's, MicroAmps and Betty-K would probably agree with me.

Replacing the steering motor with a 2.2 gave me a better result.

Mosfet Mod is a must, plus jumping the gate.


Steering on the newer Torinos and Chevelles have been much better than the older cars, so you may not need to fix the steering.

Just my 2 cents....

[charliebrown]

I remember ph2t saying on the "other site" that the voltage regulator only keeps the RX circuit to 3v, it's just that the stock transistors won't make extra use of the voltage because they have so much issues. So, after this FET mod, just install a lipoly battery, and there you go.

Chuckster...

[Twenty-Se7en]

I think I may have read a total of 3 people getting this mod to work... why have only 3 people posted this? Is this mod, if done correctly, guaranteed to give me 7/7 propo? Cause that would surely give the SE an edge over the origional zz's.

[pitobread]

Just wondering what we're supposed to cut? I'm a noob and I wanna know before i start hacking at the steering rack

Any way you have more or bigger pictures of the mod your describing?

My car does not turn as well as i would like it to so I'd liek to try this mod.

How hard is it to replace the steering motor and what is the stock motor in there

Please explain this well i'm slow

Originally posted by cyborgzero

Also, too, CUT that stupid steering rack so it is STRAIGHT ACROSS to allow FULL RANGE or you won't be happy at all...

This will allow very sharp turning and allow the use of nearly the entire steering travel... This will be improved even more soon, so watch this spot..

This method gave me SEVEN full steps left, and SEVEN full steps right and MUCH tighter steering, more akin to what a REAL cars steering range is....

You will like it believe me. [/b]

[arfin]

Hey , do i need to have fets to do this mod? What other mods are there that i can do, without any fets? I really need the help i don't want to return my ZZSE because of the problems it has.

[damootch]

Hey , do i need to have fets to do this mod?

No, you don't need fets to do this mod. About six months ago I did the rewiring and modified steering rack on an Audi TT SE. I had good results. I went from 3/5 to 6/6 clicks right and left. And no jittering when the steering is re-centering itself. Yay! It takes some tweaking and patience. I learned the hard way- less is more when trimming the steering rack. I ended up getting a little over-zealous and cut too much off to then have to go back and rig up a stopper that wouldn't let the tire hit the chassis while turning. I found after I did the rewire mod the steering wouldn't go exactly back to center. It tends to slightly drift both left and right. A small price to pay for great handling, which helps counter the minor drift problem. It was worth the whole effort to eliminate the 'jittery steering' problem. I am glad RS finally fixed this problem with the 3rd generation models.

I have to give a 'thank you' to 'cyborgzero' and everyone else for passing along great information. Thanks.

[mr.fresh]

Ok, noob here. I need some help. I am in the process of building a custom ZZ MT with SE board. It's design is based on the much larger Tamiya Tlt-1. Anyways the frame was the easy part. The giant servo assembly in the SE is tricky to fit in, but worst of all I don't understand it. The blue wire came off of the transistor looking thing and I don't remember were it goes. I thought these things just had servos, but this system is complex! Can someone explain what the FET and MOSFET stuff is? I just want to get the SE guts to work in my ZZ MT. I will post some pics of my design.

As you can see I have to place the servo assembly vertical to fit between the frame. Unfortunately this servo is so huge it will actually limit the articulation. Also, the design was for 4ws, but as you can see there is no way another servo assembly will fit without interfering with the motor. Any help would be appreciated and when the drawings are done I will post the complete plans! It will have suspension very similar to TXT/TLT-1.Current Design

Edit: I've solved the 4ws problem, but I still don't know where to re-solder that blue wire.