I'm coming back just this once to help with the steering....

[charliebrown]

Then you need to connect it to the pot. The blue wire needs to be on the center pot leg, the green should be on the right leg, and the yellow should be on the driver's side (left).

Chuckster...

[clxfiles]

Ok, so what do I do if there is no third green wire?? Here is the best shot I could take. Am I just stuck with stuttering, steering?

This is the yellow rx-7 enfini... I also have a red Mustang Concept chassis which is on its way to micro_amps but when it gets back I'm gonna check the steering on that also.

If pic is too big, sorry. I tried to resize.

[Kenichi Mifune]

Mine has two blue wires on the center pin. Which is considered the green one?

edit: I guessed. Now it works great. Balanced steering (6-7 steps) with a tighter turning radius (no wheel rub).

Thanks for passing on the info CharlieBrown.

[charliebrown]

clx files, if you don't have the third wire, then I'd suggest using the screw on the bottom of the car to rotate the potentiometer so that you have even steering steps. That's what I did....Before, I had 5 steps to the right and 2 to the left....now, when I rotated it a little bit too much, I had 6 to the left and 3 to the right....I think it's also a matter of rotating the potentiometer.

Kenichi Mifune, I'm glad I could help, and I'm glad to get credit for this, but really, you should be thanking MadScott, he is an electronics technician and figured out the solution, and passed it on to me, I'm just spreading it.

Chuckster...

[clxfiles]

Thanks for the suggestion. I need to get a screwdriver small enough to get to that second screw that cobers the steering and take out that white arm. When I do, I'll let you know how it goes. Thanks again

Just to specify, I played with the screw and it helped even the steering... now I get crappy steering left and right (sorry don't really know how to count steps). I'm sure I can get it close to what it was before but I think in my case it will help a lot if I trim some of the steering components because when I turn left it seems to hit the end while the servo is still trying to turn, which I think is eating my batteries... My battery seems to drain quick when doing that....

[charliebrown]

Yeah, glad to help out. Like MadScott said himself, it's a shame they couldn't have made a good product out of the box.

Chuckster...

[cool_cars]

Hi all,
I'm the "MadScott" that charliebrown's been talkin' about. I should change my screenname, I like MadScott better. Anyway, I was shocked to hear about only two wires, but then I was thinking about it and I think I remember hearing about the two wire cars. The problem was that they were putting the blue wire to the middle pin, try it on the passenger side pin instead and see if that gets the steering to working correctly. I'm not sure if it will, unfortuneately, all the cars I've got have had three wires, in either one of the two configurations in my instructions. But, I think that was what peopler were doing with the two wire cars, having the one on the right side and one on the left. If anyone can confirm or correct me on this, please do so, so we can help everybody.

Also, I was glad to see that someone had posted about the steering trim adjustment. It was in the other steering question thread. The trick to this mod that really helps, is to find the the dead spot on the controller and adjust the trim, so the dead spot is in the center. Then use the steering adjust screw underneath the car to get the car to track straight. This part really helps the cars to drive nicely once the stutter is taken out with the wire/pot mod. Anyway, my SE's are still driving great and haven't had to make any more adjustments to any of them, that's been a couple of months now. Well good luck to all of you and please feel free to ask questions. Later,
MadScott

[cool_cars]

I was just looking at clxfiles pic and you can see that there is a jumper between the middle pin and the right (passenger side) pin. If you cut that jumper, see how it'll steer, you may not need to move the blue wire, if still doesn't work, then move the blue wire to the right pin and see if that works. These are just my suggestions, again, I don't know for sure if it'll work as I've not had or seen a car with this configuration. Thanks Radio SCHMACK!!

[clxfiles]

Thanks for the suggestion Cool and Chuck, these were the following results.

1. Snip the connection between middle and third - no effect.
2. With connection snipped, put blue wire on third connection - loss of any steering (servo doesn't turn).
3. Reconnected the middle and third connections - Start all over from the beginning.
4. The trimming of the chassis and steering arm where they touch improved my turns to the right, I can now make a 180 degree turn in just about the exact same spot and turning left initially helped with turn radius but servo still doesn't seem to go far enough left. I know that the chassis isn't stopping it left anymore though.

Time to eat then back to the drawing board.... thanks for the help guys, anymore suggestions would be appreciated.

I just did this mod and my car now turns evenly left and right and there is no chatter at all.. great but now it doesnt drive straight! Argh this is very frustrating because it randomly drifts left or right no matter what at higher speeds. It's only good to drive slowly on a table or something

Oh also i have the white Savanna RX-7 and it had all 3 wires and the jumper that i snipped.

I've been studying why it might be doing this and it seems the steering can be moved a little to the left and right and this is being transfered to the pinion and through the pot. Possibly the POT is moving now?

[Nutjob GTO]

<<<<<Skip down to dotted line to skip blather>>>>>
<<<<<Skip to second to jump right to the question>>>>>

Hey, new guy here. Just getting into this stuff, up in Canada, so I've only got a standard ZZ, not an SE.

But, reading through these forums (Just tonight, even) I got first excited about the concept of the SEs, upset about the shoddy workmanship in their controls, then intrigued as people went about solving the problems.

Seeing as this is the 'Official' thread for modding the steering setups, I thought I might as well recap everything, before asking my question.

Okay, then.

----------------------------------

When Radio Shack set up the steering mechanism, they used one of the standard ZZ motors, plus a tiny pot to give feedback, to create a tiny servo from scratch. However, they used a pot with a 10k ohm range, more than they needed, and instead wired it up oddly to use only 5k of its potential. This is the situation with the blue/green wires soldered together, or with the jumper in place.

If you rewire it 'correctly', by either cutting the jumper or resoldering the wires, you can get your full steering range back, but you need to 'Center' the steering pot again first, with the steering rack out. Leave the rack out, when you go on to this next step, though.

When you then start working with the transmitter, you can find a nice wide 'Dead zone' in the transmitter's steering range; Adjust the trim in the transmitter, and watch the servo as you work the steering. When you find the 'dead zone' in the transmitter, where the servo takes longer to react between steps, set the transmitter's trim to have that as the steering center, then reassemble the car's steering rack with the mechanical linkage centered.

If you do this, you'll have fixed the 'stuttering' problem the car had before, as well as balanced the steering 'steps' left and right. However, the car reacts twice as fast to the controller's inputs, because you're using what was once the full steering range for just one side, and you've reclaimed the hidden half of the steering range for the other side.

To fix THAT problem, you need to open the controller, and find the steering pot. It'll be the same as the steering servo's pot, basically; An input, and two outputs. It's been found that putting a pair of 2.2k resistors inline with the steering pot's outputs'dulls' the steering, widening out the controller's usable range of motion.

----------------------------------------------------------

My question, now that I've gotten through all this, is... If, instead of putting in a resistor, you dropped in another pair of small pots, wouldn't it be possible to use them as a transmitter adjustment for the steering's 'end stops'?

If it worked, you could then adjust your controller's steering response and balance depending on how you were racing. If you were drag racing, you could actually dial down the steering until a wide input on the controller just nudged the steering a little; If you were racing on an oval track, you could even unbalance your steering, making it more sensitive when steering inward, to give you an advantage there.

Ya but once you do this it does not recenter the steering on your car and it will continuosly drift left and right. RS has the "stuttering: there for a reason, it recenters the steering in a sort of ghetto makeshift way but it works. I guess the electronics or the pot for the steering servo isn't sensitive enough to return it to full center thus it will be a little left or right and drift...

Anyway to fix that?!

[Nutjob GTO]

Originally posted by Whatup1049
Ya but once you do this it does not recenter the steering on your car and it will continuosly drift left and right. RS has the "stuttering: there for a reason, it recenters the steering in a sort of ghetto makeshift way but it works. I guess the electronics or the pot for the steering servo isn't sensitive enough to return it to full center thus it will be a little left or right and drift...

Anyway to fix that?!

Actually, the reason that the car doesn't center well after you mod the car's servo pot, is because you've made the steering controls twice as sensitive, so it's harder for the transmitter's springs to hit the very center of the steering throw.

The easiest way to fix that is to disassemble the front end again, enough to take the 'Rack' out from under the pinion, then use the adjustment screw to roughly center the pot. Then, with the car and radio on, play with the adjustment screw on the transmitter, and keep checking the way the steering servo reacts to steering input.

You'll find a wide 'step' in the transmitter's steering range. Use the adjustment screw on the transmitter to put that wide step in the center of the steering range; You'll have a better chance of the car self-centering. It'll still be really sensitive, though.

To fix the sensitivity, you need to disassemble the transmitter, and find the pot that controls the steering functions; Reportedly, splicing in two 2.2k ohm resistors into the output lines is the proven fix to the steering sensitivity. If my knowledge of electronics is right, though, splicing in a single 2.2k to the INPUT would do the same thing, and with half the soldering work.

However, if you wanted to get fancy, you could find the space to install a second mini-pot somewhere in the controller, where you could have easy access to the adjustment, and then splice it in-line with the steering pot's power feed (center pin). Then, if you drill a hole in the controller's case, and attach a knob or dial to the new pot, you could adjust the steering sensitivity on the fly. I'd suggest using a 5k pot for that job.