I did the 5cell mod...

[chelboed]

Okay, I couldn't stand it any longer. I added a 5th cell to my Subaru Impreza Spec 2. It has it's up's and it's down's.

I don't know if you have noticed, but when I did a 4 cell mod on my car, sometimes when I turn the car on (or the Tx, which ever comes on last) the front wheels freak out. Like the steering kick's off to one side, but the potentiometer senses it and kick's it the other way, but it kick's it so hard, it goes too far. This results in a violent shaking of the steering, kinda like the Big Bopper shakin' his booty.

Well, it get's a little worse with the 5 cell mod. With 4cells, I noticed that if I set my Tx horizontally on the floor (to rest), I can hear the steering servo buzz a little, like the signal is cuttin in and out. This would quit as soon as I raised the Tx off the floor. Well, with the 5cell mod, you can see a micro twitch a teeny bit now and then. If you move the steering at all, it will stop.

Okay these are two small annoyances that are obviously associated with too much power to the steering. This doesn't affect the performance of the car at all. No glitches while driving. I have a tiny feeling that these glitches may not occur if I would get the Perfex controller that sends out a stronger signal than the standard Epoch transmitter.


Performanc? OH MY HEAVENS!!! I firmly believe that the 5cell Spec 2 is twice as fast as a stock Epoch. I am convinced that it runs at least 15mph, and doesn't take any time to get there. This is so fast, it's addicting! (as if it already wasn't) As soon as I hit the go button, I forget about those 2 little annoyances I described earlier. What were they again?

I have been running it all evening, and the PCB has not gotten warm yet. I have been charging it with the standard dock plugged into my 800mah power supply at 9 volts. I do a double charge.

I don't recommend this mod because then I couldn't smoke the livin' doodie outta yall! Keep your 4cell modded cars and rely on your superior driving skills. (by the way, Gertman is not allowed to race me even with the 5 cell mod...kick me boot, he will...watch his video and you'll see) Don't do the 5cell mod...you'll get addicted!!!

[blind]

very nice job!

I assume all you had to do was add the 5th cell? 1/3AAA cells right? What capacity are they?

So you didn't have to do anything to the PCB to handle the 5th cell? The only other 5 cell I saw was Rod's, and he did a fet swap on the car...but you didn't?

My epoch arrives in a few days...this looks like it could be fun!

[chelboed]

Yeah, I just added the 5th cell. I think if I did an FET swap, or put a risistor in-line with the steering, the glitch would go away, but the more I use it, the less twitching it does. I wonder if it's getting used to it.

I did a single 12v 2 min. charge and got around 5-6 min run time.

I did a double 9v charge with the dock and my ac cord and got over 10 min.

My a/c cord is 800mah.

Oh yeah, and it's even faster this morning than it was last night! The more I run it, the more balanced the cells become, I think. Dang this is fun!!!