This is somewhat unfortunate, the magnet has shattered. The inside of the housing / coils are completely covered in dusty residue. Will need a new motor now.

[UPDATE] HPI support have looked at the Vorza motor and found it was fault. They’ve agreed to send a replacement – thanks HPI. They’ll be getting more stock end of the month

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

It snowed so took the Vorza out for a spin! Used insulating tape to keep the inside snow free!

The dog bones and front universal joints were covered in grit mixed with oil. Not a good combination if you want moving parts to last long. A good polish and re-oil with WD-40 has gotten everything running smoothly again.

Seem the middle of the car still had a pile of grass cuttings from the summer so that got removed as well

Only thing left really is to check and rebuild the differential but I need to get some new oil first!

For the battery voltage the battery balance plug is used. I use JST connected as a universal standard for all of my batteries. Since the smaller models are usually 3S the main cable from the telemetry module (TM1000 + TM1100) has the 3s plug. To use the voltage cable on the 4S & 5S models adapters were made that go from 3S to the correct size plug / pin arrangement.

On testing it seems as though the telemetry module will supply voltage to the receiver and speed controller. Caution don’t try running the motor without connecting the main battery leads as all of the current will pass through the telemetry module and receiver.

The rpm sensor received a two pin socket on the sensor wires. Then several cables with corresponding plugs were created. ( blue cables in photo below) These will be installed on various models. So to get rpm on any model the sensor can simple be plugged in.  I have an Eagle Tree logger with brushless sensor.  That has also been given the two pin socket so it can be used with the adapters.

The instructions are good and take you through each step in detail. I’ve gotten to a point now where I need to make sure the motors are balanced before they are installed so this will be my next task before getting back to the airframe.

The motors are a pair of HET 240-15 6000Kv running off a pair of Castle Creations Phoenix 35′s. The motors are installed in Wemotec 50mm micro fan units. This setup will give excellent trust.

If you drive it like you’ve always driven kicking the rear out and counter steering then apply a lot of power then you won’t really notice much. However if you turn in put the power on and don’t counter steering the gyro kicks in takes over and automatically counter steers. Once you get past this rather odd feeling it becomes quite interesting as you can ‘hoon’ about like a complete manic even in a confined space – small car park and a Vorza on 6S make once large car parks confined…

I was literally burning rubber with ease, not the sort of smell you expect from and RC car! I think I may need a new set of tyres after only 3 or 4 packs )

Reprogrammed the AUX channel on the DX3S using the “Travel” option, set the L 0% the result being with the switch in the down position the gyro is off. I’ve set H to 150% which turns the rates gyro setting to maximum (setting between 100 and 150 varies the effect of the gyro). Now I can choose to drive with or without the gyro at the flick of switch.

Overall an interesting toy, but somehow the gyro takes some of the fun out of dancing on the edge of grip!

Decided this evening to have a bit of a play with one in my Vorza on the bench. This is supposed to be the same gyro the sell as the ‘drift box’ except this one has a second wire so you can use the transmitter to switch between heading hold and rates as well as adjust the sensitivity.

I have DX3S for my surface model which has an AUX channel. Very handy, plugged the main gyro wire into steering, the extra wire with the single signal cable into AUX and the servo into the gyro. Servo type set to standard (or it would burn out my analogue servo) and after some experimentation direction to reverse (so it counter steers).

I can use the AUX switch on the TX to change between rates and heading hold. I don’t need heading hold so the switch is always in the rates mode position. To adjust the sensitivity of the gyro I’m using the AUX trim in the sub trim menu H100 very sensitive, L100 not very sensitive.

The differences between heading hold, rates and different sensitivities can be seen in the following video:

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

(hands up those who can see the auto correct fail in the title of this vid… iOS at it’s best )

The theory on this is if you heading off in a straight line – no steering input given and the car wanders off from the that straight line then the gyro automatically counter steers in order to keep it going in a straight line. You adjust the sensitivity to a point where the car doesn’t sway from side to side rapidly, in other words over correcting.

Will need to test this while driving, should be interesting on tarmac as the Vorza has quite strong torque steer on a fast launch.

Also test programmed some mixes to the turn the rudder channel on the orangerx into the second aileron. It took two mixes:

1. Aile -> Rudd 100%
2. Rudd -> Rudd -100%

The first one moves the rudder to 100% with the aileron stick turning it into a second aileron channel. Only issue is now the rudder stick still effects the freshly mixed aileron so the second mix cancels this out. With that the rudder has no effect. The big advantage of dual ailerons over a Y cable is each channel can be individually tweaked for optimum centre point and movement.

I’ll upload a DSX11 model file to download just as soon as the plane is ready and has had it’s maiden flight.