Converting an Old RC Car to Brushless

well first of im not sure how to start of that either im no expert on this this is just an attempt to do something or that this is my first instructable i guess that would be quite obvious if you do look at my profile or that my punctuation is terrible yes i know well lets see how to begin well ive decided to convert a plain toy rc car the x-encounter into a brushless semi hobby grade rc car being that previous actions had rendered the receiver breadboard motherboard thingy useless if you look on several youtube reviews it is rather slow and useless and  ill explain for those who want to know more about how it became useless to begin with  and for  those who don't want to know can just skip to the next part about equipment and tools and stuff P.S. this is defiantly not going to be the same for every rc car but
could possibly aid in the thought of converting your own


how it became useless well had bought the car and several components were missing the batteries aerial yadda yadda  but it did have the car and the remote so i bought it regardless. well in the battery compartment it had written suitable for 7.2 - 12 v being as how i had a 1800 3 cell li-po battery pack 11.1 v i said that should do the trick just fine so i changed the connectors and off we go compared to the stock battery reviews on youtube this car was hauling ass across the field until it started to slow down dramatically hmmmmm after walking some distance upon examining the turning still worked and so did reverse  so reverse driving was difficult and then that stopped as well thus just the turning worked so i decided to check  the motor was fine so i guess the h-bridge burnt out bummer seeing as how it was rated for 12 volts and thus my quest to get it working again yes i do know you could change out the h-bridge but my soldering skills are not that good

standard toy rc car
screw drivers
needle nose pliers
3mm aluminum rod
5 mm steel rod
soldering iron
servo attachments
servo
music
patience
cutters
fan (optional )

(im still waiting for but you will need)
esc for brushed or brusheless dependent on you
motor again brushed or brushless dependent on esc
battery
transmitter and receiver



well i figured the hardest part would be the turning mechanisms as you cant really just replace the turning system just like that as servos has 3 wires and not 2 like the ordinary dc motors either you could use a servo to control a relay to do the turning (weight) or just make some sort of turning system that uses the servo directly or indirectly  after several failed attempts i started a really long search on how i could get it to work then i came across this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFVR5ga_s_8 and all became right in the world again even though mines not the same i did provide so much inspiration to come up with something most similar to the design

well to begin with i removed the shell (fancy coloured plastic body) this was simply done by removing the pins that held it in place then there was six screws securing the dust protector in place  remove thee then it just comes off this exposes the receiver and the front servo the servo was held in place by 3 screws this servo just required a simple reversible dc current to make it turn left to right this doubled as a support to keep the i guess equivalent of a rack in a real car. after seeing how to mount the servo i noticed it wouldn't keep down so i decided to support it in place using the steel rod and aluminum rod using the soldering iron that had a 5 mm tip i brunt a small notch right where the rack would slide along this was fine and all but then the rack had a line of plastic i trimmed it off using a stencil knife then placed the rack down then glued the rod in place with gorilla glue

well this turned out fantastic so far but wait here comes more trouble okay so this was great and all but testing it the front of the rack kept jumping up on top of the little arms with the spring to keep the steering straight so this is where the aluminum bar came to play i used the tip of the soldering iron and pierced 2 tiny holes in the side where the front of the rack would line up and slid the aluminum bar through and voila no more jumping up

well  once that's all dry here comes the more fun bits i presume well no this is where you fumble about trying to make the perfectly length rods to fit just right to meet at the right places bla bla bla its not that easy to explain but ill try  okay hmmm well first you find out where you can mount your servo and servo piece comfortably hopefully within the confines of the existing space i kinda got mine to fit  but hopefully you get it better you make rough measurements add a little more for the bends at the ends to fit into the horns and a little more for error just precaution i used aluminum but if you want to u can use something else it was all i had at the moment there were already holes in the rack so i used those to my advantage and one of the supports for the servo before served as a fulcrum for my horn in some of the pictures its mounted on the right but i then switched it over as of how i wanted to mount the servo but don't worry its symmetrical so use the pictures as a reference to mount it on the opposite side unless your comfortable mounting your servo in the dark

well now is the easiest but hardest part  i decided to use XQ-S1012M, 6V 2kg-cm Analog servo once again i know nothing about servos soo no questions please well i mounted it so the rod going in would be parallel to the rod leading out so it went snugly on the right i removed a few fragments to make it fit more snug i used the needle nose pliers where t fit snugly i got the soldering iron and poked it right behind the servo and then heated the end of the metal rod and poked it into the hole and into more plastic behind the servo this was to keep it from moving about then place the rods and screw he horns in place i didn't use glue in case i wanted to remove the servo or the horns so the rod was just right just too ensure the servo could manage i stretched the spring abit even though this should have been done first to have a better out come i stuck a screw driver in the spring and stretched it abit last but not least i snipped the end of the horn off that wasn't in use on the servo and also made appropriate holes in the dust protector for the parts of the system that collided with it

well after i rumaged around to find a motor of equivalent can size with esc and all the fun stuff i finaly got it delivered as you can see the comparison of the brushed stock to the new turnigy

alright as we now got ll that we needed time to get cracking i first soldered wires to the motor and the esc then removed the gear from the stock motor and placed it unto the turnigy eventually placing it into the gearbox

once all the parts had fitted and wires in place and all ensured to be working i began fastening everything into place also i made a few holes to fit the esc into the body of the car without altering the top cover  and double sided tape to hold the receiver into the top cover tie straps to bundle wires

putt it all back together and add all the aesthetics i have done a video but i still nee to edit and upload possibly do another but better footage but as far as im concerned it turned out amazing its so much faster  its way better than the 11.1 volt in the stock car  only problem is that the steering isint that wonderful but its still better than the stock ill devise a way to try and improve my steering