Hi everyone, We just got our Tero today, and we've been unpacking and reading the Baja manual. On the manual they say that the car has a Auto Lipo mode. My concern is about the low voltage of the Lipo. This mode keeps the battery from entering an undervoltage stage or we have tho constantly monitor the voltage of the pack? The Tero cames with this mode enabled by default or it's a good pratice to enable it, just in case? Thanks
It's quite easy to tell when the voltage is getting low as the Tero will start to get a bit sluggish and slower. But take note that you should swap out the battery sooner rather than later because running a LiPo completely flat is very bad, it can kill the battery. Another thing you could do is buy a little voltage buzzer, it's a common thing for RC cars/planes. It's got a little voltage display and it will buzz when it gets past a certain point. I'd also like to mention to everyone that has a Tero... DO NOT rag, hoon, 'put your foot down' or thrash the Tero about using the Freefly Tero Battery! The Freefly Tero battery is 5500mAh 4S 20C. (Sorry Freefly but)Not only is it ludicrously overpriced, the discharge rating (20C) is quite a bit less than the manufacturers minimum requirements. Castle Creations (who make the motor) and HPI (who make the actual car) recommend at least a 35C rating. The C rating or discharge rate is the amount of power that can be drawn continuously from the battery. In this case it means the motor wants to pull more power than the battery can provide, which is bad. LiPo catching fire/exploding bad. Think ball of fire that can't be extinguished! However, if you are just driving calmly around getting nice slow tracking shots, then don't worry too much. It is only if you are accelerating quickly or traveling at speed often and for long periods of time. We are using Overlander 5000mAh 4S 35C batteries in ours and they are doing the job nicely, not to mention a tad cheaper than Freefly's.
Hi Dan, Thanks for your time. I'll mess around with a lipo buzzer. Our use is more with slow shots and, if we need to make scenes with velocity there is the possibility of the CS8 bateries (6S 10Ah). By the way, how do you transport the Tero? I've tryed to fit it on to one SKB Case, but that piece of the frame on the back of the car doesn't let it fit, and i'll need to remove the wheels to. I'm considering a Pelican 1730.. Any thoughts? Thanks again.
Same idea as us! We are looking at getting a 1730 Peli too. It seems like the best and cheapest option. (Explorer also do a similar size) I got quotes for a Pelican-Hardigg crate and Flight case and they are both upwards of £500. Although if you find a prebuilt 'road trunk' style flight case then it could be much cheaper. Currently though we have it in a old battered flight case that just-so-happened to be exactly the right size that we found in a corner of our warehouse.
Today it's like this: Rear wheels removed and the rear support also removed. About 5 minutes of work for assembly/disassembly. I'll do some supports so the car doesn't move sideways and to hold tools and bateries. By the way: how do you clean the car?