TCS - Thermal Cooling System for brushed motors in RC (...)
TCS - Thermal Cooling System for brushed motors in RC 1-10th scale electric cars
3. Installation
After all this theory we move on to install the TCS which you can see is not very difficult but it needs a bit of effort to think about the organisation and layout of your chassis.a. The test car
The most-stressed motors and the ones that get the hottest are the ones in 4-wheel-driven touring cars (the main target area for the TCS) and to a certain degree those in 4x4 buggies.We have decided to mount our TCS for testing onto a touring car, which led us to a small problem as we have two different cars at our disposal at the time :
a Team Associated TC3 FT
a Team Losi Street Weabon IWC (the onroad version of the XX4 WE)
Because it seemed impossible for us to mount the TCS to the Associated TC3 because there was not enough room on it, we chose the Team Losi Street Weapon IWC for this test.
This choice also seemed justified as the car was derived from the 4x4 Buggy XX4 which was not particularly known for its effectiveness in motor cooling, and this also allowed us to draw a parallel between the touring and off-road categories.
|
|
b. Installation
As already said, the installation of the system is quite simple, but first one has to think about where to place all the elements, and this preparatory phase can be long.The TCS confronts us with new constraints :
The pump has to be mounted so the entries and exits point upwards.
The radiator has to be positioned horizontally so the cooling fins are ventilated optimally. This is one of the most important points and on this hinges the effectiveness of the cooling cycle of the TCS.
The radiator has to be mounted with the zip ties (the double-sided tape is ineffective, I’ve tested it for you..)
The entry and exit of the motor plate have to be mounted so they are not obstructed.
The silicone tube must not be bent too sharply or the liquid will be blocked.
The transparent T-tube between the motor plate and radiator has to be mounted vertically.
Finally, the tubes circulate through your chassis, and it is very important to organise all the electric leads and cables.
Besides this long and intense thinking process of where to place what, the installation of the system is comfortably easy but attention has to be paid so the silicone tubes do not get pierced when sliding them onto their metal extensions.
On our Team Losi Street Weapon IWC, we have realised two different installations :
The first one is with the electronics repositioned to the front to offer a maximum of space and ventilation to the radiator of the TCS which was placed on the rear shock tower.
This vertical position high up and free has very quickly proven to be ineffective because the radiator did not benefit from a direct air stream to cool the liquid.
for the second installation, we have mounted the TCS’ radiator horizontally on top of the bumper and have cut out the grill of our Stratus for a direct air flow to the radiator.
It is with this second installation whith which we have performed our test.
Advice
Before you buy a TCS, make sure it is compatible with your chassis, this is not guaranteed by the manufacturer.
The rule is simple, the more air flow you can get to the radiator, the more effective the system will work
The most effective positioning, which we have not been able to do on our car, is to mount the radiator vertically with the most air flow possible. This leaves us two options : At the front with a hole in the body and a place inside the bumper for the radiator, or besides the chassis, where it will be relatively unprotected.
The space between the pump’s metal extensions is very small and I advise you to first fit the black silicone tubes to the pump before fitting the transparent "chimney" so the black tubes do not get punctured.
The steel motor screws are very long. Make sure they are not too long and touch the rotor.
And here are the pictures of the results.
The first installation
|
|
The second installation
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
c. Filling up the TCS
Once the "Thermal Cooling System" is in place, you need to fill it up with the supplied liquid which we remember is non-conductive, always reassuring in the world of electric RC.Filling the TCS up is easy, all you have to do is :
take the two bottles
define one bottle for delivery and one for reception
place the silicone pipettes ontop of the bottles
loosen the pipette of the receiving bottle to allow the air to escape (or the bottle will expand)
connect the pipettes to the "chimneys" of the circuit and pay attention to put the right bottle to the right chimney (the delivery to the pump’s chimney, the reception to the other chimney)
press the delivery bottle for some seconds and repeat to fill up the circuit and evacuate any air bubbles
once the liquid that comes out into the receiving bottle contains no bubbles, pince the pump’s chimney, take the pipette off and close it
do the same thing with the other chimney
You’re done !
Attention
Before every r-n, check the level of the chimneys and in doubt, refill the circuit.
After the first run with the TCS, the level of the liquid will go down rapidly because the system will transfer all the remaining air bubbles to the chimneys. After the first run it is necessary to refill the TCS.
Pictures of the filling :
|
|
|
|
|
