New Site Format
     As you know
  StampedeProject has
  become way more than
  just Stampede, Traxxas,
  to now include other
  RC brands, accessories,
  and cars. I still don't sell
  anything, I just
  enthusiastically promote
  those RC products I think
  are great.
     Take a look through
  the above links.
  I simply had too much
  information for my
  old site format.
  More fun projects
  coming...
  - Tony

  StampedeProject.com

  Please Private Message
  me Here on the
  Traxxas Forum    

  Copyright 2007
  all rights reserved 

StampedeProject.com Sponsor - Medusa Products
www.MedusaProducts.com

Until 2004, Medusa Research had been a long time business to business and government electronics engineer, designer, and manufacturer.  In late 2004 Medusa started to recognize the opportunity in the RC market and launched Medusa Products with very affordable brushed ESC’s, Power Analyzers, and high efficiency brushless motors all designed to work equally well in everything from 1/10th to large 1/8th RC cars, trucks, planes and boats. Medusa was the first company to offer a Serial computer connection to a meter and to have a switching BEC on an ESC.  Pretty impressive for a company most of you have never heard of. 

MEDUSA BRUSHLESS SENSORLESS MOTORS
Looking at Medusa's 540 sized motors you would not expect them to deliver the huge power like Hacker or Neumotor, however through careful engineering and use of very high quality components, they deliver huge value with performance levels matching the output of the leading 1/8th scale focused motors and even surpass the quality and power of brand like Fiego.  I have tested Medusa's 50mm length motors in 1300Kv and 2200KV and their 60mm 2200Kv motors and have to say I was blown away with the performance and the extraordinarily low price.

Their 50mm-1300Kv with a 3.2mm pinion shaft worked very well in a crawler build considering a sensorless brushless setup typically isn't the best for crawling.  The control wasn't quite that of a high turn brushed motor, but it was some of the smoothest sensorless power I have experienced out of an aftermarket motor.  The motor has now found a home in one of my higher speed Rock Racer projects where super low speed control isn't necessarily required.

MEDUSA ORACLE DATA RECORDER
Medusa also manufactures a stellar inexpensive Data Recorder called the Oracle.  In my mind a data recorder is an indispensable tuning tool for any electrically powered RC.  The Oracle interfaces with your computer via a USB interface and PC Windows software to view and edit all the data captured during runs.  The Oracle records Volts, Amps, Watts, WattHrs, AmpHrs, RPM, Throttle, two (2) Temperatures, and Aux Input. Other features include recording times from 20 minutes to over 10 days High resolution Holds multiple recordings at one time Factory Calibrated. Our units are the standard for accuracy for R/C meters and recorders. User updatable and expandable for future enhancements. Lowest resistance/voltage drop of any other RC Data Recorder. Medusa uses a true current shunt to get the most accurate reading possible.  If you know your gear ratios you can compute speed along with any other calculation you want or need in the Oracle data editor.  Where Novak, Eagle Tree and other data logging products are easily over $125 just for the logger and then the sensors are extra, the Medusa Oracle Data Recorder including RPM, Temp, and USB adapter is just $115 in the high current "Pro" version topping out at a whopping 200AMP current (Novak's pro version is only 100Amp).  Overall an outstanding value.

Medusa Research 2200KV 540-50mm motor Testing

Medusa's brushless Afterburner motors are proof that you don't need a big ass Hacker or Neumotor to get your buggy moving. 

On 4S the setup screamed and didn't thermal however the Mamba Max was cooking along at about 168 degrees and the motor's heat sink was definitely moving some heat at 116 Degrees in less than 5 minutes.  Adding a fan and the ESC temp dropped to a cool 116 degrees and the heatsink kep the motor cool and spinning all day to 33K RPM.  Was it a ripping 45-50MPH super buggy? No, we need a Hacker or Neu motor for that or one of Medusa's new longer V2 60mm, 70mm, or 80mm motors, but the inexpensive Medusa Research V1 2200Kv motor rocks.

Satisfied with the initial tests, I took the Yusa out for a day long track testing.  Equipped with a fan cooled Mamba Max, the Medusa 2200Kv motor, 12T pinion, and a couple Max Amps 3S and 4S packs. I torture tested the crap out of the buggy and little motor over 5 long hours.  A StampedeProject first, I had no breakages at all.  The best part was that I actually ran for nearly 5 hours straight, pack after pack the buggy just kept running and my Hyperion charger kept cranking out charged packs.  It wasn't stunningly fast, but it did make it over most of the doubles (jumps) and occasionally a triple.  The 3S 10,000Mh packs delivered almost an hour of run time and the 5000Mh packs nearly 30 minutes - I was stunned.  The little motor may not deliver warp speeds, but the smaller motor didn't suck the juice as fast and extended run times.

Think about this for a second.  The Mamba Max can now be had for $125 and the Medusa Research 2200Kv Afterburner motor is just over a $100.  This is a truly affordable combination well in the realm of a standard 10th scale system.

Did it hang with the gassers?  Actually, I beat every single one that came to the track...seriously I did.  None of them could keep their cars working for more than 5 minutes at a time, so I pretty much won by default.  Two poor guys worked on getting their cars started with no success for over two hours, meanwhile in brushless land, I logged another two hours of track time - go brushless and you will stop feeling like killing someone every time you leave the track. I seriously felt bad for these guys.

Since that grueling test, I have been back to the track a number of times with tweaks here and there.  If you are targeting high 30MPH to low 40MPH speeds the little Medusa 2200Kv -50mm motor will just keep moving, however I thing this motor would be better matched for something like my Associated Mini-MGT 10th scale 4X4 monster truck where the point is to keep a great bashing vehicle under the 45MPH mark to limit breakage.  For me this is where the motor now permanently resides and delivers plenty of wheely educing power.  The longer and newer version V2 60mm, 70mm, and 80mm motors are the way to go for competition level buggys, truggies, and wild ass monster truck conversions that will get these rigs easily into the 50MPH range.  Are the Medusa motors as good as a Neumotor, Hacker, Fiego, Castle, or others?  Yeah I think they are.  Neu and Hacker make some stunning motors with performance and efficiency way up there a, but the prices are also in the $300 range.  For just over $100 the Medusa motors are hard to beat and are worlds better than the Fiegos or imports of the world.

Test Results from my Oracle Data Recorder

Images (Click for larger High Resolution Versions)

RC Car Magazine Articles
I have also used their 1300Kv motor in a couple rock crawlers, including my Part 2 Axial Crawler tuning article in RC Car Magazine.

The use of the above photos and information freely available to use by manufactures for promotional, web, and marketing purposes - all other uses or users require prior approval (just ask).  Copyright 2008 - Tony Arnold - StampedeProject.com All rights reserved.