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I figured I would do a little mini-review of this BL system for those who might be looking for an esc/motor combo for their re-re or vintage cars. Let me start out by saying that the new Hobbywing 3650 G2 motors have been totally redesigned. The motor can is now made of billet aluminum, and offers better cooling characteristics than the G1 series of motors which had an iron case.

I also noticed that the kV rating on the 17.5T G2 motor is 2200kV, compared to 2100kV on the previous 17.5T G1. Another notable feature is the dust-proof o-ring between the end-bell and the motor can that is used to protect the hall sensors from dust and debris. This leads me to believe that if you measure your motor's temperature, do so on the can and not the end-bell if you want an accurate reading.

After soldering my motor connections and a Dean's plug onto the esc's battery wires, I manually programmed the esc by using the instruction manual. I wish I had bought the programmer, because otherwise you will need a lot of patience to go through all the beep sequences to get to your desired parameter choices. Once you get the hang of it, it's not really that bad.

This BL system went into my RC10 World's re-re. I had no fitment issues with the Justock XR10 Zero Spec esc, as it's footprint is small and compact. Soldering was made simple by the help of pre-tinned esc wires. Hobbywing uses a solder with a very high melting temperature, but if you keep your iron tip clean with a dab of solder on it, it seems to help things go smoother. I used a Hobbico 60W iron for the job.

I hooked up a new SMC 5000mAH 40C 2s lipo to the new system, and powered it up. I did my testing on the road in front of my house. I always do this with new rc cars, to get the gears and bearings ran in, and to also break in the slipper clutch.

The motor has a lot of torque! I had my slipper too tight at first, and when I accelerated at WOT from a dead stop, it was wheelie time! After I got the slipper adjusted correctly, I started doing hot laps down the street to my neighbor's car, and then I whipped it around and high tailed the buggy back to my driveway. As I was driving the RC10, my mind flashed back to 1992 when I still had my gold pan. The dogs in the neighborhood were pulling their owners by the leash trying to get to my RC10, so I brought it in for a pit stop and a once over to see how things were going. Everything looked good, so back out I went.

With 31/72 gearing, the 17.5T BL system pushed the buggy fairly fast on the top end. Without a GPS on it, my brain says it's going 30+ mph. Off the line, the motor has enough torque to make the slipper clutch sing. Well, for one to two feet anyway, lol! The timing on the esc is locked at zero, so if you want more speed, you will have to gear for it. I think the way I have it set up is plenty fast enough for an RC10 buggy. I ran it for about 15 minutes, and the esc and motor were barely warm. The fan on the esc is always on.

Sensored start up is oooober---smooooth............Effortlessly smoooooooth. I'm temporarily using my wife's Traxxas Tx/Rx until my Futaba R204GF-E 4ch SFHSS micro Rx comes in the mail, which I will bind to a 4PLs radio. I was just really surprised at how smooth it was with the TRX radio gear, so I'm anxious to see how well everything operates with a higher quality radio.

Thanks for this review, very informative.

I am looking for something for my rc10 as well but am a complete newbie. I have been reading up on this combo a lot recently as a lot of people have been talking about it and it's been on sale as well. Being very intimidated at soldering, does this come pre-soldered as well? Reading the description is not so clear to me. Depending on which website, there may be language that hints that no soldering is required. Since I am new, I have no investment in connection types so I am not worried about that. Appreciate your thoughts. Thanks.

Haha, thanks for the thumbs up abailey21.

howaboutme....You're welcome. This BL system doesn't come pre-soldered. The ends of the battery and motor wires are pre-tinned at Hobbywing. So you would have to solder your three motor wires onto the motor. The blue, yellow, and orange wires go to the motor. You would also have to solder a power plug onto the battery wires. The red and black wires are the battery wires.

If you have a hobby shop or a track nearby, they will do it for you for a few bucks.

Thank you.

I'm not adverse to learning...just a bit gun shy.

I know exactly what you mean howaboutme. I have a degree in Electronics, but I still get shaky when I solder sometimes. Mostly because of proper soldering iron maintenance. Three rules that always get me through...The first rule is to use at least a 60W iron for RC applications. It gets the heat to whatever you're soldering quickly, so that you don't have to hold the iron to a mounting surface for extended periods of time. Too much heat can damage sensitive components.


The second rule is to always keep your tip clean with a damp sponge. This is highly important! Using a damp coral sponge (That means barely wet. Not soaking wet because of risk of electrical shock!) Just do a few swipes to get the excess solder off so that it doesn't puddle. Then apply the smallest dot of solder possible on both sides of the tip (if you're using a flat tip). Do this after every solder attempt.

The third rule...heat your soldering joints before you tin them. The purpose of tinning your soldering joints is to prepare your joints for immediate connection once heat is applied to them. Silver rosin core solder works well with small components like you would find in RC applications.

For example, if you are soldering a wire to a tab, tin both the wire and the tab with solder so that it covers the entire mounting surface area. Then sit the wire on the tab, and touch the iron to the top of the wire. The heat will go all the way through the wire and down to the tab, melting the solder on both joints. Once you see that the solder has melted, pull the iron away, and let the solder re-harden. That's all there is to it.

One good tip is to use an alligator clip to hold wires or power plugs with while you solder. It just makes things more simple.

If you have any spare wires and an old motor laying around, practice a few times on that until you think you have the hang of it. I do this every now and then just to brush up my skills.

Great review.

And what a perfect little world's car. I bet it is a sweet track machine.

Thanks Jimbo302. It hasn't seen the track yet. Soon though. I need to buy some spare suspension parts and hinge pins because I know I'm gonna break something.

joey_zrl wrote:I know exactly what you mean howaboutme. I have a degree in Electronics, but I still get shaky when I solder sometimes. Mostly because of proper soldering iron maintenance. Three rules that always get me through...The first rule is to use at least a 60W iron for RC applications. It gets the heat to whatever you're soldering quickly, so that you don't have to hold the iron to a mounting surface for extended periods of time. Too much heat can damage sensitive components.


The second rule is to always keep your tip clean with a damp sponge. This is highly important! Using a damp coral sponge (That means barely wet. Not soaking wet because of risk of electrical shock!) Just do a few swipes to get the excess solder off so that it doesn't puddle. Then apply the smallest dot of solder possible on both sides of the tip (if you're using a flat tip). Do this after every solder attempt.

The third rule...heat your soldering joints before you tin them. The purpose of tinning your soldering joints is to prepare your joints for immediate connection once heat is applied to them. Silver rosin core solder works well with small components like you would find in RC applications.

For example, if you are soldering a wire to a tab, tin both the wire and the tab with solder so that it covers the entire mounting surface area. Then sit the wire on the tab, and touch the iron to the top of the wire. The heat will go all the way through the wire and down to the tab, melting the solder on both joints. Once you see that the solder has melted, pull the iron away, and let the solder re-harden. That's all there is to it.

One good tip is to use an alligator clip to hold wires or power plugs with while you solder. It just makes things more simple.

If you have any spare wires and an old motor laying around, practice a few times on that until you think you have the hang of it. I do this every now and then just to brush up my skills.

Thank you for this! I'm slowly learning that moving to brushless will inevitably mean some kind of soldering. I'm going to be reading up on soldering.

Will also closely follow your progress as I am about to start a RC10 Worlds kit too (I think that's what you're showing), just my 2nd (after hotshot re-re) kit and 1st with an attempt at going to the track.

Nothing to soldering, anyone can do it.
Set up a well lit flameproof workstation and pick up a set of helping hands with your wire and iron, easy money.

soldering is easy after practicing. the trick is clean connections and flux is your friend. also, don't use silver solder, it requires a higher temperature for soldering and doesn't add much other than frustration and cost. simple rosin core leaded solder is your best bet, it has the lowest melting point and flows oh so nice. something like a 60/40 or 63/37. before making the connection, flow solder to both ends, and while still warm hold together and heat to flow together. the temperature has nothing to do with it, but the flux is still burning off and proving shielding(rosin burns off impurities). if you heat too long, the flux burns off and the solder pool will start to oxidize and get slurry.

(sorry for this aside on your review, car looks great and sounds like fun!)

howaboutme wrote:
Thank you for this! I'm slowly learning that moving to brushless will inevitably mean some kind of soldering. I'm going to be reading up on soldering.

Will also closely follow your progress as I am about to start a RC10 Worlds kit too (I think that's what you're showing), just my 2nd (after hotshot re-re) kit and 1st with an attempt at going to the track.

You're very welcome. We're all learning something new all the time. I've been studying chassis tuning, and what I need to be looking for to make adjustments. Yes, that's my World's car up there. I haven't been to my local track in a couple of years, and I really need to make time for it. My wife and I just bought our first home together, and we're just settling in. Now would be a perfect time to go to the track. Good luck with your RC10 build. It's an enjoyable kit to build.

jwscab wrote:soldering is easy after practicing. the trick is clean connections and flux is your friend. also, don't use silver solder, it requires a higher temperature for soldering and doesn't add much other than frustration and cost. simple rosin core leaded solder is your best bet, it has the lowest melting point and flows oh so nice. something like a 60/40 or 63/37. before making the connection, flow solder to both ends, and while still warm hold together and heat to flow together. the temperature has nothing to do with it, but the flux is still burning off and proving shielding(rosin burns off impurities). if you heat too long, the flux burns off and the solder pool will start to oxidize and get slurry.

(sorry for this aside on your review, car looks great and sounds like fun!)

Thanks for the refresher and the compliment jsscab. You are correct on the lead solder being more practical for this purpose. Lead rosin core solder should be bright and shiny to the appearance once the connection is made. Quoted by my Electronics professor twelve years ago. I only had some Trakpower solder laying around, which has silver in it. The best solder I ever used for RC applications was Dean's Ultra solder. That's some good stuff!

Thanks all for the soldering workshop! I appreciate it.

I also apologize to the OP for derailing the thread. Car looks great!

howaboutme wrote:Thanks all for the soldering workshop! I appreciate it.

I also apologize to the OP for derailing the thread. Car looks great!

Not a problem howaboutme. I'm very glad to help, and thank you. I watched this video on how to properly build and break in a ball differential and slipper clutch, and I set my car up the same way. It's detrimental that the diff and slipper in these cars are set up properly. You don't want your diff too loose or too tight, or it may slip or bind. Neither is good for the diff balls and thrust bearings.

http://site.petitrc.com/setup/How2ProperlyBuildandBreak-InaBallDifferentialandSlipperClutch/