My Recomendations for Electronics

[Liam Jackson]

Hi, Love the design for the truggy! Its on my to-print list as soon as my printer is working...

Fairly new to RC cars so needed to do this research a while ago! I make no guarantees these are great choices but they seem to work for me!

Lipo Chargers
I got this charger, Its cheap, shipped from the UK (seems available in most of their warehouses):
http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__26010__HobbyKing_E4_Balance_Charger_UK_Warehouse_.html
Ive heard good things about this one too: http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__7028__Turnigy_Accucel_6_50W_6A_Balancer_Charger_w_accessories.html

You need to run these from a laptop charger or other 12V DC source! Doesn't take too long to charge...

Lipo batteries
They're perfectly safe and offer a few benefits like better runtime, lower voltage drop so your car doesn't get all slow when the battery is low and higher current possibility, along with weight saving and that they don't need to be fully discharged before charging.
I'd recommend hard-case batteries, from what I can tell turnigy ones have a good reputation. After that its mainly about dimensions (make sure it fits), capacity and discharge rate. I use Liopos between 4000-6000Mah, it gives a good run time and theyre cheap. Discharge rate is in 'C'. Multiply the C by the capacity to calculate the current you can draw (e.g 5000mah x 30C =  150A). The S number is number of cells (voltage), 2S is fine for beginners.

Hobbyking sometimes do offers on batteries. For my RC car I like this one: http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idProduct=29003

Lipo Safety
Get a lipo safety bag, they don't cost much and you can use it to store your lipos safely and always put a lipo in one when charging. Make sure your ESC has a lipo cut-off and make sure its set. 3.4V per cell is a good safe number. If you don't have a cut-off you can use a lipo alarm, they're really cheap on ebay and hobbyking sell some.

Motor
I would say get 13.5T or 17.5T Brushless. They are fairly standard. For proper club racing most people looking for cheap entry get the hobbywing (not hobbyking) 13.5T motor. You can find them cheap on ebay and they have a nice blue look. For messing about the motor probably doesn't matter too much, I've been tempted to try one of the turnigy trackstars.

ESC (AKA speed controller or speedo)
Since Ive had two blow up on me I tend to over-rate. But if you under-rate your esc it will overheat and die, possibly spectacularly... I'm using this ESC and it seems fine, rated 100A and its not much more expensive than 35/45A versions: http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idProduct=8993

You can use it fine without the program card but Its only $6 and does make things easier to setup: http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idProduct=9550

Sensorless ESCs can run both sensorless and sensored motors (without the sensor wire).

Wiring
I re-wire all my RC equipment so everything is the same. I've used 4mm HXT (which are just bullets / bannana connector)  for batteries and 3.5mm bullets for motor connections in the past. But will be using 6mm bullets on motors and 6mm HXT for batteries from now on. I've had other connector types melt and short out on me before. Bullets are cheap, readily available and can take the current, the HXT just makes sure you can't connect them the wrong way and that the bullets can't short.

If you're not comfortable soldering then good luck finding kit ready soldered with all connectors matching. My best advice would be to get someone to solder for you or teach you how.

Rx / Tx (AKA Reciever / Transmitter or Radio Gear)
Get 2.4Ghz. Long range and no interference. If you like the pistol grip type then I think hobbykings would be okay. I'm struggling to find a cheap stick type transmitter for cars, they all seem for planes (sticks don't return to the middle) or are really expensive.

Any questions I'll try to answer or ask my hardcore RC friends for you.

I'd really like a nice hardware BOM for this car, there must be cheap shocks and bits that are readily available on ebay that would work.

[Daniel Norée]

Do you have any recommendations for servo? The one i have is just to weak and it´s starting to get annoying...

[Liam Jackson]

Do you know the torque and speed of your current servo?
I've not used any of these but they look like good choices:

This one appears well-recommended but a little pricey:
http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__9443__BMS_616DMG_HS_Digital_Buggy_Servo_MG_10_2kg_12sec_46_5g.html

You can get this a little cheaper but its a bit slower:
http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__2__HXT_10kg_Servo_metal_gear_55g_10kg_16sec.html

And again, slow but powerful and cheap:
http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__24575__Turnigy_TGY_5513MD_Metal_Gear_Digital_Servo_12kg_0_18sec_54_5g.html

[Boris Tékaty]

I wonder how do you choose the ESC ? If you have a ESC rated for 100A and you draw 150 A (5000mahx30c) won't it overrate the ESC and eventually burn it? Should we instead use lower C battery or a higher Amp ESC (which is much more expensive) ?

On Saturday, February 2, 2013 8:42:40 PM UTC+1, Liam Jackson wrote:

[Andrew Newman]

A LiPo compatible ESC will say in the specifications "2S Lipo minimum, 3S LiPo maximum" or something of that sort.  The amp ratings only matter when pairing ESC's and motors, but you'll get a better deal and better match buying a motor/ESC combo anyway.  I would recommend Castle Creations as the brand, they have the best reputation in the RC world.