Brushless Associated Mini-MGT 3.0

Brushless Associated Mini-MGT 3.0
by Tony Arnold - StampedeProject.com - 10/15/08
(Click any image for a larger size)

Yeah, OK, OK, I know I have a serious freaking problem. Why in the name of everything holey in RC do I insist on converting perfectly good RC's to brushless? Honestly it happens innocently enough. One minute I am cleaning my Mini-MGT and then next I have the clutch pulled off to "just take a look" at what it would take to convert it to brushless. I swear that I must have blacked out, because the next thing I know the clutch has been converted to single speed, locked, reassembled, and I am Dremeling my way through the uni-constructed electrics mount to free the servo mount. As well all know... modification is the point of no return.

As much as I love my converted brushless Revo (Revo'Lution), a littler/smaller brothersounded like fun. Also I have never seen a brushless Mini-MGT, so I thought it would be unique. This little rig was just begging to go brushless and the conversion is very easy if you have the skills to make a motor mount. My only regret is that the Mini-MGT was such a good little Nitro RC with a lot of stock Nitro centric features such as reverse, 2-speed transmission, and even a 4-channel radio all beautifully packed, typical Associated style, into the chassis which simply are not needed after the brushless conversion. Ohh well, 1lb of crap gone that isn't needed.

As noted, it all started with yanking the 2-speed spur gears and locking the clutch by simply screwing a 4mm screw into the clutch adjustment hole, reassemble the spur gear parts but omitting the larger 1st gear - done and I still have a working slipper clutch.

The motor mount plate was made with 1/4" 6061 aluminum. I simply traced one of my RC-Monster motor mounts to assure the hole/slot positions were right and tossed the ruff cut plate into my Proxxon Mini-Mill and cut the slots, milled an inset to lighten the plate, and then finished all the edges. The little Proxxon mini-mill isn't fast but it does do a very nice job. Once I had the plate milled, I did a little finishing with a sander and the motor mount was ready for mounting. A good rule is to drill the chassis holes first then mark and drill the holes in the part to be attached to the chassis last. I drilled the chassis holes, marked the hole positions on the plate and drilled a couple holes with the drill bit that came with my 3mm tap set. Rub a little wax on the tap for lubrication, tap the hole, and the mount is ready to be attached to the chassis.

The pictured plastic battery tray/mount was actually a Wheely King battery box half that is screwed to the stock trimmed throttle/brake servo posts on one side and a spacer on the other. I will eventually make nice aluminum tray like I made from my Menace, but I wanted to do some testing before I got too far ahead of myself.

Double stick tape the ESC and RX in place, mount the HUGE Neu 1512/2.5D and by simply adding a MaxAmps 3S pack we are ready to bash brushless style.

As far as speed the Brushless Mini-MGT is faster than the nitro version on 3S, on 4S it's just insane. The really interesting thing here is that I don't even have a fan on the Mamba Max and after 30 minutes of bashing and testing, neither the ESC or motor was hot. This size Neu is a bit much for this very light little 1/10th scale rig. Currently I am running a 540 sized 50mm length Medusa Product 2000KV motor that seems to do just fine lofting the wheels and gives me a bit more runtime due to it's smaller size.

Overall I am very happy with the conversion. The only little glitch was that I had simply detached the reversing lever from the removed servo and on hard hits it would flip the transmission into reverse - made it kind of fun and un-predictable to drive. I used a short link and fixed the lever in place. I may will also do a little cutting on the chassis at some point to rid the superfluous metal extensions required for Nitro mounting, but for now this is a very fun, fast and durable little basher.