Awesome mod!!!

do you solder both ends of the resistor to the orange/brown wire or just one?

I did this mod on 2 of my Gen 1 cars and it works great but the only problem I ran into is that I have a heck of time trying to keep the cars straight coming out of the turns, it seems like the servo doen't want to center itself and I can't get the car to go more than maybe a foot and it veers to the left or right, is there anyway to remedy this problem? Thanks.

Tom

IMO this mod makes your car slower. I've seen this on a couple cars, and the cars are slower than the ones (with the same mods) that don't have the steering fix. Plus I think it kills yor servo.

Maybe it's my imagination.

i know /2 w and 1/4 w resistors have been discuses but has anybody ever used 1/8 w resistors?

well since noone posted back i tried this mod with the 10k resistors and it works great........i like it so i guess im gonna keep it that way............

i was just wondering why the picture shows 10k resistors and the mod calls for 3.3k resistors........will either one work or is it just done for picture sake?

after playing with my fluke for a few minutes, it looks like this mod and surface mount mod (atomic mods, pxm,.....) is pertty much the same. Only difference is that this mod places the resistors on the steering servo as apposed to the pcb.

never mind i just did it this was my first time working on the EP and it works well its just as good as the one from am

im confused witch color resistors did you use i see people saying they used red brown orange and other poeple are useing red red brown im confused i have an electronics kit from radio shack and i picked out the resistors they had in the pic but by what you guys are saying its like orange orange brown can there be a difrent coclor combo for 3.3 or can you use something dirent then 3.3my colors are orange black brown or vice versa

cweber93 -

Thanks for the heads up on the pot install. Just a little above my head, (could've never figured the values out myself) so your tutorial was great. (Part #'s even.....BRAVO!!)

Took a little longer than just the resistors, but now I don't have to deal with the joke that is the controller. Trims never worked in the first place. I ended up with a really clean install and steering I never have to touch.

custom-

I had the same problem with grinding when turning left. Its the front AWD pinion rubbing on the tie rod. I just clamped the car down with the wheels off the ground and held the throttle while holding a file on the "points" of the pinion. Problem solved. Can't post pics and I know the explanation may sound strange, but take a look at it and you'll figure it out.

heres a vid of my xmod with this mod. it works great! exept i cant figure out how to fix that rubbing noise when i turn left. i have 4WD installed it has somthing to do with it i bet. well any way heres the vid i made!!!
http://www2.mini-zracer.com/albums/album709/NightDrift.mov

man i gotta try tat sounds tight. how does that play out with the tight turns mod?

peace 8)

heres an other tight turn tutorial. NOTE!!!! very hard.
http://www.atomicmods.com/tutorials/Tight_Turns/Tight_Turns_Install.htm :lol:

I dont know if this has been said, I read only the first and last page, but eh 1/4watt resistors are better. the 1/2watt works, but the 1/4 watt is what all the ppl sell them as.

also, the XCRL store carries em, price is goin down to 10cents a piece.

This is awsome I just did it a couple days ago with the 1/4 watt resistor and it worked out perfect had to file down the tierod from rubbing the gear when I turned now its excellent

I have also put the mod in my car but if I send to risky, then he to left and then must I to left and then resists me continues send send wheels right.

plz help me

This modification is great, and in my case i had no trouble with having to udjust the steering or anything like that.

THANX FOR THA TUT

Using a resitor with more resistivity will increase the turning radius, while using a resistor with less resistivity will decrease the turning radius.

Seeing as a resistor rated at 3.3K ohms will already yield full turning stop to stop, using anything larger won't give you anymore steering. It may even damage the servo since it will continue trying to turn after hitting the turn stops.

If you can't find 3.3K ohm resistors, you can add smaller resistors in series to make an equivalent resistance.

Using Ohm's Law, we know that R equivalent = ∑ Ri. Basically the sum of the resistors in series should be approximately equal to 3.3K Ohms.

The easiest way would of course be to get 3.3K exactly. They have them at RS.

Is there anyone that can tell me if lower or higher resistor values can be used...my wife picked a box in the City and the closest to optimum range from 1k or 10k. If I use either(which I'm not sure of) which would be best and would they acheive the desired result(super snap oversteer/drift-o-rama)

Did the mod on a two wheel drive NSX but wanted to know if I add AWD will it bind/lock when the wheels are at full turn? Works great thanks for the good TUT.
what happens If you adjust the steering trim on your controller or If your alignment is off any after youve done this upgrade. Will it damage anything because the steering horn is maxing out trying to go further than the bock will allow. Should we shave off the two blockers on the sides of the horn to prevent damage?

Holy turning radius Batman! I just did this mod this afternoon and it turns sweet now.Our Local Hobby store is going to be closed this Sunday for Easter so no racing this weekend which sucks. I really want to see how this does on the track now! My thanks to DieCastCustoms and anyone else who contributed to this Tutorial! Xmods are like a real car manufacture! Makes you wonder why they didn't design it like this stock! So far I have no problems with binding the AWD or anything even without reducing the radius on the remote.

*edit* I don't know whether I just happened to fix a bad solder conection while I had the board out or if it was the resistors but my servo jitter went away completely after this mod! It used to always jitter on fresh batteries with 5 cells but it doesn't do it at all now. It turns each direction smoothly, tight radius, and equal in each direction.
JustinL

ok, since I couldn't get a response to my question, I went ahead and tried it, It works beautifully. Here are the instructions:

First off, you will want to manually center the servo.
for an idea:centering servo and pot just ignore the moving it by hand, the car will find the center of the pot for you.
easiest to do with the 0 degree tie-rod.
turn on your car and controller.
set your steering trim on the controller so that your car goes as straight as possible.
pick up your car and turn it off. !!Important!! do not bump your front wheels.
take apart the front assembly careful not to move the wheels.
remove the servo, without touching the horn.
take off the front of the servo without bumping the horn.
turn on the controller and the car and move the steering wheel back and forth a couple of times.
turn off the car and the controller.
now, very carefully put the front of the servo back on, don't bump the front horn.
Servo is now centered

Parts needed are the same for the 3.3K tutorial, with one added part, a 10K-Ohm 15 turn Cermet Potentiometer RS pt# 271-343
An Ohmmeter

1. Take the pot and cut pin 3 off (the pin closest to the adjustment screw) and file it down.

1b. use the Ohmmeter to get the exact value of the 3.3K resistor and use it on the two leads of the Pot so that you get the exact value from the pot.
this is so that when you hook it all up and turn it on your servo doesn't fly all the way to one side or the other possibly causing damage.

2. Use a small gauge wire, like one in a CAT5 cable or equivalent (I used a wire from inside a mouse cord) and cut about 8 inches of it it.

3. Cut that 8 inches of wire in half, leaving two 4" pieces.

4. Strip one end of each piece off about 1/4"

5. Solder one piece to one post on the pot. the other piece to the remaining post of the pot.

6. Put heat shrink on the #2 post (the one that would be the middle one if we hadn't cut post #3 off.

7. bend both leads to the back of the pot (the side opposite of the screw)

8. Heat shrink the whole pot as following: one peice around the whole assembly; then cut a strip of heat shrink to cover the back side and bend the wires up along the back and along the top putting the strip on the back over the wires, and throw another piece around the rear of the pot to hold the strip in place.

9. Now is the time to follow steps 1-5 of the beginning of the tut.

10. Ok, placement of the pot is a little tricky depending on your body style, I have a NSX which means no cockpit room, the easiest would be directly on top of the servo with double sided tape, If you place it with the wires coming down on the same side as the leads to the servo and the adjustment screw to the front of the chassis, it will help with the steering trim when you are finished.

11. Take the wires of the pot and cut them to size and where you would normally put the 3.3K resistor on the brown wire, solder the wires in instead.

12. Now go ahead and throw your 3.3K in between the orange wire like you normally would.

13. Time to finish up the rest of the steps from the beginning of the tut and put everything back together, you may want to power up to make sure that you don't have any bad connections and that you can steer.

Now if you mounted it like I suggested, this is where it comes in handy
Turn the car and the controller on and start like you would to set your steering trim to center, but don't use the buttons on the top of the controller.
Instead use a small flat-head screwdriver on the adjustment screw of the pot
In the way it was wired up if you turn the screw to the left the wheels will go right, and going right will have your wheels turning left.
So looking at the front of the chassis:
turn screw < wheels turn <
turn screw > wheels turn >
Keep adjusting the screw until you get the car going straight, then...
Don't worry about your steering trim again!!! Yee-haw!!!!
You will probably need to adjust it if you change tie-rods, but normally you will be able to turn your car on and go!!

Cory

dont know if its better .. but i know its ho lot easier to install ...

I'm curious if a setup like this would be workable, brown wire from servo to 3.3K resistor to brown wire to ESC; orange wire from servo to end lead of 10K pot, wiper lead from 10K pot to orange wire to ESC

I'm kinda wanting to do this so that I can fine tune the steering, since all the servo centering threads all have the "looks center" or "close to center" setups. If it is posible to fine tune the center with a pot on the xmod, and just be able to pull the xmod out of the case, turn it on, and go perfectly straight without having to play with the steering trim on the controller, that would be maybe one of the most convenient mods that could be done.

Cory

Is the 3.3 fix better or the tight turning mod from atomicmods better?

Took a little time to figure out how to mount the servo with the 1/2 size but all in all it does the trick 8) THX

well the colors on the resistors are specifically made for identifying resistors, if they dont match the colors that everyone else is using, then dont use them. just buy some. they are 5 for 99 cents at the RS here :-D

hey, i found an old "board" (dunno wat to call it) from a different radioshack rc car, and there were some resistors that resembled some posted, but the color seems kinda wierd..
gold,(blank), blue, red, yellow
or the other way around?
do u think i could use these? and i dont want a "maybe. Try it, and post ur results, cause i only have 1 car, and i only plan on having one car, if theres a risk, i dont wanna do it!

On my statement above about not seeing other xmods, on was talking about in person, you know, at races. Just to clarify.

Here's mine. I had to do it like this because my 180 motor backs right up into the servo case.

I just installed the tight turn upgrade a few days ago, and I love it. Just took it to the track today and gave those mini-z's a run for their money. Them guys were like "HA, that xmod won't take the first turn, you need a field to turn that thing around in." Well, I ended up leading the first three laps till I mis-judged the wall. Still came in third out of six. Not too bad. Thanks for this tut. I owe you one. Oh, by-the-way, I've never raced another xmod, only mini-z's. I've heard poeple say they have'um, but I never see'um. Oh well :roll: .

i did the 3.3k, with bent tie rod, and shrink wrap on the pole...
turning radius is about 1 foot.... i think that color0's car can turn around a coffee mug... i think he posted that back in the summer over at xmodworld.com..... is dangerous at high speeds tho...

I did this mod this evening and I gotta say it ROCKS! This is easily the best $1.07 I've spent on this thing.

yes.

Does this mod make the servo go full lock on both sides like the atomicmods one?

It looks to me that in the picture, they're either 5.0k, or 1.0k resistors. It's hard to tell the colors.

3.3k resistors are orange orange red, and gold for a 5% tolerance, those resistors don't seem to be 3.3k resistors.

Color code for those who had no education on electronics (no offense)

0-black
1-brown
2-red
3-orange
4-yellow
5-green
6-blue
7-violet
8-gray
9-white

the first two colors are the numbers and the third band on the resistor (next to the gold/silver/no color band) is the number of zeros, like 3.3k (k as in thousand) will be orange (3) orange (3) red (2 zeros), third band is for number of zeros

is the only difference the size or?