I've recently discovered these Awanfi batteries after seeing them on another channel. I bought two 1500 mAh 50C 2S LiPo's for my WLToys 12428 and they've been a huge improvement over the stock batteries. More acceleration punch and noticeably longer run times. Great batteries and they're markedly less expensive than other batteries of similar size.
Great they are working out for you! Yeah, good c-rating and punch. Yeah, so far I’ve had only good experiences with the Awanfi batteries. Looking forward testing more ☺️
I built a grasshopper in January and finished a hornet last night and both have the Awanfi 7.2V 3600mAh NiMH batteries for power. So far they work great. Hopefully, they will last awhile. I bought the 2 pack from Amazon.
Just awesome! The comparison was great, shame the Hornet got scratched up though. Was great to see some of your cars on display at the end, cool collection! I have no idea what you should compare next, there was too many choices. 😂👍
Thanks, my friend. Yeah, black metallic Hornet’s not as shiny on the shelf anymore but I had fun ☺️ Uhh, yeah, for a start I think I will just find one where the batteries fits ☺️
Another interesting and entertaining video, Mikael! You know that I loved seeing you run the Hornet with a good-old wibbly wobbly! But with the 3s on-board, it was more the handling that was wibbly wobbly! Oh how I cringed to see it flipping and rolling, poor old Hornet - the things we do in the name of entertainment! It was well worth it for the show - glad the Tamiya came out on top this time, hehe! As for testing the new batteries, I would love to see how a nice handling DT-03 would fare, but I feel the battery compartment is way to restrictive, it's tight in there! I will be interested to see what you choose anyway my friend. Best wishes from Mark... :-)
Thanks a lot, Mark! He he, yeah, good one, the whole Hornet turned into a wibbly wobbly :-) I decided early on (actually after 10 seconds on it's maiden run when it turned upside down on gravel) that this is my runner body so I'm fine with a few cracks now and then. Yeah, glad I succeeded making it faster, although it was a tight win. Uhh, yeah, good idea, the DT-03. There is a slight chance that the 2S 5000 mah hard cases might fit. Definitely not in the DT-02. Looking forward trying them out. Thanks again for watching, my friend.
Fun to see the speed difference - I had a Grashopper II as a kid, with a Hornet body shell and an uprated motor, at the time it seemed quick but it's definitely no comparison for the modern brushless cars on LiPo's, great to see though! :)
Nice, John! Got all the Hoppers, they are just great fun still. And the Hornet (and Grasshoppers with an upgraded 540 motor) has plenty of speed I think. But yes, nothing compared to the modern brushless set ups coupled with high gear ratios and 3-6S LiPos 🙂
Thanks for the comparison test. My two grasshoppers did 48 on 3S and they were controllable. I think I have a video where I tested the stock and the dynamite 15t motor on 3S 😁
Hi, Charlie! Yeah I think I remember that video. My main problem with this was making it go straight. This extremely narrow road requires it. Even with a lot of steering trimming it wasn’t really possible and whenever I slightly tried to adjust the steering while in high speed, because it was heading for one of the sides, it just flipped or rolled immediately 🙂 Ohh, well, I had fun. So was the 48 kph with the Mabuchi 27T silver can?
Great video Mikael and very informative. But who cares how fast they are when you can do wheelies like that in the Hornet hehehe. Those crashes looked painful, hope they didn't do too much damage? But as Mark said the things we do to entertain our viewers lol.
Thanks, Rob! Yeah, I actually kinda wish I had focused filming on the wheelies when I returned home with the footage, but at the time I was so focused in trying to get a clean speed run. Nothing serious damaged, just the body shell with a few cracks (it already had scratches). Ha ha, yeah, I kinda also do this for myself at the same time. Love doing speed runs and seeing the measurements and finding out, for an example, the difference between a 2S and 3S in a Hornet :-)
That 3S pack really woke up that Mabuchi 27 turn motor! 27mph is impressive for a stock can like that! But I wonder how long it would take for the brushes to weld themselves to the comutator lol.
Yeah, it was truely awaken :-) The motor and ESC didn't seem hot for these short speed runs on tarmac, but I think you are right, in the long run, and off road, it would probably start to soon feel the 3S :-)
Between You and Me I was secretly cheering on The Hornet because I have and always will have a soft spot in my heart for the good old Hornet. Great comparison video. Oh and the Hornet pulling a wheelie that was Cool.
Hi Shayen! Definitely the first time any of my Hopper/Hornets has done a wheelie! Should have filmed it in slo mo when I had the chance but was too concentrated on getting a clean run, keeping the wheelies and crashes to a minimum :-) Yeah, we gotta cheer on the old ones for still being in the game at all :-)
Excellent video Mikael. I am surprised the Hornet wasn't quicker on 2s though. For your next test I vote for your Hpi Firestorm, because I don't think I could watch you damage another one of your beautiful Tamiyas ; ))
Thanks, Derek! It was good to see your Grasshopper out too this weekend. Yeah, well, when comparing a good healthy fresh/newly charged NiMH 7.2 to a LiPo 7.4 I usually always only get one or two kph more. But it feels very different though (the punch, acceleration). And after a minute or so the NiMH will start to decline in top speed/voltage much faster than the LiPo. I like your choice. The HPI could deserve a little speed run (not sure if I will be able to control it on this narrow road though, on 3S) and my Tamiyas could deserve a little break from all the carnage :-)
So my 959B came in the mail about two days ago. The motor and ESC get VERY hot on that buggy! I actually managed to solve the issue by grinding ventilation "ports" into the motor mount, so the motors internal fan can pull air through the motor. With the modified mount the motor and esc get slightly hot now and I also get a few more minutes of runtime! Its a stupid design that Wltoys can easily fix themselves.
Hi Robert. Hope you are enjoying it! And yeah, motor and ESC gets hot real fast with that gearing. Good you can keep it at least a little cooler with your mod.
Very entertaining Mikael. You are a nutter running your lovely Hornet on 3S! I felt very sorry for it taking all that damage, poor little thing! I think that my Hornet was about that speed with 3500kv brushless and 2S lipo but I only ran it on grass and never had a GPS on it. Tarmac=damaged RC's! Like you say it's possibly not a good idea to run a soft case lipo in a car where the batteries fall out very easily. Also I can't remember if I told you before but my Firestorm nearly caught fire when I was running it on 3S with the high gear ratio doing speed tests. The ESC ended up as a melted blob and lots of black smoke was pouring out. The only thing that stopped a fire was the fact that the wires melted off the ESC so stopped the short circuit. Just saying, be careful but if you aren't being careful then make sure the camera is rolling! Anyway, nice video mate. Have a smashing weekend :-)
Ha ha, I like your thinking. That’s one of the bonus parts of filming, that even when it goes wrong you at least got some interesting footage. Yeah, the Hornet took a beating. I had to drive it two-handed so too bad most of the crazy flips on the tarmac was not on film. I remember your brushless Hornet. Definitely as fast as this one if not a lot faster. Thanks for the heads up with the Firestorm. I’m not even sure what gearing it has, as it’s a second hand so I need to count the teeth and check up on it. Got a Hobbywing 2-3S ESC in it (my Firestorm is one of the old ones, with the 2S ESC) but I think it’s a 60A so it will probably still be in the danger zone with the high gearing. Looking forward speed testing it. For my every day runs I usually prefer something slow (30-50 kph) but I bet the HPI on 3S will be the fastest I’be ever tried. Wonder if it is controllable on this narrow lane. Will have to try and see 😀 Thanks, Pete.
@@NordicRC Yeah I say that about keeping the camera rolling because when the smoke was billowing out of the Firestorm we were too busy panicking and faffing about and completely forgetting that it would make for a good video if we pointed the camera at it. I was fully expecting it to go up in flames but luckily it didn't. There is some footage that might make it into a future vid. Anyway, looking at your Firestorm it has almost certainly got the standard gearing because of the way it accelerates. The high speed gearing is an extra and the pinion is 35 tooth and the spur gear is 77. I think the standard gears are 19 tooth pinion and 88 tooth spur or something similar. It is epic of 3S but you need to be a bit careful. Like you say you don't need enormous speed to have fun. I see that HPI Racing has gone into administration which is a worry as we need to be able to get spares for these. Hopefully they will get bought as I do like their products. Hope you don't break yours in the meantime :-)
Pete Wylie RC Videos Would be interesting to see the footage you got. Uhh, that gear ratio difference sounds like a lot, with the spur gear changed too. Yeah, I bet mine is standard. Will check up on it. Not sure if I will try the high gearing, but will try it on 2S and 3S. Some time ago, maybe a year or two, I heard about the trouble HPI went through. I was under impression that it got sorted out, since they started to release new models, like that Crawler/trail truck.
@@NordicRC Yeah avoid the high gear ratio on the Firestorm. I think that the problem HPI had a while ago was that the European distributor went bust. That got taken over but this time it's the whole company. Hopefully someone will buy it and make some good products. Mike at RCing Around did an interesting chat about it on his channel.
With both of those buggies I would've run atleast two batteries through them to break in those motors. With every brushed motor I've ever used I always get about 3 or 4 mph more after the second run. Once the brushes start to seat you'll see what those two buggies can really do.
Yeah, some people swear to the breakin' in method, some don't. I can't remember if this motor was broken in before the first run, but I've done it with several others. Would be interesting to measure it. Maybe two new "non-broken-in" silver cans versus two new + broken in.
@@NordicRC Well by break in I mean just running them on road and not just fooring it off the line but rather rolling on the throttle up to full speed. The water method I dont like since it wears the brushes away too much a really limites the overall life of the motor.
Yeah, I think I've done one or two water methods, before a couple of videos brought me to the attention that all the water might do more damage than good. Especially it could cause rust on the bearings inside if not dried up properly.
Yeah, well, I kinda like them both for what they are, but you are right, the Hornet is definitely more unique, iconic and "it's own" with a rich history behind it. And yes, such a BEAUTY :-)
Saludos amigo Nordic RC Visions ¡¡ buena prueba de estos rapidos coches Rc mi amigo , EHNORABUENA ¡¡ y gracias por compartir este buen momento captado del Rc . Saludos cordiales desde Canarias y buen fin de semana .
I bought the original ‘96 Tamiya Stadium Thunder that was finally put together 2 Christmases ago for my son, so because it’s the original 540 motor can I get that same battery you displayed and gain more speed on that truck?
You will run a risk of destroying/over-heating both your motor and MSC for sure. This was only a quick speed test, not a whole run. The ESC and motor used here are rated for max. 7.2v so I was running a risk too even with this short run.
@@NordicRC I've ordered myself a 1060 ESC from China, which is supposed to cover a wide range of battery types and sizes. I assume that would be fine and the only part to suffer could be the motor?
WLToys A959 is a crazy fast car for its price and a lot of fun, but the build quality is very cheap the gearbox practically melted on me after a couple of weeks... Tamiya is way better hands down. Nice vid thanks for sharing :)
Thanks for the kind feedback, Mark! Yeah, I agree, though personally I have not had troubles with any of my A959's yet, but I hear about others having trouble with the gears. As soon as I find the time I will do an upgrade series, starting with the gears. I already have the parts and they are not that expensive. I think the A959 holds up pretty good, compared to the price.
@@NordicRC Sure upgrade gear video would be great so I can understand how to fix it :D I'm more of a RTR guy I really never have the time to build cars. But I like watching the vids :)
I enjoyed this one very much :) You need a gyro if you wanna go faster with your Hornet :) I vote for the DT-03 next time as it's so long ago i've seen anyone racing them on YT
Thank you, my friend! He, yeah, that would help ... or a better driver or/and a wider road ... or all. So uncontrollable in high speed on tarmac :-) Ahh, good idea. I will definitely check if the batteries fit. If not, I will still take it outside soon :-)
Hi Bora! Thanks! That could be so cool. I don't think the hard cases will fit (I'm starting to wonder if they will fit any of my Tamiyas) but the 3S in one of them could certainly be interesting!
Love the cars! Grew up with them all. Times changed and now into drones and aircrafts and some buggies. So I have a indorfin 130 fpv racing drone by HOBBICO that I love but can’t find a replacement battery for it! Someone help me please because this is my favorite drone
Nice video mate ! But . . . . 2s Li-Ion battery is 7.4V and not 6.4V as far as I know. Li-Ion cells are rated at 3.6 or 3..7V per cell. So 2s is 7.4V. Cheers! p.s. I have a vintage Tamiya Saint Dragon which I'm setting up again with Li-pos. It is very similar to the Grasshopper and the Hornet. I would like to upgrade the wheel hubs to bearings, but I'm a bit green on that. Can you please give me a hint and perhaps send me a link for wheel bearings fitting it? Cheers!
Thanks, bro. Nope. Li-Ion comes in different voltages. Got another video with the A959-B where you can see the massive difference of the 6.4v and the 7.4v. (well, a LiPo bit still ...). Saint Dragon project sounds cool! Never had one so no qualified tips, other than to look at the manual and find the bearing size needed.
@@NordicRC Hey man, solved the voltage question after some research. Li-ion does not come in different voltages, Li-Ion cells are always rated at 3.6V or 3.7V, just like Li-Po cells are always 3.7V per cell. The battery with 6.4V is not a Li-Ion but a Li-Fe battery. Li-Fe cells are 3.2V per cell, so that expalins it, being a 2s. (2x3.2V=6.4V). Found this on the specs of an A959 rc car sale advert, where it says that the battery is a 6.4V Li-Fe. Cheers bro !
catbijoux1 Strangely I got several batteries that are labelled Li-ion 6.4v and they are sold everywhere as Li-Ion 6.4v (try google them, you can get them everywhere) and LiFe batteries are very different, physical shaped, more like a LiPo, flat, where Li-Ion are round (like the old NiMH’s etc.). So ... I’ve never heard that Li-Ion can’t have a different nominal voltage than 3.7v. They are extremely common, these 6.4v Li-Ion.
@@NordicRC Strange, and true what you said that there are many batteries labelled and sold as Li-Ion 6.4V. I found the Li-Fe battery type listed in a Li-Ion Wikipedia search page, where it clearly states that the Li-ion cell voltages are 3.6V, 3.7V, 3.8V and 3.85V and then separately lists the LifePO4 cell voltage as 3.2V. Link below. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithium-ion_battery Nowhere did I find information from reasonly reliable sources (until now that is, apart from Chinese battery labelling) stating that the Li-ion nominal cell voltage can be that of 3.2V. I believe that it might be a case of Chinese mislabeling. See also: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithium_iron_phosphate_battery Edit: Haha thinking about it, Li-Fe batteries are 'Lithium Iron Phosphate' so they can be referred to as 'Lithium Iron' as well but the technically they are Li-Fe.
Cool video Mikael!! I was worried about the Hornet on 3s bro,Just have been really hot after those runs?? As for testing the other lipos how about the hopped up Rising Storm or Super Levant?
Thanks, Chris. I had fun :-) Hornet's not looking as shiny as before but the motor and ESC seemed alright and cool. Well, it was only short speed runs on tarmac so I expected them to be alright. I've even seen Remote Addicted doing a lot of 3S off road runs with the Hornet and GHII. I already tried to see if the 2S hard case LiPo would fit the Super Levant, but no, not unless one maybe takes the upper deck and protectors off. I suspect it would be the same story with the Rising Storm. Huh. Maybe it's time to briung out the Kyosho and HPI. They have larger battery compartments than the usual Tamiya. Or maybe the TT-02B.
@@NordicRC Oh man ok thought they might have fit but guess not..Do you still have the TT02MS maybe a good first run for it or go with the Firestorm should have plenty of room for the hard case lipos.. Is your Firestorm the Flux brushless version or is it Brushed??
Yeah, but the TT-02B MS is still NIB so needs a bit of work 🙂 Got a TT-02B XB though too. Yeah, need to try them in the Firestorm. It’s the Flux so with these batteries it will probably be the fastest car I’ve ever tried. Will probably crash it a lot, with my driving skills ☺️
@@NordicRC yeah that front bulkhead if you do crash might crack fairly quickly, diff outdrives also doesnt like pinning the throttle from a standstill heh. but on 2s its a blast too drive, real wheelie machine as well if you got the grip.
Yeah, tried a few times on 2S. More than quick enough for me. Let's see how the 3S goes. Will probably need some new outdrives or/and bulkhead once it's over :-) Thanks for the heads up, Marcus.
That’s too bad. I hope you will find a good alternative. Tamico.de has some very good NiMH’s and rounded 2S LiPos that should fit the Hornet/Grasshopper.
when the comparison video with the grasshopper and the a959-b ?? I'm really curious to see the differences in performance based on the battery :-D under the a959-b at most what batteries can I mount ?? not so much to improve performance because it already runs on its own more than anything else for the duration :-( last really little :-( thanks again for the straight of the screws :-D
Hi again Simon. The comparison of the Grasshopper and A959-B? There should be links both in the video and in the description box. I have not any luck fitting other batteries to the A959/A959-B than the stock ones. No problem :-)
Yeah, gear ratio can sometimes make more impact than changing batteries. The gear ratio/mesh on both these are fixed though, so changing gearing (pinion and spur) also means changing motors/motor mounts.
Thanks, James. I have so much making these videos. Silly video, but I got to run my Hornet and see it on 3S. Well worth it, although my driving skills really didn't do it justice. It really needs a radio with dual rate or EPA steering on 3S. A slight touch on the steering wheel and she goes crazy :-)
you did fine our HORNET WASNT DESIGNED FOR THAT MUCH POWER IN THE DAY..BUT THANK YOU MY FRIEND FOR KEEPING THESE GREAT CARS IN THE YOU TUBE CULTURE .. @@NordicRC
Hi Jay. Well, the whole idea with this video was being unfair. 1984 buggy design vs 2014 buggy design? 2WD vs 4WD? 1/10 vs 1/18? 540 motor vs 390 motor? :-)
Thanks, Simon! Have you tried searching for it on eBay or any of the major sites selling the WLToys (like Banggood, Gearbest, RCMoment)? Try typing the part number or general searches like 'wltoys screw'. That's about the best help I could give and what I would do. You can always also just get the exact measurements and find a bag of screws in that size on eBay or a hard ware site. If it's the correct size it doesn't really matter if it is made for WLToys or not.
@@NordicRC thanks a lot for the tip I didn't put the right words in the search field :-D then I wrote how you told me 'wltoys screw' and found them :-D I took both a small packet with the 10 screws in question and then I found a complete kit of screws for my a959-b :-D and I have done that taking even those :-D I carry on with the work ahahahahahahahahah you are a big thank you very much :-) when do you make your channel t-shirts ?? the moment you create them I will be your first buyer and I will certainly advertise :-D
Ahh, think it’s fine with a silver can. The 3S year was just a bit of fun. Got another Hopper/Hornet with a Sport Tuned and larger pinion. Almost too fast.
Thanks for the feedback. Always have some trouble finding the right free music (the channel is just a hobby of mine) without spending days on it. The youtube audio library is a help, but it’s not the greatest, but one good thing about it is that it is guaranteed that youtube will not make any audio copyright strikes when using it 🙂
@@RC-ty5ym i would like to buy a new hornet nitro but all the 1s i have seen are battery and the 1 i do have needs a new pull cord as the old 1 is broken
Yeah, if it could handle a 3S it would definitely be quicker. These videos are all about being non-fair though. Last time I put the 540 motor high gearing A959 up against the 380 low gear ratio Grasshopper :-)
