Source of cheap RC equipment?

[melonFury]

Hi everyone,

My interest in RC has just been sparked by playing around with a brushless dc motor that I scavenged from an old CD-ROM drive

I've spent the day trying to get it working with my Arduino, but 400RPM just doesn't cut it. I've seen how cheap some of the ESC/UBEC's can be and Its just not worth the effort haha.
I was wondering if the rcmodelreviews community had some good sources of cheap equipment I could use to get this motor up and running. All I think I need (please correct me if I'm wrong) are a low current ESC unit, a suitable battery pack, and something to control the ESC's speed (like the small knob Bruce uses when he explains the meaning of KV). I don't think I'll go for the whole RC yet, I'll just make sure the motor works first before forking out for a transmitter/reciever

Also, I don't really mind about the quality, if it works for five minutes, that's five minutes more than it is right now

Cheers

PS: If anyone in New Zealand was willing to sell some second hand equipment that would also be very cool

[quarry44]

I'm not sure what you expect from a cd rom motor,but it has very little power.The most you could power with it is a very light indoor model.
There's always 2nd hand gear on trade me or Sella,but not much of the very small stuff.
If you wanted to buy new,hobbyking.com is the answer.Due to chinese new year,don't expect much action from there for the next 3 weeks or so though.
Another place,with much lower shipping cost, is Aloft Hobbies in the usa,but their range is a bit limited.Excellent service.
Other than that,you would have to take your chance with any other chinese supplier.

[melonFury]

Ah OK, thanks for the info
Maybe I'll just buy a small out-runner then, they look like fun.

Also, does anyone know what the piece of equipment to manually control revs is called? Looks like a potentiometer with some wires attached

[chossy]

Ah OK, thanks for the info
Maybe I'll just buy a small out-runner then, they look like fun.

Also, does anyone know what the piece of equipment to manually control revs is called? Looks like a potentiometer with some wires attached

servo tester http://www.hobbyking.com/buddy.asp?code=AEB24ECB-FBC8-4857-BEB3-ED8E83A72398 just got one myself

[melonFury]

Awesome, thanks. It'll definitely make testing the motor a lot easier

Now... to wait 4 weeks for the damn thing to arrive!