| Basics of Mini 4WD | ||||
| Part of the chassis | ||||
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| Basics of Grade-up Parts | ||||
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| Intermediate and expert customizations | ||||
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| Race categories | ||||
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The motor (Japanese: モーター, Mōtā) is a important component for a Mini 4WD car. It acts the 'engine' of a Mini 4WD car.
How the motor works[]
A motor was breaks into five parts: The outer endbell cap and the metal housing, a pair of arched magnets placed inside the metal housing, the commutator brushes and a 3-pole armature that is connected to a shaft.
In normal operation, electromagnetic fields are generated on around the 3-pole armature as soon as the coils that were wrapped around the armature is powered. Since the armature was inside the metal housing which has a N magnet on one side and a S magnet on the other side, the electromagnetic fields will pushes the armature from the N magnet and pull it closer to the S magnet, thus the armature rotates. As the armature is rotating, the commutator on it will reverses the direction of electric current at every half rotate cycle and reverses the magnetic field in order to maintains the rotation of the armature.
In endurance races, it is recommended to choose the motor with less electric consumption, as they have more running time before the batteries runs out, thus reducing the time loss induced by the battery changes.
Wears and overheating[]
As the armature rotates, it will, overtime, wears out the brushes and the commutator until they can't deliver the electric current to the coils on the armature. For motors that are using the standard copper brushes, they wears out sooner than the motors with the carbon brushes and their performance will suffers while they are overheating. This can be reduced by installing either the aluminum motor support or the motor cooling shield into the car.
Motors that cannot be used in race tournaments[]
Under current Mini 4WD race regulations, there are the few motors that cannot be used in the race tournaments due to either being a limited edition product or having overpowered performances. They are:
- The original Hyper-Dash Motor (Single-shaft variant)
- Mach-Dash Motor (Single-shaft variant)
- Jet-Dash Motor
- ZEN-Tuned Motor
- Turbo-Dash Motor
- Ultra Dash Motor
- Plasma-Dash Motor
What motors my Mini 4WD car has?[]
Most Mini 4WD cars were equipped with the single-shaft motor. The exception to this is the Mini 4WD PRO cars, which were equipped with the double-shaft motor.