Volvo EC300D

[Vanisle]

Nice work Reg! Glad you got it going. Now you can hire it out to clear land.

[RCP57]

Originally Posted by Vanisle

Nice work Reg! Glad you got it going. Now you can hire it out to clear land.

Not quite yet Richard... I need a truck and lowbed to transport it first

[RCKiwi]

Man - that last vid looks awesome! I reckon if you sat an operator in it and turned down the volume, you'd be hard pressed to say it was a model at all!

[pumptech]

Just watched the vid ,Outstanding job on the Volvo !!!!
Love it, awesome build ,congrats on your excavator!!

[Lil Giants]

Well Done Reg!!! An xllnt accomplished build with not much for special tools, but rather oodles of skill! You should be proud!

Now to tweak the radio to get it running at optium performance!

Recap:

What voltage are you running?

Are your valve servos opening at 100%?

What size plumbing (ID) to your cyls?

What pressure were you running at in your last vid?

What was its finally weight tally?

I use the dual rates for the stick/bucket/swing, no such option on the dx8 for the throttle (boom) unfortunately, but can adjust throttle curve. I have the boom servo valve @100% for up, but approx 60% for down so the boom doesn't drop too fast. Using Dual Rates on the other three, you can tweak the valve openings for various digging operations.. like when loading a trk & don't want too fast of movement vs everything wide open for digging & piling.

I couldn't hear any pump esc freeze in any of your two vids, but it could happen with the brushless if rpm drops too low. I assume you have the pump on Aux 1 or 3? If 3pos switch is down to turn off pump, you could set the middle position to operate @10 to 15% so the pump rpm never fully stops. Then with the Mix on, pump with go to full speed with the servo valves are activated. With Mix off, pump will turn slow for more precise movements.

[RCP57]

Originally Posted by Lil Giants

Well Done Reg!!! An xllnt accomplished build with not much for special tools, but rather oodles of skill! You should be proud!

Now to tweak the radio to get it running at optium performance!

Recap:

What voltage are you running?

Are your valve servos opening at 100%?

What size plumbing (ID) to your cyls?

What pressure were you running at in your last vid?

What was its finally weight tally?

I use the dual rates for the stick/bucket/swing, no such option on the dx8 for the throttle (boom) unfortunately, but can adjust throttle curve. I have the boom servo valve @100% for up, but approx 60% for down so the boom doesn't drop too fast. Using Dual Rates on the other three, you can tweak the valve openings for various digging operations.. like when loading a trk & don't want too fast of movement vs everything wide open for digging & piling.

I couldn't hear any pump esc freeze in any of your two vids, but it could happen with the brushless if rpm drops too low. I assume you have the pump on Aux 1 or 3? If 3pos switch is down to turn off pump, you could set the middle position to operate @10 to 15% so the pump rpm never fully stops. Then with the Mix on, pump with go to full speed with the servo valves are activated. With Mix off, pump will turn slow for more precise movements.

Thanks very much!

So to try and answer all of your questions...

12 volts, I believe so, 5/32 OD not sure of ID, 30 bar in the GoPro vid, and 50lbs.

I have the pump running off of the gear switch and the mixing set so that the pump is off in the up position if the sticks and Aux3 are centered (Aux1-2 operate the tracks and Aux3 thumb) and wide open in the down position. I'm using a 3300kv motor and an 11:1 reduction so the pump has no problem starting and running very low rpm with little stick movement although it may be a little slow up top. I will mess with some more stuff as I get more familiar with how it operates as is. Overall I am pretty happy with how it works considering the only thing "off the shelf" is the hydraulic pump(not including the drive). I'm buying a mill next week so hopefully I can do everything myself from now on. Maybe one day I will be furtunate enough to sell some of the stuff I make but time will tell!

Thanks again!

[mack kid]

Great video liked the sound inside the cab. GREAT BUILD

[modelman]

Nice video-I like the on-board view. I think your operating skills are fine. With a little more stick time you will be an expert.

[Lil Giants]

3300kv x 12v / 11 = 3600rpm ..is that how it goes?

A 12v battery would be 13.5v, there abouts with a full charge = 4050rpm

5/32 is about 4mm, which may likely be 2.5mm ID.. virtually the same as I have.. but your hyds movement is so much slower.

I run on 4s lipo... 600kv x 16.8v / 2.5 reduction = 4032rpm

I'm at approx 24-26 bar. (manual suggested not to exceed 25bar)

I watched a vid of my 850 from last summer when I just got it running, the movement is noticably slower than it is today.. it must be just the way I tweaked the radio settings, can't think offhand what other variable there might be.

You could set your gear channel to be 20% to 50% when "on" and the Mix will boost it to maxium speed with 2 hyd channel movements.

I don't know, maybe I'm talking out of turn here and you don't want it different than it currently is.. ?

[RCP57]

It is a little slower than I would like thats for sure but to honest I'm just happy to have it working at this point. I'm not sure what size pistons are in the Vario machines but these are 5/8 so when you open three valves at once it takes a lot of oil to fill all four cylinders. I figure with my KV, voltage, motor efficiency and power loss through the reduction it's turning less than 3K but I don't have a tach so.... I believe a bigger pump would have been better but I haven't experimented with different oils yet either. At present I'm running hydraulic oil which may be too thick? I've read that some guys use ATF but I've only tried that in the pump my father inlaw built so I don't know if it would improve my speed or not. I have the mixing set up now to be about 70% with one fuction and 100% with two or more.

Thanks for the input Joe, you have more experience running this stuff than anyone else(probably in the world) so it is interesting to hear your set ups.

Reg

[Lil Giants]

Boom & bucket are 16mm & the stick is either 18 or 20mm.. a bit bigger than 5/8.

I use Esso Hydraul 50 (comparable to a 10W hyd oil).

I started out with an ATF in my home made post pounder and I had trouble with foaming (likely b/c of the high rate of discharge), so I switched to the Hydraul 50 & it cured that problem! Not sure how well it might work with this application? After running a 5amp charge, there is a wee bit of foaming in the tank, that's usually after ripping, maxing out the pressure relief for the entire charge!

Probably your pump rpm could be considerably lower (25%) than mine, which is why the hyd speed is notably slower. You could go to 4s lipo @16.8v and then limit the EPA %'s in the gear switch & mixes to get pump rpm up to 4000. Also limit the EPA in the swing & track motors if they're not rated for that high of voltage & to keep them at a favorable operating speed.

I only know what I have used & your hyd system is quite similar to mine in almost every way.

Cheers

[doodlebug]

Hey Reg, it's definately faster Are you running any kind of oil or grease in the planetary gear box???

Congrat's on the new mill
Cheer's, Neil.

[RCP57]

I do have grease in the planetary but the original one had a plastic ring gear and the torque of the motor started twisting the teeth right off of it where the first set of steel planet gears made contact. The new set-up is all steel and has a bearing in it too instead of a bushing so hopefully that will help with wear and friction. It's a little too fast but at least I can dial it back a bit now.

The breakdown was a good excuse to use the mill though...

Reg

[modelman]

Good video-It does seem to be faster now. I wish I had a load of dirt like that for my shovel but if I put a dirt pile like that in my back yard I probably would be looking at a-d-i-v-o-r-c-e Nice mill too!!

[Madda]

Oh ****, I like it! Now it moves like a champ! Good job on that!
All the hydraulics were made by you?

That new mill looks massive, BF30? It seems that it has got DRO installed already. Any plans on converting to cnc?

[RCKiwi]

You be sure to post some pic's of your first projects off that sweet mill

Agreed will above, speed looks very good.

My local supply shop has some of the black hose similar to that used on your machine and I see yours too has green writing on it. The guys at the shop couldn't tell me the bursting pressure of it and didnt seem to motivated to hit the books.
Can you please let me know what's written on the black hose? I'd like to check to make sure its the same stuff.

Glenn

[RCP57]

Originally Posted by RCKiwi

You be sure to post some pic's of your first projects off that sweet mill

Agreed will above, speed looks very good.

My local supply shop has some of the black hose similar to that used on your machine and I see yours too has green writing on it. The guys at the shop couldn't tell me the bursting pressure of it and didnt seem to motivated to hit the books.
Can you please let me know what's written on the black hose? I'd like to check to make sure its the same stuff.

Glenn

The hose I'm using is Eaton synflex eclipse air brake line. I looked it up online and I think the bursting pressure was 1200psi, working pressure 300psi. When I first got the pump turning in the Volvo I had it hooked directly to the boom cylinders and dead headed them by mistake. One of my push to connect fittings blew apart(one of two that I waited three weeks to get) but the hose was fine so I think it is OK stuff. I'm currently running at 30 bar+/- and haven't had issues yet...

I haven't really made much with the mill yet but I have drilled and tapped a couple of holes with it. It's nice to tap something right in the machine and have it straight for once!

Reg

[RCP57]

Originally Posted by Madda

Oh ****, I like it! Now it moves like a champ! Good job on that!
All the hydraulics were made by you?

That new mill looks massive, BF30? It seems that it has got DRO installed already. Any plans on converting to cnc?

Yes it is a BF30 with a sino DRO. There aren't any plans for CNC just yet as the mill set me back enough already but maybe in the future. I was going to buy a smaller mill and do the conversion right away but I think this mill will serve my other interests better because of its size.

All the hydraulics except for the pump were made by my father inlaw. We did sketches together of what I needed and he put it into reality for me. He actually made me a couple of pumps too but they didn't make as much pressure as I wanted so I bought the Jung and made my own drive for it. Now that I have this mill I hope to do this type of stuff myself but I need some(a lot) practice first!

Thanks Reg

[Madda]

What type of hydraulic valve did you use/make?

[RCP57]

It's a rotary valve. If you look back a ways there are pictures of the one I made myself and then the final one my father inlaw made that we ended up using. It's time consuming to make them but quite possible if you have a mill and a lathe.

Reg