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fjelltorsk
Sep 2, 2011

I am having a BALL
Holy poo poo, i participated in the norwegian 1/8 E buggy nationals today, with my 9 year old converted xray 808e becuase they where local. E-buggy is still a very small class in norway, so it was a very short event with a field of 42 racers. I had so much fun racing real buggies with no nitro faff to be bothered with. Somehow i actually won and became national champion. Since i got sick with cancer i have been just racing on the club level and only 1:10. I started talking to a buddy about how i should convert my xray xb8 to e and have some fun.... He asked me what i felt about Mugen Seiki, i said... nice cars good quality and he walked off. to return with a funny swede who is the team manager for Mugen in europe. who offered me a full ride with sponsorships from AKA, Mugen and he would try to get tekin to renew my contract. They offered me to test drive a buggy, but considering my buggy had three wheel drive and two bent shocks during the last two finals i just agreed. I have some time off later this week so then its time to build my new race rigs.

My goal is to participate in the E-buggy euros within two years. maybe even the worlds. going to be weird racing 1/8 scale without them saying "xray" for the first time...

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Siochain
May 24, 2005

"can they get rid of any humans who are fans of shitheads like Kanye West, 50 Cent, or any other piece of crap "artist" who thinks they're all that?

And also get rid of anyone who has posted retarded shit on the internet."


fjelltorsk posted:

Holy poo poo, i participated in the norwegian 1/8 E buggy nationals today, with my 9 year old converted xray 808e becuase they where local. E-buggy is still a very small class in norway, so it was a very short event with a field of 42 racers. I had so much fun racing real buggies with no nitro faff to be bothered with. Somehow i actually won and became national champion. Since i got sick with cancer i have been just racing on the club level and only 1:10. I started talking to a buddy about how i should convert my xray xb8 to e and have some fun.... He asked me what i felt about Mugen Seiki, i said... nice cars good quality and he walked off. to return with a funny swede who is the team manager for Mugen in europe. who offered me a full ride with sponsorships from AKA, Mugen and he would try to get tekin to renew my contract. They offered me to test drive a buggy, but considering my buggy had three wheel drive and two bent shocks during the last two finals i just agreed. I have some time off later this week so then its time to build my new race rigs.

My goal is to participate in the E-buggy euros within two years. maybe even the worlds. going to be weird racing 1/8 scale without them saying "xray" for the first time...

Its been a good week for fjelltorsk! That's awesome man. Huge congrats. Any fun pictures? :P

fjelltorsk
Sep 2, 2011

I am having a BALL

Siochain posted:

Its been a good week for fjelltorsk! That's awesome man. Huge congrats. Any fun pictures? :P

Not from the race, i will see if i cant grab some from facebook i they trickle up. if you guys feel like it i can try to take some pics when building the mugens, i am really curious about them. i get them tuesday, and i have wednesday and thursday off.


here are the broken parts i took of my 808 after the finals tho..

and bonus pic of my Mission 5

Siochain
May 24, 2005

"can they get rid of any humans who are fans of shitheads like Kanye West, 50 Cent, or any other piece of crap "artist" who thinks they're all that?

And also get rid of anyone who has posted retarded shit on the internet."


fjelltorsk posted:

Not from the race, i will see if i cant grab some from facebook i they trickle up. if you guys feel like it i can try to take some pics when building the mugens, i am really curious about them. i get them tuesday, and i have wednesday and thursday off.


here are the broken parts i took of my 808 after the finals tho..

and bonus pic of my Mission 5



Not sure about everyone else, but I'd love to see some pics. Sounds like an awesome opportunity (and I'm addicted to RC build series).

We just went on vacation, and blew too much $$$, so I'm avoiding my RC's so I don't end up spending more money :P Think I might start putting $100 a pay period away towards a 1/5th scale gas rig. I hate being an adult and trying to be "smart" and "budget".

T1g4h
Aug 6, 2008

I AM THE SCALES OF JUSTICE, CONDUCTOR OF THE CHOIR OF DEATH!

fjelltorsk posted:

Holy poo poo, i participated in the norwegian 1/8 E buggy nationals today, with my 9 year old converted xray 808e becuase they where local. E-buggy is still a very small class in norway, so it was a very short event with a field of 42 racers. I had so much fun racing real buggies with no nitro faff to be bothered with. Somehow i actually won and became national champion. Since i got sick with cancer i have been just racing on the club level and only 1:10. I started talking to a buddy about how i should convert my xray xb8 to e and have some fun.... He asked me what i felt about Mugen Seiki, i said... nice cars good quality and he walked off. to return with a funny swede who is the team manager for Mugen in europe. who offered me a full ride with sponsorships from AKA, Mugen and he would try to get tekin to renew my contract. They offered me to test drive a buggy, but considering my buggy had three wheel drive and two bent shocks during the last two finals i just agreed. I have some time off later this week so then its time to build my new race rigs.

My goal is to participate in the E-buggy euros within two years. maybe even the worlds. going to be weird racing 1/8 scale without them saying "xray" for the first time...

:stare:

That is loving awesome! Congrats dude!

You Am I
May 20, 2001

Me @ your poasting

It done broke





It now unbroked

Gomi Day
Nov 15, 2007

Trust me, Bill. Large spectacles lend distinction to any countenance, as I have reason to know.
Plaster Town Cop
i had, or more accurately my dad had a tamiya grasshopper back in the 80's and i remember it being fun as hell and have been thinking of getting a cheap buggy to thrash around with, myself.

i was looking at both the tamiya holiday buggy with plans to upgrade a few things on it (i can get one super cheap, at the moment), or a tamiya frog, which is a few tiers up the ladder but also inexpensive.

anyone have experience with either or think i ought to ignore both and get something different entirely? (looking to pay roughly 300 or less total at the moment, if possible and i'm perfectly comfortable with kits)

Gomi Day fucked around with this message at 19:42 on Aug 31, 2015

Siochain
May 24, 2005

"can they get rid of any humans who are fans of shitheads like Kanye West, 50 Cent, or any other piece of crap "artist" who thinks they're all that?

And also get rid of anyone who has posted retarded shit on the internet."


What do you all run for batteries, brand-wise? I'm looking at grabbing a couple more, and just want to see what consensus is on a decent, lower-price brand. I don't need stinking huge mAH capability, just some decent 2S 5000mAH or so. Anyone have preferences?

slidebite
Nov 6, 2005

Good egg
:colbert:

I've been running some relatively cheapo Bias brand from Amazon without an issue.

Speaking of lipo though, question:

I charged up my 2S cells last week with intent of taking the Yeti out but never got around to it. I'm also going on holidays now for 2 weeks.

Are they OK leaving fully charged for 2-4 weeks? Or should I make a point of running it for a while before I go tomorrow AM?

Somewhat Heroic
Oct 11, 2007

(Insert Mad Max related text)



That's longer than I would leave a lipo fully charged for. It seems the cheaper packs hate being left charged more than high dollar jobs.

I have a bunch of Racers Edge packs, but that is in large part of where I worked and got them for cheap. They work great, but for the retail customers I would say SMC are your best bet for a quality bash pack that is a great price. If you're looking high dollar stuff then reedy, trinity, protek (Amains proprietary brand)

You Am I
May 20, 2001

Me @ your poasting

Hobby King does good low cost high quality batteries

If you aren't going to use your Lipos for a few weeks, best to charge the battery in Storage mode

Barnsy
Jul 22, 2013

You Am I posted:

Hobby King does good low cost high quality batteries

If you aren't going to use your Lipos for a few weeks, best to charge the battery in Storage mode

I agree with HK, great batteries for the price (especially when you work with larger/6s batts).

I'm not sure about storage of batteries, I had four 2s lipos that I completely forgot about, fully charged, and literally had them like that for over a year. Checked their voltage and they held pretty much perfectly (granted they were 65-130c turnigys). At most I've had a bit of puffing from old batteries, nothing that seemed to affect performance.

krushgroove
Oct 23, 2007

Disapproving look
I'll chime in with HPI Plazma packs, they're pretty good too (but then I would say that). I have no idea what the price comparison is to other brands but I think they're overlooked by many bashers. They're made by a really well-known battery maker so they're not poo poo.

fjelltorsk
Sep 2, 2011

I am having a BALL

slidebite posted:

I've been running some relatively cheapo Bias brand from Amazon without an issue.

Speaking of lipo though, question:

I charged up my 2S cells last week with intent of taking the Yeti out but never got around to it. I'm also going on holidays now for 2 weeks.

Are they OK leaving fully charged for 2-4 weeks? Or should I make a point of running it for a while before I go tomorrow AM?

most computer chargers have a "storage charge" option, that either charges or discharges your cells to about 80%. if you have this option its good practice to use it. my batteries are storage charged when storaged (duh) and then i charge them up when they will see use the next day. when i return from the track i storage them again and pack them away in lipo bags.

anyhow. i promised you build pics and a report of the Mugen. i failed on the pictures of the build. my phone is at the menders and my camera was to much effort. I did however take some pics after i tested it some at the local astro track.


first off. the build: The build was very sweet. fit and finish on the parts are second to none. a really properly designed e-buggy. The manual could have been better, Xray holds the gold standard on manuals, but the mugen manual was okai. not Kyosho-poo poo but not fantastic either. Everything was packaged smartly in bags corresponding with the build step. I like the Mugen version off pillowball suspension better then xrays effort. My only issue during the build was that the countersunk M4 screws holding the front and rear to the chassis where very tight in the hexes, one of my hexdrivers did not fit properly.


The finished product:
I really like the look and feel of this buggy. The electronics layout is sensible. (bonus point for having clips for routing cables underneath the battery tray) and all the tuning adjustments are easily accesible. the pillowballs makes front camber dead easy to get right, you just shim them out. Since i am trying to do this on a budget and tekin is abit slow to ship out the good stuff after renewing my contract, i am racing last gen electronics but it works like a champ. i am running an RX8 esc, 1900kv T8 motor. I normally swear by Savox servos, but i had this Orion Vortex lying about. I 2x2s lipos, currently using a mix of old hobbyking packs and two sets of Orion 100C carbon pros. The orions are good. but are they wort 4x the price of the turnigys? maybe in mod touring cars, not in 4s configs




The first run:
I took it out to the track on thursday, it an all astro turf track and the grip was insane due to the sunshine and decent temps. I had to cut rows of studs of my minispike (these are the tires if you want to run on astro turf people, yellow compound in the dry, silver in the wet, if its really wet use spirals) the first pack was sort of a shakedown of the car. i found two screws needing some more lock tite and i had to swap the stock 14 tooth pionion for a 16. The car has massive off power turn in and a predictable on power understeer. it lands well and soak up the bumbs very good. I have never had a race rig that performed this well out of the box. at the moment i drive the car bone stock. no upgrades at all and it just works. i do have two options i want to put on it, and they are probably going on this week. These are more geared towards durability and preparing for wear than performance. The car handled the high grip well, but most buggies does. it was not before the sun went down and the grip got less intense i got a real grin on my face. The car is just so easy to handle and it is insanely responsive to steering and throttle inputs. I have a ways to go with setup, but i shaved of ,8 of a second on my fastest lap with the old 808.



The plan: I have a very boing approach to setups and tuning of race rigs. If there is nothing horribly wrong i spend the first 2-3 hours of operation on forming an opinion and then i only change one thing at the time. this takes time to get to peak setup performance but it also makes it very easy to revert if you are going in a wrong direction. I need to take the 3 hour drive to the closest dirt track to start working on a dirt setup, but not until i am confident in knowing what i want out of the car on astro. Being a sponsored driver sort of helps since this makes it possible to have the two e-buggies i feel i need to have to make a low effort racing program more doable as someone who dosent have to much time to do this. i will have one practice buggy and one race buggy, more realisticly i will probably have one astro buggy for local races and practice and one dirt buggy for national and international races.







I have a proper bodyshell being painted. i am terrible at paiting, so i just gave it a white rattlecan job. the orange nosecone is due to picking up the wrong can when i remembered to paint it

krushgroove
Oct 23, 2007

Disapproving look

fjelltorsk posted:

the orange nosecone is due to picking up the wrong can when i remembered to paint it

You can say that...or you can say that you're doing the same thing Ronnefalk does! (at least, his e-buggy for the Neo race this year had an orange nose piece) BTW, great job on landing a sponsor! :)

Siochain
May 24, 2005

"can they get rid of any humans who are fans of shitheads like Kanye West, 50 Cent, or any other piece of crap "artist" who thinks they're all that?

And also get rid of anyone who has posted retarded shit on the internet."


fjelltorsk posted:

most computer chargers have a "storage charge" option, that either charges or discharges your cells to about 80%. if you have this option its good practice to use it. my batteries are storage charged when storaged (duh) and then i charge them up when they will see use the next day. when i return from the track i storage them again and pack them away in lipo bags.

anyhow. i promised you build pics and a report of the Mugen. i failed on the pictures of the build. my phone is at the menders and my camera was to much effort. I did however take some pics after i tested it some at the local astro track.


first off. the build: The build was very sweet. fit and finish on the parts are second to none. a really properly designed e-buggy. The manual could have been better, Xray holds the gold standard on manuals, but the mugen manual was okai. not Kyosho-poo poo but not fantastic either. Everything was packaged smartly in bags corresponding with the build step. I like the Mugen version off pillowball suspension better then xrays effort. My only issue during the build was that the countersunk M4 screws holding the front and rear to the chassis where very tight in the hexes, one of my hexdrivers did not fit properly.


The finished product:
I really like the look and feel of this buggy. The electronics layout is sensible. (bonus point for having clips for routing cables underneath the battery tray) and all the tuning adjustments are easily accesible. the pillowballs makes front camber dead easy to get right, you just shim them out. Since i am trying to do this on a budget and tekin is abit slow to ship out the good stuff after renewing my contract, i am racing last gen electronics but it works like a champ. i am running an RX8 esc, 1900kv T8 motor. I normally swear by Savox servos, but i had this Orion Vortex lying about. I 2x2s lipos, currently using a mix of old hobbyking packs and two sets of Orion 100C carbon pros. The orions are good. but are they wort 4x the price of the turnigys? maybe in mod touring cars, not in 4s configs




The first run:
I took it out to the track on thursday, it an all astro turf track and the grip was insane due to the sunshine and decent temps. I had to cut rows of studs of my minispike (these are the tires if you want to run on astro turf people, yellow compound in the dry, silver in the wet, if its really wet use spirals) the first pack was sort of a shakedown of the car. i found two screws needing some more lock tite and i had to swap the stock 14 tooth pionion for a 16. The car has massive off power turn in and a predictable on power understeer. it lands well and soak up the bumbs very good. I have never had a race rig that performed this well out of the box. at the moment i drive the car bone stock. no upgrades at all and it just works. i do have two options i want to put on it, and they are probably going on this week. These are more geared towards durability and preparing for wear than performance. The car handled the high grip well, but most buggies does. it was not before the sun went down and the grip got less intense i got a real grin on my face. The car is just so easy to handle and it is insanely responsive to steering and throttle inputs. I have a ways to go with setup, but i shaved of ,8 of a second on my fastest lap with the old 808.



The plan: I have a very boing approach to setups and tuning of race rigs. If there is nothing horribly wrong i spend the first 2-3 hours of operation on forming an opinion and then i only change one thing at the time. this takes time to get to peak setup performance but it also makes it very easy to revert if you are going in a wrong direction. I need to take the 3 hour drive to the closest dirt track to start working on a dirt setup, but not until i am confident in knowing what i want out of the car on astro. Being a sponsored driver sort of helps since this makes it possible to have the two e-buggies i feel i need to have to make a low effort racing program more doable as someone who dosent have to much time to do this. i will have one practice buggy and one race buggy, more realisticly i will probably have one astro buggy for local races and practice and one dirt buggy for national and international races.







I have a proper bodyshell being painted. i am terrible at paiting, so i just gave it a white rattlecan job. the orange nosecone is due to picking up the wrong can when i remembered to paint it

Little bit late (life gets busy? who knew!), but thanks for sharing those. Looks pretty awesome man. I've never played with one of the buggy's like that - there's a track about 2 hours away, and I'm tempted to rip up there the next time I see they have an event going on and see if I can't get a feel for it.

In other news, once my new furnace gets put in by end of day today, I'll be converting one of our storage rooms to my hobby room. Have a couple of cheap MDF workbenches I got for crazy-cheap, and a new toolchest that Canadian Tire had on for more than 50% off - its lovely, but at the price, I can deal with it. Need to bug some companies for some posters to put up and I'll be set :P

fjelltorsk
Sep 2, 2011

I am having a BALL
So, for reason i don´t quite understand the hobbystore people who sponsor me want me to run some TLR gear awell as the mugens, and since i allways like trying things i agreed.

They sent me an Eight 3.0 to build, and so i got started. i decided to try an do abit better at taking build pictures then earlier, so here is a wall of pics..

first of, the Engine i will be running will be an fairly old, but nib Orion alpha.I will be running spektrum servos and sanwa radio as normal.



I actually never built an eight, so i was looking forward to the build. i am not feeling great at the moment, so progress is slow.



the machined chassis looks sweet.

i did the steering and mounted the tank. in retrospect i think i could have added the tank on a later stage to have more room, but whatever.


My normal workflow would be to do all three diffs and shocks, but i decided to follow the manual, so i built the front diff when it was called for

diff felt smooth and free, i filled it with 7k fluid as per manual

The hub and spindle went together with the axles with abit of force


assembled the arms and shock towers, i hate doing turnbuckles, but these actually went pretty well together.. i dont really measure the links before i slap them on, i just dial it in when i have a complete roller to get proper toe and angle..


and, with the front clip mounted to the chassis, i call it a night..


so far i am liking the build, i hate the fact that is uses emperial fasteners, but i can deal with it.

no idea if this is interesting to anyone, but if it is, i can try to do the complete build write up

Siochain
May 24, 2005

"can they get rid of any humans who are fans of shitheads like Kanye West, 50 Cent, or any other piece of crap "artist" who thinks they're all that?

And also get rid of anyone who has posted retarded shit on the internet."


fjelltorsk posted:

So, for reason i don´t quite understand the hobbystore people who sponsor me want me to run some TLR gear awell as the mugens, and since i allways like trying things i agreed.

They sent me an Eight 3.0 to build, and so i got started. i decided to try an do abit better at taking build pictures then earlier, so here is a wall of pics..

first of, the Engine i will be running will be an fairly old, but nib Orion alpha.I will be running spektrum servos and sanwa radio as normal.



I actually never built an eight, so i was looking forward to the build. i am not feeling great at the moment, so progress is slow.



the machined chassis looks sweet.

i did the steering and mounted the tank. in retrospect i think i could have added the tank on a later stage to have more room, but whatever.


My normal workflow would be to do all three diffs and shocks, but i decided to follow the manual, so i built the front diff when it was called for

diff felt smooth and free, i filled it with 7k fluid as per manual

The hub and spindle went together with the axles with abit of force


assembled the arms and shock towers, i hate doing turnbuckles, but these actually went pretty well together.. i dont really measure the links before i slap them on, i just dial it in when i have a complete roller to get proper toe and angle..


and, with the front clip mounted to the chassis, i call it a night..


so far i am liking the build, i hate the fact that is uses emperial fasteners, but i can deal with it.

no idea if this is interesting to anyone, but if it is, i can try to do the complete build write up

Loving it, but you know I would :) I'm all good for you to keep posting! This thread needs more love!

krushgroove
Oct 23, 2007

Disapproving look

fjelltorsk posted:

so far i am liking the build, i hate the fact that is uses emperial fasteners, but i can deal with it.

It's awesome you get to try different stuff but seriously? Imperial screws and measurements and everything? Still? It's 2015.

fjelltorsk
Sep 2, 2011

I am having a BALL

krushgroove posted:

It's awesome you get to try different stuff but seriously? Imperial screws and measurements and everything? Still? It's 2015.

I feel you man, especially since all the TLR 1/10 scale is now metric, and assosciated is even worse, where the 1:10 scale 2wd is metric and the 4wd is sae.

i hate these fractional moon units, and i dont care if the orignial eight was in sae, fix this poo poo losi

an AOL chatroom
Oct 3, 2002

A few rc-related pics from the past few weeks.


A flashy-looking TA-05 v2 with a Hobbywing brushless setup. Very quick, un-flippable, and very easy to get sideways.


My new-to-me Savage Flux HP. Absolutely monstrous.


An old Kyosho Go-Kart something-or-other that was zipping around between the cones at our last get-together.


My Slash-turned-buggy with Mamba Monster 2 powerplant. Still not sure what I want to do with this one.

IOwnCalculus
Apr 2, 2003





fjelltorsk posted:

no idea if this is interesting to anyone, but if it is, i can try to do the complete build write up

Please do. Building my SC10 is still the most time I've spent on it :v:

I'm slowly getting my TC3 VTA car somewhere approaching stable, though it still likes to kick the tail out at the end of long sweepers. It also doesn't like to transition left-to-right or right-to-left too quickly without getting loose. The old man bought himself a "spare" TC6.2 which meant he now had enough parts laying around and he just happened to put together a TC6.1 for me to drive in another spec-tire class with him :)

The tires are still a good bit less grippy than actual slicks but they feel like glue compared to the VTA tires. The fact that the TC6.1 is so much lighter than the ancient TC3 probably has a lot to do with it.

I also snagged myself a Flysky GT3B for shits and grins, since it was cheaper than buying a single receiver for my Futaba 3PM. I actually like it a lot more than I expected, so I've got about $15 of parts on order to be able to upgrade the firmware and a few other aspects of it. Additional receivers only cost $7 shipped, so I can get it hooked up to my TC3, the TC6.1, and maybe even get the SC10 going finally for literally nothing once I sell the Futaba Tx/Rx.

Siochain
May 24, 2005

"can they get rid of any humans who are fans of shitheads like Kanye West, 50 Cent, or any other piece of crap "artist" who thinks they're all that?

And also get rid of anyone who has posted retarded shit on the internet."


IOwnCalculus posted:

I also snagged myself a Flysky GT3B for shits and grins, since it was cheaper than buying a single receiver for my Futaba 3PM. I actually like it a lot more than I expected, so I've got about $15 of parts on order to be able to upgrade the firmware and a few other aspects of it. Additional receivers only cost $7 shipped, so I can get it hooked up to my TC3, the TC6.1, and maybe even get the SC10 going finally for literally nothing once I sell the Futaba Tx/Rx.

Let me know what you think of that. I've been debating one, but was curious how well they worked.

krushgroove
Oct 23, 2007

Disapproving look
The Flysky radios are basically the Absima radios you may see some of the pro drivers use (at least in Europe). Not sure if all the Absima radios are the same electronics as Flysky, but many definitely are. They're good and well worth the money, and as has been noted they can be modified if you find a guide and are confident with a soldering iron. They've been making the rounds of bashers the last few years and if you’re not looking for th latest an fastest race radios they are all you need, and you cannot beat the price.

IOwnCalculus
Apr 2, 2003





Siochain posted:

Let me know what you think of that. I've been debating one, but was curious how well they worked.

I've already put one race night on it. Honestly, the build quality is impressive for the money - when new, I'd say it's about as good as the Futaba 3PM I've been using (which, while solid, does not have the same build quality of the much older Futaba radios I still have). Lots of people report the steering wheel gets sloppy because there's nothing supporting it except for plastic on plastic, no bushing or bearing at all. This is resolved with a few minutes with a reamer and a $3 bearing. I've got the bearing, just going to pick up the reamer tonight.

The stock firmware works, but steering exponential is broken - it adds in one direction and subtracts in the other. There's people who have fixed this and added a lot of extra functionality to the radios. You do need to solder some headers on so you can use a STM8 programmer to flash it - I have this one on the slow boat from China. I'm going to flash it, add a power-on LED, add the steering bearing, remove the AA tray, and add a Futaba connector so I can use my 3S Tx Lipo. Even after all of that I'll still be right about $50 total in the transmitter and the first receiver, and only another $14 for receivers for the TC3 and SC10.

Some people even go so far as to replace the voltage regulator - it uses an ancient linear regulator just to get 5V out of 12V input, and only at about 50% efficiency. A new regulator that would let you drop to a 2S lipo and run about 90% efficient is only $6, but everywhere I can find it wants to charge another $6 in shipping. $12 just to get more runtime doesn't make much sense when I only run for about five minutes at a time and I've already got a 3S lipo.

If any of you want to buy the Futaba 3PM I'll let it go cheap, but you might be happier with your own Flysky instead :v:

IOwnCalculus fucked around with this message at 23:17 on Oct 1, 2015

Siochain
May 24, 2005

"can they get rid of any humans who are fans of shitheads like Kanye West, 50 Cent, or any other piece of crap "artist" who thinks they're all that?

And also get rid of anyone who has posted retarded shit on the internet."


IOwnCalculus posted:

I've already put one race night on it. Honestly, the build quality is impressive for the money - when new, I'd say it's about as good as the Futaba 3PM I've been using (which, while solid, does not have the same build quality of the much older Futaba radios I still have). Lots of people report the steering wheel gets sloppy because there's nothing supporting it except for plastic on plastic, no bushing or bearing at all. This is resolved with a few minutes with a reamer and a $3 bearing. I've got the bearing, just going to pick up the reamer tonight.

The stock firmware works, but steering exponential is broken - it adds in one direction and subtracts in the other. There's people who have fixed this and added a lot of extra functionality to the radios. You do need to solder some headers on so you can use a STM8 programmer to flash it - I have this one on the slow boat from China. I'm going to flash it, add a power-on LED, add the steering bearing, remove the AA tray, and add a Futaba connector so I can use my 3S Tx Lipo. Even after all of that I'll still be right about $50 total in the transmitter and the first receiver, and only another $14 for receivers for the TC3 and SC10.

Some people even go so far as to replace the voltage regulator - it uses an ancient linear regulator just to get 5V out of 12V input, and only at about 50% efficiency. A new regulator that would let you drop to a 2S lipo and run about 90% efficient is only $6, but everywhere I can find it wants to charge another $6 in shipping. $12 just to get more runtime doesn't make much sense when I only run for about five minutes at a time and I've already got a 3S lipo.

If any of you want to buy the Futaba 3PM I'll let it go cheap, but you might be happier with your own Flysky instead :v:

Cool, awesome info man. Definitely will grab one when I need another radio. Appreciate it!

IOwnCalculus
Apr 2, 2003





Well, so much for grabbing the reamer tonight. Local hobbytown / track went out of business three hours ago :pwn:

an AOL chatroom
Oct 3, 2002

Can someone help me out with this? I traded a guy for an awesome 2WD Slash tonight, and as a bonus, he threw in a random RS4 chassis. I'm thinking of turning it into a drift car, but I can't quite identify the model to look for parts. Anyone?

krushgroove
Oct 23, 2007

Disapproving look
That's an HPI Sprint 2. Not an RS4 at all, which came out before that (and has recently been revived with the RS4 Sport 3 which is shaft drive thus totally different).

an AOL chatroom
Oct 3, 2002

krushgroove posted:

That's an HPI Sprint 2. Not an RS4 at all, which came out before that (and has recently been revived with the RS4 Sport 3 which is shaft drive thus totally different).

Ah, thanks. That explains a lot.

krushgroove
Oct 23, 2007

Disapproving look
No probs - the Sprint 2 is a really popular car with drifters, though, if you're into that. If you search online there are loads of tutorials on how to get more steering angle, make it countersteer, everything. There's no real middle ground for RC drifting, there's either RTR cars like the Maverick Strada DC (not really available in the US unless you import it) and the Sprint 2...then really expensive Japanese import chassis from small boutique companies. So lots of people just bash together their own parts to do all the same stuff the expensive chassis do.

My Sprint 2 is my muscle car with vintage tires and a Mustang body. If you don't want to keep it it's still a current model, so you can get the spares to make it a runner, then sell it off.

needknees
Apr 4, 2006

Oh. My.
Hey rc thread, been awhile! Had to throw this pic out because I'm pretty proud of how the track turned out for a big event we held over Labor Day weekend



If you're ever in central Iowa stop by and check the facility out! https://www.facebook.com/bluegroovehobbies

fjelltorsk
Sep 2, 2011

I am having a BALL
so, how far had we gotten... we had done the front end, so next would have to be...

the center diff assembly:

i liked the lightned spurgear. looks cool.

ittybitty spidergears, filled it with oil, closed it up and built the brakes and linkages. btw. i hate doing linkages.

looks good when its together tho
it got mounted to the chassis and the splashguard was mounted

i had to repeat this process because i forgot the front centershaft.

i did the rear clip and suspension, i forgot to take pictures, but its mostly the same as the front


I built the shocks, they seem very nice and smooth. ditched the kit shock oil, and replaced it with some TLR oil as per my setup sheet i got from a local dude. Kit oil can be a mixed bag, they often just put som random quality oil there, so i use proper shock oil for consistancy.


radio tray time


installed the spektrum servos and reciever pack....

and mounted it on the chassis with the rest of the stuff


i then hamfisted the clutch together, and mounted the pipe and filter on the engine.




i mounted the engine in the chassi, the engine mount was a pain, but that is sorta the name of the game


added a wing, body and tires and we are done



cant wait to get some paint on the shell and some fuel in the engine. i am somewhat bored with breaking in nitro engines tho, but ill do my best

IOwnCalculus
Apr 2, 2003





Threw my Futaba 3PM up for sale if anyone wants it.

Raced here on Saturday. Visibility was... interesting.

Gingerbread House Music
Dec 1, 2009

by FactsAreUseless
Lipstick Apathy

an AOL chatroom posted:


Anyway, some better pictures of the get-together. Unfortunately, it was *really* hot today, and people didn't really start showing up until later, when it was too dark to get non-blurry shots.


Cool van, but condolences on being in poughkeepsie.

You Am I
May 20, 2001

Me @ your poasting

IOwnCalculus posted:

Please do. Building my SC10 is still the most time I've spent on it :v:

I'm slowly getting my TC3 VTA car somewhere approaching stable, though it still likes to kick the tail out at the end of long sweepers. It also doesn't like to transition left-to-right or right-to-left too quickly without getting loose. The old man bought himself a "spare" TC6.2 which meant he now had enough parts laying around and he just happened to put together a TC6.1 for me to drive in another spec-tire class with him :)
I'm afraid of pulling apart my SC10 4x4, it looks so complicated compared to the touring cars I have built.

My VTA car has gone to poo poo handling wise the past two weeks. Got a big competition happening later this month, and they run a lower weight for VTA compared to my club. Tried my car with the lower weight and it's gone to poo poo, kicking the tail out heaps.

Going to rebuild the shocks and suspension this weekend to see if that solves the issues I am having.

IOwnCalculus
Apr 2, 2003





Yeah, my VTA TC3 needs even more work. The outside wall at that track is brutal - after running a dozen laps or so in practice right before the event started, I ran wide on the very first lap and did a number on the right front lower arm and steering block. I slapped them together well enough but I need to throw a little money at it, the parts are just too beat.

I also swapped radios in the TC3 to the Flysky and I swear the servo sounds like it's getting more power. I'm going to need to do some A/B testing on that to see if I'm crazy, or if perhaps part of my problem this whole time is too much servo for that Futaba (which makes no sense).

You Am I
May 20, 2001

Me @ your poasting

Just pulled the shocks off my VTA and every one of them had air in them and the oil was black. Probably explains the handling issues I have been having recently.

Rebuilt the shocks and did a full reset of the suspension, including droop and ride height. See how it goes at the next club night.

screech on the beach
Mar 9, 2004
Hey guys, just found this thread after buying my first truck yesterday. After about a month of research and saving money I ordered a Losi XXX-SCT yesterday. It came down to that or a Team Associated SC10 so I went with Losi just because it looks cooler to me. Anyways, I'm a little worried about having a LiPo battery so I bought a better charger that can balance charge and a LiPo bag. Will this thing really burn my house down? I've been reading some conflicting things and that these newer batteries won't go all grenade on me.

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IOwnCalculus
Apr 2, 2003





Don't do anything monumentally stupid and you'll be fine. Make sure your low voltage cutoff is properly set up, go conservative if you can. Unless you bought a tiny battery and a huge charger, there's a good chance you can't charge it fast enough to hurt it. The super common chargers top out at 5A or 50W, so any battery with at least 5000mAh can't be charged too fast for safety. Balance it regularly - I balance charge mine almost every time because I'm rarely in that much of a rush.

My lipos are five years old and I haven't taken particularly good care of them - I store them in my garage which gets really, really hot in the summer. They're cheap Hobbyking batteries and only one of them has swollen to the point of retirement.

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