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You Am I posted:As you mentioned Nerobro, there has been big changes to suspension over the past 10 years, including smaller shocks for lower cg, huge amount of work into chassis tuning through flex. I race primarily asphalt outdoors, there aren't many indoor tracks in Australia, and there's only one big international event a year in Australia where there's a chance of carpet racing. On asphalt, flex is everything. There's a driver at my track who runs his own carbon fibre engineering business ( http://bezerk.com.au/shop/ ) who is manufacturing vertical top decks to get adjustable flex for outdoor on road racers. Steering setups have changed a bit over the years, companies using floating servo holders, some using full floating steering setups. Ok, back to the chassis thing. R/C cars aren't setup to handle high speed damping. That's where I think chassis flex comes in to play. I think we can do better. I run almost exclusively on carpet. so my chassis are all built as stiff as I can go. Awesomatix amuses me, because rotary dampers have been tried, and rejected so many times on road cars and bikes. I wonder how hot those things get... The Serpent rig is really strange. It's like.. an active self centering swaybar. And there you have all of the cars damping in one shock at each end, and a small one at that. I wonder if those start to see damping fade by the end of an 8 minute main. The full floating servo holders, as I understand it, are about letting people tune the flex of their chassis. I figure, if the suspension is better, chassis engineering will get back to "just make it stiff" quote:Drive trains themselves have changed a bit, including the use of DCJ axles on the front of the car instead of universals so you don't get the axle chatter with a spool and also get the benefit of more steering. Diffs have gone in and out of fashion. When I started most touring cars were using front one way diffs (and on some chassis centre one ways for the front pulley) and ball diffs at the rear. These days spools seem to rule the front (with some exceptions like Mini or some people using putty filled oil gear diffs) with oil filled gear diffs ruling the rear. I think the transition to spools and gear diffs is related to the LiPo revolution. In the past, every watt counted. When you had a 1500 or 1700mah NiCd pack, ~even getting~ to the end of the main was a thing. So with 4wd cars, you saw choices made to ensure more of the power got down, and less went to scrubbing tires. EG, one ways and ball diffs. When I use 1100mah in a race, on a 5000mah battery, I can afford to be blowing some power in the spool and gear diffs. :-) So.. when I got "out" of RC, in 1996? 95? something like that, touring cars were just becoming a thing. NiMh hadn't hit yet. Brushless existed but only for speed run cars. I am amused that we're seeing 4 gear transmissions on carpet buggies. Mid motors were the sign of "begginer cars" way back when. Now you only see rear motors on noob cars.
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May 22, 2018 17:01
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Ran my Xray T4 2018 touring car for the first time last night. Dumb poo poo mistakes came out of the shakedown during the first race - some wires coming unsoldered from the ESC, motor fan dying, missed tightening up some screws which lead to the car become a FWD TC. Over the next couple of rounds I was able to fix most of the issues other than the motor fan. The last race I finished second, mainly due to attrition. Getting used to tourers after running Mini for nearly two years has been a bit of brain re-wiring with my driving, but hopefully will get some consistency next week.
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May 24, 2018 00:57
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Unsoldered? Would you be willing to post pictures of your solder joints? A good solder joint should break the wire or PCB rather than the solder. Maybe I can help you with that. If it makes you feel better, I had my ESC signal wire fall down yesterday, and the carpet wore the insulation off one of the wires. Speaking of which, my buddy had two of his friends goto the R/C track, and invited me along. His two friends had never been to a R/C track before. The Actor had little interest in building cars, and even less mechanical sympathy. He put three or four packs through several cars. but the most impressive thing, was he managed to break the rear axles on a DT02. Yes, both rear axles. Yes, the same way. He had a whole lot of fun. And I made sure he fixed the bits he broke. For a guy who had no interest in building, he had a good grasp of what to do to repair things. The MedTech, over the last month or so, has built her own DN-01. (A cheap relative of the TRF201...) She built it quite well, the only thing that turned out wrong in the end, was she hadn't tightened the ball diff enough. The car was built very well. The only time I interfered at all, was calibrating the ESC. Her car has that 80a ESC I put the better vreg on. She'd never really driven a r/c car before. So spent her evening feeling out how to drive her car. By the time I left, she was reasonably competently threading her car through the track. My TRF-201 drove quite well. So did my DT02. And my TA07 ran remarkably well, especially for it's second time it's seen the track. For a day of not racing, it was a good day! And we may have made two new r/c addicts.
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May 25, 2018 15:52
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good, goooood
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May 25, 2018 16:06
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Yesssss hobbies with friends are the bestest. In other news, I can’t find a way to get a TRX-4 without a radio  I guess I’m supposed to sell it but will buy a radio when every single model comes with one?
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May 25, 2018 17:05
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Nerobro posted:Unsoldered? Would you be willing to post pictures of your solder joints? A good solder joint should break the wire or PCB rather than the solder. Maybe I can help you with that.
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May 26, 2018 04:51
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Welp, scored a defender trx-4 with an LC70 hard body, savox 1210, castle BEC and a bunch of extra traxxas chassis parts for the price of an RTR trx-4. I kinda want to make it into a tchadian technical to troll the local crawler groups. I gave it a test run and it’s pretty obvious why they changed the chassis/body when they put out the trx4 bronco, the defender setup *loves* to roll over. On 3s it hauls decent rear end (25mph maybe?).
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Jun 3, 2018 13:00
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Saturday was a bust. Mostly. I showed up for saturday club racing, and nobody else did. On the bright side, I got to spend a little time trying to make my TC4.. turn. Which it's still reluctant to do. I tightened up the rear diff a little, I took all the camber out of the back, and I put a degree into the front. My laps got more consistent, but not faster. In light of racing not happening, I made a call, and got an old high school friend to come to the track. He did a whole bunch of laps with my TA07, and the Euro Truck. He says he really likes the Euro Truck. I'm now plotting how to get him addicted, and to come out racing, and maybe build his own TT01e.
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Jun 4, 2018 22:15
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Wouldn’t you want to loosen the rear diff for better turning?
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Jun 4, 2018 23:15
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kuffs posted:Wouldn’t you want to loosen the rear diff for better turning? Tightening the rear diff, reduces rear traction on corner entry, and mid corner. By "binding up" the rear axle, you're sucking up bits of the traction circle to work against the diff.
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Jun 5, 2018 07:36
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 I got a loving fiiiiiiiiiiifth scaaaaaaaaaale!
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Jun 7, 2018 21:51
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Gingerbread House Music posted:
   With even a small amount of cursory searching you will come across some of my work. There is a good chance I will probably even talk with you if you ever buy things from the internet. Look through my post history in this thread, you will like what you see
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Jun 7, 2018 22:05
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Do other surface brushless ESCs do the same thing as Tekin's "Active Drag" feature? I hate how even with drag brake at 100%, if you give it 3% throttle it just start free-rolling downhill. If you know what BLHeli damped_light is, that's what I mean. I want an ESC that actively controls motor speed (like one pedal driving an EV), not just current output.
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Jun 8, 2018 10:17
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Somewhat Heroic posted:
Some of your work needs to include getting some companies to sell poo poo to us Canucks are not completely-screw-us prices Most stuff is so pricey up here vs. in the States, it sucks. Killed my motivation to keep playing in the hobby much, when I see guys down south paying less than 1/2 of what I do (even factoring in for exchange rates). Rant over :P I just want more toys.
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Jun 8, 2018 11:55
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Somewhat Heroic posted:
Please don't make me buy a $1000 chassis conversion kit.
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Jun 8, 2018 12:00
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That was freaking hilarious. Today at WCRC, it was an all VTA day. So we decided (they decided?) to do our own reedy race in house. So it was a series of 6 mains, instead of seeding and a main. The track layout matches the reedy race too. The first 3 races were trans-am starts. Then we did two rolling starts.. which never went well. That was always to my advantage :-) And the final race was "land rush". That.. was the most fun for me. It was also my best race of the day. I did ok. Everyone seemed to have fun. And at least one guy blew up his spool. ... and yet was still turning some really fast laps.
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Jun 10, 2018 10:18
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That sounds awesome!
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Jun 10, 2018 13:13
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Whoops, found out why the team fasteddy exhaust clamp is considered a must have upgrade.
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Jun 10, 2018 16:01
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Because I get bored at night. I did some digging. Before the fast guy converted his awesomatix to RWD, he was tunning 11.2 second laps. After blowing up his front pulley, he was turning 11.7. I think I may need to consider buying and tuning a better chassis for VTA. My TC4 is "just a little" tippy and still turns like it's 3' long. The tub makes the battery a good 1/8" taller than it needs to be. The sides of the chassis are touching down from time to time (I get that sticky gunky feeling if I touch the sides of the tub) and the thing is still running plastic body shocks. Throwing more money at "fixing it" feels a bit like putting lipstick on a pig. ... then again, there is the Kaizen carbon chassis out there. Do I? I'd then own a $350 TC4. That could buy a used X-Ray.
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Jun 11, 2018 17:42
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Gingerbread House Music posted:Whoops, found out why the team fasteddy exhaust clamp is considered a must have upgrade. The pipe is ruined. Time to just go for the twin   Real talk the twins are the best sounding engine but they are peak hobby. Single big engines make better and more usable power. They are way less of a pain in the rear end. Personally I think anything over a 34cc is a total waste though. They just become useless one trick ponies. Real fast but useless. The HPI tuned pipe is a bit crap. It’s just loud and obnoxious. The stock high flow muffler ($20) makes just as much power without the noise. Proper tuned pipes are way better. Bartolone, victory RC or Dominator pipes are what you need. Nerobo; retire the TC3 if you want to be competitive in the VTA class.
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Jun 12, 2018 03:42
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A second hand Xray, at least in Australia, is a good buy since they have a ton of support here. Not sure about the US. Of course in Europe they are huge. I'll be racing at a major RC event at the start of next month (https://www.aocrc.com) and the top factory drivers from Xray will be racing there.
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Jun 12, 2018 06:40
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I don't think i'm anywhere near the limit of the TC4 yet. However, it appears that TA is going to, or had already, discontinued the TC4. With their parts supply issues, it doesn't leave me feeling great driving it. I've got a TA07 that might do better. But we'll see what else ends up in my lap. I'm looking.. X-Ray is very common in my area, and a 15 or 16 x-ray can be pretty cheap. My racing buddy has a TC 7.1. Keeping with my current stock of parts, Tamiya would be the easiest step up. But, realistically, there's no way to really win at WCRC unless you're running a Awesomatix. I'm not buying a $1000 car. :-)
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Jun 12, 2018 09:20
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Somewhat Heroic posted:The pipe is ruined. Time to just go for the twin Bah, right after i find a TSK-b kit.
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Jun 12, 2018 11:31
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Gingerbread House Music posted:Bah, right after i find a TSK-b kit.  Make sure you long arm it while you are at it. They handle 1m times better.
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Jun 12, 2018 19:55
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Nerobro posted:I don't think i'm anywhere near the limit of the TC4 yet. However, it appears that TA is going to, or had already, discontinued the TC4. With their parts supply issues, it doesn't leave me feeling great driving it. No way anyone is winning big championships with Awesomatix. Infinity is the big brand these days with the huge factory driver team they have, followed by Yokomo and Xray. I only know of two drivers who I know do well for Awesomatix, and one of those is the main importer for the brand in Australia.
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Jun 13, 2018 00:43
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Somewhat Heroic posted:
Post more deets pls. I’ve been Kraken-curious for quite some time.
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Jun 13, 2018 06:58
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You Am I posted:No way anyone is winning big championships with Awesomatix. Infinity is the big brand these days with the huge factory driver team they have, followed by Yokomo and Xray. Keep in mind that a lot of RC is local. I've literally never seen a car with an infinity chassis. I have seen a serpent or two. And really, every brand short of Xpress and Turnigy. Talking to the fast guys at WCRC, going from a properly setup Xray to a Awesomatix is worth... well to use some hard numbers... Someone who's turning 13's, would find 7 tenths of a second. Looking at the Reedy Race, 4 drivers ran infinity, 4 ran awesomatix, 3 ran yokomo, one serpent, 4 xray, 5 team associated, and one Xpress. The reedy race was on a much lower traction surface. Results from a Grey Carpet race: http://events.redrc.net/2018/01/volker-claims-win-no-8-at-dhi-cup/ The results are Xray heavy. TC7.1's aren't winning. Only LCG setup Xrays and Awesomatix are winning on black carpet. I.. think my statement holds. But I am having trouble finding coverage of a "big" race running on CRC black carpet.
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Jun 13, 2018 09:05
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I got my aluminum angle cut.. Now I need to drill holes in the granite tile. ... I will get some real car chassis data soon.
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Jun 17, 2018 08:28
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It's kinda sad how AE has dropped the ball with the TC 6.x and 7.x series. The 3s and 4s were great cars. Awesomatix are very sensitive to tweak and suspension changes. I see the people who use that brand pretty much having to re-setup their car before each run. And you need specialised tools to do things like shock repair and diff work, unlike with other TC brands where you could use the same drivers (except for some of the early AE stuff that was in imperial). At the Asian On Road champs a couple of weekends ago in the Phillipines, the top ten included Xray (team driver won it), Yokomo and Infinity. However that was on outdoor asphalt. The next AOC race is in Australia which will be on ETS Black carpet. My first time for racing on carpet 
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Jun 18, 2018 02:07
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Tell me your opinion about the TC7, and that sort of thing. I'd love to hear your thoughts. We're waiting for the TC8 or whatever to drop. The awesomatix are "hard" to setup. But i don't see people tweaking them to much run to run. That said, the guys running them aren't hitting boards much. :-) I am doing a roundup of all the cheap chassis. Say, sub $200 touring cars. I intend on buying most of them... and getting them tested, handed out, and eventually given away.
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Jun 18, 2018 20:22
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Nerobro posted:That said, the guys running them aren't hitting boards much. :-) This is also why I don't sweat that much on what chassis I'm running. I'm too lazy to spend forever dialing it in *just so* because I'm going to collect a board or three.
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Jun 18, 2018 20:45
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I ordered the Turnigy TD10v2, and the 3 Racing Sakura XI Sport ver. Nu last night. My TT01 is already sub $200. I have a TA07, which lists for $189. And my FF03, which lists for $110. So that's the first five chassis. And for "real chassis" I can compare against a TC7.1
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Jun 21, 2018 15:26
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Nerobro posted:Tell me your opinion about the TC7, and that sort of thing. I'd love to hear your thoughts. I have no opinion of the TC7 as no one runs them in Australia. There is an importer for them in Australia, and their off road stuff is supposed to be really good, but the on road chassis seems to be at the bottom of most people's lists. What I have seen from people racing the Awesomatix is that you really need to be on top of suspension maintenance for them. A slight tweak which could be ignored in most other brands will cause issues with the Awesomatix. That said, the engineering behind that car, and the Serpent, is amazing. Tamiya's cheap chassises are always great, and can be giant killers in the right hands. Plus the aftermarket hop up parts for them from brands like 3 Racing and Yeah Racing is extensive.
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Jun 22, 2018 01:35
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The Sakura XI Sport ver.Nu showed up. ... it's a shockingly good kit. Good quality plastic on the bags, comes with tires, good organisation of the parts. Totally unlike a Tamiya kit. I'm still waiting on the turnigy kit.
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Jun 25, 2018 17:11
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The kid's car lost traction to a wheel while just putzing around yesterday, turns out the RTR was assembled without a hex pin, so the set screw immediately gave up and the only thing transmitting torque was the pressure fit of the hex against the hub bearing. On the plus side our shop was 100% painless to deal with, and a friend gave us a pin to use in the meantime. It's kind of fun comparing the TRX-4 and the scx10. Stock the SCX weights what feels like half as much, but the chassis also feels super flexy and some parts are obviously not too well thought out. The TRX-4 feels better made but it's also heavy AF, especially with the stock defender shell. Both of them come with shock oil that might be appropriate if they ran exclusively in 40C weather. evil_bunnY fucked around with this message at 09:21 on Jun 27, 2018 |
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Jun 27, 2018 09:19
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kuffs posted:Post more deets pls. I’ve been Kraken-curious for quite some time. I’m late replying but which kraken curious are you? Vekta or TSK? The VEKTA is my favorite RC of all time. In the next couple of months the Trophy Truck will be released and I will have the first one available. RC updates (without photos) I put my first heat cycle through the FG EVO yesterday and that thing is amazing. I’ll get more photos and videos posted soon. It’s impressive, and handles so much better than my 4WD Sportsline car it’s crazy.
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Jul 1, 2018 17:01
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Somewhat Heroic posted:I’m late replying but which kraken curious are you? Vekta or TSK? The VEKTA is my favorite RC of all time. In the next couple of months the Trophy Truck will be released and I will have the first one available. The VEKTA with the more realistic tire kit. Kraken's website doesn't have any information about it anymore. The trophy truck sounds pretty rad too. Where the hell do you run something like this?
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Jul 1, 2018 17:31
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I built the Sakura XI Sport. I also did some research, the version I bought. ver.Nu that is. It comes with swaybars, and new shock towers. The build went great. I did it in six hours or so. I could knock an hour off of it, had I wanted to be done faster. Now we wait for the TD10v2 to come in, and all the electronics. If you intend on buying one, to keep it, buy some screws. The factory supplied screws are pretty terrible. ......... Now if that's the nit i'm picking... imagine the rest of the story.
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Jul 2, 2018 09:46
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What type and brand of screws would you recommend? I don't know much about how to determine good aftermarket screws. 
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Jul 2, 2018 14:41
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Practically, anything you spend more than "free" on. The screws that came in the kit, are painted, plain steel. Buy black oxide coated fasteners, and your problem is solved. It'll cost you about $10 to do it. If you don't mind waiting for chinese shipping.
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Jul 2, 2018 16:09
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