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Ambihelical Hexnut
Aug 5, 2008

James Woods posted:

So I still haven't sorted out the Cup Racer but going through the stable I found another problem. Im trying to bind my stock Traxxas Slash to a Spektrum DX3E. It's bound to my DX3S just fine but I want to run two cars simultaneously hence I got the 3E. I've inserted the bind plug, powered rhe model on and then held the bind button on the TX and powered it on and nothing ideas?

https://vm.tiktok.com/JFWwvYj/

SR300 and DX3E manuals say the Rx bind light should be flashing amber in bind mode and that looks green. Maybe your bind plug isn't closing the circuit between the pins? Try another bind plug or just jump between the pins. I'd also try pulling the Tx/Rx a little further away from each other, and if that doesn't work see if the DX3E will bind to your other receiver and your other radio to this receiver.

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Ambihelical Hexnut
Aug 5, 2008


I will not be constrained by what's reasonable.

James Woods
Jul 15, 2003
Vbatt? Are you saying that this ESC wants a 3s battery?

Edit

Jesus that things huge.

Spatule
Mar 18, 2003
Can you still find parts for it? I'm so sad it's dicontinued, I really want a bigger scale car and the Yeti XL looked so sweet.

Ambihelical Hexnut
Aug 5, 2008
There seems to be a pretty decent stock on eBay . A few high end upgrades (vanquish aluminum rear axle, for example) are in very short supply, but the hot racing/integy crap is around.

I bought this used from an ebay auction and it came with a lot of upgrades and spares so I'm hopeful it'll get some decent service, but from previously owning an HPI Savage Flux XL I expect that being in this weight and power class you should expect to shred some poo poo on the regular.

Ambihelical Hexnut
Aug 5, 2008
Okay, first tests on the Yeti XL showed some classic 'heavy as gently caress rc car' problems: weird slop all over the place, an absolute chaos of metal on metal noise coming out of it at all times, horrible cogging.

The PO put weird multi-piece steel and aluminum turnbuckles on every link. These aluminum rod ends use a captured brass bushing to mate against the pivot ball. I can find no information about what brand they are. One of the steering link bushings was straight up missing, so I replaced it with one of the spares. Still had some slop which I noticed was coming from the aluminum servo horn: it was screwed in, but rocking left/right easily. The servo is a high quality metal gear unit appropriate for the application and feels good; noticed that the servo horn has little 1.5mm screw holes to clamp it onto the output spline, with no screws installed. Installed screws, all good. Oddly the half+ inch of slop really didn't impact steering noticeably while driving.

These big mod 1 gear trucks always sound awful to my 64 pitch ear. On heavy acceleration loads I could hear the steel spur grinding; I reset mesh, it ran fine for five minutes, then fell out of mesh again terribly. Inspection reveals both motor plate screws backed out, so the motor was tilting in its mount, and the spur/slipper shaft is bent leading to wobbling of the spur gear. Loctite for the motor plate, new shaft on order. Old bent one is now working well against a stationary motor. A new steel spur gear is like $25. Big truck problems.

The truck came with a Tekin RX8 G2 ESC and T8G2 motor which cogged pretty badly. I noticed there was no sensor cable installed and the PO set the ESC up to run sensorless, so I installed a cable and programmed it into sensor mode. Now the motor runs backwards, revealing that the PO wired two of the phases backwards. Fixed that in ESC setup, now she's smooth.

She's working great now. I bought two no-name 2S 5000 packs from Amazon for like $30 because all of my racing packs have leads running out of the top that don't fit inside the battery boxes, and the truck produces more than enough power to get into trouble at all times. Because it sits with such a rake angle, hitting bumps at speed or slamming the brakes on a high traction surface can lead to endos pretty quick. I need to put that tire back on the rear rack so the CG is more centered. The giant, grabby tires and tremendous inertia mean getting unsettled in the air causes ridiculous flips and rolls pretty easily, but no damage yet.

Unfortunately I only have grass and asphalt at the house and will need to try to find some good bashing dirt before the snow arrives, but I can tell I'm going to enjoy this thing just as much as my Flux. I'll try 6S for 50mph speed runs after I get a few more jumps under my belt.

Size comparison: 1/10 TLR 22 on top, 1/8 Mugen in center, 1/8 Berserker on bottom




1/8th scale Berserker in back, '1/8th scale' Yeti in front:

Somewhat Heroic
Oct 11, 2007

(Insert Mad Max related text)



The YXL is a fun and large car. I enjoyed mine but it just ate gears. Diff, ring, pinion, spurs and pinions :shrug: even driving on 4S only. It was such a fun car to drive. If you look back through my post history itt you can see when I built one. The VEKTA kind of stole my heart though. Here are some side by side photos next to a YXL

Somewhat Heroic posted:


So let's talk about the VEKTA.5 and how awesome it is.




The little sister Yeti XL





I sold it and put some of the cash towards my Vanquish Origin. My SCX10iii showed up this week. I’m saving the build to do with my daughter so it’s gonna take a few weeks. It looks like it’s going to be a fun build. I’ve got a wild idea for the paint so fingers crossed the execution meets the dream. I’ve seriously been lacking in drive time this summer and it’s bummin me right out.

Ambihelical Hexnut
Aug 5, 2008
Thanks, I'll check it out. Having the diffs shimmed correctly (and/or replaced with HD gears) seems to be a real point of contention on these cars, and something I haven't looked at in mine yet. That SCX build is going to be fun; I did the Capra with one of my kids and now another wants to build with me too so I need to look at the next crawler.

Together our posts have created a visual gradient from 1/10th to 1/5th scale. Someone post a VEKTA next to something bigger!

Somewhat Heroic
Oct 11, 2007

(Insert Mad Max related text)



Slowly making progress on the SCX10iii. I am through Bag F in the kit.




Takeaways: The material feels really nice. These apparently are being made in the same place as the TLR race kits. Each bag has been perfectly packaged. Zero missing or extra pieces.

I am not crazy about the assembly manual. The orientation of some assemblies aren't great. Parts are not exactly to scale on the printed manuals like they have been for literally every other kit for years. The hardware included seems to feel slightly off when comparing it to the printed page. Like the M3x12 button head screw almost feels like it could pass as M3x10, and the M3x10 screw when held up to the same size feels like I am holding M3x9. It is definitely longer than M3x8. Frustrating. I can't remember the last time this came up. Nearly all the links are just tighten the plastic rod end all the way on the thread to flush and you are good, but one link that was not the case.

The transmission is hilariously complex. I am excited to try out the dig and two speed. The gears internally and in the portals seem to be really nice quality. Lots of heft and nicely cut. I should have the build done this weekend and spend next week painting the body which is on par with the Vanquish as far as vacuum forming and detail and pre-cut is concerned. This is the new standard.

Ambihelical Hexnut
Aug 5, 2008
Sweet! I love the look of forward mounted motor designs.

Parallel to my giant rear end Yeti, I also restored an old Latrax Rally 1/18th sedan which after a thorough cleaning, bearings, a motor fan, and tire sauce really hustles around my little cone course in the driveway faster than it has any right to given the brushed motor and NiMH pack. Super fun and somewhat challenging to drive fast, it's very enjoyable in the absence of being able to race on a proper track.

That led me to scouring ebay for another one, and I ended up nabbing this Latrax Prerunner for $75. After slapping in the cheapest 7600kv 260 can brushless setup I could find on amazon into it it's basically a teeny Slash. Super fun and jumps like a nano champion:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f47y6hCJtuM

My only hard complaint on both of these guys (besides being discontinued) is that they have open diffs on both ends and whatever hop-ups once existed are unobtainium now. With an abundance of power, any traction imbalance in cornering can cause a spin easily. I read in some ancient forums post that the ball diff from an RC18T (also long discontinued) is a drop-in so maybe I'll scour again...

kuffs
Mar 29, 2007

Projectile Dysfunction
Isn't all the LaTrax stuff some weird side venture of Traxxas? Does the 1/18th Traxxas stuff work?

Ambihelical Hexnut
Aug 5, 2008
Yes. LaTrax was a brand like 40 years ago for entry level cars, and Traxxas resurrected it for a while producing a bunch of 1/18th cars and a drone. I think all the Traxxas-branded small scale stuff has been 1/16th. All the cars are variants on the same shaft drive 4wd setup, with a 380 brushed motor.

evilnissan
Apr 18, 2007

I'm comin home.
Been wanting to get back into RC for a while now and got two Arrma Granite Voltages during the covid spring, one for me and one for my 7 year old daughter and for the money they are a blast.

Wobbly Cam warning.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imduFirDgzc

So much has changed since the 90's, the future is amazing, Lipo batteries are amazing.

Now im debating on switching mine over to a 2-3s brushless setup and hope the diff and drive cups hold up enough to have some fun or just go for a brushless RTR.

The last kit I built was a Lunch Box back in the mid 90's.

Spatule
Mar 18, 2003

evilnissan posted:

Arrma Granite Voltage

[...]

2-3s brushless


Do ti! For Science!

j/k, no way, bad bad idea.

Just get an RTR brushless car.

GlassEye-Boy
Jul 12, 2001

evilnissan posted:

Been wanting to get back into RC for a while now and got two Arrma Granite Voltages during the covid spring, one for me and one for my 7 year old daughter and for the money they are a blast.

Wobbly Cam warning.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imduFirDgzc

So much has changed since the 90's, the future is amazing, Lipo batteries are amazing.

Now im debating on switching mine over to a 2-3s brushless setup and hope the diff and drive cups hold up enough to have some fun or just go for a brushless RTR.

The last kit I built was a Lunch Box back in the mid 90's.

Do it, not much difference between the brushed and brushless version of the granite!

Spatule
Mar 18, 2003

GlassEye-Boy posted:

Do it, not much difference between the brushed and brushless version of the granite!

It's the Granite Voltage, the super basic run on vape batteries version.

evilnissan
Apr 18, 2007

I'm comin home.

Spatule posted:

It's the Granite Voltage, the super basic run on vape batteries version.

Correct but the the ones I got back in march do not support the vape battery arrangement anymore. Comes with a 1800 Nimh and wall wart charger. The battery door and compartment no longer has the metal contacts for that battery setup, it still comes with the cell hold but thats because it doubles Nimh battery holder. I run cheap 5200mah 2S Zeee hard case lipos in mine, they fit snug but battery wires took a couple trys to figure out the best way to run them through the car.





Sloppy
Apr 25, 2003

Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere.

Hoping you guys can steer me a bit:

I'm looking to get back into R/C. I had a 1/16 Slash a few years ago and it was fun but I want something a little bigger and more crawly. I've been looking over the various Axial options and they all look amazing. I don't really need the scale stuff although I don't mind it. The Wraith, SCX10, and Capra all look really fun but the chassis differences aren't clear to me. Is there a good flow chart somewhere, like 'if you want this, buy this'?

I like the idea of assembling a kit, but it seems those mostly come without electronics? I'd rather have everything bundled up for my first go, but those all seem to be pre-assembled, although that's not the end of the world.

evil_bunnY
Apr 2, 2003

It's really no big deal to add your own electronics. Wraith is the least crawly of the bunch, scx is the most. If you want advice for what to add to a kit just post your budget here and you'll get help.

powderific
May 13, 2004

Grimey Drawer
Definitely do not let the electronics thing stop you from building a kit. For me at least it's a huge part of the fun, and it makes fixing anything that breaks later way easier cause you're already used to messing with all the little parts.

Spatule
Mar 18, 2003
I hate traxxas with a passion, but the TRX4 is really nice tbh, something to consider imho.

Verman
Jul 4, 2005
Third time is a charm right?
I've got an scx10ii and I really enjoy it. Is surprisingly capable and I like the looks of a traditional vehicle versus a buggy.

I bought mine used so it was ready to go but I wouldn't be opposed to buying a kit and installing my own motors.

Sloppy
Apr 25, 2003

Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere.

Thanks guys, very helpful. I was assuming I'd spend around 400-500 based on used prices I've seen. The TR-4 looks sweet too. I'll head down to the local hobby shop and check them out in person.

Sloppy
Apr 25, 2003

Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere.

Follow-up question: I see people complaining about the TR-4 eating servos. That was a problem I had with my Slash but just assumed I was beating on it too hard and that the more relaxed crawler style would have less issues. What kind of experience have you guys had?

evil_bunnY
Apr 2, 2003

Sloppy posted:

Follow-up question: I see people complaining about the TR-4 eating servos. That was a problem I had with my Slash but just assumed I was beating on it too hard and that the more relaxed crawler style would have less issues. What kind of experience have you guys had?
Factory trx servo is hot garbage, and the sport doesn't have configurable endpoints on the remote, so it'll let you steer into the endstop and burn out the servos. Same for the locker/gearbox servos in the long wheelbase trx-4.

Sloppy
Apr 25, 2003

Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere.

Alright, I ordered a TRX-4 Sport kit :awesome:

Now I need to figure out what electronics to buy. Looking around at what other people are doing, does the following seem ok?

Transmitter: Thinking about just picking up the same one that comes in the RTR bundles since all the ones people are recommending on other forums are $200+ and I'm entry level and don't need anything fancy.
Receiver: Suggestions?
ESC: Hobbywing 1080 brushed
Motor: HH Trailmaster Sport 550 21t (seems to be out of stock? Looking for an alt)
Servo: ANNIMOS 20KG Digital Servo
Battery and charger: Just some basic Traxxas stuff?

evil_bunnY
Apr 2, 2003

Sloppy posted:

Alright, I ordered a TRX-4 Sport kit :awesome:

Now I need to figure out what electronics to buy. Looking around at what other people are doing, does the following seem ok?
I'd skip the traxxas radio, they don't even have basic features like endpoints. Get a GT3-B or whatever.
QR 1080 are excellent for the money, so are holmes cans in general.
For charger I'd grab a ISDT 608AC, and a pack from CNHL or Gen's ace that'll do 70C or better.

Sloppy
Apr 25, 2003

Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere.

evil_bunnY posted:

I'd skip the traxxas radio, they don't even have basic features like endpoints. Get a GT3-B or whatever.
QR 1080 are excellent for the money, so are holmes cans in general.
For charger I'd grab a ISDT 608AC, and a pack from CNHL or Gen's ace that'll do 70C or better.


Super helpful. Thank you!

deong
Jun 13, 2001

I'll see you in heck!
Im new to r/c car world. I just ordered the losi mini t that'll ship on Oct.
https://www.horizonhobby.com/product/1-18-mini-t-2.0-2wd-stadium-truck-brushless-rtr/LOS01019.html

I bought 2 spare batteries from the drop-down.. now I'm wondering should I ditch the usb charger for something better?
I plan to get a charge bag.. do those silver lunch bags really hold up to a battery explosion.

Somewhat Heroic
Oct 11, 2007

(Insert Mad Max related text)



deong posted:

Im new to r/c car world. I just ordered the losi mini t that'll ship on Oct.
https://www.horizonhobby.com/product/1-18-mini-t-2.0-2wd-stadium-truck-brushless-rtr/LOS01019.html

I bought 2 spare batteries from the drop-down.. now I'm wondering should I ditch the usb charger for something better?
I plan to get a charge bag.. do those silver lunch bags really hold up to a battery explosion.

A real lipo charger will yield much better results. You can find an AC/DC multi-chem (LiPo compatible) charger for ~$40 or less. What is nice is it will give you much more information like how many mAh the battery has taken in, the voltage of the battery as it charges so you know how close it is getting to full charge etc.

plus it will likely charge much faster than USB.

I still have not driven my SCX10 III kit because I have been slacking badly on getting the body painted. I was originally holding out hope my friend would be willing to cut masks for me again on his Roland. I decided to press on in an experimental way of painting the body that would either work or destroy what is one of the best produced bodies for crawlers these days.

I think I might pull this stupid idea off. Overspray film not removed yet, and need to attach all the molded accessories. I also have to mask and paint the interior.

antimatt
Sep 12, 2007

ultima ratio regum
Anyone race 1/10 4wd buggy and 1/8 ebuggy? Are they similarly enough to drive that you can learn one from the other? I'm moving to an area where 1/8 racing is closer but less frequent but 1/10 racing is weekly but a bit further away.

I'm just trying to decide my first focus once I get confident learning how to drive again after a bunch of years with this SCT I have.

Ambihelical Hexnut
Aug 5, 2008
The difference between a 1/8 (probably outdoor and loose) and 1/10 (maybe indoor clay) track will cause them to be different from start. 1/8 cars have much more drivetrain and wheel inertia and can do a lot of airborne maneuvering, are beefier, and you'll drive on larger tracks on a much taller stand. My experience with 1/10 4wd buggies is that they are very very fast on 1/10 tracks which tend to have more vertical and technical layouts, and are much more fragile. It's a lot easier for one mistake to end a race. The 1/8 class will probably have a wider range of skill levels (or multiple skill classes) as opposed to the 1/10 4wd which will be a second class for the extremely competitive 2wd buggy guys.

Overall they are pretty different driving experiences. I'd probably visit both tracks on a race day before committing too hard and see how the field looks.

antimatt
Sep 12, 2007

ultima ratio regum

Ambihelical Hexnut posted:

The difference between a 1/8 (probably outdoor and loose) and 1/10 (maybe indoor clay) track will cause them to be different from start. 1/8 cars have much more drivetrain and wheel inertia and can do a lot of airborne maneuvering, are beefier, and you'll drive on larger tracks on a much taller stand. My experience with 1/10 4wd buggies is that they are very very fast on 1/10 tracks which tend to have more vertical and technical layouts, and are much more fragile. It's a lot easier for one mistake to end a race. The 1/8 class will probably have a wider range of skill levels (or multiple skill classes) as opposed to the 1/10 4wd which will be a second class for the extremely competitive 2wd buggy guys.

Overall they are pretty different driving experiences. I'd probably visit both tracks on a race day before committing too hard and see how the field looks.

That... makes a lot of sense and helps! I'll likely get into both over time. You're correct in 1/10 being indoor clay (Beach RC in Myrtle Beach, SC) and unless the field is completely terrible / toxic I'll likely make that my main focus as they race weekly. I'm enjoying learning to drive again and this will be my primary hobby for the foreseeable future.

Last car I raced before I started here recently was a grey pan RC10 back in like '95. I bought a Traxxas Slash kit and a Hobbywing blinky 17.5 brushless combo and put decent wheels and tires on it. I'm already side-eyeing a RC10SC6.1 because I can't stand how much play there is in the Slash's suspension. Everything is perfectly assembled and yet there is still several degrees of play in the steering and suspension. At least it's stout and relatively inexpensive. I haven't broken anything yet, and my clean laps are competitive for the novice class. I can't easily clear doubles with it and I think that's because it's about a half kilo heavier than ROAR minimum weight and it appears most 2wd SCT classes are 13.5 brushless instead of 17.5.

It's a bummer that SCT isn't popular. I like the look of them far more than the stadium trucks. The bodies of stadium trucks just look silly. Same with 1/8 truggy. I'm sure someone will take offense with that hot take...

Ambihelical Hexnut
Aug 5, 2008
I have spent a lot of disposable income building and trying to race cars I was interested in only to realize nobody showed up consistently for that class and it sucked. If you're going to spend money, see what classes have good attendance at the track you'll visit consistently and buy whatever they're running. It's way more fun to claw your way up a class that routinely runs A B and C mains over a season than it is to be one of two guys who shows up for F1 carpet once a month.

Sloppy
Apr 25, 2003

Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere.

Thanks for all the crawler advice guys. I finished up the TRX-4 build today and had a total blast. The hiccups were minor, and I learned that spray-painting is hard...but I'm satisfied for my first try.

Nerobro
Nov 4, 2005

Rider now with 100% more titanium!
AsiaTee's just released form 1:76 scale cars.

.......... They're awesome. $55 and totally worth it. 30 minute run time, proportional control, and can be hooked up to "normal" radios.

Now I need to buy a third, and convert one of my Bit Char-G cars to ~proper~ lipo use and full proportional.

Somewhat Heroic
Oct 11, 2007

(Insert Mad Max related text)



Sloppy posted:

Thanks for all the crawler advice guys. I finished up the TRX-4 build today and had a total blast. The hiccups were minor, and I learned that spray-painting is hard...but I'm satisfied for my first try.



Great job! Building is so satisfying and at this stage it is my favorite thing to enjoy about the hobby.

After ~2 months I finally finished up my SCX10 III. I have been slacking on getting the painting done. The body is the best I have ever seen in lexan and I wanted to do it justice. After picking up a whole bunch of paint I tore after it this week.

I think I stuck the landing.






The "hard top" was painted with Tamiya Lame Flake which is backed with black and it is cool as hell. I see why it is ~$18 for the can or whatever. The amount of metal flake in direct sun is ridiculous.

My muse

I am chuffed with how well it translated and this will likely become A Thing for all of my cars here on out.

I will be taking some glamour/posed shots for a couple of weeks before I get after running it too much. They are only this fresh once so I am going to build up a bank of media I can use for social media stuff with work.

Kibner
Oct 21, 2008

#1 Pelican Fan
Love it!

Sloppy
Apr 25, 2003

Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere.

Somewhat Heroic posted:



I will be taking some glamour/posed shots for a couple of weeks before I get after running it too much. They are only this fresh once so I am going to build up a bank of media I can use for social media stuff with work.

That's amazing, and hilarious. Is the Dixie cup bit a sticker? I had some graphic ideas for the TRX (Beavis head on the hood) but didn't pursue it since I assumed it would be a one-off custom print sticker with face adhesive and I was impatient.

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Somewhat Heroic
Oct 11, 2007

(Insert Mad Max related text)



Sloppy posted:

That's amazing, and hilarious. Is the Dixie cup bit a sticker? I had some graphic ideas for the TRX (Beavis head on the hood) but didn't pursue it since I assumed it would be a one-off custom print sticker with face adhesive and I was impatient.

It is painted. I scaled and printed the splash on a piece of paper and held it under the body and loosely sketched the outline on the outside overspray film with a dry erase marker. To get the paint down it was an experiment that fortunately worked out. I bought the most porous sponge I could find at the store. I cut it so it was a narrow line and sprayed the edge of the foam with my paint and lightly ‘splotched’ where my dry erase marks were. I did two treatments per color trying to leave some negative space on the edges so colors could show through. The white was a good backing color for the purple and teal. The white was backed with silver. The lame flack was backed with black that was then backed with silver.

The interior was painted mostly black with gunmetal seats. The driver has black pants and a white shirt with a black vest I hand painted. This is because I plan on finding a Han Solo action figure to steal the head from and mount to the driver. Because it would be meta and stupid to have Han Solo driving a solo cup liveried Jeep. I installed the interior decals and then gave a light spray over all of the interior including the decals with tamiya flat clear. It gives nice depth and more realistic look I think. The drivers head I hand painted with some tamiya model acrylic paint.

I also decided to use the exterior window decals which this was the first successful time I’ve ever done it. I cleaned the exterior windows with windex and a micro fiber cloth. I sprayed the decal with windex as a slip solution and easily could slide the decal in place with no bubbles. With the microfiber cloth i squeegeed from the middle to the edge and they stuck in place perfectly. I was shocked. A lot went right on this body and not rushing it was the right move.

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