One thread for all my junk...

[carloco8]

Here mrlexan:

http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXHSX3&P=

3mm hole size is close enough to 4-40

[mrlexan]

Thanks for the links guys!

[teshreve]

Anyone have any Mini-Z cars?
I was into them for a few winters. They are great because you can convert your garage into a track in about 15 minutes.
There were 3 of us who would run them almost every Friday night, joined by a 4th most of the time, with an occasional 5th and 6th person.

Here is an example track layout:




We'd uses hoses and tape them down. Knowing that I was eventually going to paint the garage floor, I decided to strip the concrete protectant off to see if it would add more traction (instead of that smooth acrylic like stuff). The results were mixed. Instead of the softest, gummiest tires we could find, we now needed the hardest tires we could find. Once we had those, I think it turned out for the better. Right before we sold that house I did finally put down the crazy expensive floor coating/paint stuff.

Here was my first Mini-Z





My second car, with racing momentos



The only first gen car I have left. It was never run and got some bling added






We briefly tried the gen2 Mini-Zs (MR02, I think?), but lost interest soon after buying them. Here is a comparison shot between the two:




I have some movies as well:
Practicing with the Vitz... MOVIE 1 - MOVIE 2
Typical Friday night get together... MOVIE 3

[teshreve]

One of my favorite RC cars ever. The car had SERIOUS miles on it when I sold it, but the body and tires were fairly fresh in this pic.
Hey, if you are crazy enough to paint your junk pink, you may as well sticker it to death...

[justinspeed79]

The Mini-Z's are pretty popular around here. Christian Tabush was (and may still be I'm not sure) the world champion Mini-Z driver. He and a couple others holds races every other weekend here in Houston at HIRCR. I have not done it yet, but I definitely want to try it out sometime. They say it's some of the best racing action out of anything you can race. I have seen many videos of them racing, it's almost unbelievable to watch them, they look like slot cars going around the track, only they handle better and are faster than slot cars.

check out the HIRCR website.
http://www.hircr.com/

[RC10WORLD]

The B3 body is just great, Ron. I will keep the idea for another painting project.

Mannekenpis.

[teshreve]

Here's one of my favorite projects ever. This is basically the result of years and years of trying and tons of hours of trial and error. I have no idea why I came up with the idea... or exactly when. My first memory of putting an airplane prop on an RC car was on an XXT, probably 1995'ish. The XXT was very new in any case.
I can remember taking it to the track and getting some laughs and comments. The track I raced at needed constant water and if it didn't get it, it was a dust bowl. And this thing would make some serious dust. It was heavy and slow, ate batteries like crazy and was terribly hard on motors. So I kinda gave up.
That winter it snowed, so I broke it out again after quickly crafting some skiis.

Oh, looky there, a time stamp. OK, so it was 1994 that I first did this.


I gave up on the idea due to performance for a few years. Then I tried it on a B3 a few times, which was way lighter, but also way tipsy....

For some reason, I never thought to use the brushless motor I bought for the monster truck I posted earlier. It dawned on me that this motor (and especially the controller) were designed for planes, so it made a HUGE difference in performance. And I needed a way bigger prop with way more pitch. After throwing the Aveox in the mix, everything changed. I now had far more power than any platform I had come up with could handle. It was just stupid fast on the B3, but was impossible to control and scary to drive because it would torque roll so severely. Worse, the bigger prop forced me to put that heavy motor higher in the air, making CG just terrible. No amount of suspension setup would fix it. So, I set out to create a new platform.

This is the earliest pic I could find of the new platform. I was using the old propulsion just to test.

I made special packs for this thing that were lighter than whatever was available at the time. This motor produces just about 1HP on 16 cells! So I wanted to use as many cells as I could... but 16 SubC cells weighs a ton. So I bought these nifty 2/3 SubC cells. Better, but still not good.





Then lipo happened. This changed everything again. Less than half the weight, more punch, longer run times.
There were a few minor revisions previous to these pics, but they are boring and minor. This is with a 4S (14.8 volts or roughly equal to 14 cells) 2400Mah lipoly pack. I am kinda pissed that I lost the rear foam DS tires I had. I cannot find them anywhere. I'll be getting video of this thing pretty soon. It is faster than you would think. It is very VERY fast. Acceleration wise it would beat most cars designed for dirt and for sure anything with a stock motor. Top speed wise, you'd have to put together something pretty impressive to beat this thing. Handling wise, it pretty much straight up sucks, but it can get around when not under power. The torque roll really messes with the handling under power. And brakes? Nope! Brakes are a drag, man!

[Spiderman]

thats SWEEET how did you stop it

[teshreve]

The controller does have reverse. Airplane props run terrible in reverse, but they do provide a little bit of thrust. So throwing it reverse helps a little, although sometimes I wonder...
Mostly, however, I scrub speed by making S turns as sharp as I can make them. It works pretty good.
But the real trick is to not need brakes by planning ahead and running in a large area. I could go up and down my street fairly well, but EVERY time I have given the controls to someone else it has been wrecked. I warn and I warn people and it does no good. It becomes curb lunch.

[teshreve]

Here is a pic with a body on it (and when I was using the RC10 DS rear foam tires)....

[teshreve]

Anyone have a micro helicopter?

A few years ago, I bought a Hirobo Lama XRB. The learning curve is not like surface RC! And mistakes are far more catastrophic (and expensive)... even for one of these micro helis. What is amazing is that these coaxial micro helis are EASY to fly compared to a true RC heli. I have a little time on one of those and they are exponentially more difficult and expensive.

Here are some pics of when I upgraded the frame on my XRB. It does nothing for performance (save for the CF swash plate) and is just for looks.












More recently, I bought an e-Flite CX2. This heli is far more durable, quite a bit higher performance, but lacks the refinement and smoothness of the XRB.

I have some movies of a buddy and I flying these things:

This is pretty much our first night flying these things. His is the yellow CX and mine is the red/silver XRB
http://videos.theshreves.com/todd/helicompilation.wmv

The next weekend. We get better pretty quickly, but still suck.
http://videos.theshreves.com/todd/helicompilation2.wmv

And here is my buddy doing some tricks.
http://videos.theshreves.com/todd/helistunts.mpg

[Synergy]

I fly planks and Helis, I have a Thunder Tiger Raptor 50, a NIB 90se and a Twister 3d and you are quite correct it's the most difficult RC disciplin bar none.

[teshreve]

I agree. The pinnacle of RC talent lies in the helisphere.

If you can accept that, watching Szabo videos will flat amaze you.
Just get on youtube and search for szabo helicopter

Such as these...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s__ubK5LQAs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3iWIRGaBoZI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEJU27TETmw

[Synergy]

I've got most every Szabo/Krause/Youngblood/Kim video downloaded to my hard drive, the problem none heli fliers have is these guys make it look so easy, it's difficult for them to appreciate how hard it really is to even hover one of these things tail in never mind nose in.

[teshreve]

Well, I am kinda-sorta running out of RC stuff to post.

Way back in 1992 I bought my first Traxxas Villain IV. It is an RC boat with dual counter-rotating props.
It was pretty much a disaster because the props fell off, the gears stripped, and generally all sorts of noob-like things happened. As I soon found out, when boats lose parts the logistics of recovering them are exponentially more complicated than cars and trucks. To date, not one lost part has been found.

In the end, I bought 3 of these kits over the years. I have not actually owned another RC boat. I believe I have taken this kit as far as it can be taken, performance wise, using pre-brushless tech.
The last iteration included Reedy 13 turn Sonic2 motors on 10 cells. It was stupid fast. Likely beating Traxxas' own speed record of 32 MPH.
Here is a pic of the operational end of my last Villain:



Note the damn rare Tekin 432M ESC. I have two of them... just in case. They are pretty nice! From 4 to 32 cells!

This boat has been run on everything from mirror smooth lakes to large creek rapids. From jumping ski boat waves to private ponds. Even salt water a few times.

Here are some pics of it in action:














And the movies:
http://movies.theshreves.com/todd/villain2.wmv - from 1993
http://movies.theshreves.com/todd/villain3.wmv - fairly recent.
http://movies.theshreves.com/todd/villain4.wmv - most recent. Extreme weather towards end of video.