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I can remember when there was a resistor plate that got mounted for the hot resistor....and the four extra AA batteries for the servos were needed....geez

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i was out of rc for 17 years, i was pleasently suprised when i returned:

no more discharge bulbs, no more nicads (i completley missed the nmih era), no more brushes, no more xtals...

i picked a great time to re-enter the hobby 5 years ago.

back then..............................off road cars were manufactured for loamy, soft, sandy dirt...stuff you can "throw a roost"....it's like...look at the knobbies that came stock with the kits...

now...off road cars are manufactured for pavement/cement type of dirt....carpet on the jumps...look at the knobbies the come with newer kits.

kaiser wrote:i was out of rc for 17 years, i was pleasently suprised when i returned:

no more discharge bulbs, no more nicads (i completley missed the nmih era), no more brushes, no more xtals...

i picked a great time to re-enter the hobby 5 years ago.

It seems we both got sucked back in about the same time. The first cars I built had the 4 x AA receiver packs, ESCs were so new they were practically nonexistent. MSC's with resistors (that always cracked) were the norm. Few people could afford proper chargers and bought the $20 resistor-cable chargers that you had to connect to a car battery. Cars that ran barely 4 minutes before crapping out. NiCads & NiMHs that were charged when you put them into storage one day, but a month later were completely dead from just sitting there. Race tracks that still bore some semblance to real tracks and real speeds (proportionally), where cars drove & behaved more or less like their full-scale counterparts, not take off in the air like 747's for huge-air triples and rocket around the track at speeds ridiculously out-of-proportion to real cars.

Ahh, those were the days...

I *do* love the advancements in electronics, though...I don't think much has improved in the way of suspension and mechanical engineering since the late 80's/early 90's, but the electronics has advanced in leaps and bounds. I love being able to bind several cars to one transmitter, have a myriad of adjustments more than just basic trim, even with entry-level radios. I love LiPo battery technology that doesn't discharge just by sitting around, and doesn't have the "charge memory" issues that NiCad's have. However, I still get nervous about the LiPo's risk of serious fire hazard and explosion. That technology comes with a price; a caveat.

I miss brushed motors and tuning them and all the support equipment for them...

I rewound a pull start for an Image .12 today. Ahhh...the good old days

I remember turning the dial on the charger for 15 minutes. Then coming back in that allotted time frame and finding a cooked NiCd. What's even better is that after these "cooked" batteries had cooled, they still worked and were used until they would work no more. Ah the memories...

My first charger was a set of fast charge leads. I had to sit with the battery and make sure it didn't get too hot and explode.
I reckon I've got a brand new set around here somewhere, I'll have to dig them out for a laugh.

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tamiyadan wrote:ah yes setting fire to the carpet not watching batteries or having false peaks.

accidentally connecting the battery backwards on those first generation ESCS.

Run away cars when the batteries got low, or a wiper arm got stuck.

getting a new car with 2.0 rims, having to upgrade to 2.1 right away then having to upgrade right away to 2.2

fist fighting for matched higher discharge time Sanyo cells at the local track before race night started.
which leads to: fighting for the better hand wound trinity motor before race night at the local track.

not having a modern smart cell phone in your hand when marshaling the most boring corner of the track, least i had my gameboy .

oh man...I totally forgot about the mechanical speed controller sticking....LOL..that sucked.

for me I did not have the prob of heating up a NiCad at first..cause all I had was the Tamiya wall charger that came with the hump battery..i sat staring at the battery for 4 hours to get a 5 min run....and it wasn't even a full charge...haha...but then I got a fast charger that only plugged into the cig lighter in the car....then a ac/dc charger...then I started bubbling batteries.

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dsmith wrote:back then..............................off road cars were manufactured for loamy, soft, sandy dirt...stuff you can "throw a roost"....it's like...look at the knobbies that came stock with the kits...

now...off road cars are manufactured for pavement/cement type of dirt....carpet on the jumps...look at the knobbies the come with newer kits.

If I ever opened an off road track, you can bet it would actually be just that. Not on road with jumps like it is today. Although I can see the reasons for the change.

Back then you actually have to build your battery packs and solder them together.