How did you get started with the R/C hobby?

[bestracing]

Since R/C cars has been brought up lets see who has gotten into the hobby and why. I'll go first :D

I started in 89 after a year of getting married. I wasn't able to keep my 72 RS in a garage and it was expensive to insure and drive everyday, which was something I did not want to do. I got a 67 6cyl, 4-speed, Camaro to drive back and forth to work and the 72 just sat. I didn't see stuffing money

It didn't make sense to spend money on something I wasn't driving and we were saving up for a house. I wound up selling the 72 because I didn't want it to sit rotting away and took some of the money and bought a Black Foot truck. After assembling the truck and destroying the body in only one week of bring the kit home, I was hooked. I would spend time out at Hobby Hanger in Hebron and get different R/C mags. This took the place of modding cars for awhile.

After getting the Burns nitro car I stopped modding the electrics and then after many years with that I lost power to the servos and the throttle was wide open. Hit a curb, warped the chassis and bent a "dog bone" axel and couldn't find parts for it. (didn't look too hard)

I later decided to stick to one hobby and made working on actual cars the one I wanted to stick to.

[Mista Bone]

Grasshopper, Monster Beetle, then a Bolink carpet car to race at Loveland's HiTech raceway.

[97dustang]

i was 15 and couldnt afford to be into real cars or drive them so i got into r/c, i used to go to ultra racing on route 4 in fairfield and when they closed i got out of it

[relaxednoma]

wasnt old enough to drive, wasnt near enough family members working on 1:1 cars, and model cars and trucks are only fun to an extent.

saved money from mowing grass and then shoveling driveways that winter to buy the kit, dad and I put it together, raced it at the local hobbytown....then got my 1st car and it sat :(

[chris91]

I think my habit started when I was young. I used to get the newest Tyco RC they had every year from my Aunt for Xmas. Then it REALLY started when I had a buddy of mine offer up his HPI RS4 for a set of subwoofers and amp I had for sale. Proceeded to sink WAYYY too much money into it and it went from there.

[fuel10922]

Started with a Grasshopper, and now have a Bolink "Little Red Wagon" wheel stander to play around with outside.

[raisinjack]

it aint cars, but I am just now getting into electric helicopters, I used to fly the nitro powered ones years ago along with planes.

[IWRBB]

Friend had a Tamiya Grasshopper.. I had a crappy Nikko Rhino. We beat the piss out of those cars though and they survived.

It's amazing what the R/C market has now with the new brushless motors and LiPo batteries. I'm thinking of tearing out my old ESC/motor on my TA-02 and putting a LiPo/brushless setup in there just to see how fast I can get that thing going.

[SJSlots]

I was in high school (80's) when a buddy bought a Mazda LMP carpet-car from a place that was down in Miamitown. After he let me run it in a parking lot I of course went and got one. I've had more than 2 dozen over the years and right now still have about 8 different RC cars and truck. My biggest is a Kyosho 1/12 Ferrari I bought years ago from PitRow in Kenwood (little plug for owner Joe Stagge) and my smallest are 1/28 scale Xmods and MiniZs. My favorite though is a little 1/18 scale all wheel drive truck I have.

[bestracing]

A good story with R/C cars.

My brother got a carpet racer chassis with a molded customized P/U truck body on it. He got it for a science competition where you had to make a vehicle that held an egg on the front and used potential energy for motion. The trick was the car had to travel a set distance (only given to you at the event) without breaking the egg. They had a wall just a few feet from the finish line :D

After they were done with it the fun began. He worked at Johnny's Toys and had access to rocket motors. He made a plate on the rear of the truck body to hold the motors and would use those to power the truck. Imagine the JATO story in tenth scale :lol: No steering you just lit it and hoped for the best. Some times it would just go crazy like a bottle rocket without a stick.

[pegasus]

you guys know theres a dirt RC track in wilmington?

[IWRBB]

So I got the new Lipo battery and a Tekin brushless speed controller and motor. I need to solder the motor leads to the motor/esc and the battery leads to the esc. I HATE soldering. Is anyone here actually good at it? I'll pay you to do it. 8 points to solder.. + and neg on the ESC for the battery leads, and A,B,C wires on the motor and ESC.

[mustangboy]

I just picked up an axial wraith kit, its going to be alot of fun. I'm not hard into it but my brother is. He has had almost anything r/c at one time or another. I just take his lead and let him do the technical soldering and assembly. :bigthumb

[Walter]

I just picked up an axial wraith kit, its going to be alot of fun. I'm not hard into it but my brother is. He has had almost anything r/c at one time or another. I just take his lead and let him do the technical soldering and assembly. :bigthumb

Building a tube chassis Formula Offroad truck. Axial based, Velineon brushless, 3s lipo and Sand Paw tires on 3pc beadlocks. ;)

[mustangboy]

Sounds like a hell of a lot of fun Walter, are going to compete with it. Do they have a competition at gravelrama for trucks like that. That place would be perfect.

[chris91]

Building a tube chassis Formula Offroad truck. Axial based, Velineon brushless, 3s lipo and Sand Paw tires on 3pc beadlocks. ;)

:postpix:

Would definitely like to see this beast. :bigthumb

[Walter]

:postpix:

Would definitely like to see this beast. :bigthumb


http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y171/1995gtcpe/2012-01-27_13-28-28_355.jpg

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y171/1995gtcpe/2012-01-27_13-27-50_906.jpg

[chris91]

Now that is badass. Ive grown so bored with my Touring cars anymore. You can only drive them on perfectly flat BIG parking lots. Id love to get into something like that. Im sure that would go damn near anywhere. Is that a kit you can buy or is the chassis all custom built?

[mustangboy]

Hey Walter here is the tube frame my brother built and I coated for him. You should think about coating yours as well:bigthumb

http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6175/6200915108_753834d911_z.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/11756743@N02/6200915108/)
004 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/11756743@N02/6200915108/) by mustangboy429 (http://www.flickr.com/people/11756743@N02/), on Flickr

http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6140/6200917966_a832b47180_z.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/11756743@N02/6200917966/)
007 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/11756743@N02/6200917966/) by mustangboy429 (http://www.flickr.com/people/11756743@N02/), on Flickr

[Walter]

Now that is badass. Ive grown so bored with my Touring cars anymore. You can only drive them on perfectly flat BIG parking lots. Id love to get into something like that. Im sure that would go damn near anywhere. Is that a kit you can buy or is the chassis all custom built?

This setup is mainly for sand and loose dirt. Other wheels/tires can be installed for different surfaces. The c-channel frame, trans, and axles are from an Axial scx10 kit. I made the susp links from 316 stainless and stretched the wheelbase to 11.25in. Stock is like 9.5 or so. Used aftermarket driveshafts for a Axial Wraith as they are longer.

I have another set of these axles if you are interested. You would need a trans ($30), trans cradle ($7) and build a tube chassis. The c-channel is really not needed if a complete chassis will be made. Then just swap over all electronics from your TC and done.

[Walter]

[QUOTE=mustangboy;706417]Hey Walter here is the tube frame my brother built and I coated for him. You should think about coating yours as well:bigthumb


Looks real good. Ill just spray paint mine tho.

[chris91]

This setup is mainly for sand and loose dirt. Other wheels/tires can be installed for different surfaces. The c-channel frame, trans, and axles are from an Axial scx10 kit. I made the susp links from 316 stainless and stretched the wheelbase to 11.25in. Stock is like 9.5 or so. Used aftermarket driveshafts for a Axial Wraith as they are longer.

I have another set of these axles if you are interested. You would need a trans ($30), trans cradle ($7) and build a tube chassis. The c-channel is really not needed if a complete chassis will be made. Then just swap over all electronics from your TC and done.

Thanks for the offer but I gotta sell off some of my Nitro stuff before I get into another one, wife would kill me. lol

[bestracing]

So I got the new Lipo battery and a Tekin brushless speed controller and motor. I need to solder the motor leads to the motor/esc and the battery leads to the esc. I HATE soldering. Is anyone here actually good at it? I'll pay you to do it. 8 points to solder.. + and neg on the ESC for the battery leads, and A,B,C wires on the motor and ESC.

I solder all the time but my son now has my good Weller soldering iron for his electronics classes. Just FYI hobbie shops sell nice connectors that are made for these batteries and motors so you might want to get those before hard wiring everything together.

[bestracing]

Oh BTW, I work in Mason at L3 and if you need someone to solder it you can drop it off here to me and get it in the evening.

Just let me know

[IWRBB]

Well, I might try to see if some spade connectors will fit on the motor terminals. The brushless motors are different than the typical RC motors, but I think I can tweak the terminals straight and maybe slide on a insulated 1/4" spade connector. May be too close together though. Thatnks for the offer.. I'm still collecting parts for this re-build, so I might take you up on that one of these days.

[Walter]

Spades on a brushless setup is a bad idea.

[IWRBB]

Spades on a brushless setup is a bad idea.

Well, the spades are just to make a solid mechanical connection. I was going to flow solder into the terminals so it's all soldered up good.

[bestracing]

Don't use spade connectors. Not enough surface contact area for high current flow and they get really hot. Look at the scrape markes and you will see what I mean.

[IWRBB]

I'm saying the terminal will slide on, then I'll completely fill the gap between the terminal and spade with solder, including where the wire is crimped into the spade. I did it the same way on the relay for my boost-a-pump in my Cobra. It works great- carries up to 40A of current at 13V and never gets warm. Honestly though, I don't think there will be room for terminals, the lugs on the motor are so close together.

The car is coming along.. some nice shiny aluminum parts have been showing up, carbon fiber chassis plates are on. I never thought CF would be that much lighter than FRP (fiber reinforced plastic) but it really is. This old Tamiya chassis reminds me of modding Fox chassis Mustangs. It'll never really be as good as new design, but it's tough, relaible, and you can practically build it into anythign you want.

[Walter]

I'm saying the terminal will slide on, then I'll completely fill the gap between the terminal and spade with solder, including where the wire is crimped into the spade. I did it the same way on the relay for my boost-a-pump in my Cobra. It works great- carries up to 40A of current at 13V and never gets warm. Honestly though, I don't think there will be room for terminals, the lugs on the motor are so close together.

The car is coming along.. some nice shiny aluminum parts have been showing up, carbon fiber chassis plates are on. I never thought CF would be that much lighter than FRP (fiber reinforced plastic) but it really is. This old Tamiya chassis reminds me of modding Fox chassis Mustangs. It'll never really be as good as new design, but it's tough, relaible, and you can practically build it into anythign you want.


40a is nothing, fyi the VXL system is rated at 200a continuous and 320a peak. Just skip the spades, tin the leads and solder them direct.

[IWRBB]

While I see what you are saying.. Maybe you aren't visualizing what I'm saying. Take an aluminum spade terminal (or even better copper) and crimp it onto the wire. Then heat the wire and lug and fill the entire crimp area with solder. So now you have a solid physical connection filled with solder wrapping 360 degrees around the entire wire. Then slide the spade onto the motor lug- heat up the lug/terminal and fill the spade terminal completely with solder on both sides.

Again, I don't think I can even do it since I doubt there's room for the spade terminal's additional width between the lugs. Maybe I'm crazy, but I feel that a connection made the way I described above would have less voltage drop than simply soldering about 20% of the wire's contact area to the flat area off each lug.

I also feel it's a much more physically robust connection than simply relying on solder to hold everything. Which is why I did it that way on a mission critical part of my fuel system. There's no way I'd just solder a wire to a relay used to power my fuel pumps. That solder could crack and fail over time. That spade terminal will not come loose.

[Walter]

Ok man sounds good.

[bestracing]

While I see what you are saying.. Maybe you aren't visualizing what I'm saying. Take an aluminum spade terminal (or even better copper) and crimp it onto the wire. Then heat the wire and lug and fill the entire crimp area with solder. So now you have a solid physical connection filled with solder wrapping 360 degrees around the entire wire. Then slide the spade onto the motor lug- heat up the lug/terminal and fill the spade terminal completely with solder on both sides.

Again, I don't think I can even do it since I doubt there's room for the spade terminal's additional width between the lugs. Maybe I'm crazy, but I feel that a connection made the way I described above would have less voltage drop than simply soldering about 20% of the wire's contact area to the flat area off each lug.

I also feel it's a much more physically robust connection than simply relying on solder to hold everything. Which is why I did it that way on a mission critical part of my fuel system. There's no way I'd just solder a wire to a relay used to power my fuel pumps. That solder could crack and fail over time. That spade terminal will not come loose.

Personally I'd still just solder the wire to the terminal lug as this is your best connection. To prevent the solder from cracking and coming loose you have to tin the parts first. Use a good LEAD/TIN solder like Sn63/Pb37. Make your solder connection using a good flux. Make sure the joint doesn't cool too quickly. Use a good heavy heat shrink tubing long enough to support the wire and keep it from flexing too much near the joint.

No matter how you boil it down, you are still limited by the size of the terminal lug so adding size to the wire connection won't change anything except make the job a little tougher.

[IWRBB]

Well, I need a hotter iron. I can't get enough heat into the wire + the tinned terminal on the ESC. Need a different tip too. This is pointy, a flat one would be easier.

Anyways.. some r/c porn for you.

[IWRBB]

Some more.. This is/was a vintage Tamiya TA02 1995 Cobra R kit. I have a black body that is OK, but I have a second body I'm getting ready to do. It's a spare I bought years ago. Going to do it in the original white the 95R models all came in. Should be sweet looking.