R/C cars: try not to say the words "scale speed"

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Automotive Insanity > R/C cars: try not to say the words "scale speed"

Spatule: Mar 18, 2003

Is this based on a mini-z ?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eY5Vw_ejQSA

# ¿ Sep 19, 2010 20:32

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# ¿ May 13, 2024 15:24

Spatule: Mar 18, 2003

What is the most fun that can be had for less than 100$ ? Preferably something on wheels rather than flying, but I'm open to suggestions.

My brother in law (27yo) wanted this : http://toys.about.com/od/toyreviews/gr/Tonka-Ricochet-Rc-Car-New-Rc-Car-From-Tonka-Speeds-Over-Obstacles.htm

# ¿ Nov 1, 2010 12:51

Spatule: Mar 18, 2003

http://www.rcmania.com/air-hogs-osprey/

Sounds fun, is available locally. Yes / no ?

# ¿ Nov 1, 2010 21:32

Spatule: Mar 18, 2003

Somehow this :

Click here for the full 1500x1125 image.
Traxxas E-revo VXL

is less expensive than this :

Click here for the full 1100x825 image.
Traxxas Rustler VXL

Which one should I get ? I'm concerned about the E-revo being not so reliable/sturdy, and the Rustler being overpowered for 2WD.

# ¿ Nov 3, 2010 21:07

Spatule: Mar 18, 2003

kuffs posted:

That's because that's a 1/16th scale e-revo, while the rustler is 1/10th. The e-revo is about half the size of that rustler.

Ok that's even worse, I want something compact. Although the Rustler isn't that much bigger.

# ¿ Nov 4, 2010 07:30

Spatule: Mar 18, 2003

My wife got me an Air Hogs Osprey today, and it's awesome.
However, I'd like to do this :
http://www.rcvideos.tv/rc-airplane-review-videos/vtol-osprey-on-board-camera-air-hogs-limited-edition-aircraft/

Which camera should I use ?

# ¿ Dec 5, 2010 20:09

Spatule: Mar 18, 2003

Manny posted:

I haven't had a go on one myself but they look quite fun. This thread has some more info: http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1312125

I think they're very similar/the same as the Silverlit V-Jet which may give you more review/purchasing options. All the Silverlit stuff I've tried so far has been pretty good, although they are built to a price-point.

I'm getting frustrated by the short battery life, and the lack of removable battery.
Are there cheap planes made of foam where you can swap the batteries ? Is there anything out there that can also tolerate a small breeze ?

# ¿ Mar 17, 2012 14:52

Spatule: Mar 18, 2003

Great car chase made with RC cars (and helicopter) :

http://www.topgear.com/uk/car-news/watch-massive-rc-chase-2012-10-17

# ¿ Oct 17, 2012 20:14

Spatule: Mar 18, 2003

Nerobro posted:

You've not bought tamiya then. :-) They may be phillips, but they are ~good quality~ screws.

Tamiy is JIS (Japan Industry standard or something), not Philips I think.

# ¿ Jul 14, 2018 08:32

Spatule: Mar 18, 2003

wandler20 posted:

Lights installed. That was a lot easier than I anticipated.

My steering servo is making a buzzing noise, when I turn to the left it stops. Any ideas why?

Stock servo? They're one of the worst stock servos in the history of crappy stock servos.

# ¿ Dec 18, 2018 19:19

Spatule: Mar 18, 2003

Just got my first touring car and this is depressing. Should have gone Tamiya for stock racing.

# ¿ Mar 9, 2019 21:31

Spatule: Mar 18, 2003

Nerobro posted:

You gotta say more than that. I (and perhaps we) can help. What did you get? What class(es) did you plan on running in? What surface? (Carpet, asphalt, concrete, indoor, outdoor, clay?) And what gear do you have now?

Tamiya racing has... it's own problems. I run a TT01e in Euro Truck, and it's a bear to tune. All of it's problems, I have solutions for, if I could adjust ~anything~.

Just the level of competition and tuning that sounds like Formula 1, as the other post referred to. It's mostly friendly stuff on asphalt, I got the same car as many people (Sakura Xi Sport NU), but I've seen a few people with tire sauce, xrays, carbon fiber toilet seats, remotes that cost more than my entire car, etc. At least Tamiya stock class is just that apparently, basic car, choice of 2 motors.

# ¿ Mar 13, 2019 17:31

Spatule: Mar 18, 2003

Nerobro posted:

You've still missed the "big question". Touring cars are reasonably easy to get into. Especially with the car you have. And especially on asphalt. The big question, is what class are you running in. If there's no class, then you're just messing around, and you shouldn't be stressing about much. :-)

You've got a $109 car. (So do I... I have a Sakura XI Sport Ver.NU too.) http://realtinker.blogspot.com/2018/06/the-3-racing-sakura-xi-sport-vernu.html Having a radio more expensive than that is easy. :-) You'd be amazed at how much happens in the radio. Though I bought my radio used, I paid about $100 for mine. It's got the absolute minimum I need to get poo poo done in the radio. Endpoint adjustment, dual rates, and expo. Endpoint adjustment saves your servo. Dual rates gives you "steering percentage" which becomes a thing as traction varies during the day. And expo lets you electronically get around chassis setup issues. Most importantly, a lack of linearity in steering response.

I think.. you need a primer on going racing. All these little things aren't openly discussed until you're like.. ."in with the racing people". It doesn't help accessibility. You're "among goons" ask freely.

Since you mentioned it, lets talk tire sauce. Tire sauce "gets you over" the initial hump each time you drive. Tire heat is a thing, and getting from cold rubber to warm tires is tricky. Tire sauce gets me through the first two or three laps, until the tires are warm, and sticky. Otherwise, I can spend a solid five laps getting tires up to temperature, if they get there at all.

Tamiya classes end up being sneaky expensive, either in dollars or time. I'm going to assume this is roughly "TCS legal". Euro truck is a box stock class. That means if you do something to the truck, the only way to un-do it is buy that part again. If you ream out the steering parts, to gain back front travel, well to fix that you need to buy new steering parts. You need to buy a sleeve of weights, for chassis ballance and CG lowering. If you glue your tires wrong, you need to buy new tires, and sadly, tamiya tires aren't cheap. Instead of a quick, and easy oil change on shock bodies, to handle damping on the TT01e, you need to spread sticky goo on the shocks and pray you get it right. Then re-do it to make sure it's consistent. Then you need to worry about the guy who put his springs in a vice for a week, to compress them, and lower the truck. Or the guy who glued bits of the kit under the suspension arms to act as downstops.

The M classes, until the release of the M07 all required some really nasty, hard to deal with tuning methods. Thank god the M07 came out, and now you can use downstop screws.

.............. and tamiya parts are sneaky expensive.

That your blog? Big fan, great stuff. Found it when I got the 3racing.

Running 13.5t as it was what most people seemed to be into. I long hesitated to get a Tamiya because the rules of the "official" cup are very restrictive and disallow pretty much everything for some of the beginner classes, but couldn't pass up the 40$ kit (used) including a Traxxas 1/16 VXL ESC and motor which I sold for 50 but what you wrote makes me feel better about the decision.

Re:radio, I meant the price of the car one ready to drive, so chassis, electronics etc. I swear one guy has a Futaba or Sanwa that costs more than my entire Tekno buggy, not to mention the xi sport. I have a 100$ radio too

I club race 1/8 ebuggy, but at the local level it's not so much about gear as it is about practicing and training (I used to win or get on the podium with an RTR car, and the Tekno didn't make me really better, it just breaks less), I hope it's the same with the local onroad scene.

# ¿ Mar 24, 2019 17:16

Spatule: Mar 18, 2003

Nerobro posted:

Yup, that's me. Thank you for the compliment. I need to start posting about running the cars.... as I am ~just~ getting good enough to feel what cars are really doing. Heh.

It's so different from (real, not carpet and crap) offroad, I'm lost. SAUCING TIRES! 1/4" ground clearance, insanely tight tolerances "oooh I'm running 0.1� more toe than you, that's why i'm slower".

quote:

Oof. 13.5 is a hot motor for touring car. Even 17.5 makes for a lively race if it's not locked timing. That must be satisfyingly quick.

It's stupidly quick coming from ebuggies. With a final drive ratio of 4, I have trouble seeing the car when it reaches top speed at the other side of the parking lot. Completely useless on the local smallish track. No idea why it's popular, but I think most people race seriously and go to many tracks, most of them large.

quote:

...... If you have any question about euro truck being an even class. That's your answer. Hah :-) I was so proud of my little truck.

Sounds awesome. They look great too. Affordable?

quote:

I can't bring myself to serious off road racing. I have a couple things to bash around with, and run at the track, but one run, or one race day tires.... I can't put up with.

Our informal racing/bashing club just invested in a cheap lap time system (lapmonitor) and it's super fun (a bluetooth speaker connected to your smartphone announces who's winning and lap times,100$ for the main sensor). Everyone runs badlands or similar as the track's surface is trash, so wear is not an issue.

# ¿ Apr 28, 2019 19:29

Spatule: Mar 18, 2003

So my awesome wife got me a lapmonitor for my birthday and it is the best thing ever.
Guys at the local track (self built, not an official thing) are getting transponders too now so we can actually measure what's going on and see who's faster.
Plus the text to speech function is hilariously open to stupid puns which goes well with our usual driving state.
Highly recommended for you guys with backyard tracks.

Edit: link: http://lapmonitor.com/

Spatule fucked around with this message at 19:31 on May 9, 2019

# ¿ May 9, 2019 18:43

Spatule: Mar 18, 2003

There are so many people selling their rc stuff at the moment, thanks Corona! Except crawlers, these seem to stay in use.

# ¿ Apr 2, 2020 20:42

Spatule: Mar 18, 2003

I'm bored out of my mind, but the woods behind the house look perfect for crawling.
What's a good kit these days? I want a challenging build that can crawl but also speed up a bit on the easy paths.

I've had an Axial AX10 Deadbolt in the past and was less than impressed by the quality of it, from shocks to servo/direction, tires... Do they make something decent these days or should I look at other brands?

Edit: can you crawl the SMT10? Looks fun. I could make it into a Clodbuster replica for nostaligia's sake

# ¿ Apr 20, 2020 14:22

Spatule: Mar 18, 2003

Somewhat Heroic posted:

As much as I don't want to admit it - probably the TRX4 kit is a good fit for you. They are really capable crawlers and you can make them pretty complex. Personally I wouldn't buy one because I don't care for Traxxas cars at all but I can admit that I am a very weird user with an eclectic taste. It is admirable that Traxxas has gone back to offering build kits too.

They are priced insanely high in Europe (460� for the TRX4 kit) and I despise their guts. drat, I hoped for something else with 2 speeds, portals, lockable diffs etc.

# ¿ Apr 21, 2020 11:12

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.

# ¿ Jul 30, 2020 20:20

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.

# ¿ Aug 21, 2020 17:36

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.

# ¿ Aug 22, 2020 12:39

Spatule: Mar 18, 2003

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

# ¿ Sep 5, 2020 19:44

Spatule: Mar 18, 2003

moctopus posted:

I've never owned a fancy pants RC vehicle and I want to buy one, but I don't know where to start. The options are a bit overwhelming and there seems to be a lot of customization that's leaving me clueless.

I sometimes film myself doing bicycle stuff with a gopro mounted to the bike and a drone filming from above. Sometimes I'm too tired for all that or don't want to worry about what to do with with my equipment when I'm filming away from my car blah blah blah and I thought rc vehicles would provide fun footage.

I originally wanted a hovercraft because decades ago when I was little I thought they were the coolest thing in the world. I found this https://www.dinkyrc.com/collections/hovercrafts/products/racing-hovercraft?variant=28131067560016 but it's been sold out forever (and the site seems quasi-defunct) and I don't know if it's a good fit for me anyway. A lot of other hovercraft stuff seems to be people custom making nearly everything including the body. I'm also betting they're a bit fragile and in the long run I'd be happier with something with wheels.

So it's probably smarter to just list some stuff that feels like priorities to me and then figure out what matches my wants/needs.

I want to be able to mount a gopro + a gps tracking beacon without the added weight making the vehicle roll or handle really poorly.

I want to take it off roads. Away from cars and traffic and buildings. The more terrain types it can handle the better. Grass, gravel, sand, dirt, water, asphalt.

It doesn't need to be bleeding-edge fast, but I don't want it to be boring to drive around either.

The more rugged the better. Going airborn, hitting things I didn't see, and me being stupid are all things I'd like the vehicle to survive. Within reason of course.

I'm open to a kit that I assemble, but I don't know much about mechanical or electronic components. The simpler the better, although I'm open to learning.

My budget is $1k (preferably less) for everything. The vehicle, controller, batteries, any tools I might need that I don't own, and any costs I'm ignorant of.

https://www.arrma-rc.com/rc-cars/latest/mojave/roller/exb

# ¿ Nov 1, 2020 15:14

Spatule: Mar 18, 2003

Boaz MacPhereson posted:

If you do any videos of the build, post them here! I've become a little obsessed with the Sand Scorcher but can't really justify a purchase right now. I think it'd be a blast with way too much power. Wheelies = very yes.

I want it, or the Kyosho https://rc.kyosho.com/en/30614.html which is apparently better if you want to go brushless. Impossible decision!

# ¿ Feb 4, 2021 20:31

Spatule: Mar 18, 2003

Shout out to Tekno for releasing the ugliest truck ever.

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

# ¿ Apr 9, 2021 14:00

Spatule: Mar 18, 2003

I have negotiated a part of the yard for a 1:24 crawler course with the wife. It'll be roughly the size of 12 to 14 washing machines.
Any cool/unusual obstacles I could build? I have plenty of material of all sort lying around. I was thinking Tomb Raider - type obstacles, like swinging blades, a rotating bridge and the like.

# ¿ May 25, 2021 18:00

Spatule: Mar 18, 2003

deong posted:

This is a strange unit of measure...

I'd just grab some rail ties and do rock piles. It'd be fun if the rock features could rock/roll to make placement tricky.

Fine, it's 3 by 5 meters.

# ¿ May 26, 2021 07:47

Spatule: Mar 18, 2003

Somewhat Heroic posted:

I love Rally cars and will one day build one. I just want to make a course to run it on like those videos you see posted on Instagram etc.

I have been plugging away at some new stuff. I was able to finally score a Promoto MX. There is not a lot that raises my pulse in RC these days - but this thing does it. This is a segment defining model the way that the T-Maxx/Micro RS4/Baja/Slash all defined their segments. It is the biggest release in the last decade.

https://i.imgur.com/wlrTmk6.mp4

The thing that makes it so good is it works. It freaking works GREAT. They nailed it in a way I have not seen for some time. Rumor is this is a project in the making some ~6 years ago. The technology they were able to pump into this will translate into other platforms too.

I just watched a teardown video of that thing and it's crazy how it's not much more expensive given nearly everything is custom, it has 2 motors, 2 servos, a 6 channel receiver etc.
Haven't seen one in the wild yet.

# ¿ Oct 26, 2023 07:25

Spatule: Mar 18, 2003

What's wrong with https://lapmonitor.com/store/en/ ?

# ¿ Nov 6, 2023 21:13

Spatule: Mar 18, 2003

Kibner posted:

Horizon Hobby
Tower Hobbies
AMain Hobbies
RC Superstore
RC Planet

I've used or looked through most of those before. Amazon generally isn't the best place for niche hobbies like this.

I tried supporting my LHS (well, I tried all three of them in this city) and apparently they all sell crawlers, truly an incredible amount of choice, and a few crawler tires, of which they mostly have a single pair, even proline dual stage inserts for the tires, but nobody had any 1.9 or 2.2 wheels, nevermind wheels that work with Proline inserts. They didn't even know the inserts they sell require specific wheels.
The only LHS with competent people AND stock is a 3h drive each way.

So for 20% less money and no waste of time I'll buy everything online.

# ¿ Dec 16, 2023 15:21

Spatule: Mar 18, 2003

The TRX4M is such a disappointment in terms of quality after the TRX4. I know it's cheap, but still, it's not great value like its big brother. Well, at least 1.0 beadlocks are much easier to build than 1.9s

# ¿ Dec 23, 2023 17:33

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# ¿ May 13, 2024 15:24

Spatule: Mar 18, 2003

This was my first charger

You fancy kids and their menus

# ¿ Mar 2, 2024 19:23

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