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evobatman posted:Is it OK to talk mini-z in this thread, or do you consider them just toys? It was fast enough, and had enough traction that it would roll when turned on carpet. :-) I really miss my pan car. I think I need a new one. I also had a Mini-X that I could never get to run well. 4wd with no center diff, and super low ground clearance didn't work out so hot. Eventually I fried the ESC. Phat_Albert posted:Hell yeah plane people I have built and flown a few planes: Future Flight thermal thing - Kit - I learned on this thing, and caught my first thermal. Super low stall, and they bounce well. I have lots of silly crash stories from mine. Ace Littlest Stick - This was a mistake, and flew like a brick. <Insert several silly designs built from scratch> Ace Puddlemaster - Kit - Only marginally flew due to overweight parts and a very marginal design. With lipos I'm sure it would be an amazing plane today. Great Planes Spirit - Kit - This is a beautiful glider, a little heavy, but so long as you keep it moving fast it's got a great glide ratio and flys like it's on rails Future Flight thermal thing - Kit - I built a second because I screwed up building the first. It flew well enough, but it wasn't right. I need to kick some warp out of the wing before I'll call this a complete success. Chinese 4 Channel Helicopter - RTF I learned to fly it. I could reliably hover in my living room. My dad crashed it. Chinese means hard to get parts. Syma S107 3 channel heli - RTF This is a ball. Super easy to fly, and really entertaining while watching tv. I have a slightly stretched Bandit pylon racer in my dads basement. Completely scratch built. And I have a .061 to put on the front of it. .... I'm not sure i'm going to be able to fly it without finding the ground at high velocity. I'm looking at getting a new plane. Prices are so low now it's hard not to. and hey, I'm damend near local to you!
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Sep 14, 2010 21:01
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| # ¿ Apr 29, 2024 03:40 |
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As far as I can find, there's no coherant r/c car racing group in northern illinois. That's frustrating. If there were anything to go do a couple times a month, I'd pull together a rig to race with.
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Sep 16, 2010 03:48
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Somewhat Heroic posted:That is simply because helicopters don't "fly", they beat the air into submission This is such an apt description.
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Sep 16, 2010 16:03
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Just north of the city. Joliet is 70-90mins away, so is rockford. Champeign is more like 2-2.5 hrs. I love being in the same state as tower hobbies, it's like having free overnight on all my shipping. Edit: hah, Leisure hours is right by illinois autobahn and challenge park. Edit again!: http://www.harbor-hobby.net/Services.html 30 miles, but 30 miles in a direction that won't make me rip eyes out due to traffic. I gave them a call, it looks like transam is about $600 to get into. I think the 1/12 might be a bit cheaper, but something about running 4 cell lipo's in a 1/12 car scares me ;-) Nerobro fucked around with this message at 19:45 on Sep 16, 2010 |
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Sep 16, 2010 19:01
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Well I went to harbor hobby tonight. Their popular classes are the Vintage Can Am, and Minis. The mini's seem a whole hell of a lot cheaper. I got to drive both classes of car tonight. Both were rather difficult for me. The mini was amazingly tail happy. And the can-am car was somewhat unpredictable. I had some little kid with really twitchy fingers run the can-am car a bit. After the tires were warm it was much better to drive. Sadly, I don't think I can throw $4-600 at this anytime soon. ... however this is encouraging me to spend $40 to get my mini-z and xmods going properly again.
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Sep 17, 2010 05:09
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Yey! Found my 1/28 scale and 1/64th scale cars. Here's the best part, they all work. (mostly) I should post pictures. in 1/28th scale. 1. Kyosho Mini-Z Skyline. Bearings, fiberglass t bar, new springs, ball diff. And a shot steering pot. I have a new pot in the mail. 2. Xmods Skyline. It has bearings, 4wd kit, and upgrade motors. 3. Xmods Evo Hummer. It's stock. I have the 4wd kit for it, but i'm so displeased with the one on the car... 4. Xmods Evo Scion tC. It's new, in box. The rest are all Bit Char-G. Sadly, about half have had their nicads fail. It seems I will need to get some more nicads for them if I ever want to run them again.
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Sep 18, 2010 04:57
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I said something about pictures right? Tomy BitChar-G, and some accessories. Those multi colored tires were awesome... they're all hard now.  Xmods and Mini-Z tuning parts. And for some reason, spare parts from my mini-x. Which has been thrown out I think.  A few more BitChar-G parts, and most of my Xmods parts. I shattered a knuckle on my Xmods skyline, and thankfully I had the spare part ready. It drove 4 feet before I did that.....  Here's my collection of runners. I tested, but did not drive the mini-z tonight, as it's steering servo is completely screwed.  I just love how the chassis looks. It looks the business of being a road car. And it really handles quite predictably.  Brand new in box. It's been opened, but it's never been run. Nor had it been assembled.  The steering on the xmods sucks. On the skyline it's got like 5 deg lock to lock. And the truck, while better, has wheels that wobble like the word bearing was a sin.
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Sep 18, 2010 05:44
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T1g4h posted:Man, i'm sad I missed the days of X-Mods. I was looking at Amazon and thinking about picking up one of the old kits, but goddamn sourcing parts to modify it would be a bitch... no, you're not missing anything. If you want a good small r/c car, look at mini-z. They're still in production, and they're actually usable out of the box.
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Sep 18, 2010 21:59
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Hypnolobster posted:Sure they do. How do you think the stock Slash works underwater? In fact, that's how a lot of people (mostly people who've been in the hobby for a long time and have a lot of holdovers about specific motor break-in) break in brushed motors. Throw 3v or so on the motor and let it sit in a glass of water for an hour or so. It really only takes a matter of seconds to do. And yes, they run quite fine under water. Just don't use a 12v battery pack.
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Sep 19, 2010 03:35
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if you go past 5 mins, you'll likely not have any brushes left :-) I painted my LXT body tonight. I should paint the wheel inserts. But I can't be bothered. I did find out my lxt stil has it's Teikin 410s in it, and the Ruby 16T Triple in it. And a reciever.. and I even found my transmitter.
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Sep 19, 2010 04:00
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I"m in the process of building up a new set of cars for the local "local" track. Which means.. I'm ordering a lipo charger. I think i'm going to pay the "shop tax" on the battery, and maybe even the chassis for the FWD car. The dude there spent two hours talking to me. I also had the funny idea of just handing him $40. Maybe in addition to buying a few good margin items.
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Sep 20, 2010 04:33
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orange lime posted:Don't do it! I do understand this. I think you missed something. nerobro posted:I'm ordering a lipo charger. I think i'm going to pay the "shop tax" on the battery, and maybe even the chassis for the FWD car. The dude there spent two hours talking to me.
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Sep 20, 2010 07:35
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Fixed my Mini-Z tonight. .... I have no freaking clue why I kept buying xmods now. Time to sell them. Speaking of which? anyone wanna buy some xmods? :-) $25 each plus shipping for the two that have been used. They will come with all the upgrade parts appropriate for each.
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Sep 24, 2010 04:07
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krushgroove posted:I didn't want to harsh your buzz about your Xmods but I was wondering why you had them after experiencing Mini-Z cars I was enchanted by the price, and I hadn't actually driven my Mini-Z in two or three years by the time I bought the x-mods. it's the difference between a "real" r/c car, and a $50 pos from .. uh.. radio shack. So.. they're going on ebay tomorrow.
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Sep 26, 2010 21:15
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So.. that's it. I'm going racing. I'm going Tamiya Mini racing. So far I have servos, a radio, and a charger. I am trying to get my hands on a 2c lipo that will fit in the M05 tamiya chassis. Thats a little harder than one would imagine. At least at a reasonable price. This weekend I'll be buying a chassis and assembling/painting it. I am pretty excited.
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Oct 5, 2010 21:10
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And I'll have it on the carpet track, so I can run it scary low. I think there's a 5mm ride height rule at the local track though. I am having some trouble finding batteries. If I didn't want to keep it TCS legal, I'd just grind out the battery tray, but you can't modify the chassis at all for TCS. I've got an e-mail in with the local shop. Something tells me they can match the tower price for the fiat 500 arbath M05 kit. Everyone at the track seems nice. So I'll be able to get setup tips. I also watched horizon hobbies review, and appearantly the hot ticket is to run soft springs on all the corners and run 450 weight oil in the shocks.
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Oct 5, 2010 22:46
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I now own a swift bodied Tamiya M05, a brand new duratrax 4000mah battery, a 2.4 gig radio, reciever, and a nice forward only ESC. I got it used. The thing is A B U S E D. Yet it's hardly been run. That's to say the PO was an idiot. I spent two hours tonight redoing the wiring. Before it had 1/4lb of lead, and exposed positives! Thank god it is a plastic chassis. The rear is set so low that it drags under acceleration. Basicly, I need to rebuild, and clean the car. It's also missing about 10% of it's fastners. Say the least, those are gonna get replaced too. I picked up a Ti screw set for that purpose. The advantage of buying this abused kit, is I spent $130 for a good ESC, 2.4 gig radio, a decent servo, bearings, aluminum knuckles, ti universals, and oil filled dampers. For $30 less than a "new" kit. For $285 I walked out with servo tape, shock oil, a Ti screw kit, a set of deans plugs, 3' of 13ga high strand count wire, shock spacer clips, the car/radio/esc, and the battery. Now.. I need to learn how to drive it properly. And I think I need to buy sticky tires for both ends. This "medium on one end" poo poo is for the birds. FYI, 1/28 cars don't handle well on well worn r/c carpet. However, on the nicer parts, my Mini-Z ran pretty well. Nerobro fucked around with this message at 07:29 on Oct 9, 2010 |
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Oct 9, 2010 07:26
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So... august 7th I ordered a Syma S032 3 channel helicopter from somewhere in china. Oct 7 I got a refund from ebay because the item hadn't shown. I got my money back. Oct 8, a package shows up. The helicopter. I tried to fly it out of the box, like I could with my Syma S107's. It hovered for a minute, and then settled down to the ground. I pulled the battery, and went to charge it with my fancy lipo charger. I decide to charge it at 2c. About 5 mins into the charging cycle the charger said not connected... So I set the charge to go at 1c, and it completed a charging cycle. I put said charged battery into the helicopter, and it flew... for about 30 seconds at a time, at which point the heli would lose power, fall, then restart the motors. Figuring it was the battery, I scrounged a battery from an old mp3 player. Put on the right connector and hooked it up to the helicopter. It will now run full throttle for more than a minute without shutting down. Sadly this MP3 player LiIon battery is metal cased, and while three times the capacity, is beyond the helicopters ability to lift on anything but the very peak charge of the cell. That said, I have a new pack coming, and it looks like I"ll have an outdoor capable heli soon. Yey!
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Oct 14, 2010 07:18
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Did anyone else goto the iHobby Expo this weekend?
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Oct 25, 2010 02:15
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IIRC the motors are the same as the microsizers/bitchar-g cars. Modify away! Hell, wanna buy some off of me?
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Nov 1, 2010 21:56
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Seat Safety Switch posted:I actually have a BitCharG Supra, and my younger brother has an NSX that he managed to ruin one of the wheels of, so some spare tires/axles would be neat. Is that bugeye Subaru for sale? In theory yes. I really don't want the whole lot of them hanging around anymore. Roughly half of the cars have blown up nicads... and I can source replacements. I picked up some transmitters recently too. Make an offer. nerobro at gmail and such. TremorX posted:My LiPos and Accucell 6 came today. Hooooly poo poo what a difference these make over NiMHs! I knew I'd get longevity, but I didn't expect the dramatic jump in both torque and top-end. I'm going to have to gear it up just so I can keep from spinning around in circles on dirt. Welcome to the magic of internal resistance. Lipo's have almost none. ;-) You don't necessarily want to gear up, as that will increse current draw on the motor and may tax your cells. Most speed controls have some form of current limiting you should take advantage of. You'll get the same net effect, and not make little hydrogen baloons from your pretty lipos.
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Nov 3, 2010 09:36
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LiIon is electrical crack. Low internal resistance, low voltage change due to charge level. Low weight. I love LiPo's.
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Nov 18, 2010 22:22
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Yeah, put a load on the 5v rail of the psu. 1-2 amps is a good start. That'll stabilize the 12v output.
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Dec 15, 2010 21:15
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if you discharge a Lithium battery to low, you permanatly damage the cells. you can't recharge a lipo cell after it's been discharged to far. Your charger is preventing you from blowing yourself up.
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Dec 20, 2010 08:01
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I did slot cars for a year or so. I still have my cars. Drag racing is a money sport. I can't really recomend it. For the road courses, there is likely a class for the parma pan chassis. Get into that, and get into a class that uses bodies you think are cool. Slot cars are amazingly sensitive to driver ability, so even a "slow" car can win a lot of races.
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Dec 26, 2010 16:50
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it's not likely the esc. esc's work, or don't. they don't do anyting in half measures. I'd be checking my motor... or diff.
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Jan 6, 2011 14:35
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renraku posted:That's not entirely true. I've had esc's burn out on a specific function. Like it only makes the engine go in reverse but no forward motion.
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Jan 7, 2011 22:43
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Well.. it "was" runtime and horsepower. Now.. I don't see much appeal at all. but just think about it. 20 minute run times, in the age of 4 minute battery runs.
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Jan 28, 2011 21:38
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New car day. I picked up a Losi Micro SCT. I bought it for $109.99 at a new hobby shop. The "chicago toy company" at Hawthorne mall in Vernon Hills.  They have a foam mat race course setup in their retail shop. It's like driving with velcro on the tires. Before I bought the car, I asked if I could try one. They rent cars there. Mostly the Losi 1/24 rally cars, but they do some other stuff too. He asked me if I had driven r/c cars before. I couldn't think of any witty way of telling him I got my first r/c car 20 or 25 years ago... They rent the cars for $5 for 15 mins. (you get to run the battery out..) They're looking at starting a racing series using these cars. I would have bought the rally car, but I live in a messy house, and a truck will handle crap better. It's not very quick. But it's plenty fast for the size of the course there, and for bashing around the house. I will be making some LiPo batteries for it. (Losi's are $37! The cells are $2 each...) And while I am at it, I will make some lipo packs for my mini-z's. And it takes 130 sized motors.... so the whole mini-z hop up market will fit.
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Feb 24, 2011 08:28
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My lipos came in the mail saturday. 250mah, 7.4v... Now I need to solder on a new connector on my truck. I don't like having 1 vehicle with the wrong connector on it. Goodbye losi custom, and hello JST Also there's something about paying $35 for three batteries from a US company, rather than spending $37 for the losi logo... Nerobro fucked around with this message at 05:59 on Feb 28, 2011 |
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Feb 28, 2011 05:55
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Well I feel dirty now. The stock battery connector on the truck was made of high strand count, and silicone coated wire. .... my JST connectors are low strand count pvc coated wire. But they're in, and holy hell is this thing fast with lipos in it.
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Feb 28, 2011 09:05
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5x420ma lipos ordered. Just the right size to fit into the AAA battery bays on a Mini-Z. Also 2cell balance plugs and some 4 cell balance plugs ordered. The 4 cell is for my friends nerf stampede, that was recently retrofitted with LiIon cells.
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Mar 1, 2011 20:47
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 Next round of upgrades = bearings and lipo for the golf, and lipo for the GT-R.
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Mar 3, 2011 15:40
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That really makes no sense to me. one of the big selling points of lithium cells is that they have very good self discharge rates. Now with li-po packs I could see the concern about carrying a several watthour bomb in your pocket.....
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Mar 5, 2011 04:23
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the S107 is awesome. I own two. ... and not because one broke. They're freakishly stable, you can poke it with your finger while it's flying and it pushes back. I own a S032... which is a peice of crap. It shuts down midflight. I've heard the S031 is much better though. The S107 won't "really" teach you to fly a heli though. It will train you on throttle control, but the things that make a 4 channel ship fly are different from a naturally stable contra-rotating ship. Note, I've flown both kinds with success.
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Mar 11, 2011 17:07
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Little cars are to much fun. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bnaMvzSzCc The 1/24 Losi Mini Trekker came out this week. Well it's now mine. I need to buy some tugsten carbide bits to add weight to the front axle. On the bright side I also got a 2.4 gig transmitter.
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Mar 14, 2011 02:13
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Follow up to my earlier post: So last week I caught a video online about losi's new scale(ish) 1/24 crawler. The Micro 4x4 Trail Trekker Lets start off with the manufacturer link: http://www.losi.com/Products/Default.aspx?ProdID=LOSB0238 It's 2.4 gig, comes with a 4.8v 220mAh NiMh, and otherwise is your normal losi RTR. It's also not a "complete new" design. It's a close relative of the 1/24 crawler that losi has been selling for a few years now. This chassis is longer, so it has more room for batteries, has travel limiters in the shocks, and has stretched supports to hold a scale body. Roughly a month ago I bought a Losi Micro SCT. And while I was very impressed with it's quality, and the fact it comes across as a real honest to goodness r/c car, it made me make some assumptions about the Trail Trekker. What hit me off the bat were the friction shocks. Which is something that I don't see as a disadvantage given the speeds the car goes. The freakishly sticky tires. And the fact that the chassis seemed "cold" to the touch. The chassis as it turns out, is metal. I think steel, but I haven't confirmed that yet. (no magnets handy...) They don't mention this in the videos or brochures. Speaking of videos, this post needs a picture. Here ya go. the truck is three battery packs deep here.  On the battery front the stock battery mount doesn't seem very friendly to those who want to run lipo packs. It doesn't seem like it will fit my 250mah packs from my SCT. So I may need to get creative. So far I've climbed the jumbled blankets and clothes on my bed, the messenger bag I use for work, and the hood and windshield of my car. I've climbed couches, a parent, a cat, and I'm looking for other household challenges. Sunday, when I bought the truck, my first stop was the "other" hobby shop. To show it off. I got scolded for not ordering it there... Regardless, that's where I first ran it. It drove over many smaller r/c cars at that shop. And one much larger one. When I got it home, I decided I'd climb the first convenient thing. My car... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bnaMvzSzCc Kudos if you can ID the car too. I'm learning a lot about crawling. It's neat.. I'm starting to think every hobby shop should dedicate a few square feet in the front window for doing this. It would be a great way to get people into the shop, and keep them there for a while. To cut to the chase; I like it. As if after all that text it's really cutting to the chase right? I've yet to find something it didn't have enough power to to. It flips before it stalls out. And the work drive axles have excellent locking. Now I did buy the car as soon as I could. I think it's actually been in retail shops for less than 5 days now. So any hopes for "standing" advice are pretty nill. But I'm quite happy to take any suggestions anyone might have on making this thing climb household objects with even greater aplomb.
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Mar 15, 2011 08:42
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Uh. I just discovered that it will pull a wheelie if you put in a lipo and set it on the front servo... This thing just got dangerous.
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Mar 16, 2011 06:34
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So how about a little update. It doesn't look much different does it?  I finally got my new lipo's in the mail. The cells I picked up were 420mah cells. ONE takes up the whole space of the original 4.8v pack. I made a saddle pack. I was initially going to strap it to the sides of the chassis between the body and the frame rails. But I couldn't come up with an elegant mounting solution. So....  I put one cell in the original holder, and used two zip ties to strap the second between the shock mounts, and the stock battery holder. It works really well, and you can't see it from the outside. Now it will pop a wheelie.
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Mar 24, 2011 08:17
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| # ¿ Apr 29, 2024 03:40 |
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Ziploc posted:Pardon my ignorance, but what is this little concentrated piece of awesome? http://www.losi.com/Products/Default.aspx?ProdID=LOSB0238 It's the 1/24 4x4 Trail Trekker. It is concentrated awesome. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32NpgFnUi0g LiPo makes it even more awesome. having 450mah instead of 225 means I get bored long before the truck is done.
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Apr 13, 2011 17:05
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