My R/C Addiction
 

So now that I made the post in my worklog about pH running the show now. Heres a glimpse into my world now ;)

My R/C Addiction is something I almost had licked about 2 years ago, then last year this month, it reared its evil head. I own 5 R/C vehicles in working order, I had for a bit last month 3 Radio systems, (down to one now), and I think I have a boat still (haven’t seen it in nearly 2 years, I think its in a closet some where)


Heres the breakdown (for fellow R/C nuts):
(pics of everything are below)
Radio:
Futaba 3PK PCM/HRS/FM radio (300+$ rig)
This is the best radio and the most expensive radio I have ever used for R/C. (even more expensive than the plane radio I had when I had an R/C plane for a few months... yes the addiction runs deep)

Its a 3 Channel Radio with HRS capabilities (essentially uses a higher rate signal and give a more fine control of the servo's on the car) It has a 10 Model Memory and I have all my cars setup on it. One Radio to Rule them all so to say.

The Cars/Trucks/stuff:

My Precious: HPI RS4-3SS
For those that don’t know - its a shaft driven 1/10th scale AWD touring car.

Now I know many hard core racers laugh, and give this car shit (for being pretty much a consumer grade parking lot thrasher car... which it does very well). But there are few things made by HPI or in the stock kit still on the car. And there are NO parts from the original kit still on the car (I bought the kit 1 year ago... lots of hard racing between then and now hehe)

The car now is in full competition trim. I spent the money and time working on parts of the car that matter vs those that can wait. There has been more than 1, and nearing on 2K$ put into this car since last year. It has a racing engine on it that with the custom WolfPack Radicals 2 speed tranny should move the car into the mid 60's (Mph and in under a couple seconds) with torque and RPM's to spare ( I need a balance of top speed and power still). The chassis is also a work of wolfgang's shop. The 2 speed uses special metals designed by Sikorsky for use as wear parts on heli rotors.

All 4 corners are driven via MIP CVD's, and all suspension hardware is graphite. The Shocks are plastic bodies (no need for the 40$ metal ones... a purely Bling upgrade), with MIP Ti-Ni. coated shafts with HPI Teflon pistons and Trinity silicone oil, Using HPI Linear springs.

The radio hardware is : Futaba HRS 3 Chan Receiver, Throttle Servo: HiTec HS-5475HB Digital (Resin Gear heavy duty), Steering Servo: HiTec HS-5925MG High Speed (.08sec throw time) High Torque metal gear Digital Servo (nearly 90$ Servo). Powered by a 1100mAh NiMH flat 5 cell 6v pack. The Green thing on the car is the engine temp sensor, helps with tuning the engine on the fly.

Notes: Everything possible has been lowered to lower the CG of the car. the entire driveline was dropped 3mm making power delivery more efficient and also lowering CG a good bit. The radio deck keeps the heavy servos and batteries on the chassis also. I am going to be replacing most of the screws on the car with Aluminum/Titanium/Stainless hex screws soon.


The Off-road Monster - Ofna Hyper7 Pro:
I just recently got this car. This is my 3rd 1/8th scale off road buggy. Sold the first one nearly 3 years ago, and pretty much destroyed my last one last year.

For those that dont know: Its a 1/.8th scale, 4WD, 3 Diff (center Torsen, fron/rear LSD), high speed machine.

ALl drive line items are CVD based so there is little lash in the drive train. It has front and rear sway bars, adjustable front/rear brakes (2 rotors per side), and CNC aluminum chassis stiffeners. Its got a used and semi abused OS .21 RZ-V99B plant which new cranks 2.45Hp at 40k RPM.

I haven’t done much more than test it out, and crash it once (the entire front end has been rebuild last week after loosing the radio gear and it flying into a curb in a short engine test... that resulted in ~ 100$ in damage).

Radio Gear: (new since last week after the last stuff failed on me)- Futaba PCM1024 Receiver with FailSafe, Throttle Servo: HiTec 645MG high torque Servo, and HiTec 925MG High Speed Steering Servo powered by a 1100mAh 5 cell flat 6v pack.

Its good stuff, just expensive to fix when you break it ;)


My Winter Fun: Losi XXX-T
This is a 1/0th scale Electric Stadium truck that I run indoors on a carpet "off-road" course. It has a Novak Brushless SS5800 plant in it which makes it move and take off faster off the line than any Nitro car I have ever owned. The Motor/Speedcontrol cost on their own ~ 200 - 250$.

The chassis is all Graphite including all suspension parts. It has an aluminum rear A Arm mount and rear hubs. All titanium links on the suspension, and all titanium ball studs for the ball caps to mount to. The truck is light and nimble, but I suck at driving it ;) Just a fun way to burn more money over the winter months.

Radio Gear: None currently - all removed for the other cars.


Other R/C things:
Kyosho Nitro Blizard: its a 1/10th scale nitro powered snow cat :) I had it prepped to run this winter but never took it out :(
Associated RC10GT : Its a nitro powered Stadium truck. I may get it out on the track this summer but More than likely will focus on the Hyper7 instead.

That and 2 large Plano tackle boxes (both 777 Series hard cases) full of RC parts, special tools, and support hardware; makes this one REAL expensive hobby. The HPI and its support hardware alone have cost more than what my real car is worth (I have a shitty Saturn SL2 still hehehe)

(you need to be registered to see all the pics attached to this post)

Looks good man. I been having a hard time not getting into this hobby myself. A few guys at work got some nice setups. This stuff is just cool.

There's some advanced modeling features in there: the carbon fiber pieces, the gas motors, the Futaba controller, some custom suspension components, ...

I swore to always stick to planes and boats, and never get into cars, cycles, or choppers, but it's still tempting...

Joe that’s great! I tried flying RC planes my self but never had much luck with that (always ended with a crash). I really enjoyed the Rc cars but that got old. Then I tried my hands on Rc boats. The first boat I bought was some cheap sh*t with little power. I decided I was going to be cool and mod the boat by replacing the motors and adding a bigger power supply. The first time on the lake was great the boat was the fastest thing on the water, that is until I made a sharp turn and it became the fastest thing under water – oh well back to planes (Yes a nasty cycle of determination maybe even addition).

damn, nice car, those nitro cars are FAST. a friend of mine has been trying to get me into it, he's got a totally tricked out from the bottom up electric tc3. i've been thinking about getting one, just haven't had time for the sport.

i assume the nitro rs4 is factory shaft-driven, unlike its electric brother? that was my main incentive for going to the tc3.

that is a nice radio, i've only seen a coupe people running it. they are pretty expensive :)

another friend has been trying to get me into planes as well... i'm not sure what to do! lol

but i do have an old kyosho icarus, if you know what that is. it's pretty much beat to death tho, not really track worthy any more :)

:drool: :drool: :drool: That's really nice stuff!

It must be very fun to race, cause it seems that with all that money spent you could have made a decent thing out of a street car for real racing! :p

Ive done the real racing thing. Way more expensive, Way higher risk, and I lost a 20k$ car doing that. SO I would much rather risk a grand or so driving around a parking lot than the car I use to get to work every day ;)

But yes they are a freaking blast to drive.

I have to agree on the risk part, but c'mon, you didn't loose a car racing it, but making crazy underwater things. :p :p

The only r/c car i had, was a complete kit with radio and batteries that costed like a few spare parts of yours. :( It was really fun to assemble, but lasted less time than enough to learn to drive it decently. :cry:

Well I WAS going to race the day the car went into the lake, it was an ice race after all :)

Hehe yes R/C's are not only expensive but fragile.

good stuff. ive only got a coupe 1/10th electrics (Tamiya 4wd buggy and fwd on-road). havent taken them out in a year or two though...

Here's something that'll make Joe drool...

http://www.conleyprecision.com
(this is also the maker of the famous Perry pump).

Yeah, there's a turbo option... :drool:

:eek: :drool: :drool:

damn that's sweet.
how much would it cost to get a reasonable rc setup going? got a job next week and'll hopefull get at least a couple hundred from it, depending on how long it takes... so what would a ballpark figure be $200,300? 600? i don't mean a top of the line, but something that isn't a pos

humm, ive got a tmaxx that has had a blown moter for 2 yrs. have not had the time or money to fix it, well the way i want that it. ima going to get a .26 motor for it. a new eras chassie and go from there. i need new shocks also, i blew the caps the first time i had it out. never re did them. o well. and as for the cost, well it depends on what you what, batt power or nitro? in the long run nitro will cost more and there is more to clean. batt powered car will cost more up front. still need to be cleaned and you have to wait for the batt to charge. so its always best to have at elast 3 batt packs and a 15 min charger. but i would say look at tower hobbies. http://www.towerhobbies.com/

i want to go with an offroad nitro buggy. that'll have to be able to handle a little mud... darn northwest.

any brand recomendations?

for a buggy let me go look....brb err how much is ur cost limit?

http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...?&I=LXGCY8&P=0
http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...?&I=LXAXV6&P=0
http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...?&I=LXAXV1&P=0

id look at those.

the last one there looks seems closer to my price, i don't really want to spend too much over $300 unless it's going to gain me alot of preformance.
http://www.rcmodels.com/ofn34310.html
how does the OFNA Ultra LX Pro compare to the ultra mbx? although it seems to not be that widely available...
and is buying a kit and putting it together generally cheaper or more expensive?

thanks alot for the help

http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...I=LXPW87**&P=0

there ya go, it's not a car, but will handle the mud better. i've heard nothing but good things about the t-maxx. in fact, a friend of mine has watched one pull a 4-door sedan :)

it's a little cheaper as well, RTR. again, not a car, but it'd still be fun :)

hmm.. towing a car.. i guess that could come in handy if AAA was going to take a while.. but there's just something about the buggy's i like...

my bud has a Ultra MBX Pro RTR and its nice, but has some serious issues with weak servo's and diff problems. There was a MFG issue that they forgot to shim some of the diff's and they stripped the internal gears rapidly.

My money would be on the 9.5 Violator that would be the best investment into R/C out of those choices. Since its a better overall design than the Ultra series, and a bit stronger.

I dont like Monster Trucks much, but the new Traxxas Revo looks unreal. I may own one of them at somepoint. I believe the Revo is replacing the TMaxx

That T-Maxx is one of the rigs one of the guys at work has. That is a bas ass little truck for being stock.

also if you are going to be playing in sand/water/mud you will have to ballon it. as in the radio/batt box, and all servos.

hmm.. well I'll deal with that when i have to...
but for the those of you in the know, do you think that the extra $100 is worth the upgrade from the mbx to the violator? and what kind of preformance difference would there be?

thanks alot and sorry for the thread jack, joe.

i think it is worth it, and its not really as much of a performance upgrade, but its the durabity. i mean yes if u crash it full speed into something it will break but it is still a little better.

alright.. thanks alot for the info.. i'm willing to take any suggestions or info.. I'll be doing a little more research leading up till june when i'll be stateside and can hopefully buy one.