Planning for the British Summer
Well, having had our glorious british spring, so the Summer is here, and we all know what that brings… rain!
Obviously, electricity and water don’t mix too well, but given we’re British, we’ll race whatever! So how to keep things from going pop?
Well, on display at the first national were a lot of different methods to keep water out, and magic smoke in…
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- Duct Tape – the choice of champions…
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- Fish food pots are a popular choices!
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- Resorting to brushed is also an option…
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- Custom made ATL fuel cell styley!
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- Maplin box, with metal base plate… & Snorkel!
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- Maplin box again, with snorkel & external connectors for a rapid change…. if you plug them in right!
Written by ed.
A Wooden Box?
I’ve just bought a Trinity Duo brushless motor.
The box it comes in is very curious though, check it out, it’s a wooden box!
What’s all that about? Sure it’s nice and pretty, but it’s hardly high-tech and sexy is it? I reckon that’s the only real bit of wood on a racer’s pit table?
Comments please!
Written by simon.
Differential Drama Day
The diff on my Tamiya TRF415-msxx was a bit gritty today whilst racing, so I swapped it out after race 2 today. I put in a unknown 2nd hand diff I’d picked up, it felt okay, so went with it.
I cleaned and rebuilt the other diff, and it felt okay, so put it back in the car, but a run later and it was very notchy again, so the spare diff went back in Unfortunately, the spare diff managed to loosen itself, the nyloc nut was worn.
So I fiddled with the other diff some more, and got it smooth again, and back in it went.
Yes, you read all that correctly, I swapped diffs after every run. And in the last run, the diff failed again, notchy once more.
This evening once I got home, and messed about with all the diff parts I’ve got, and ended up chucking out 2 sets of ceramic balls (notchy, flat spots I guess), 3 pairs of plates (both sides pitted and used), 2 nyloc nuts.
I was left with a complete diff with ceramic balls and thrust, and a good enough nyloc, and it’s very nice now.
Spares didn’t quite go to a spare diff, I was a nyloc nut short of making up a spare steel ball / steel thrust diff.
I’ve ordered up some spares: a JAAD ceramic thrust, some EDIT ceramic balls, some Tamiya plates, some HPI nyloc nuts, some Tamiya sticky covers. ie Enough to make a spare ceramic diff and some other spares left over. That should get me through a good few months I think.
(And I won’t even talk about the front driveshafts… or the end result…)
Written by simon.
KO Servo Equals Quick!
I installed a KO servo into the Tamiya M03 Mini recently, and tonight was it’s first race meeting.
It performed very well, it was very quick, and the car responded so much better, and more accurately than the cheapy Tower Pro servo I had in there before.
In the chicanes I could get it round so much quicker, and had a lot more confidence to get the apexes tight.
The end result was I was more on the pace than I have been before I think, I was much closer to the leaders, if I didn’t crash I would give them a decent run I think.
I’d never thought I really needed a high-end servo in a mini before, but now I’ve tried it I’ll not look back.
Written by simon.
Futaba R603FS Receiver Repair
I was recommended Derek Bailey as someone who repairs Radio Controlled electronics, so decided to contact him to see if he could repair my broken Futaba R603FS 2.4gHZ receiver.
He was happy to have a look, so it’s on the way in a bubble wrap bag with contact details, and he’ll get back to me with a quote.
Fingers crossed.
A friend used him for an LRP Sphere repair and he only changed £15 or £20 or something.
There’s another chap who’s also been recommended, so it seems there’s hope when electronics break!
