The most important thing is that the family member is now back home and is slowly recovering from being in a serious life-threatening condition. A fair bit of my time is still being taken up by the overall situation.
A few of the RCs have been out on various occasions, the Axial gets used in the back garden more often than anything else. The Scorpion/Spider still needs much better servos, but funds aren't available for these right now. The 'Zilla has gained a rear-view mirror and has had its roll-cage mounts remade after I broke them for the second time. This time I've made them out of composite plastic and alloy - hopefully they are now strong enough for routine roll-overs!
Everything else project-wise is currently on hold. I'll pick things up in the New Year.
Friday, 21 October 2011
Wednesday, 14 September 2011
Summer but no time to play (or write)
Unfortunately a close family member is fairly ill. This now means that a lot of my time, spare and otherwise, is being taken elsewhere.
Updates here may now not be as often as I would otherwise prefer.
I'll be back to RC-ing ASAP! I'll do a (some?) catch-up posting when I can.
Updates here may now not be as often as I would otherwise prefer.
I'll be back to RC-ing ASAP! I'll do a (some?) catch-up posting when I can.
Sunday, 7 August 2011
It's a serial servo killer!
I'm not having much luck with my servo survival rate. The first MG995 died even before I'd got the truck out of the house and now it's killing them at the rate of one per battery pack. I guess the combination of huge grippy tyres and locked differentials is just too for them. After the death of three I swapped to Power HD HD-1501MG Metal Gear 17kg servos, but these faired no better. The first of these (fitted to the rear of the truck) burnt out its circuit board after a 30 minute continuous run, causing an internal fire which holed the plastic case with much accompanying smoke. And the smell - OMG! Being as I was on the beach at Anchor Head at the time the only water available came from a rock pool but at least it saved the rest of the crawler. As I extinguished the burning I could see glowing red hot metal through the unwanted hole in the casing!
Anyway, the seller replaced the item, claiming they are normally very reliable and that this one must have a manufacturing fault. On the following trip out the front one gave up the ghost as well, with the output shaft becoming very loose and the servo locking out at full travel in one direction when no power was applied. Turning on the power brings it back to neutral but then it gets very glitchy so obviously the potentiometer is now getting out of synch due to some degree of gear damage.
I guess at some point I'm going to have to buy some Savox metal-cased servos, although these are very expensive at about £55 each for the normal versions, and £85 for the titanium geared varieties.
There's nothing in the piggy-bank at the moment - so future posting may be delayed for a while!
Anyway, the seller replaced the item, claiming they are normally very reliable and that this one must have a manufacturing fault. On the following trip out the front one gave up the ghost as well, with the output shaft becoming very loose and the servo locking out at full travel in one direction when no power was applied. Turning on the power brings it back to neutral but then it gets very glitchy so obviously the potentiometer is now getting out of synch due to some degree of gear damage.
I guess at some point I'm going to have to buy some Savox metal-cased servos, although these are very expensive at about £55 each for the normal versions, and £85 for the titanium geared varieties.
There's nothing in the piggy-bank at the moment - so future posting may be delayed for a while!
Friday, 8 July 2011
RTR - ready to run...
Everything is now assembled, the electrics are wired up, and we're all ready for a quick test run in the great outdoors. The Gmade Spider axled 'n wheeled/tyred crawler (note to self - will have to think of a name for it) is currently in two-wheel steer mode only because one of the cheapo MG995 steering servos I bought only lasted about 30 seconds. Rumour has it that they either pack up straight away or go on for ages, so hopefully the front one will be good for some time. I've ordered a couple more, tho from the UK this time rather than from Hong Kong being as I can't be bothered to wait a few weeks for them to get here. A bit more expensive this way, but not too much. The current bargain price on eBay is two for under £15 delivered.
Anyway, the pictures show the articulation and the working clearances at full tilt, I personally think the dimensioning worked out just fine, it'll go to the full 90 degrees of twist with just a bit of pressure applied.
What do you think of it as a home-made (on a budget) superclass-sized rock crawler?
Anyway, the pictures show the articulation and the working clearances at full tilt, I personally think the dimensioning worked out just fine, it'll go to the full 90 degrees of twist with just a bit of pressure applied.
What do you think of it as a home-made (on a budget) superclass-sized rock crawler?
Thursday, 7 July 2011
Wednesday, 6 July 2011
Made and painted
All the parts for the 'pod' of the centre chassis are now made and painted. I'd write a longer post tonight but I've got some assembling to do...
Monday, 27 June 2011
Cranked!
The top plates are done, and I've now made the rear links by bending the rods around a piece of 60mm tube, which was held in a vice. I bent them in pairs so the left and right sides are identical. It proved to be a bit awkward to measure the lengths because I didn't know the exact angle they were going to end up being. So it was a bit of trial and error to begin with, and then I just trimmed the rods back until the wheelbase looked right. I may have gained about a quarter inch or so on the back but this may be beneficial as it sends the weight bias forwards. The links are now covered with heatshrink tubing, the lower ones will get spiral wrapped as well before we hit the rocks.
The shocks have been preloaded to get the springing about right - I made the spacers out of a piece of thin wall 15mm polished aluminium decorative tube. The back pair are just a couple of millimeters longer than the fronts to compensate for the forwards bias and resulting slight difference in shock angle.
The shocks have been preloaded to get the springing about right - I made the spacers out of a piece of thin wall 15mm polished aluminium decorative tube. The back pair are just a couple of millimeters longer than the fronts to compensate for the forwards bias and resulting slight difference in shock angle.
Saturday, 28 May 2011
Back to my long-shock crawler plan!
Whilst considering my various options for building my Gmade Spider axles into a truck of some description, one of my ideas is to use long HPI Savage XSS shocks with a four-link crawler chassis. This is something I pondered whilst initially building the Clodzilla, though I took the notion no further at the time (other than buying 4 stock items for two pounds each) as I obviously wanted to use and try out the supplied cantilever setup. So whilst the axles are still free it seems a good time to consider what can now be done with these.
I've started by initially constructing a new centre section out of 2mm (for the lower side plates) and 8mm (for the base) aluminium plate. This has a width of 80mm, with a distance of 120mm between the lower link mounts, and 82mm between the uppers, with 40mm vertically between them. This leaves them pretty close to parallel when viewed from the side. What I've done here is to reverse the positions of the pairs when compared with the 'Zilla. Now, the upper pair are mounted inboard at the chassis end and the outer pair run to the bottom of the axles. Also the upper links are longer on the top, whereas the 'Zilla ones were all of equal length. So far articulation seems reasonable, the axle moves up and down until the ball ends bind out, and wheel clearance is improved again in comparison with the 'Z. Currently I've only made one set of linkages to test the design, once the lengths are finalised the ones at the rear will probably become the fronts, then maybe I'll be able to crank the not-yet produced rears slightly to alleviate some potential hang-up issues.
The centre section itself was initially devised to accommodate a standard 7.2V stick pack, which can be seen in its place already. The thick piece of plate poking out the front isn't anything to do with the construction, it's the same material as the base is made out of, for the time being the extra bit is only maintaining rigidity here, later on some of it may become an upper or mid-chassis plate mounting the necessary accessories. The new lower side plates are still covered with the blue plastic coating that come on (some) new ally sheet, and I've just used a redundant Tamiya TLT side plate (currently located with elastic bands alone!) to set the shock upper position. This dimensioning will set the ride height of the truck exactly, and may well require considerable adjustability building in. This positioning simultaneously adjusts the wheelbase of the truck, which without changing rods can be varied between about 17 and 20 inches depending on centre section ground clearance. This will be the next stage - designing and producing the upper chassis plates.
The Axial shell is a left-over from that project and I think it suits. The bottom of it should line up with the bottom of the centre section when it's properly mounted. One of the later tricks will be to make the H2 Hummer body fit as well, although I'll have to significantly limit the suspension travel. So far there's only been one dropped goolie. I managed to snap a M3 starter tap when cutting one of the (10) threads in the base plate. It broke sub-surface at full depth so it's in there pretty tightly. I don't think there's much chance of getting it out, although I'll have a go after I've got it good and hot. Beyond that I might be able to drill it out being as it is only made of High Speed Steel, though I'll have to make a jig for concentricity, and even then it will probably knacker a cobalt steel drill or two and the hole to boot. Uggggh!
I've started by initially constructing a new centre section out of 2mm (for the lower side plates) and 8mm (for the base) aluminium plate. This has a width of 80mm, with a distance of 120mm between the lower link mounts, and 82mm between the uppers, with 40mm vertically between them. This leaves them pretty close to parallel when viewed from the side. What I've done here is to reverse the positions of the pairs when compared with the 'Zilla. Now, the upper pair are mounted inboard at the chassis end and the outer pair run to the bottom of the axles. Also the upper links are longer on the top, whereas the 'Zilla ones were all of equal length. So far articulation seems reasonable, the axle moves up and down until the ball ends bind out, and wheel clearance is improved again in comparison with the 'Z. Currently I've only made one set of linkages to test the design, once the lengths are finalised the ones at the rear will probably become the fronts, then maybe I'll be able to crank the not-yet produced rears slightly to alleviate some potential hang-up issues.
The centre section itself was initially devised to accommodate a standard 7.2V stick pack, which can be seen in its place already. The thick piece of plate poking out the front isn't anything to do with the construction, it's the same material as the base is made out of, for the time being the extra bit is only maintaining rigidity here, later on some of it may become an upper or mid-chassis plate mounting the necessary accessories. The new lower side plates are still covered with the blue plastic coating that come on (some) new ally sheet, and I've just used a redundant Tamiya TLT side plate (currently located with elastic bands alone!) to set the shock upper position. This dimensioning will set the ride height of the truck exactly, and may well require considerable adjustability building in. This positioning simultaneously adjusts the wheelbase of the truck, which without changing rods can be varied between about 17 and 20 inches depending on centre section ground clearance. This will be the next stage - designing and producing the upper chassis plates.
The Axial shell is a left-over from that project and I think it suits. The bottom of it should line up with the bottom of the centre section when it's properly mounted. One of the later tricks will be to make the H2 Hummer body fit as well, although I'll have to significantly limit the suspension travel. So far there's only been one dropped goolie. I managed to snap a M3 starter tap when cutting one of the (10) threads in the base plate. It broke sub-surface at full depth so it's in there pretty tightly. I don't think there's much chance of getting it out, although I'll have a go after I've got it good and hot. Beyond that I might be able to drill it out being as it is only made of High Speed Steel, though I'll have to make a jig for concentricity, and even then it will probably knacker a cobalt steel drill or two and the hole to boot. Uggggh!
Saturday, 30 April 2011
'Zilla at Sand Bay
Long overdue - a bit of video of the Clodzilla in action. This was filmed a couple of days ago on the breakwater rocks at Sand Bay, near Weston Super Mare in North Somerset. This was the best of the footage I took, just after this the rear servo escaped its mounting costing me a fair degree of steering authority. Easily fixed though, now where did I put that bag of cable-ties?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mAb7TuxtCc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mAb7TuxtCc
Thursday, 21 April 2011
H2 build - first steps - strip and consider!
I've stripped the New Bright Hummer as far as I need to for the time being, and have assembled a wooden mounting block for it to sit on, which also sets the ground clearance at exactly the same distance as it was on the original truck.
This (below) is the 'flat bottom' of the floorplate - devoid of any interior detail and with large holes in it. The strength and rigidity of this comes the box structure which screws on beneath it.
I've turned it upside down here to appreciate the depth of the box. About one half-inch of this is moulded below (above here) the main plate, the rest is a separate sub-structure piece. The large bulge at the front of the box is where the steering arms and steering servo along with the large front bumber are normally mounted.
This is the sub-structure box. It also contains (among other things) the standard battery mounting case, the main electrical circuit board is clipped and screwed on top of this. The only difficulty in disassembling the truck occurs here because two screws locate the main battery connecting straps, and only one of these is readily accessible, the other is located beneath the circuit board. It appears that in the factory the straps are fitted with their screws first, and then the circuit board is soldered to them after it is fitted in place. I did manage to get the awkward one out without damaging anything else, although the head was fairly chewed up by the time it was removed.
This next shot shows the standard mounting point for the rear trailing arm/gearbox/rear axle/motor assembly. More about this later.
All together again and upside down. One of my Gmade axles is in position here, demonstrating its fitting position. It's not suspended in any way, so this is its maximum 'upwards' position, in fact it will rub the body quite hard if it ever reaches this far whilst in motion.
Back up the other way, and the axle is now unattached in its natural relaxed location. Firstly from the front...
...and then from the rear.
Here we have an assortment of readily available material to possibly construct a new rear subframe out of. This project isn't really about throwing lots of money around, I fully intend to make full use of anything I already have lying around in the workroom!
Finally, here's the other axle, along with the now surplus New Bright one. This is the first mock-up for a stick type chassis that may well get made at some point either sooner or later in time. This brings me to a important decision point about making the Hummer either a two or four-wheel drive project. (Oh yes - in case anyone points this out - that is a completely flat PP3 battery!!)
If I (initially at least) decide on a two-wheel drive approach for the H2, this leaves me with a spare axle to continue designing a stick-type crawler with. I could also consider the possibility of incorporating Gmade Spider axles into the Clodzilla, although this wasn't a key reason in the decision to purchase them in the first place.
I've now got more than plenty to think about, at the very least...
This (below) is the 'flat bottom' of the floorplate - devoid of any interior detail and with large holes in it. The strength and rigidity of this comes the box structure which screws on beneath it.
I've turned it upside down here to appreciate the depth of the box. About one half-inch of this is moulded below (above here) the main plate, the rest is a separate sub-structure piece. The large bulge at the front of the box is where the steering arms and steering servo along with the large front bumber are normally mounted.
This is the sub-structure box. It also contains (among other things) the standard battery mounting case, the main electrical circuit board is clipped and screwed on top of this. The only difficulty in disassembling the truck occurs here because two screws locate the main battery connecting straps, and only one of these is readily accessible, the other is located beneath the circuit board. It appears that in the factory the straps are fitted with their screws first, and then the circuit board is soldered to them after it is fitted in place. I did manage to get the awkward one out without damaging anything else, although the head was fairly chewed up by the time it was removed.
This next shot shows the standard mounting point for the rear trailing arm/gearbox/rear axle/motor assembly. More about this later.
All together again and upside down. One of my Gmade axles is in position here, demonstrating its fitting position. It's not suspended in any way, so this is its maximum 'upwards' position, in fact it will rub the body quite hard if it ever reaches this far whilst in motion.
Back up the other way, and the axle is now unattached in its natural relaxed location. Firstly from the front...
...and then from the rear.
Here we have an assortment of readily available material to possibly construct a new rear subframe out of. This project isn't really about throwing lots of money around, I fully intend to make full use of anything I already have lying around in the workroom!
Finally, here's the other axle, along with the now surplus New Bright one. This is the first mock-up for a stick type chassis that may well get made at some point either sooner or later in time. This brings me to a important decision point about making the Hummer either a two or four-wheel drive project. (Oh yes - in case anyone points this out - that is a completely flat PP3 battery!!)
If I (initially at least) decide on a two-wheel drive approach for the H2, this leaves me with a spare axle to continue designing a stick-type crawler with. I could also consider the possibility of incorporating Gmade Spider axles into the Clodzilla, although this wasn't a key reason in the decision to purchase them in the first place.
I've now got more than plenty to think about, at the very least...
Some thoughts on 'Big Bird'
The purpose of this post is to have a look at someone else's approach towards converting a 1/6 scale New Bright Hummer H2 truck into something better than it previously was. This owner, known only as vsci79, has elected to construct a new custom made (sub-) chassis made from aluminium, and has attached this to the main floorplate of the existing truck. His design utilises swaybars which act as paired lower links attaching to the bottoms of the gearboxes, and a more conventional pair of upper links which then correctly constrain the movement of the tops of each of the same gearboxes.
There is a whole thread pretty much solely devoted to this work here at the Scale 4X4 R/C website with very good photos, just a few of which I have taken the liberty of reproduced below (with the usual apologies for not asking permission, and thanks for posting them there).
The first image shows the completed truck side-on. The new chassis is clearly visible below the truck. This design doesn't steal quite as much ground clearance as it appears to do here because the original truck had a large plastic box-like piece of sub-structure here, which added considerable rigidity to the rest of the floorpan, whilst also locating the front steering arms (etc) and clamping the rear trailing arm assembly into position.
The second picture shows the new custom chassis, this is constructed from what looks to be either 5/16 or 8mm square aluminium bar, along with a number of standard Axial AX10 green anodised upper links and/or crossmembers, these being identical parts in any case.
The third photo shows the mounting location of the new chassis and gives good idea of the truck's new wider overall track/width. Extra green crossmembers appear to have been added beyond those shown in the other images, almost certainly for extra rigidity.
The fourth and last picture gives a slightly better view of the new chassis in its new position. My only real criticism of this design approach is that this chassis directly attaches to the relatively flimsy brittle (and easily crackable) floorplate. In fact this particular floorplate is actually much stronger than mine, because the detailed version of the truck has the seat bases and other interior detail moulded into it, whereas my undetailed version has a much flatter profile (the 'cleaner bottom' mentioned in the last post) as well as a couple of fairly large holes in it.
What I don't want to do here is to directly copy someone else's ideas, which in any case might not necessarily work as well given the differences between the two versions of the truck. My next post, coming up fairly directly, will consider the original construction of my own New Bright H2.
There is a whole thread pretty much solely devoted to this work here at the Scale 4X4 R/C website with very good photos, just a few of which I have taken the liberty of reproduced below (with the usual apologies for not asking permission, and thanks for posting them there).
The first image shows the completed truck side-on. The new chassis is clearly visible below the truck. This design doesn't steal quite as much ground clearance as it appears to do here because the original truck had a large plastic box-like piece of sub-structure here, which added considerable rigidity to the rest of the floorpan, whilst also locating the front steering arms (etc) and clamping the rear trailing arm assembly into position.
The second picture shows the new custom chassis, this is constructed from what looks to be either 5/16 or 8mm square aluminium bar, along with a number of standard Axial AX10 green anodised upper links and/or crossmembers, these being identical parts in any case.
The third photo shows the mounting location of the new chassis and gives good idea of the truck's new wider overall track/width. Extra green crossmembers appear to have been added beyond those shown in the other images, almost certainly for extra rigidity.
The fourth and last picture gives a slightly better view of the new chassis in its new position. My only real criticism of this design approach is that this chassis directly attaches to the relatively flimsy brittle (and easily crackable) floorplate. In fact this particular floorplate is actually much stronger than mine, because the detailed version of the truck has the seat bases and other interior detail moulded into it, whereas my undetailed version has a much flatter profile (the 'cleaner bottom' mentioned in the last post) as well as a couple of fairly large holes in it.
What I don't want to do here is to directly copy someone else's ideas, which in any case might not necessarily work as well given the differences between the two versions of the truck. My next post, coming up fairly directly, will consider the original construction of my own New Bright H2.
Sunday, 17 April 2011
Project Hummer H2
Here's the 1/6 scale New Bright H2 Hummer we were given, alongside my Proline-converted Axial for a comparison of size.
These Hummers came in different versions and colours, this one has fixed doors, boot and bonnet, and no interior detail. Others were fully openable and far more detailed, and were about the right size for an Action Man figure. There was also a pick-up version. For my purposes this particular variety is ideal as it has a much cleaner bottom, if you'll pardon the expression, meaning it'll be that much easier to modify to take the Gmade axles, wheels and tyres.
There's not much wrong with this one, other than the fact that the transmitter doesn't work. The windscreen has popped inwards in one place, though I'm sure this is fixable. It's got a bent axle and the door mirrors are missing, other than that it appears not to have had too hard a life.
I'm going to add a few YouTube videos of these things below, just to give you a flavour of what they are all about.
This first one is of one of the detailed ones. They all have a switchable high/low gear ratio on the rear (only) 2 wheel-drive-with-differential gearbox, this one is running in low ratio. Not too fast, but don't you just love the sounds it makes!! You can rest assured that I shall be promptly removing this feature from mine as soon as is humanly possible!
This next one shows the stunning off-road capabilities (or not as the case may be!) of a New Bright Hummer, an H3 in this case in high gear. If you start getting bored just fast forward to the last 25 seconds or so...
This last video points in the direction of where I want to go - a decently modded H2. The owner of this truck, only known as vsci79, has fitted Clodbuster axles and 17-turn motors which have transformed the truck's performance. I think it is fairly obvious why I prefer the fixed-door version!
The owner has posted details and photos of the conversion of his truck here, I'll write some more about this work in my next post.
These Hummers came in different versions and colours, this one has fixed doors, boot and bonnet, and no interior detail. Others were fully openable and far more detailed, and were about the right size for an Action Man figure. There was also a pick-up version. For my purposes this particular variety is ideal as it has a much cleaner bottom, if you'll pardon the expression, meaning it'll be that much easier to modify to take the Gmade axles, wheels and tyres.
There's not much wrong with this one, other than the fact that the transmitter doesn't work. The windscreen has popped inwards in one place, though I'm sure this is fixable. It's got a bent axle and the door mirrors are missing, other than that it appears not to have had too hard a life.
I'm going to add a few YouTube videos of these things below, just to give you a flavour of what they are all about.
This first one is of one of the detailed ones. They all have a switchable high/low gear ratio on the rear (only) 2 wheel-drive-with-differential gearbox, this one is running in low ratio. Not too fast, but don't you just love the sounds it makes!! You can rest assured that I shall be promptly removing this feature from mine as soon as is humanly possible!
This next one shows the stunning off-road capabilities (or not as the case may be!) of a New Bright Hummer, an H3 in this case in high gear. If you start getting bored just fast forward to the last 25 seconds or so...
This last video points in the direction of where I want to go - a decently modded H2. The owner of this truck, only known as vsci79, has fitted Clodbuster axles and 17-turn motors which have transformed the truck's performance. I think it is fairly obvious why I prefer the fixed-door version!
The owner has posted details and photos of the conversion of his truck here, I'll write some more about this work in my next post.
Tuesday, 12 April 2011
A new project for the bench
'Twas my birthday recently and I was lucky enough to be given a bit of cash to do with as I pleased. So I bought myself a new Gmade Spider 1:8 scale Axle Kit.
They came from Seoul in South Korea and cost $89.00 (£54.72) for the pair. The postage was a fairly reasonable $20.00 (£12.30).
For comparison, new Tamiya Super Clodbuster axles are currently available for $72.99 (£43.22) each, with the postage at $17.64 (£8.29), from the USA.
So the G made axles seem to be a very good buy. Assembly was also very easy, I've hot glue locked the differentials for permanent four-wheel drive, and they are now almost ready for fitting into/onto something suitable. The Spider axles have several advantages over the much earlier Clodbuster ones, these being namely:
* There are two of them in the kit, ideal for building one complete truck.
* They are slightly wider than the Clod ones.
* They have better ground clearance than the Clod ones.
* They have servo mounts supplied and fitted, whereas the Clod (as standard) has a single central chassis-mounted servo powering the steering on both ends.
* They have adjustable motor mounts to cater for different size pinion gears.
* They come complete with adaptors for either 12 or 14 mm wheel hexs.
* They have nice aluminium bumpers ready fitted.
* They appear to be stronger than the Clod ones (although this has yet to be proven!)
A while ago I bought a set of Gmade Spider tyres second hand (for £20 + £5 P+P) with the intention of trying them out on the Clodzilla, although this hasn't happened yet. So these are now the natural choice for the new project. I've several different ideas for a home made chassis in the back of my mind, including both a long-shock and a stick type crawler. But I also fancy something like a semi-scaler, for running up and down the slopes in the local woods with. As it happens, a friend recently gave me (and the kids) an abandoned 1:6 scale New Bright Hummer H2 which he'd obtained whilst doing a house clearance for someone he knows. This worked fine for a while until corrosion from leaky batteries in the transmitter took its toll.
I guess then, if the coat fits, why not wear it...?
They came from Seoul in South Korea and cost $89.00 (£54.72) for the pair. The postage was a fairly reasonable $20.00 (£12.30).
For comparison, new Tamiya Super Clodbuster axles are currently available for $72.99 (£43.22) each, with the postage at $17.64 (£8.29), from the USA.
So the G made axles seem to be a very good buy. Assembly was also very easy, I've hot glue locked the differentials for permanent four-wheel drive, and they are now almost ready for fitting into/onto something suitable. The Spider axles have several advantages over the much earlier Clodbuster ones, these being namely:
* There are two of them in the kit, ideal for building one complete truck.
* They are slightly wider than the Clod ones.
* They have better ground clearance than the Clod ones.
* They have servo mounts supplied and fitted, whereas the Clod (as standard) has a single central chassis-mounted servo powering the steering on both ends.
* They have adjustable motor mounts to cater for different size pinion gears.
* They come complete with adaptors for either 12 or 14 mm wheel hexs.
* They have nice aluminium bumpers ready fitted.
* They appear to be stronger than the Clod ones (although this has yet to be proven!)
A while ago I bought a set of Gmade Spider tyres second hand (for £20 + £5 P+P) with the intention of trying them out on the Clodzilla, although this hasn't happened yet. So these are now the natural choice for the new project. I've several different ideas for a home made chassis in the back of my mind, including both a long-shock and a stick type crawler. But I also fancy something like a semi-scaler, for running up and down the slopes in the local woods with. As it happens, a friend recently gave me (and the kids) an abandoned 1:6 scale New Bright Hummer H2 which he'd obtained whilst doing a house clearance for someone he knows. This worked fine for a while until corrosion from leaky batteries in the transmitter took its toll.
I guess then, if the coat fits, why not wear it...?
Sunday, 10 April 2011
First video from the garden
Well, I finally got myself a YouTube account - these are my first three clips of film from the garden. There'll be more to come as time goes by.
This is from one of the first bits of film taken in the garden and is my first video posted to YouTube. I initially rearranged the blocks etc until I could drive up and over the top from this direction about one time in every two tries. With a bit of practice it became easier - driving up at a constant speed seems to work best.
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TImm2h6IprE)
Definitely easier after practice. It won't go back up the last side it came down. This'll be 'Zilla territory!
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0stC8hXMUbY)
It's pretty easy to move the rocks around to vary the degree of difficulty - in fact they're already in different positions from these seen here.
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRCPEKKtpHs)
(BTW - I'm still running with a stock Tamiya 27-turn J for Johnson motor here!)
This is from one of the first bits of film taken in the garden and is my first video posted to YouTube. I initially rearranged the blocks etc until I could drive up and over the top from this direction about one time in every two tries. With a bit of practice it became easier - driving up at a constant speed seems to work best.
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TImm2h6IprE)
Definitely easier after practice. It won't go back up the last side it came down. This'll be 'Zilla territory!
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0stC8hXMUbY)
It's pretty easy to move the rocks around to vary the degree of difficulty - in fact they're already in different positions from these seen here.
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRCPEKKtpHs)
(BTW - I'm still running with a stock Tamiya 27-turn J for Johnson motor here!)
Monday, 4 April 2011
Trailing in the woods
We took Kala's buggy and the red/yellow Baja truck up into the woods over the weekend for a walk and a drive.
A children's adventure park has been built there in recent times, and they use a fair quantity of wood chippings as ground safety protection underneath and around the rides (a ropeslide and swing basket etc). There's a large amount of this material piled up nearby, currently surplus to immediate use. This has turned itself over the winter into a ready made and nicely surfaced off-road RC course!
Kala's pink Rising Fighter buggy has amazed everyone with its toughness. After two years of good use it still remains completely unbroken. The only thing it ever does is to bend its wire steering arms after a hard impact, these are easily straightened by finger power alone, and there's no need to remove them from the car to do this.
The Baja (King or Champ - take your pick!) truck is back with a stock 27 turn SH motor. I had it running with a 19 turn MRI wet magnet motor for a while, but in a wooded or other off-road environment this got so hot that it melted the soldered joints of the leads connecting power to it. Currently it's got a hot-glue locked differential in the rear axle and a ball differential in the front. For me this is quite a good compromise between grip and steering ability, and has the advantage of spinning the car around (in the desired steering direction) when you take the power off suddenly. This is a very good feature when it comes to obstacle collision avoidance!
The buggy has similar straight line performance to the truck, but the steering at pretty much any speed is nowhere near as accurate. The area where the buggy really wins out is runtime, an 1800 Mah battery pack gives nearly half-an-hour of fairly quick driving, whereas the TL-01 based truck kills a 3700 Mah battery in under 20 minutes doing the same things.
A children's adventure park has been built there in recent times, and they use a fair quantity of wood chippings as ground safety protection underneath and around the rides (a ropeslide and swing basket etc). There's a large amount of this material piled up nearby, currently surplus to immediate use. This has turned itself over the winter into a ready made and nicely surfaced off-road RC course!
Kala's pink Rising Fighter buggy has amazed everyone with its toughness. After two years of good use it still remains completely unbroken. The only thing it ever does is to bend its wire steering arms after a hard impact, these are easily straightened by finger power alone, and there's no need to remove them from the car to do this.
The Baja (King or Champ - take your pick!) truck is back with a stock 27 turn SH motor. I had it running with a 19 turn MRI wet magnet motor for a while, but in a wooded or other off-road environment this got so hot that it melted the soldered joints of the leads connecting power to it. Currently it's got a hot-glue locked differential in the rear axle and a ball differential in the front. For me this is quite a good compromise between grip and steering ability, and has the advantage of spinning the car around (in the desired steering direction) when you take the power off suddenly. This is a very good feature when it comes to obstacle collision avoidance!
The buggy has similar straight line performance to the truck, but the steering at pretty much any speed is nowhere near as accurate. The area where the buggy really wins out is runtime, an 1800 Mah battery pack gives nearly half-an-hour of fairly quick driving, whereas the TL-01 based truck kills a 3700 Mah battery in under 20 minutes doing the same things.
Thursday, 24 March 2011
A rockgarden and 4-wheel steering
I've been spending most of my spare time over the past few weeks building a rockcrawling area (arena?) in the back garden of the property I live at. I reckon I've shifted about three tons of rock, which was previously someone else's abandoned rockery project, down into this lower area. I've sorted the rock to some degree with regard to colour and size, and have also made a wooden crawling obstacle track to link two separate piles of rock.
Believe it or not, the 'thing' in the middle is actually one of the original chimney tops previously belonging to the house itself. It got taken down from its original location some years ago due to weather degradation and deterioration of its stonework. The remaining chimneys were capped at a lower height, and this section was then rebuilt here as a planting box in the middle of the patio area. I've sized everything out with both the Clodzilla and the Axial in mind.
The Axial now has two-mode four-wheel steering capability. It'll either halve its original turning circle or it'll crabsteer at the press of a handy button on the side of the transmitter. Another button controls overall two (standard) or four wheel steering selection. Since the last photos were taken the AX10 has also had two metres of black spiral wrap applied to its links and to the periphery of the cage structure. There wasn't enough left over to do the rear steering links. The front wheels currently have 75 (15 x 5) grammes of weight added to each, and the rears have 35 (7 x 5) grammes. I'd like maybe a bit more, but everything's a compromise in RC, I'd equally lose a bit of (sometimes important) pulling power.
A fair few parts are required to convert an ARTR AX10 like mine to four wheel steering. My understanding is that the stock AX10 KIT version (green alloy parts) is easier to convert as it comes with locked out steering hubs already fitted to the back of the truck, whereas the RTR and ARTR versions didn't have these items, utilising a solid rear outer axle design instead.
The following is the list of items required to convert my ARTR to 4WS. Everything was sourced on eBay, items with dollar prices were imported from the USA, the swingshafts came all the way from Hong Kong:
Axial AX10/SCX10 Hub Carriers, Axle Lockouts F/R New (these came complete with all necessary bearings, screws and bushes)
@US $7.95
Axial AX10 Scorpion Servo Plate and Mounts (I could have opted for a 4 link plate for about the same price, although these don't come with the necessary servo mounts)
@ US $4.95 + US $10.29 P+P (combined with above)
Axial Racing HARDWARE Upgrade KIT Ax10 RTR (Axial item AXA1411) - needed for the rod ends and hardware for the steering links. There are a fair few bits left over from this kit - good for use as spares or a supply of parts for a future project.
@ US $15.00 + US $4.99 P+P
AXIAL AX10 Scorpion, Aluminum Rear Steering Links ORANGE (ST Racing Concepts #SPTSTA30881O)
@ US $5.28 + US $3.00 P+P
Axial AX10: Servo Parts Set (Axial item AX80006)
@ £4.62 + £1.50 (although I used my eBay voucher here so total cost was only 50p)
3Racing (#AX10-11) Swing Shaft For Axial AX10 Scorpion
@ £10.39 including P+P
2x 200mm JR HITEC ACOMS servo extension leads (only 1 needed)
@ £1.25 + £0.75p P+P
A Traxxas 2055 servo (I already had this - it came with an earlier radio purchase. A 2070 might have been a better choice but that would've cost me more money - maybe later I'll get one.)
All-in-all this conversion cost me £46.70, including the postage and packing which, as usual, represents a fair proportion of this total.
The rock garden has cost about a tenner so far, two half-round log edging rolls which now form the obstacles on the track board were £5.00, a small silver birch sapling and a pot for it to grow in (and so I can move it as required) came to about the same again.
Believe it or not, the 'thing' in the middle is actually one of the original chimney tops previously belonging to the house itself. It got taken down from its original location some years ago due to weather degradation and deterioration of its stonework. The remaining chimneys were capped at a lower height, and this section was then rebuilt here as a planting box in the middle of the patio area. I've sized everything out with both the Clodzilla and the Axial in mind.
The Axial now has two-mode four-wheel steering capability. It'll either halve its original turning circle or it'll crabsteer at the press of a handy button on the side of the transmitter. Another button controls overall two (standard) or four wheel steering selection. Since the last photos were taken the AX10 has also had two metres of black spiral wrap applied to its links and to the periphery of the cage structure. There wasn't enough left over to do the rear steering links. The front wheels currently have 75 (15 x 5) grammes of weight added to each, and the rears have 35 (7 x 5) grammes. I'd like maybe a bit more, but everything's a compromise in RC, I'd equally lose a bit of (sometimes important) pulling power.
A fair few parts are required to convert an ARTR AX10 like mine to four wheel steering. My understanding is that the stock AX10 KIT version (green alloy parts) is easier to convert as it comes with locked out steering hubs already fitted to the back of the truck, whereas the RTR and ARTR versions didn't have these items, utilising a solid rear outer axle design instead.
The following is the list of items required to convert my ARTR to 4WS. Everything was sourced on eBay, items with dollar prices were imported from the USA, the swingshafts came all the way from Hong Kong:
Axial AX10/SCX10 Hub Carriers, Axle Lockouts F/R New (these came complete with all necessary bearings, screws and bushes)
@US $7.95
Axial AX10 Scorpion Servo Plate and Mounts (I could have opted for a 4 link plate for about the same price, although these don't come with the necessary servo mounts)
@ US $4.95 + US $10.29 P+P (combined with above)
Axial Racing HARDWARE Upgrade KIT Ax10 RTR (Axial item AXA1411) - needed for the rod ends and hardware for the steering links. There are a fair few bits left over from this kit - good for use as spares or a supply of parts for a future project.
@ US $15.00 + US $4.99 P+P
AXIAL AX10 Scorpion, Aluminum Rear Steering Links ORANGE (ST Racing Concepts #SPTSTA30881O)
@ US $5.28 + US $3.00 P+P
Axial AX10: Servo Parts Set (Axial item AX80006)
@ £4.62 + £1.50 (although I used my eBay voucher here so total cost was only 50p)
3Racing (#AX10-11) Swing Shaft For Axial AX10 Scorpion
@ £10.39 including P+P
2x 200mm JR HITEC ACOMS servo extension leads (only 1 needed)
@ £1.25 + £0.75p P+P
A Traxxas 2055 servo (I already had this - it came with an earlier radio purchase. A 2070 might have been a better choice but that would've cost me more money - maybe later I'll get one.)
All-in-all this conversion cost me £46.70, including the postage and packing which, as usual, represents a fair proportion of this total.
The rock garden has cost about a tenner so far, two half-round log edging rolls which now form the obstacles on the track board were £5.00, a small silver birch sapling and a pot for it to grow in (and so I can move it as required) came to about the same again.
Sunday, 9 January 2011
Axial tuber first modifications
Here's the AX10 as I had it running just before sunset today:
The most major thing I've done is to relocate the battery forwards and downwards. The standard Axial battery plate fits perfectly in its new home - in fact if I had had to make one it would have been the exact same size. It clears the shocks by less than 1/16 inch. It is supported on just four 2.5 mm cable-ties, which is all it needs, and retains the standard velcro straps so that I can change batteries at will. This first major modification has done wonders for the centre of gravity - in fact it is now pretty much in the same place as on a full size truck. As for the looks - well judge for yourself!
The speed controller lost its plastic mounting box to make way for the battery, so now it's on the top of the relocated battery plate. The velcro of the battery strap was in the perfect place for the controller, so I only needed an inch by a half-inch of the thicker hook type to match. The battery lead length works perfectly, these were originally cut down to size for my TL-01s so are now truly dual use. The aerial found its way into a black plastic tube and the front wheels also gained 75 grammes of weight in each.
I've mounted a rear servo in anticipation of having four wheel steering, and have programmed the transmitter (a Futaba 3PM-FM currently shared with the 'Zilla) to suit. I've ordered the various parts to do the conversion, some are already here and some are still travelling the world somewhere in the mail system. More about this in my next post.
The most major thing I've done is to relocate the battery forwards and downwards. The standard Axial battery plate fits perfectly in its new home - in fact if I had had to make one it would have been the exact same size. It clears the shocks by less than 1/16 inch. It is supported on just four 2.5 mm cable-ties, which is all it needs, and retains the standard velcro straps so that I can change batteries at will. This first major modification has done wonders for the centre of gravity - in fact it is now pretty much in the same place as on a full size truck. As for the looks - well judge for yourself!
The speed controller lost its plastic mounting box to make way for the battery, so now it's on the top of the relocated battery plate. The velcro of the battery strap was in the perfect place for the controller, so I only needed an inch by a half-inch of the thicker hook type to match. The battery lead length works perfectly, these were originally cut down to size for my TL-01s so are now truly dual use. The aerial found its way into a black plastic tube and the front wheels also gained 75 grammes of weight in each.
I've mounted a rear servo in anticipation of having four wheel steering, and have programmed the transmitter (a Futaba 3PM-FM currently shared with the 'Zilla) to suit. I've ordered the various parts to do the conversion, some are already here and some are still travelling the world somewhere in the mail system. More about this in my next post.
Friday, 7 January 2011
First AX10 onboard video
Well, the second shot actually. The first clip I shot was nearly 20 minutes long and a bit of a loose experiment with quite a few rollovers, this video is the first of a following batch of 2 to 4 minute clips. I'm using a borrowed 640 x 480 resolution MD91 Mini DV micro camera on it own mount, cable-tied to the top of the rollcage and enclosed within its own protective cage.
I've got to learn something about video production and editing now - being as I've never done this before. I'll try to get some decent footage made, and if it's good enough I'll post it on YouTube and thereafter on this blog.
I've got to learn something about video production and editing now - being as I've never done this before. I'll try to get some decent footage made, and if it's good enough I'll post it on YouTube and thereafter on this blog.
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