picked up an MBX7T truggy with airtronics servos and a lucky 7 engine and an airtronics M12 trasnmitter from a guy i race with

11/25/2015 9:15:00 PM

this M12 is sweet

11/27/2015 10:03:43 PM

absolute hobbyz has nova engines on sale. ordered a CLIO for my xmas present.

i had my best race yet with the new truggy. truggy is a lot easier to drive than buggy. i was way more consistent and wrecked less.

11/30/2015 10:49:54 AM

Badass! I've been thinking about trying a new transmitter too.. M11x or M12. But I like my Futaba 4PLS too much.

You running the 2wd buggy much? I finally got a chance to race my TLR 22 2.0 a few weeks ago at The Warehouse in Haw River. (indoor clay track). They run slicks out there and I didn't have the right tires. I was skating on ice all night and ended up 3rd in the B-main.

Came home and ordered a set of Proline Prime's in M4 compound and heading back there this Friday to see what difference it will make. Pretty stoked.

I've also been running some ridiculous laps during the week in practice at HoBMax carpet track in Durham with my touring car. Just need to find a free sunday to go race there.

Other than that, I've picked up a junker T3 stadium truck to bash around with once it's fixed up (it's what my first RC was when I was like 8).

Also picked up an original 1991 AE gold pan buggy off Craigslist. Got a basically full RTR system with some 25 year old batteries (useless) for $50. Totally stripped it down, dyed the plastic parts black again since they'd faded to purple over the years, and slapped it back together. Looks pretty damn nice now. Think I'm going to sell it though and pick up a crawler for dicking around in the backyard/parks.

As I bought it (for $50)




After rebuild (still waiting on some parts for the shocks so they're not mounted yet):

12/1/2015 9:47:27 AM

no, i haven't done anything except play around with the 2wd. i should sell it.

12/1/2015 9:50:58 AM

I recently rebuilt my drone (quad). I'll have to take some pics, I'm liking the new frame a lot. Still haven't balanced the new props and sent it flying yet, but I will over christmas break.

12/2/2015 8:27:05 AM

pic of our track

12/2/2015 1:14:44 PM

Nice! I want to eventually get back into 1/8 scale (either nitro or electric) and run big open tracks like that.

I went to MXRC a few weeks ago and practiced for a day. It was a great track, but obviously built for 1/8 scale. Although I was able to clear the triple if I got a good run up.
This was also after that week of rain we got, so it was in 80% shape. Still some sections too muddy to run on.




[Edited on December 3, 2015 at 9:34 AM. Reason : .]

12/3/2015 9:26:41 AM

i think we're as close to raleigh as any other 1/8 scale track now that cape fear has shut down

12/3/2015 9:41:48 PM

Ran 2wd Sportsman this past friday night. It's a modified class, so ran a Tekin 10.5, no boost/turbo. The new tires (Proline Prime's) did the trick and I was freaking HOOKED UP all night. I was pulling wheelies down the back straight if I hammered the throttle.

Ended up 2nd in the A-main. Also, turned the fastest lap of the night, beating a pro driver who was in attendance. Pretty stoked about that!

I'll probably sandbag it in Sportsman for another race or two and if I continue to be in the top 3 I'll probably bump to Pro and get my ass handed to me for a while.

Also...I may or may not have picked up a nice used B44.1 last night....will hopefully be running 4wd buggy soon. It's a sickness I tell ya

[Edited on December 7, 2015 at 10:09 AM. Reason : .]

12/7/2015 10:03:22 AM

you need to get back into 1/8 scale and come race with us

12/7/2015 11:25:17 PM

built this podium for the track while i was off work this week

12/12/2015 10:31:39 PM

It's getting out of hand now. Just picked up another 22 2.0 2wd buggy so I can run both mod AND 17.5 stock class. Also got my B44.1 in the mail, as well as a second B44.1 as a parts car.

So as of right now, I have:

2 TLR 22 2.0's (stock and mod)
2 AE B44.1's (4wd buggy)
AE T3 stadium truck
AE RC10 gold pan buggy (will sell at some point)
2 Sakura Zero's for carpet racing

The only other thing I want to add to the stable is a crawler just for dicking around. I'll likely try and sell the RC10 and put that towards the crawler.

12/18/2015 1:27:20 PM

1/8 scale, dude. 1/8 scale.

i've got an old conveyor belt roller i'm turning into a roller for the track. here is the frame i made. i had to gooseneck the tongue so it will not hit the tops of the jumps. waiting for USPS to bring some bearings. i also need to come up with some sort of weight rack on it. i filled the roller with sand, but that only brought the whole thing to about 200 maybe 225 lbs. don't laugh at my welding, everyone has to start somewhere.

https://goo.gl/photos/wZKkMHtgFHuSpGAR8

[Edited on December 18, 2015 at 4:43 PM. Reason : DS]

12/18/2015 4:42:49 PM

Welds look pretty decent man! Mine arent much, if at all, better. I just grind the hell out of all my welds to get them all nice and smooth, so I honestly dont care too much about what my actual welds look like as long as I get good penetration (twss)

That roller's gonna be really cool. I wanna see what it looks like when you're all done with it.

12/18/2015 9:38:42 PM

I'm sure at some point I'll get back into 1/8 scale, but for now I'm just trying to race more classes on the nights I actually do get to go race. So all 1/10 vehicles set up for indoor clay. If I had more opportunities to race, I'd be all over 1/8.

Also, for now I can just swap ESC/motor, etc from one vehicle to the next. I'll have to buy new 150A ESC and 550 motors to run 1/8.

12/19/2015 7:12:18 AM

I'll post some pics when it's done

Most guys in ebuggy at Rocky Point are running the hobbywing combo

Supposedly Cape Fear is opening back up next year.

12/19/2015 9:22:35 AM

Yeah, I'll believe it when I see it. They're a pretty disorganized bunch of folk. But it will be awesome if they do. I LOVE ebuggy, I just need to find more time to race. My son is only 10 months old and requires a lot of supervision at the moment haha. He's into EVERYTHING. He's gonna be just like me

12/19/2015 10:19:30 AM

i bought a traxxas rustler this week. First hobby grade rc car. It's pretty addicting I must say. I'm already starting to look at some upgrades to make it faster and get more battery life. I know it would probably have been cheaper just to buy a better car instead of upgrading it, but I would like to get some suggestions on a brushless motor and a battery. Let me know if you have any suggestions.

12/19/2015 7:56:22 PM

i added a rack on top for sandbags. we can add another 200 lbs of sand if we need to.

https://goo.gl/photos/fEZ4HTLLKvEy4Jd49

i'm still waiting on bearings, but here it is mocked up

https://goo.gl/photos/WGvSjswAyNqNHJL29

12/19/2015 9:19:35 PM

I built this little thing: http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2560013


Maiden flight video: https://youtu.be/wzX-d5ImZNc

12/19/2015 9:37:38 PM

Packfoosball,

did you buy the Rustler RTR? If not, what motor/batteries are you running in it right now? Are they Lipos? Is the motor brushed or brushless? If it's brushed, you'll need a new ESC (that handles brushless motors and Lipo batteries).

I HIGHLY suggest the Turnigy Trackstar ESC's from Hobbyking. For less than $50 you can have a race-worthy 120A brushless ESC. I have 3 of them in my various racing vehicles. Havent had a single issue yet and I run the piss out of them.

Also for a cheap brushless motor to go with it, look at the Trackstar motors. Either Gen 1 or Gen 2. I've loved the Gen1 motors so far, and have heard good things about the Gen 2's. You can go mild to wild...If you just want a good all around motor that's going to have enough speed to keep you happy for a while but not risk damaging your stock Rustler transmission, etc. I'd suggest going with a 13.5t turn brushless motor.

Hobbyking even offers these two in a package deal for $70. Can't beat that with a damn stick.
http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__74352__TrackStar_ROAR_approved_1_10th_Stock_Class_Brushless_ESC_and_Motor_Combo_13_5T_AR_Warehouse_.html?strSearch=trackstar%2013.5

As for batteries, I'm LOVING my cheapass Turnigy Lipo's.
http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/RC_PRODUCT_SEARCH.asp?searchType=10&strSearch=turnigy+lipo&location=AL&idCategory=&sortBy=Relevant&NumPerPage=20¤tPage=1

You'll want a 2S pack...hardpacks are recommended, but you can get away with soft packs if you're willing to risk the slight chance of a fire if you damage the pack in a gnarly crash. I used Turnigy soft packs in my 1/8 scale ebuggy for racing. I now use Turnigy nano-tech hard pack "shorties" for racing 2wd buggy and carpet touring car, and Turnigy nano-tech saddle packs for my 4wd buggy. Havent had any issues yet, and again, I run the piss out of my stuff. For the price, you wont find a better pack. And for just bashing the rustler, dont get caught up in the hype of more expensive packs. Get some cheap Turnigy packs, charge them at 1C, and run them hard. Just dont run them past their voltage cut-off and they'll serve you well.

12/19/2015 9:58:49 PM

^^way cool that you built that from scratch. awesome job, dude.

[Edited on December 19, 2015 at 10:00 PM. Reason : dsaf]

12/19/2015 9:59:40 PM

Yeah, that's badass man. I've never been brave enough to try planes They look fun as hell though! Nice work!

[Edited on December 19, 2015 at 10:05 PM. Reason : .]

12/19/2015 10:05:19 PM

thanks guys

They are super fun! You can get some pretty indestructible stuff now, and electronics are cheaper than ever. Might be worth a try! I'd be happy to make some suggestions if you find yourself itching.

[Edited on December 19, 2015 at 10:13 PM. Reason : maybe get together some time next year and you can try one out]

12/19/2015 10:13:01 PM

Thanks for all the info Bobby. It is an RTR. It has a Titan 12T 550 motor and traxxas power cell 3000 NiMH battery pack. I've had to go to the hobby store every other day to get new parts because I keep wrecking it, but hey now it's got a bunch of upgraded parts that won't break. Overall I'm really happy with it, but the biggest downside is the battery. It doesn't last very long on a charge, and it came with a car charger and no wall charger. Seems like it should be the other way around, but I'm going to buy a new charger.

12/19/2015 10:14:39 PM

Get a nice Lipo setup and you'll be in business. Lipo's last forever. 4000mah+ will give you quite a bit of runtime. Get 2 and you can run all day if you charge one while running the other. Should take 20-30 minutes to charge if you're charging at 1C. And the beauty of Lipos is that you can charge it back to back to back and it will be fine, unlike your NiMH pack which doesn't like to be charged more than once a day.

You may know this, but you'll need a Lipo-capable charger as well. And make sure it's in Lipo-mode when charging, otherwise you'll have a nice spectacular fire on your hands. I've seen it happen. Not fun.

As far as more speed, you'll probably see a little speed boost due to the slight increase in voltage with 2S Lipo's (7.4v) vs a 6 cell pack NiMH/ (7.2v). But you can also play with your pinion/spur gears. Bigger pinion should give you more top-end speed. Just make sure you're not roasting your motor. You typically want to keep your brushless motors under 160F...Around 130F is the sweet spot.

Those 12t Titan motors they come with are garbage, so you should be much happier once you go brushless.

[Edited on December 21, 2015 at 10:11 AM. Reason : .]

12/21/2015 10:00:30 AM

Thanks Bobby. One question about the batteries you sent the link to. How can I tell which are hard packs and which are soft packs? They all look the same to me on that page. Probably a dumb question, but I literally know nothing about this.

12/21/2015 10:17:20 AM

The soft packs are just shrink wrapped.

Honestly if you're just bashing, I'd get a few of these: http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__10305__Turnigy_5000mAh_2S_40C_Lipo_Pack.html

But if you want hard packs, any of these 2S2P packs on this page are fine.
http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/RC_PRODUCT_SEARCH.asp?strSearch=lipo hard

I'd go for these if it was my money: http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__17272__Turnigy_nano_tech_5800mah_2S2P_30_60C_Hardcase_Lipo_Pack_ROAR_APPROVED_.html

One thing to note: Some of these packs don't come with connectors to plug into your ESC...so you'll need to buy/install connectors. If you're going to go through that trouble, I'd just upgrade ALL your connectors on your packs and ESC. Lots of folks like Deans plugs but I find them to get pretty warm when used with high amp draw applications. I'd suggest EC3, EC5, or XT-60 connectors at least. But there's lots of other options. There were some pre-made wires/connectors for the hard packs at the top of the Hard Pack search page I listed above


[Edited on December 21, 2015 at 11:00 AM. Reason : .]

12/21/2015 10:57:01 AM

i just have wire soldered on the posts of my ESC and straight to the bullet connectors that fit my hard packs. just have to make a bullet to deans adapter for charging. one less point of failure.

12/21/2015 2:53:19 PM

Yeah, I just use bullet connectors too. But I didnt want to suggest that to someone who is new to RC and/or might not yet have the patience/awareness to triple check the polarity before turning on their ESC and possibly frying their electronics. (been there, done that )

If you're just bashing, plugs are totally the way to go. Foolproof.

[Edited on December 21, 2015 at 3:59 PM. Reason : .]

12/21/2015 3:48:44 PM

zoom zoom: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKW0Y-QenGw

I guess it's going 45-50 mph? Haven't bothered to count the pixels

12/23/2015 12:43:16 AM

looks like fun. do you have a low voltage alarm or cut-off?

12/23/2015 9:20:39 AM

anyone fuck with RC boats?

Im on a waterfront property (water is basically a 10 acre pond), and an RC boat seems like something I need to have, just to piss off my elderly neighbors.

I don't need any top of the line shit, but there seems to be a lot of hot garbage out there too, so i have no idea what i should be looking at.

12/23/2015 10:01:51 AM

maybe try here: http://www.rctech.net/forum/rc-boating-142/

12/23/2015 10:06:50 AM

Ok, so I bought the turnigy lipo battery Bobby recommended above, and a bag of connectors from amazon. I have no idea how to get the battery connected to the ESC. For one, I don't think I got the right connectors. Can somebody help me get the battery hooked up. Dumbed down as much as possible, as I know nothing about this. Here is the battery I bought http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__17272__Turnigy_nano_tech_5800mah_2S2P_30_60C_Hardcase_Lipo_Pack_ROAR_APPROVED_.html

12/30/2015 8:50:01 PM

Cut the black heat shrink off the red and black wires and solder them to the female connector. Solder the male connector to the power wires coming off your ESC. Plug the bullet (also called banana) connectors into the battery. Plug up the connectors you soldered on.

Make sure you get the polarity right.

12/30/2015 10:47:43 PM

^so cut off the traxxas connector that is on the end of the wires coming out of the ESC that connect to the nimh battery?

12/31/2015 8:40:01 AM

Yes, unless you bought traxxas connectors. Did you buy Dean's?

12/31/2015 8:58:43 AM

I bought Deans, but I can buy Traxxas. I really don't want to solder.

12/31/2015 11:55:06 AM

You will have to solder either way. The battery leads are bare. Go with Dean's.

12/31/2015 4:03:32 PM

good video on soldering dean's: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tEBQC-qNE0

make sure you get really small gauge 60/40 rosin core (can get it at a hobby shop, don't get the silver stuff) and a wide chisel tip on your iron.

12/31/2015 5:23:57 PM

Yeah, you're gonna have to solder some kind of connector onto the lipo lead either way. Not really any way around that.

I'd say take it to a hobby shop (along with your ESC) and pay them a few bucks to solder them on if you dont feel comfortable doing it yourself. I'm happy to do it for you if you want to bring it by my house. I'm near Southpoint mall in Durham.

12/31/2015 5:36:29 PM

Appreciate the offer to solder for me. Unfortunately I live in Charlotte, otherwise I'd take you up on that. There's also not shit around here as far as hobby shops. The closest one I can find is hobbytown in Mooresville, and it's a traffic nightmare getting there..

That being said, I feel pretty comfortable doing this. Seems pretty easy. I've watched a few youtube videos. My question before I start cutting is about the black sleeves on the ends of these wires (the end that I will be soldering a connector to). I was thinking I just cut those off when I cut the wire to expose wire to solder to the connector, but I want to make sure I'm doing it correctly. Am I ok cutting those off? Are those supposed to be used for something? Here's a pic so you can see what I mean. The pics not good, the part I'm referring to is blurry, but I think you'll get the point.



[Edited on January 6, 2016 at 9:25 PM. Reason : a]

1/6/2016 9:23:50 PM

Yes, it's just black heat shrink. It's thin. Just carefully slice through it with a razor blade or exacto knife. Cut parallel with the wire and then peel it off.

1/6/2016 9:30:31 PM

Yeah, just slice through the heat shrink to cut it. No need to cut the wire too underneath it.

They just ship it with the heat shrink on the ends so that someone doesnt plug the other ends of the wires into the battery pack and accidentally short the pack out/start a fire.

1/7/2016 10:09:55 AM

i finished up that track roller this week:

https://goo.gl/photos/xsqvRXotnV5joj1w9
https://goo.gl/photos/TjWDYBNcpe4vkY689

1/8/2016 12:57:11 PM

Hell yeah man! Looks like it'll work awesome

1/8/2016 7:57:01 PM

Got it soldered. Pretty terrible soldering job, but it should work.

1/9/2016 10:39:01 AM

Everyone is terrible at soldering at first! Takes a while to get used to it and get the feel.

Are you using 60/40 or lead-free? The lead-free stuff sucks serious balls.

1/9/2016 10:49:30 PM