Just Between You, Me, and the Bingo Card: Life Lessons from the Assisted Living Facility

That is freaking awesome

Where did you source that motor?

Strangely enough, I have a project at work that needs a 1850Ke motor at 24VDC (44.4krpm rated speed). A hobby motor might be the way to go.

 

I've had it for years, it was still in the box.
E-flite Park 370. Model EFLM1010 3600kv

 

Thanks, Brett!

 

There's a reason why my phantom has not been updated in years and is controlled by an old phone with no connection to anything.

 

Finally settled on a design that works and looks ok.
It's a fairly blatant copy of the LGB lineup of Flyers, the Fortuna, Snoopy, Mars and Santa.
The P-Nut Flyer.

Extensive track testing proved the 3S power was just ludicrous. So it's designed around a 2S 1300mah pack. Not only was it a tad top heavy with the extra cell, the thrust and the scream of the motor at that voltage was like a turbo powered hair dryer on overload. I am somewhat disappointed that I'll never know just how fast it will go. Needs 100 yards of flat, straight, level track and a couple of pillows at the end to catch it. And just send it.

Power distribution and guidance system.

Propulsion system.

Metal wheels alone were not enough to hold it on the curves, the added weight doubled what is there, and does a fair job of keeping it wheels down, along with the highly functional spoiler. Anything near half throttle will send it off the rails. The extra thrust available may prove useful on the outdoor track since it has a long grade to climb.

 

Nice day, feeling good enough to try the flyer out. Was not disappointed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaUmKMhtfQk

 

Subbed for the live squirrel mod.

 

epic!

 

Just saying....

 

I re-designed the flat car and gondola, and was left with two of the old designs that didn't need to go to waste. I made the box car shell to fit over the existing car. The doors slide open as well. The colors are all "brown" from different manufacturers, China needs a Crayola color chart to sort that crap out.

Needs ladders and a brake wheel, but otherwise it's done.


Compared to a Bachmann 400mm boxcar. Mine are 300mm. The width is the same.
This is actually the first time I have picked up a factory car, and boy are mine heavy. I mean almost twice the weight..

I wondered why the engines were laboring to pull a full consist

 

Ah the nuclear waster transport case test! I think they said train was going 100MPH.

 

Yep! I wondered if anyone knew what this was. The tank held too. It lost just a micro amount of pressure on impact, nothing to worry about. I think they still have an unblemished record of transporting these.

 

Made a few shorty cars 150mm, and another caboose in traditional red.

It has a wood stove, cabinet, bunk and lights.

Archer found a sunbeam.

I think the short line looks pretty good with these 220mm 2 axle cars. I would like to make a pair of passenger cars in that length for this locomotive.

I decided the tender behind the Stainz was out of place as the cab has no access to the thing.
Made a short, covered gondola to hide the electronics. It's a one-off design at 200mm length with a single front steering axle just because I thought it would be cool to do.


The body mounted coupler a long with the rigid rear axle keeps the thing centered between the rails when hooking up to another car. The steering axle up front helps it negotiate corners a bit better and uneven track.

I had opportunity to push the plow with it a few days ago with a scant covering of snow and ice on the track and the tender did not want to stay on the rails, so this prompted this design.
Hope it works better.
P-nut flyer needed something to flex with, made this little windmill car for it to pull around.

I was fortunate to have sliced the model so the wing mount went straight thru, left with about 4mm of empty space, and made this simple coupler attachment that clipped in from the underside.

The windmill can be detached and the car utilized as a plain flatbed. The windmill doesn't seem to slow it down much at all.

The added bonus of being able to couple the flyer to the front of a locomotive and have it "help" with the load. It's low key entertaining to watch.

 

setting the big train aside for a tiny RC car.

Tiny.

Purchased a new MIP 0.9mm driver just for this project. Worth every penny.

Front diff.
Kit DID NOT come with grease. This is some leftover HPI stuff, it's a pretty blue color.


Almost complete front axle. Servo should be here Saturday, hoping it's the right size.

That was 2 hours alone, many get up and stretch breaks, crack fingers, rub eyes. If I still smoked, that would easily have eaten up a half pack.
Patience is the game here.
So far, every part seems to be accounted for. They do give a few extra of each screw size, like 8 different screw sizes and the ball joints, packages are labeled, so spend a half hour getting familiar with it.

 

moving along.
Links.

Motor, 300 rpm.

Transmission gears.

Transmission, motor and suspension ball joints.

Adorable dampers.

Hardest part of the build so far has been the two tiny E clips that were installed on the axle shafts in the beginning. Aside from shit being so small, it goes together pretty well.

 

Paint and body panels.

 

Meanwhile I'm in boxing my scx24 that is ready to run and slapping preassembled meus axles under it.

The MIP tools are well worth the joy of using a nice tool vs the LKeys

 

Dry fitting to see how in the hell it's gonna fit.
The RX will be here later today, it's dimensionally similar to the battery, same height, shorter length and wider fore and aft. It "should fit" down behind the transmission and just above the output shaft. Leaving room for wire in the cabin area.

The battery is a completely different headache. It's gonna have to be split, and each cell hopefully nestled on each side of the transmission. A smaller pack is certainly an option to entertain before I commit to that. I just happen to have 7 of these packs not really getting any use.

and the LED harness in the background will be robbed of the plug and I'll start the thing from scratch as they would have to be torn down anyway. Less wire bundles, the better.
So I have choices for color.
Green, white, warm white, purple, and pink that can all be wired parallel.
And red, orange, yellow, blue, that would be wired in series due to lower voltage requirements.
The kit calls for 4mm led's, just fyi. 3.5 is what I have a lot of and they are close enough.
Leaning toward green, warm white, or purple...
Lousy focus on such a small subject, you can just see the raw led anodes poking through.

 

Stuff showed up and the reality of confined space became all to real.
Steering servo went smooth, actually got the bend on the tie rod close enough I'm satisfied with it. Clears and turns l/r.

The Rx that Orlandoo recommends measures 10mm high x 36mm length x 20mm wide.
The FMS RX I'm using is 10mm high x 30mm length x 25mm wide. pretty close.
It fits well upside down mounted at the top of the cage. Removing the case will gain a little more room but it wouldn't really make anything better and might compromise the RX.
No matter where it sits, no 2s battery is going to fit in there and look like it isn't trying to move a couch across town. Or worse yet, strap it to the top. Orlandoo sells teeny bungie straps and I suspect this is what they are for. No bueno.

The larger cells are 380mah, the smaller a pair of decade old E-Flite 200mah that somehow are still functioning and took a charge no problem.They look like they will stuff beside the transmission. Wiring is going to be a challenge as I still need the balance lead for charging via USB. So 3 extra wires with a connector flopping around.
Debating on direct soldering the batteries to the RX and delete a connection since the batteries are forever on board.
tiny little bastard.

Would like to point out that the car also has a sound option. That includes a sound card, extra cabling and a speaker crammed alongside everything else.