Anyone into R/C?

I ordered a lipo bag and it should be here tomorrow. I have it sitting outside. I ran it yesterday, seems to be ok, charging normally. I think I let it run low one time.

 

hey... wanna run the trucks? I havent touched mine in months.. and now Im curious about my Lipo's.. lol

 

I'll hit you up when I'm done with dinner. I don't know if my truck even runs correctly right now. Last time I took it out it didn't do so well.

 

there's a 3d rendering of a Tacoma in google sketchup (for free), if that can be exported to the proper file type for what you need.

 

Just checked.. I'd rather use the other ones. Higher quality/better resolution.

Thanks for the headsup though man! Never thought to check Sketchup.

 

if memory serves, it was all kinds of modified with a lift and huge tires, so accuracy of the body was likely not the focal point.

 

Yeah there were a couple. Some definitely better than others.. Lol

 

I haven't touched my scx10 honcho in months. One of the batteries lost a cell and I got frustrated trying to get the winch mounted like I wanted so I put it on the shelf til today, since I didn't have a radio to run the winch anyway. This morning i was runnung some errands so I went to the local hobby shop to discuss issues and spend my money. I picked up a spectrum dx4c, left the truck with him to mount the winch for me and the battery to be checked out too. I told him to look it over once as the motor seemed to be dying on me too.


So my question for you all. I was happy with the rtr honcho motor. I don't desire more speed but a little more torque would be nice for crawling. Is the Holmes Hobbies expert 35t the way to go or is there another I should consider? Is the 35t a lot slower?
@thefatkid any thoughts on this

 

ESC just blew on my Talion recently. I sent it in to see if Arrma replaces it for me. Hoping they give me the BLX 185 instead of another 180. I guess we will see. I guess if they don't replace it for free, I'll have to look into the aftermarket replacements.

 

Just painted up a new shell for my Traxxas Slash 4x4. Got dirty before the photo. Its a chevy silverado, that i did in black with silver trim. But now the 3 cell lipo battery won't take a charge.

 

So are the lipo batteries really worth the extra money?

 

Really depends on your application.
Flying things are much better off with lipo's.
Helicopters, for example, were literally revolutionized overnight with the use of lipo's.
Things with wheels, some actually benefit from the extra weight of a nimh pack.
Then there is the guys like my friend, who pretty much just bashes and has no desire to go any further in the hobby other than to charge and bash. The nimh packs are perfect for him.
I still use a few nimh packs.

 

thanks! im getting my old emaxx back to working order after a loooong hiatus and had never even heard of the lipos, so figured Id ask. I think nimh will do just fine for getting me back in. plus a hell of a lot cheaper too.

 

BDN makes some good points. Here is my take on it:

Lipos are the better performing battery, without a doubt. The down side to that is it comes at a cost. As you guys said, they cost more but also they are much higher maintenance. You must have a charger that can balance charge. And I would do a little bit of research before you buy. They batteries must be used / stored in a safe range. Failure to do so can damage the battery. Your truck should have a lipo mode in the ESC, so make sure you read up on switching that over (basically has a low-voltage cut-off to keep the battery from dropping below safe range). But other than just keep an eye on that stuff, I highly recommend lipos in the trucks. They give the same amount of power through the whole discharge cycle. So your truck will not slow as the battery discharges. Also, the burst power, is so fun. Just my .02.

 

Hey guys,
So I'm building a hovercraft for an engineering project and I'm on the lookout for a 3volt servo, so far ive only seen 4.8/6v servos - where could I find a fairly rugged one at a moderately good price?

 

A lipo can often be saved if it has a low cell or two. Charge it as a nimh until above 3.2v or so per cell. I have a low voltage alarm with a readout of volts per cell and just wait for the low cell(s) to get high enough then plug in the balance cable, stop nimh charge, and swap to the proper lipo balance charge setting. Once fully charge run it on a discharge-charge cycle and it should be good to go if the cell isn't totally dead. I store all mine in an ammo can at storage voltage.

As for this Tacoma body discussion. 3D printing one would be a nice hardbody. Especially if you can add rear view mirrors and other details. But hard bodies weigh more than lexan. If you could print it thick enough or add some bracing inside that would not collapse under vacuum and be used as a mold for making lexan bodies wold be great, too. My local Lowes sells lexan sheets large enough to pull a 1/10 mold. Pulling a mold over it wouldn't have the details like a Proline body which are pulled into the cast. I've seen online where people have pulled bodies off of diecast cars this way.

 

The low voltage servos I've seen are smaller than what you'd likely need. You may want to look for a setup to run your servo independent like in a gasser/nitro RC from a separate battery.

 

Ok so let me explain - we have to use a fuel cell (ours puts out 3.3-3.5V) to control the forward & backward motion of our hovercraft. I would love to run the servo off the battery but it isn't an option. We just need to move the fans maybe 10-20 degrees so it's not like the servos would be under a lot of stress but...would it even run off such low voltage?

 

Well I ended up going with a holmes 21t torque master expert in a 550 size. It's got good torque but not any more speed than stock. The winch is amazing, very powerful, looks cool with the pull pal and adds to the scale point a bit for me

 

Check some of the overseas websites like Banggood.com or hobbyking.com. You may could use a pair of smaller servos to make one function to double the TQ output. Or maybe some kind of cantilever/bellcrank type setup for a shorter throw with a full sweep of a servo.