Tag: car
Red Bull 7 Progress (up to Issue 44)
I have caught up with my RB7 subscription and built everything up to issue 44.
I decided to put aside recent issues until I had enough to finish and cover the differential instead of having to leave half finished bits on the side.
In this session I built and fitted the rear differential, differential housing and the rear suspension arms.
Twin Hammers new body and accessories
I wanted to make my Twin Hammers more unique so I started by replacing the standard plastic body with a set of aluminium body panels.
I decided to paint the panels in a basic desert camo scheme of sand and earth.
Some decals were applied to the side panels to add a bit of detail.
I also replaced the vehicle race number plates on the back of the vehicle with recovery boards. These are also aluminium and were painted desert yellow.
To complete the new look I ordered a pack of rock crawler accessories from eBay and strapped some gear to the roof and recovery boards with bungee chords .
Low Voltage protection for Models Without it on their ESC’S
For the first time recently I ended up with an Electronic Speed Controller that did not have built in Low Voltage Protection but did support LIPO batteries. You should never let a LIPO battery drop below 3V (You should get rid of it if it does.)
As the esc did not have LVP and independent solution was needed. After a little research I found these usually come as a little circuit board with an led screen that connects to the balance charger on a LIPO battery.
A LIPO battery generally has two connectors. One to connect to your model and one to charge the battery and balance the battery cells. The charge connector is not needed when the battery is in your model so you can leave a low voltage protection unit attached to it.
I managed to buy some units off ebay that work perfectly and only cost a few pounds each.
The units are simple enough. You give them a voltage you want them to warn you at and they will buzz when they drop down to it. They work well and I have never had any trouble hearing the buzzer.
Here is a video of them in action. The display even cycles through the voltage of each cell
Twin Hammers Crash And Repair
My Twin Hammers had a head on crash with a monster truck. This shattered the monster truck chassis (my blackfoot) and snapped a metal tie rod on my Twin Hammers. I am not too fussed about the Blackfoot which still runs but its gearbox kinda just floats between the wheels. The Twin Hammers however being my flagship electric car I wanted up and running ASAP.
This was a nice test for me to see how easy it is to back order Vaterra parts. As a brand new company they have already shown they can make good cars but I had no idea how good their parts support would be.
I ordered a set of tie rods and rod ends from modelsport and had them in under a week. I needed the rod ends because the rod had actually snapped inside one of the current ones making it impossible to remove.
The repair was easy. All I had to do was remove the body, cut out the old tie rod ends and snap the new ones into place.
Team C Jekyll Kit 13×3 Motor 8.4v Battery Ball-Raced
Testing my team C Jekyll buggy. I am impressed with the performance but it is overheating my esc so I need to sort that out.
13×3 Orion Motor.
Mtroniks 10t limit sniper esc
8.4v 5100 Orion Rocket Pack Nimh
Spektrum DSM radio.
Jekyll Wallride
Here you can see the Jekyll doing a little wall riding. This is with a 7.2v battery pack.
Team C Racing Jekyll build
When I first saw this kit on modelsport I was intrigued. It was only £39 and I wanted to know just how good a car you would get for the price. You have to supply your own Electronic Speed Controller, Servo, Receiver and Motor bringing the total minimum build price to around £70- £80. I spent a bit more as I wanted to but some more decent bits in it.
The packaging and parts were a decent quality considering the price and the manual was easy to follow. This would make a nice inexpensive first kit.
Things I used to complete the build:
- hitec servo £6
- 10 turn limit mtroniks sniper esc around £25
- 13×3 Orion Motor £18
- Spektrum 301 DSM coated reciever £23
It seems I made a bad choice with the esc as the 13×3 motor seems to overheat it very easily, I am looking into a solution for that. On top of this I melted a battery connector to the esc so I ordered some traxxas connectors to deal with the current.
Soldering the new connectors
I also ordered a set of UK buggy bearings to ball race the kit. These replaced the bronze bushings that come as standard.
I do intend to replace my battery connectors with deans but the reason I went with a traxxas in this instance is I got this rocket pack battery in a sale. Its a 5100Mah 8.4 V Orion Rocket pack and really makes the thing go.
The bad thing is its too big for the battery compartment so I have to tape it in each time!
In summary this kit is easy to build, robust and well its cheap enough to buy a second one for a complete set of spare parts. I will upload some videos of it in action soon!
Getting Some Air With My Twin Hammers
Today I took my Twin Hammers to the local skate park. It gets some nice height on the jump there, much more than my other cars.
Here is a highlight clip from the session. I have much more video footage also including my micro short course truck to upload later.
Twin Hammers Rock Crawler / Buggy first drive
A short video of my first drive with the Twin Hammers Rock Crawler / Buggy.
I was not going full throttle as I was only driving with one hand and this was towards the end of the battery.
Its great fun to drive and I was surprised at how often it wheelies from a standstill. It is very easy to tip over at speed and therefore requires much more brake control than most vehicles.
Shane's Shed 