The RC Cars/Planes/Boats/Helis thread

Mine's the stadium truck, and all I've really done is lower it a good bit, and stick some really stiff springs in there. Swapped out the wheels for some 1.9 road tires, and that's about it. 14.4v on the VXL will easily destroy tires.
 
Trying some 100wt oil and traxxas black and pink springs. Also bought RPM bumpers since the stock ones are rubbish.

Is it worth shimming the diff?
 
I haven't shimmed any of mine yet. They're all open diffs as well, as I'm not sure it's worth locking either the rear of the center one.
 
Tires will probably be my next move. Thinking Jconcepts goosebumps + rulux premount atm, but the proline wheels look good.
 
I went full touring on mine. LOL.

IMG_8636.jpg
 
I use my merev offroad :p
 
(crosspost from the Aviation thread, thanks KaJuN for the link here)

Has anybody here had any experience with multicopters? I've always been fascinated by the things, especially the FPV variety:

(flight footage starts at 1:19)

After long considerations, today I took the plunge and ordered about $300 worth of parts fomr HobbyKing to build my first quadcopter. No FPV (yet...), a fairly basic model, to see what I can do.
 
Got one of those mini infrared helis, wanted one for ages. It's great fun though my house seems rather small for it. Also, the learning curve isn't as steep as expected. But I still have a lot to learn in controlling it and finesse. The cat seems rather interested in it though :p.
 

Anyone thinking of picking up one of these? I have a feeling they may become more popular than the SC10 4x4 thanks to the shaft drive lol.
 
Bmup. Finally got something fixed wing that's crash-resistant. I can't fly it for shit, but it flies like a dream. Once I take it somewhere where there's enough open space to get three mistakes high I should learn how to fly it pretty well. It also looks really badass sitting here on my computer stand next to my 1/24th Kenworth W900 and 1/144th RX-78 Gundam :p


A_JZ2BHCcAAGp5O.jpg



Funnily enough I wasn't even in the hobby shop looking for an aircraft. I was after a pair of 1/72nd VS-Tanks. They were adorable, reasonably sized, and reasonably well detailed, so I figured buying a set would be a good idea. Turns out they got discontinued between me finding them and me having enough dosh, so I was left standing there in the hobby shop with a hundred bucks in my pocket and no idea what to blow it on. I then spotted the "Under 100" rack, and on it, many ParkZone ultra-micro BnF foamies. Since I already had a DX5e transmitter they would all work, so I poked around and settled on the Spit. I almost picked up the Corsair, but I'd heard they had bad manners, and the P51D had a 2-blade prop on it, so that ruled that out. The Spit is a smooth flyer and has a proper 4-blade, so I went with it.


First flights went predictably, with it nosing into the grass numerous times. I did get it to 'fly the tail' at one point, and I can get it off the ground both from a dead stop and hand-launched. I just don't have enough room to learn to fly it without crashing into stuff at my house. Once I'm proficient with it I won't have any issues, and the pavement out front is so buttery smooth that even these tiny little wheels roll smoothly on it. Perfect runway.
 
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Anyone here fly quads?
 
I'm currently building one. The frame is finished, here's some pics:

HEumq.jpg


BACbs.jpg


The FC I have on it is faulty though, gyro not responding. Picking up a new one later today - hopefully it'll finally be airworthy then.
 
We've been getting into the FPV lately with a friend. Not with videoglasses but with a monitor. Nearly lost the plane when we got a bit lost and actually flew away from the base station thinking we were returning :lol:

So now the plane is fitted with an ardupilot, and it'll return the plane home when transmitter signal is lost. A pretty impressive product, I have to say. Only had a chance to quickly test it, and it was already stabilizing and and returning perfectly without any pid adjustments. Now I need to make some high gain antennas for long distance flights :)
 
We've been getting into the FPV lately with a friend. Not with videoglasses but with a monitor. Nearly lost the plane when we got a bit lost and actually flew away from the base station thinking we were returning :lol:

So now the plane is fitted with an ardupilot, and it'll return the plane home when transmitter signal is lost. A pretty impressive product, I have to say. Only had a chance to quickly test it, and it was already stabilizing and and returning perfectly without any pid adjustments. Now I need to make some high gain antennas for long distance flights :)

I remember flying at a park once and these guys pulled out a ton of computer gear from their station wagon to fly fpv lol.
 
FPV is awesome. Once I learn to fly the quad properly, I'll probably get FPV gear as well. A roommate has a GoPro 2 he doesn't use, and I've got a video capture dongle for the Macbook, so all I need is a transmitter-receiver combo and a couple cables.

The quad flies now, btw. But since I'm not any good, I'll wait until Saturday for clear weather outside to properly try it out - trying to hover indoors only resulted in the first broken prop so far :)
 
I'd love to FPV my entire fleet. Flying my glow trainer FPV should be fairly simple to do, just need to put some clear covering over the windshield and mount the camera gear inside. The spit and the heli are a bit trickier because they're already featherweights. Might struggle to carry the FPV gear at all. The touring car is easy enough to mount, but the environment is hell on earth to FPV gear, what with fuel splashes, vibration, jumps, bumps, rollovers and the like.
 
5.8 GHz FPV gear is really light.

This is the extreme end, but even normal gear isn't that much more:
1g camera: http://www.fpvhobby.com/63-1-gram-nano-camera-480tvl.html
1.2g tx: http://www.fpvhobby.com/transmitter/21-2-55-volt-500mw-24ghz-video-transmitter.html

Add a small cloverleaf antenna and you can put it on pretty much anything. The range will be pretty limited of course, but you can balance power and weight.

You can't really do more than few hundred meters (up to a km, I guess) with 5.8GHz anyway, but it's the safest bet in terms of legality, price, weight, etc.
 
5.8 GHz FPV gear is really light.

This is the extreme end, but even normal gear isn't that much more:
1g camera: http://www.fpvhobby.com/63-1-gram-nano-camera-480tvl.html
1.2g tx: http://www.fpvhobby.com/transmitter/21-2-55-volt-500mw-24ghz-video-transmitter.html

Add a small cloverleaf antenna and you can put it on pretty much anything. The range will be pretty limited of course, but you can balance power and weight.
I'll check it out. I doubt they'd live long in my glow models, but they'd be perfect for the indoor heli and spitfire. The Spit is 49 grams all up, the Heli about 40g all up, I doubt either would mind another two grams. Limited range isn't really an issue with them, either, and I'd use larger equipment on the glow models anyway.


Hell, for the glow plane, I might get one of those alternators you can put on and power the FPV gear off that. They're pricey, but as long as the motor's running the batteries are charging.


http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&W=001503983&I=LXFV20&P=K


Combine that with some extended range wing-mounted tanks and I could be flying for an hour or more with the glow aircraft :O


You can't really do more than few hundred meters (up to a km, I guess) with 5.8GHz anyway, but it's the safest bet in terms of legality, price, weight, etc.

The range isn't a biggie as I'd only use the microcam on the small stuff anyway.
 
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