What happened to OC? - CLOSED Carnage?!
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nickweb

Nick's RC Racing Thread

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Actually finished some heats and a final on thursday.

 

NEW TRACK LAYOUT!!!!

 

The issue I was having where the drive to the wheels was unpredictable was due to my ball differential being loose and worn. I've tightened it up but it will need a rebuild rather soon. Still managed to get some footage and pics though:

 

This footage is from qualifying 1 and 2 and the final, also got some footage of me testing out a new body shell with different aerodynamics on it.

 

Q1 and Q2 I had issues, with servo links coming off, then power cable being pulled out of a battery. Finished Q3 and the C final without drama though.

 

 

and heres some lovely pics of my new bodyshell, note the difference compared to the white one next to it.

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You can also see the camera I use taped to the top of the body, I will be cutting a hole in the shell soon to mount it inside the bodyshell as when we start racing outside again it won't last one race.

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Tiddy-bits:

Taking a short break from racing due to my racing buddy having been knocked off his motorbike by some cockwaffler. Broken ankle and he won't be able to drive for 5 weeks.

Shame as we will both miss the start of the outdoor season on the brand new track and no more indoor carpet racing :(


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Oh shiz, I'm also into hobby-RC's. Proud owner of a Jato 3.3 and an older OFNA 1/8th scale buggy. I never got into racing really but still, amazingly fun hobby. NITRO FTW

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I will be back racing this coming thursday, but in order to prepare for the new outdoor track I had to purchase and assemble new tyres. This bulky order came to around £30.

 

norHy1r.jpg

 

Now, because there haven't been many updates to this thread for a while, I shall show you how to assemble RC tyres!

 

On the left is the inner foam, these come in firm, medium and soft varieties, and we use them instead of air-filled innertubes for obvious reasons... imagine having a puncture on an RC car! In the middle is the outer tread of the tyre, and on the right is the wheel innards. I chose some sexy yellow ones this time, mainly to identify them as different from my indoor tyres but being bright yellow helps in the fading daylight.

 

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Insert the foam into the inside of the tyre tread so it sits equally and plumps out the tyre.

 

PV50tDx.jpg

 

Now we need to get the tyre tread w/foam onto the wheel innards, this is mainly brute force and finger strength, it took me about 2 mins to wiggle and get the tyre to sit on the wheel in the right place.

 

Dtdb9aM.jpg

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... and repeat for the front tyres (slim ones for 2WD). these are a little more tricky to do due to having less rubber to work with.

 

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... and now we have our tyres ready for gluing! Theres no reason for me to take pictures of the wheel once the glue is on as it looks no different however it keeps the tyre sitting in the right place when the buggies are hitting the track hard and fast!

 

tSNtY0u.jpg

 

Here is my buggy with its new wheels ready to be put on when we get to the track on thursday!

 

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Few other things I need to do are to put a small hole in the wind-shield part of the bodyshell so my camera can sit inside the buggy as if its on the top again it will be destroyed in an outdoor crash, Also need to adjust the ball differential and steering assembly.

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So last night finally heralded my glorious return to racing!

 

The guys really have done an awesome job on making our permanent outdoor landscaped track

 

AYVnLMi.jpg

 

Here is my buggy in the boot of my friend's car (which doubles as pitting area now)

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Had some drama as in the first heat my servo link snapped, in the second heat I slammed into a wall and broke my front A-arm bulkhead, luckily we found the hingepin and front pin bracket, also a very nice guy gave me his spare bulkhead. Much unscrewing and swearing at my buggy commenced and I got it all fixed and ready 5 seconds before the 3rd heat. The 3rd heat went sort of well apart from my power cables taking a bit of a knocking. all sorted for the final though:

 

Here is the final:

 

Overall I came in 6th place out of 7 but these guys have 5 weeks practice on me, this was the first time I've been on this new track. we raced on 100% Astroturf, although theres a grassy area in the middle we may use as the layout changes.

 

I need to rebuild my ball diff, expect messy pictures of that soon!

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Its really fun, and even when you're not racing just watching all the cars go round the track and seeing how they handle the turns is rather enjoyable too.

 

I also just ordered a failsafe for my electronics, so in the event of battery failure or interference the buggy will gently brake and stop, rather than jam on full throttle and keep going.


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No video from last night's racing as it was throwing it down like crazy, so I ran my new non-camera shell:

 

10322445_10154143557780198_3963766715283

 

Yes, we run electric LiPo powered cars in the pissing rain, although one person blew his electrics out due to water getting in his buggy.

 

Qualifying 1 was slightly wet with a few spots of rain, nothing major

 

Qualifying 2 was raining more heavilly and some puddles were starting to form on track

 

Qualifying 3 was OMFG. Massive thunderstorm, heavy ass rain forming small lakes on the track half-way through the race. Now racers don't usually retire due to wet weather but this was getting pretty stupid. Lightning right overhead, rain so heavy you couldn't see the end of the car park, and we're stood on a metal rostrum underneath a row of trees. Oh and 2.4Ghz radio gear acts like a magnet for lightning.

 

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As it turns out though, Qualifying 3 was by far my best race that night.

 

When I got back to the pits, these pics scared me a little (my non-camera body shell has NO holes in it, so is waterproof)

 

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I spent this afternoon with my racing buddy Jay re-building my ball differential. The ball differential is one of the most important parts of the drive system, it sends the power to the wheels and when cornering lets the wheels spin at different rates. It is also one of the hardest things to do on a buggy.

 

Here is my buggy with most of its back end off, working on getting the diff housing out.

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Once we had the diff housing off, we had to open it and clean all the gears, bolts and whatnot inside of any old grease.

 

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These are the old ball bearings and rims that were inside the differential. Look closely and note the ridge around the outside of the metal rings. You may not be able to see it here but the balls themselves have pitting and flat spots on them, this was making the diff unstable and in time would have destroyed the gears due to heat buildup

 

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The new balls go in this cog, inside the little holes around the outside

 

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This is the cog with balls in and greased up ready to be sealed

 

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Now she's sealed up and turns like velvet

 

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Next grease up the gears and re-assemble everything, this is just before putting the casing back on

 

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... and now shes back in the rear of the buggy

 

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And while doing all this, we noticed my spur gear was in top notch condition, usually these go rather quickly, but I seem to have found a rock solid one

 

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Lots of pics, but for those few people who enjoy seeing this thread, enjoy!

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Not a great night for racing last night, started off dry which was nice, pulled in some 33 second laps (which is the average for the top level drivers) but got progressively worse during the night, didnt help it rained heavily and heavily again during the night, during the final it seemed I was racing on an ice rink. Considering buying yet more tyres designed for soaking conditions. I also did this damage because of it.

 

Snapped the left side of my front bulkhead and managed to take a chunk out of the front aluminum brace (the blue thing)

 

NTTX0GD.jpg


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