Come R/C enthusiasts, represent!

Pages

Well, my brother bought my older son a little IR helicopter for Christmas and started a chain reaction with my brother and me. I haven't been involved with R/C for some time now since moving away from my friends that got into it. I've got a couple of foam planes that need a little patch up and probably new battery packs. I still need to get around to fixing up my T-Maxx, but I'll probably try to sell my T-Maxx for a different truck. Anyway, I picked up a couple of small electric indoor helicopters, a Blade mCX2 and an mSR, along with a DX7 radio and have gotten bit by the bug again. Yesterday I ran to my LHS, which turns out to be just a few miles away (!!), and picked up a copy of Phoenix RC Flight Simulator. It's phenomenally better than the old FMS I used to use years ago. My sons, 9 and 5, are really excited about all of it as well. Now that they're getting old enough to get into R/C I sense some serious wallet pain. It's all in the spirit of family bonding though, right?

So who else has more money than sense? Or at least spends more money than sensible on grown-up toys?

My wife and I each have REVOs and I have one of the REVO VXLs. I kind of want to convert the mini-Revo into a mini-Summit, from what I can see in the RC Car Action write up, they have almost all the same parts aside from the suspension bits, and (possibly) the gearing.

I was out of RC for a couple years while these LiPo batteries arrived on the scene. Now that they're here, I am probably going to get back into electric more. The brushless motors and other electronics can pretty much be waterproof these days, and combined with the super long runtime of the LiPo batteries it makes for a heck of a good backyard basher.

Well, my first disappointment of the year. My Revo VXL is lifted a wee bit with some wheels, and I've geared it differently to reflect its gigantic wheels (for its size).

But the new tires absolutely cannot get traction on snow. I am going to have to find some 1/10th scale paddle tires if I want to have much fun bombing around the backyard. Perhaps Monday afternoon, after I retrieve my car from the repair shop...hmmmm....

I used to. I hate to think how the 7.2V battery packs have lasted over the years. The guys at the racing event I used to watch were almost religious about cycling their cells correctly.

Well, I think I've decided on the bird I'm soon to start building, a Gaui 425. Half the cost is going to be getting a good LiPo charger and batteries. My awesome charger is now old-school and doesn't support LiPos.

IMAGE(http://cdn3.hobby-lobby.com/images_products/260710_large.jpg)

Scratched wrote:

I used to. I hate to think how the 7.2V battery packs have lasted over the years. The guys at the racing event I used to watch were almost religious about cycling their cells correctly.

Now the high end chargers remember each battery so you can chart its performance. If you really want to charge the LiPo batteries correctly you get balancing plugs that basically direct current to each individual cell to make sure it's topped off, instead of "old school" charging where the charger sees the battery as one big "cell" and stops when the peak voltage is high enough, even if some cells are short.

I will probably invest in a newer charger and LiPos (or maybe the LiFePo batteries) this summer. I love bashing my Revo but tuning the freaking thing makes me nuts sometimes, especially if the weather is drastically different since my last run. The VXL is much easier, and I can run it in my neighborhood (neighbors made it clear with some passive aggressive behavior that the nitro engine is not fun for them). From here on out unless I step all the way up to 1/5th scale gas (not likely at all with the cost) I think electric is my future in RC.

InspectorFowler wrote:

I think electric is my future in RC.

This is the conclusion my brother and I have come to. It's more outlay in the beginning but dealing with nitro just sucks.

A couple of years ago I bought a fuel powered car and it was not fun. Every time I wanted to use it the carb had to be adjusted. Sounded cool though.

I do like some of those smaller helos though.

i got one of these for xmas!
IMAGE(http://img.alibaba.com/photo/255863921/V-MAX-Metal-Frame-Gyro-3ch-Micro-RC-Mini-Helicopter-Blade-Blue.jpg)

before that i often could be found flying this in our high-ceiling living room
IMAGE(http://cdn-2-service.phanfare.com/images/external/5119593_2260236_34518980_Full_3/0_0_81959fac540ee7e0efb4226d3d1f7732_2)

I cant bring myself to spend the big bucks on the larger single-rotor machines. I toyed with the sims for a bit but my controller would not map properly to the sim's controls.

I have a few friends with the full-size electric copters and love to see them flu.
This guy got me hooked...Alan Szabo.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...

I saw one for sale this weekend (brand name Cobra I believe) that was a twin rotor model. What I would call a Chinook which I once rode on but that's another story...
It was about $130 Canadian and looked very cool.

the little metal body one above is amazingly stable. forward, backward and yaw. Flies very easily and is fun for just getting your bird out.

um.

the Lama is about 16 inches long. Not a full size copter but not a little toy liek the other one.

Lipo and brushless have made RC racing accessible.
No more lathing comms, cycling and peaking battery packs.
Now you have time to socialize in the pits between races.
I raced a couple of summers back. We had an SS buggy class at the track out back of the LHS. Everyone either races the Losi XXXCR or the Associated B4. It was a spec class event, so you had to have 13.5 brushless or 19t brushed and a 7.2v pack. The track has a transponder system from which they print all of your lap data and standings.
There were enough racers to have three pools or "Mains".
A couple of guys started an indoor facility. It was indoor dirt at first but has switched to an offroad carpet track.

Also later generation lipos are less dangerous. There were some good lipo fire videos on you tube.

My buggies are all sitting in the back room until my son gets a little older.

Funny. I had my 2 year old daughter at the park the other day and someone was there with a "real" R/C car. She spent an hour chasing it around the park, laughing hysterically. I recently dug my RC10 out of storage and figured I'd get it running again someday, but that someday has come a lot sooner than expected. We went to the local hobby shop yesterday (which has turned out to be the largest hobby shop in the country... not sure if I'm excited or worried about that) and I got a replacement for my broken quick-charger. With luck, none of the other electronics will be busted and soldering on some new connectors will be enough to get everything working. The car is an original RC10 (circa 1980 something) with a complete overhaul--the only original parts are the shock bodies. It looks somewhat like this:

IMAGE(http://www.apexspeed.com/doug/rc/vintage/rc10_cardinal/cardinal_rc10_030.jpg)

A bit much for play time with a 2 year old I suppose, but cleaning it up is far cheaper than buying a new car, and I don't intend to race it anymore anyway. It's become our first daddy-daughter project together, so a car that needs some work is more fun than a spiffy new one anyway.

I have one of those tiny plastic helicopters as well, but it fared poorly in playtime with my aforementioned daughter. It's been replaced by a Syma S107 Gyrocopter, which has yet to make its maiden voyage:

IMAGE(http://i1.lelong.com.my/UserImages/Items/0912/26/jiafei@4.jpg)

complexmath wrote:

I don't intend to race it anymore anyway

In a spec class it's the driver, not the car. You'll still be competitive. We had a guy come out with a gold pan RC10. Did just fine. Of course the shelf queen collectors were practically crying to see it in the dirt.

I suppose I should have said that I don't have plans to race cars at all any time soon. Too busy, and the nearest track is probably 45 minutes away. You're right about it being the driver though... I have a near perfect race record, but mostly because the other drivers all crashed or had their batteries dump in the races I ran as a kid. I never got to the point where the quality of the car I'd put on the track really mattered too much. It was actually a bit discouraging, having spent an incredible amount of time and money working on that darn car. I really wanted that work to make more of a difference.

From what you're saying, I almost wish I'd held onto my old gold pan chassis. There's nothing like some gnashing of teeth and rending of hair to liven up a race day

I received an Exceed RC Eagle 50 for Christmas last year. If you read any reviews on it, you'll most likely hear that it has some weak points, namely a plastic ball and link joint that will disintegrate with any vibration. Overall people give up on it for being a money pit, and walk away.

I've actually enjoyed repairing it, but the parts price is nearing the original price of the chopper already. I'm more of a Plane guy, so I probably won't upgrade to a better chopper, but I have enjoyed the Eagle 50.

Several years ago I picked up the Parkzone Piper Cub. It has Pitch and Yaw, but no roll, is very stable and I've found quite durable. It performed many strafing attack runs on the sheep at my folks place.

I enjoy RC, but probably will not ever dive headfirst into it, unless my future children show an interest.

Druidpeak wrote:

Several years ago I picked up the Parkzone Piper Cub. It has Pitch and Yaw, but no roll, is very stable and I've found quite durable. It performed many strafing attack runs on the sheep at my folks place.

That's the norm for small trainer class planes really. Just three channels and stabilizing dihedral with no aileron control to muck things up.

complexmath wrote:

... It was actually a bit discouraging, having spent an incredible amount of time and money working on that darn car. I really wanted that work to make more of a difference.

Setup makes all the difference. That work wasn't wasted.

I've been trying to get my 5 year old son interested in RC, but he seems to be more of an action figure guy than a car guy. I wanted to get him something simple and durable, but hobby grade. Maybe HPI's Wheely King.

I started painting and selling car bodies again last summer, which I haven't done for about ten years. After painting a few shells I remembered why I didn't keep it up. Not the most lucrative side-business.

Anyone here have experience with the Parrot ARdrones?

http://ardrone.parrot.com/parrot-ar-...

A few friends at work are considering getting one, but as none of us have any RC experience we were wondering if these are:

A)Worth the up front cost
Please note that we already have iPhones / iPads to control these with so that would not be part of the startup cost.

B) Sturdy enough for novice pilots?

C) Are there alternatives in that price range to consider?

Parrot seems to be going all out with them. im a member of the facebook group and it is always busy.

support seems to be really good.

I wanted one until they announced the price. I may still get one some day but not until i have a lot of disposable cash. so that may be never.

the concept is so very cool though. I've heard stability is rock solid. I've seem videos of peopel pushing it while in hover and it just sort of bobs.
the crash frame around it is very good at keeping it from smashing, at least side to side.

A coworker of mine has the Parrot here at work. It works pretty much as advertised, though the auto-hover can be a bit wonky in a room full of furniture, since its height detection is thrown off. It's incredibly stable in flight though, and the control app is pretty cool.

I have decided to leave nitro for electrics, for the forseeable future.

I am going to sell my Revo(s), etc.

But in the meantime, I went ahead and blew my fall OT. All the hours I spent sweating at football games dealing with drunken jerks are about to pay off in the form of his and hers Stampede 4X4 VXLs for me and my wife! Let the waterproof bashing begin!

Also - I spent some time making studded snow tires for my E-Revo VXL. They don't work great on powder, but since they're wood lathe screws sticking out of tires, they do great on ice. Now if it would only snow again...

InspectorFowler wrote:

Also - I spent some time making studded snow tires for my E-Revo VXL. They don't work great on powder, but since they're wood lathe screws sticking out of tires, they do great on ice. Now if it would only snow again...

Ha! I pulled my T-Maxx out today, but I'm sure my nitro must be shot and the T-Maxx needs some decent work so I think I'm going to write it off and get a Savage Flux. I was literally just now looking up what it would take to snow proof one.

Unfortunately a new truck is out of the budget right now as I just put a few bucks down on a helicopter that the LHS has on consignment. Going to pick it up and a new LiPo charger after payday. But since the charger investment will be done, maybe I can get a Flux next month.

The Stampedes got here yesterday. For bashing fun, it's hard to imagine anything better. Great combo of speed, jumping, and climbing over stuff.

The wife managed to destroy part of hers on the first run. She ran it into a brick corner of our house at high speed. SMASHO.

I had an electric HPI kit and a nitro HPI kit a few years back and just got one of those little helicopters for Christmas and my cousin got a 3 feet long electric plane. The helicopter came with a replacement plan which was good because the first day my other cousin sent it into a tall tree and we had to shoot it down with a pellet gun. The plane came with glue that had leaked all over, so we need to buy some more.

Question: Are there any affordable RC car kits anymore? I haven't really been able to find them and they all seem more expensive than RTR. The hobby store guys said that people just don't want to build them anymore. I have all the electric components in my dad's house and could probably find them at some point. I would just need a buggy chassis.

I almost pulled the trigger on an R/C helo from earlier in the thread on Amazon but it didn't come with the controller and I did not want to spend an extra $50.

PandaEskimo wrote:

Question: Are there any affordable RC car kits anymore? I haven't really been able to find them and they all seem more expensive than RTR. The hobby store guys said that people just don't want to build them anymore. I have all the electric components in my dad's house and could probably find them at some point. I would just need a buggy chassis.

I think it's also not just that people don't want to build them, but that the modern electronics tend to be pricey enough to make a kit seem like less of a bargain. By the time you throw in a 2.4 ghz radio, an esc, motor, and battery, the RTR cars end up being a good deal. If you're going brushless (if you haven't tried it, holy crap are they fast) it gets even more expensive.

Compare that to the cost of a RTR buggy from Traxxas or Losi, and it starts to make less sense.

Don't get me wrong, I used to be an HPI guy and I have been sad to see kits becoming scarce and also very expensive. But there is also something nice about throwing down $300 and getting a complete package that just needs a charge before it's ready to rock.

So if this is just representin'

I started with little electric planes maybe 15 years ago.

Migrated to Zagi electric wings. Loved them to death.

Got hooked on helis. Expensive, because of the occasional crash. Had a Raptor for a few years, got competent with it, enough to do loops, hammerheads, etc., and basic close maneuvers. Eventually, I moved away from the place I had enough space to fly it (nitro hellis need LOTS of room). Also made a lot of SPADs back when I had a giant field to fly them.

I live in the woods now, and have no EASY access to big spaces, so I have T-Maxx (which gets used not nearly enough) and a few micro-airplanes. Big fan of small indestructable backyard flyers now, I build one every year or two, generally a foamy with a 12-18 inch wingspan. The new electric stuff has cured me off nitro forever. I had a small electric Heli (not a counter-rotating one, a real one) and it was just a bit too finicky to maintain.

InspectorFowler wrote:
PandaEskimo wrote:

Question: Are there any affordable RC car kits anymore? I haven't really been able to find them and they all seem more expensive than RTR. The hobby store guys said that people just don't want to build them anymore. I have all the electric components in my dad's house and could probably find them at some point. I would just need a buggy chassis.

I think it's also not just that people don't want to build them, but that the modern electronics tend to be pricey enough to make a kit seem like less of a bargain. By the time you throw in a 2.4 ghz radio, an esc, motor, and battery, the RTR cars end up being a good deal. If you're going brushless (if you haven't tried it, holy crap are they fast) it gets even more expensive.

Compare that to the cost of a RTR buggy from Traxxas or Losi, and it starts to make less sense.

Don't get me wrong, I used to be an HPI guy and I have been sad to see kits becoming scarce and also very expensive. But there is also something nice about throwing down $300 and getting a complete package that just needs a charge before it's ready to rock.

I guess for me half the draw of the R/C cars was assembling them and then fixing them when parts broke due to going off SWEET JUMPS!!! Also, since I've got all the electronics already, it seems a little silly to buy an RTR. I'll have to find one out there somewhere. Can I just swap in a newer and better battery? Thanks.

PandaEskimo wrote:

I guess for me half the draw of the R/C cars was assembling them and then fixing them when parts broke due to going off SWEET JUMPS!!! Also, since I've got all the electronics already, it seems a little silly to buy an RTR. I'll have to find one out there somewhere. Can I just swap in a newer and better battery? Thanks.

What I would suggest doing in your case is maybe heading to the RCTech forums (or something similar) and seeing if somebody has a used "roller" you can buy. You can install your own stuff and be off and running for really cheap.

I would suggest seeing what the newer electrics have to offer, though. I am floored - I mean, jaw on the ground amazed - by what electrics can do these days. In answer to your question, you can sort of get a better battery - but the newer LiPos absolutely require a specialized charger or you will at best ruin them, and at worst start a massive fire while ruining them. The ESC needs a low voltage cutoff. If you run it too low, the battery will not ever charge again.

When a vehicle is correctly powered by LiPos, though, you should see what they can do. There is a video on YouTube of a street car with a stock ESC, motor, and batteries doing 119 mph. Obviously, that's not everybody's thing. Okay, how about a mini electric Revo (a Traxxas buggy/truck/thing) with so much torque it can literally do standing backflips? As in, floor the trigger and the wheelie is SO strong that the car does a backflip and lands again on its wheels (like I did with my Hot Wheels as a kid) Still not your thing? How about people claiming 40 minutes of run time on a single battery with powerful LiPos?

Basically, for me, nitro used to say, "Look at me! I can run forever and I have lots of power!" Nowadays it feels like electrics say the same thing, with no sticky car, carb tuning, shutting off after a collision/rollover, etc. The initial investment is high - over $100 for some LiPos, but when I realize that decent nitro fuel is $30 a gallon, that doesn't seem so bad to me. MaxAmps guarantees their batteries for 300 charges. If a $100 battery lasts for 300 charges at an average of, say, 25 minutes each charge, I'm getting my money's worth, IMO.

I definitely feel you on the whole "put it together thing", though. I had a buddy for years that would assemble kits with me. I remember in college and my early 20s we'd get together with new kits, and throw in some movies and basically stay up all night watching action flicks while we put together our new kits. He'd head home and charge his batteries and we'd get together the next day and run them. Don't worry, though, you can still spend your time fixing 'em. I don't know if it would even be fun to buy an R/C car or truck that never needed fixing.

Pages