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Surprisingly cells aren’t all that heavy, and a 6-pack of subCs (~300g) are only a little bit heavier than a 540 motor + ESC + RX + servo combined. Add in a cooling fan and its just about balanced.

The batteries are also very close to the central spine (centre of moment) so that helps agility. Having the batts longitudinally gets better agility than if they were mounted laterally sideways across the car.

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Silly question, but what are Power tyres? :blush:

Sounds like they’re rubber slicks for the MiniZ?

Just confirming… think “Powers” makes stuff for 1/18th Micro and also bigger stuff.

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Car battery chargers have lousy voltage regulation, they’re not designed to feed out clean regulated buffered 12V.

But if you hook it up to a decent car battery or gelcell, it works good too as a charging source.

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A bench PSU is real handy, lots of other reasons why you’d want 12V at your workbench.

Getting something with more juice is good.. ie if your draw is 6A, a 5A PSU won’t cut it.

nb: PSUs usually rated on some silly partial-cycle specification too. eg if it says 10A, its peak at 11A and really only meant to work at 10A for 50% of the time, 50% zero current.

Could be due to PSUs being built for CB Radio use. Radios draw more amps when the transmit button is down, less when just receiving/standby.

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Wall warts aren’t usually the best for reliability, and that one is only rated at 7A. Doubt if it’ll have many big capacitors to cater for spikes & surges that your charger may suck.

You can buy desktop PSUs from Dickos etc for about $100 upwards.

Or, if you’re pretty good at electronics and know what you’re doing… old PC “AT” PSUs will pump out 12V & 5V pretty cleanly too.

Newer “ATX” types are a bit more complicated.

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if any AUSMICRO REGULARS here wanna try out gMail, pm me your email add and I’ll see what I can do the next time gMail gets generous again.

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why the heck don’t they make it in kit form

b’cos then they’ll have to spend $$ to draw up a proper manual, and printing costs! 👿

All you get now is a blow-up schematic.
(that’s really all you’d need, I guess)

I think the PRO is good timing. Mini-T is out a year already, and it would be nice to buy a hopped up one for same price as the RTR (I’m hoping).

Have been checking out a Mini-T last 72 hrs, thoughts:-

-build quality isn’t bad, no factory faults found. Paint job is quite neat – and its real paint too, not printed.

-molding of plastic is looking a bit rough, the molds must be wearing out.

-the ballcups especially are crap. :angry: Titanium shafts will be wasted

-stock car already supposedly has BBs in the tranny, only needs 8x 840s for the wheels

Current Mini-T ended up on my workbench as the radio/RX+ESC is pretty crap – Glitching and very poor range. Spent all day today resoldering everything just in case it was a dryjoint… and found a broken SMT resistor (a beige block?).

Don’t make much difference between open circuit or shorted at that SMT component’s track.

Steering servo is non-standard stuff, the FETs to drive the servo are on the RX+ESC board. So when you chuck the RX+ESC, you need to buy a proper servo too.

Damned cute though.:blush:

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Best source for good motors… COLGATE power TOOTHBRUSHES… 🙂

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Sorry panda, I meant are the powertech AA’s (2000mAh) crap? I am running them in my (now almost undrivable) VMG, it absolutly flies, but those powertechs are getting MIGHTY hot, hotter than the motor, and significantly hotter than the FET’s. Is it an upgrade to Energizers, and is it worth doing?

sorry can’t help – I only ever bought Energizer 750s.

Hot batteries means their internal resistance is high.
IR differs between manufacturers & battery design.

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No the 2300 AAs are still Japan (Sanyo).

Over the past 60 days I’ve been going around collecting various 2100/2300 rebranded Sanyos. So far have got Fuji, Sony silver/orange, Sony blue/orange & Energizers.

Got some Made-in-Japan Panasonic 2100s too, but they don’t look Sanyo.

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Aerosol clothes…

oh hang on, we got that already! :p

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…It is not a substitute for Spray Paint or Deodorant.

hmm… yeah, also shouldn’t be used in lieu of:

-fire extinguisher 👿

-engine degreaser :p

-WD40 🙂

-brake cleaner :smiley16:

-hair spray 😀

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I swear there was sighting of 3 blue-sleeved Ausmicro t-shirts walking about Floriade 2003… :p

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Are there many brands/flavours available or is there only one main favourite (like ‘Coke’)?

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I’m building a true 1/4 scale monster truck. …It’s powered by a 50cc Honda scooter motor with variable transmission. Steered by a 12V linear actuator and has 16″ (40cm) of TRAVEL and 16″ (40cm) wheels! It weighs about 120lbs (55kg).

Wouldn’t that be just RC’ing a typical 4WD All-Terrain-cycle
(like the Honda/Kawasaki/Skidoo etc), what body?

When RC toys get that big… it sorta loses its purpose.

If its big enough for a guy to ride, imho you’ll have
more fun RIDING it rather than driving via RC.

ps: hope you’ve got reliable FAIL SAFEs. 👿

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The jap import “Ferio” had wierd one-armed headrests for the stock front seats.

As for engine… the ‘economy’ VTECs (SOHC) were as bad as the CVCCs of the 1970s, sorry. Not a match for the DOHC “Si” in that same body shape.

Enough room to stick an Integra’s 1.8 in though. 🙂

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Didn’t realise those soft tops cost $7000 man that’s pricey.

$12k on a BMW 3-series, and that’s for the fabric only. :p

Theres some upholsterers than can repair hoods if its not
totally wrecked. Usual damage is a slit behind the B-pillar,
so the idiots can reach in to open the door.

But the MX5 has deadlocks, huh? :smiley16:

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…and these disturbing images is what happens when f@cktards decide my $350 stereo is worth destroying a $7K softop for:

Me grew up with soft tops, Kitty.
Never been without one in the family garage.

(well baby me actually came home from the hospital IN a soft top incidently, but that’s another story)

Thing we learnt about soft top security when parking:
-don’t have stereo systems
-don’t bother locking the doors
(but most idiots don’t even try the handles, so…)
-unclip the front latch and leave it ajar a few inches

Ooh yeah, another big tip.

Next time you arrive home with the top damp… unclip it
and let it sit ajar before letting it dry out.

When you fasten it down again, the fabric have shrunk and
give a nice tighter fit. Less drumming & balloning at 100km/h
and its totally FREE. 🙂

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That guy is so lucky.

Define “lucky”. 👿

US has some wierd tax laws. Winning a prize/freebie like that
makes you liable for tax on your winnings… and Dave’s up for
something like $50,000. Big wad of cash to pay for something
that might not be of much use to you in the long run.

Just because someone’s spent “$120,000” on it don’t mean its
likely you’ll be able to sell it for anywhere that much.

btw David Jun is a TRF Tamiya factory driver.

He’s gotten a Tamiya RC kit named after him (TA03-PRO JUN Edition)
and he’s the main man behind the TLT-1 little monster truck.

Now THAT is lucky. :D:):D

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still gotta love that car:D

If ya get tired of it, could always hack it into an F50 lookalike…
http://www.j-body.org/forums/read.php?f=6&i=54674&t=54674
:shock::shock::shock::shock::shock:

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my heart skipped a beat when i read the topic, i thought wills had won an NSX….if so i’d be coming over for a ride (drive?) :clown:

Someone loaned me one once. 🙂

What can I say? … Its quick for sure, once you get that
VTEC into the sweet zone and keep it up there. On a backroad
overtook someone and it went from 125 to 180 by the time
it took to pass him.

Trouble is, engine is right behind your headrest and buzzy.
That can get real tiring for long stretches.

Exciting? hmmm… imho as exciting as a bigger faster Prelude. :p
Love the shape though, still can’t believe its 15 yrs old!

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I think a lot has to do with good 2-stroke oil mixed correctly into the fuel.

These little spark-ignition engines aren’t overly stressed and they can still continue to run with crazy huge tolerances. Similar engines run for months continuously in portable generators and all your lawn tools… 1000 hrs would be a snip.

Talking of which… oooooh, miss the smell of burnt castor.

But never remembered it to be so LOUD..!! 😯

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he means http://www.rcdrift.com/ :smiley2:

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… krytech by finish line, but there are others like this such as white lightning. the big deal with this stuff is it’s a parafin type wax suspended in a fluid. squirt it on and the fluid evaporates to leave a waxy coating. this stuff not only won’t attract dust and hair, but it actually sheds dust. and it won’t set hard causing parts to seize.

I buy it too, works great for nylon gears.

Krytech don’t “shed” as much as White Lightning original.

White Lightning original formula isn’t available in Oz anymore, the importer has stopped bringing it in. The “pro” formula is different, and not much good for our usage.

Ball diffs shouldn’t be waxed though; stick with ball diff grease.

Alternately for nylon gears, you can also buy a CRC green & black spraycan of teflon paint – seems to work ok too.

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The 23cc Zenoahs do last a long time, even on a race large-scale. Seldom hear of anyone blowing an engine or even needing to overhaul them… usually the rest of the car would be worn out before then.

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