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Toyworld also chucking them out @ $10, but that was last Easter. Dunno if anymore are left.

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Oh, and panda, what class9es0 do you race in???

Too darned hard to find time to race these days, and with winter chances are its raining… :dead: On the w/e managed to scrape a couple of spare hrs on Sat to visit the track with the latest red-n-blue-star’d acquisition, so that was good.

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the only difference between stock and mod is the motor… so id be racin both..

Whoa, 1 step at a time, matey… 😀

If its a well-run raceday, there’s usually very little
time in-between races… 2 mins max. If you run both
classes you will unlikely be able to swap motors in time.
(Crazy racers who do run both usually run 2 cars.)

Also, it is tradition that the race immediately after yours,
you are expected to “marshall”… ie stand around the track and
rescue crashed cars. Mod race usually comes straight after stock.

Mod is also seen as an “ultimate” class. Its not just motors
that change, but you’ll need the infrastructure to support that
ultra-hot $160 mod motor … eg $500 ESC, $200 battery packs
(used max only Once per day) charged on your $500 charger.
As batteries might take 70-90mins to charge, mod guys usually
have TWO of those chargers… and 1 pack of batts for each run.
Mod motors also need regular maintenance on a $600 motor lathe,
and chew thru brushes & springs regularly.

You can get away with lesser stuff in Stock & Novice… 😀

VIC have a “540” class as its quite amazing how fast these
silvercan motors can really run, when you gear them right.
Their laptimes aren’t much behind that of Stock.

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these are the classes at my local track…
Novice
Stock
Modified

Ah yes… was gonna ask “where”, but I’ll bet that’s
Northside @ Forestville Netball Courts, Forestville. :):)

They seem to run a “Novice” class what other smaller clubs
call “Race What ya Brung” class. Basically newcomers only,
who if they win too consistently would be encouraged to go
into one of the other regulated classes. :p

As for what VIC runs, try VORTEC electric rules

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I guess itd be out of the question if i wanted to use my miniz TX?….

Why? Nothing stopping you at all…

MiniZ TX is manufactured by one of the long-time RC factories
for Kyosho, its just a stock standard AM transmitter, nothing
too fancy. It has dualrate (“reduce your steering” dial) but
not ATV (adjusts the max throw on each channel). The Perfex is
no better or no worse than a ‘basic’ pistol TX out there today.

However… you’ll have to buy a RX and 2 servos (or 1 servo + ESC).
You can’t recycle your MiniZ’s other onboard stuff to 1/10.

This is where it gets interesting… when you discover that
the RX is worth A$50 and the servos are like $30 each!!

I’ll be a pal here and hint that… you can buy a whole new
basic 2ch stick radio set for about A$95-110 (TX, RX + 2 S). 🙂

Comparatively, a basic pistol 2ch set is anywhere $150-230.
You get exactly the same RX & 2 standard servos with that too.
So just buy the basic stick set, then use your Perfex TX!

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…what sort of motors they run…

All motors are “540” sized (physically). 😀

Generally speaking, there’s 3 levels:-

1) 540 “silvercan” motors (27-turn) are what you get in a RC kit. They’re sealed unopenable and you can’t access the brushes, springs or timing.

2) ROAR stock (27-turn, 24-deg timing)… these days they’re “Rebuildable” so you can legally take them apart to clean, but you can’t change the timing. Brushes & springs are open.

3) Modifieds = anything that’s not stock, everything’s open. These usually have ballbearings for the shaft, and can be machine-wound or handwound (better balanced, more expensive).

Some countries also have different versions of stock motors eg 23-turn, 19-turn etc etc… but we don’t run them here. They’re not really any faster if you know what you’re doing re gearing.

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also what models/parts seem to be readily availible in australia…i dont want to have to order stuff from the US all the time…

Check your LHS.

Popular TC makes in Oz are:-
Tamiya TA04, TB01, TB Evo 1/2/3, 414 etc
XRay T1, T1R
Losi XXXS
Associated TC3
Yokomo (certain places)
Schumacher Mission (might be a Melbourne thing)
Corally C4.1, Assasin
HPI Pro3 (dying popularity)

Not all shops carry everything up there, but its a good chance they all carry some Tamiya stuff. Tamiya support is always good nationally.

Melbourne is good for Schumacher stuff; I think Adelaide & Sydney have more Yokomo & Corally, maybe Xray too.

Kyosho KX1 is pretty fancy but not sold/supported in Oz.

HPI makes a decent car, but the backup support outside of US/Japan has been very disappointing. There are many guys burnt by it all, so they’ll find it hard to push their Pro4 if/when it comes out.

But the car is not all. You’ll also need…
-batteries!
-ESC!
-radiogear!
-charger!
-body/paint
-tools

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Hmm… VR4 likes Tamiya now? 😯

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i know the ta04 is inferior to the 414m2 but thats what im considering atm, that or either a tc3…

TA04 is 95% of the 414s… you’ll be lying if you seriously swear you can miss that extra 5%. :smiley2: Think of it as the “consumer” version of the 414, and you get the idea. It lacks absolutely nothing in speed.

TA04 is a bit more user-friendly, and easier to get parts for. Besides, my usual sources tell me the 414 seems to have been discontinued – they haven’t received any new stocks of anything since last xmas. Hard to buy one new now, and I don’t know of too many Ozzie shops who even had them on the shelf. Also, the TRF (Tamiya Racing Factory team) guys who used to run 414s have this year moved on to the EvoIII.

TA04 comes in several different levels too… from TA04S to TA04PRO, TA04R then now there’s the limited edition TA04TRF with the fancy SSG chassis set and all the fruit.

Check your local club (talking of which, WHICH is it??).

Local racing classes are usually
-540 (usually limited to Tamiya tub cars running silver 540 only, gearing and options are very limited by the rules)
-PRO 540 (any chassis, any gearing, running silver 540 only)
-STOCK (using ROAR stock motors only)
-MODIFIED (ahh, pretty much anything goes = big bux)
-MINI (Tamiya FWD Mini Coopers only, with SportTuned motor)

If this is your first go racing, best head for the 540 class first. You may need a tub TA04, which limits you to the TA04S and TA04R. Usually anything with a plate chassis (04PRO, 04TRF) is stuck into PRO 540 and the competition is much hotter there.

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I’m amazed at how many people are running Chrysler shells (Stratus and 300M) these days. OK they are pretty slippy but they’re not even sold here…

There’s not much choice out there. To be “touring car” its gotta be a 4-door sedan, so that leaves out all the sportcars. And of the current crop, ppl prefer the handling of the Stratus (Mk I & II), the 300M and the Alfa – something to do with having good downforce in certain area/s etc etc.

Personally of that lot I’d only go for the Alfa… have been running a Civic coupe, a BMW E36, Audi A4 and now a 4-dr Accord. But someone just gave me some Strati and a 300M so maybe I’ll give them a bash to see what’s the hype all about.

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did you go or did you pull those picks off the internet?

ahh, I would have loved to have gone to watch (I’m in Melbourne, it was held in Sydney 1000kms away). But we didn’t know he was coming until less than a week before the race… by that stage the planes were all booked out and there were no cheap tix left to be found, not to mention hotel bookings. :dead:

Worst of all… I didn’t own anything worthy of getting his autograph on. This guy has 2 Tamiya cars named after him now, and I don’t have either… :sad::sad:

btw: this guy won the World Champs with a TAMIYA car. So to any fan of Tamiya still breathing, this fella is bigger than GOD to us. 🙂

Many Melbournians did go up but; some went up to race and some others arranged to go up at the last minute just because this fella was going to be there.

He did not disappoint. He won the mod electric class & the gas classes; came 3rd in the Mini class (with a fresh car built for him by the Melbourne guys!!) so yeah, there’s 2 guys out there who can truthfully say their Minis went faster than the God’s.

Everyone who saw him drive could only comment how smooth his lines were… that is the main secret – cut neat lines that keep one’s corner speeds up.

SC’s car:

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Common RC scales…

“ISTC” = 1/10th scale touring cars, either 190mm wide for electric or 200mm for gas (nitro). These have 4-wheel independent suspension, commonly known as parking-lot racers.

“Mini 1/10th”, 160mm wide. Popularised by Tamiya’s Rover Mini Cooper (FWD), some other manufacturers eg HPI, Colt, Yokomo have built Mini-sized chassis too; some are 4WD.

There’s also the “1/10 ProTen” which are 235mm, but these aren’t as popular anymore. They’re wider and don’t look as scale; they’re like smaller 1/8th cars.

1/12th electric running Lola/CanAm shells have been around forever (pan chassis, flex suspension only). Currently regaining popularity racing with 4-cells and modified motors as they’re fast & low maintenance.

1/8th onroad gas also run Lola/CanAm shells, the ultimate in RC racing. Engines with 3hp+ in a 2kg package will out-accelerate anything you can think of.

1/8th offroad gas buggy.

1/10th offroad buggy, electric.

1/10th offroad Stadium Truck, both gas & electric.

1/10th Rail Dragster . 😯

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Got one of those things earlier in the year… haven’t put it on any RC cars yet – no time. 🙂

However the thing has (recently) survived travelling down the highway at > 100km/h gaffer-taped to the glass on the outside…

Resolution & sensitivity is pretty impressive for a tiny thing; an adjustable zoom lens would be even better. My main problem is current draw though… the camera sucks 150mA, the receiver 220mA – and it gets pretty expensive on 9V batteries.

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so if i use the Enamel paint it, it will bubble?

There’s another earlier thread on this… :smiley16:

Enamel paints can only be applied over other enamels. If you paint enamel over acrylic, the acrylic below will wrinkle/bubble.

(But you can apply acrylic over other acrylic or enamels.)

If you’re painting over an existing painted shell, I suspect the factory paint is acrylic. You’ll have to strip it back to bare, or start with one of the unpainted spare shells.

As for dust… gotta paint & let-dry in a dust-free environment. :smiley2:
The pros have ventilated filtered paintbooths with waterbath floors…

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Don’t touch that reflector… its needed exactly where it is, as its part of the “switch”. Cut or remove it, and you’ll find your Maglite can’t turn off afterwards… (don’t ask how I know :blush: ).

Me… I bought an OSRAM (great Euro brand!!) blue-white LED aluminium-bodied torch. Runs off 2x AAAs, tiny 4″ long with pushbutton switch and works great.

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From all accounts I’ve heard, you need to remove the original FETs unless you can be sure you’re using exactly the same FETs (they’re NOT the 7389 or whatever that specsheet was for).

So if you’re buying new FETs to stack, remove the existing ones.

I guess if you’re recycling old removed-from-mZ FETs, then sure you might be able to stack those too.

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btw, meet “SSG” (Silver Surface Graphite)…!! 😀

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any body know about cf molding? i am getting sheets in varying thicknesses, is it lighter than alu? i know it’s damn hard but when heated can be bent to shape.

CF is not “molded”, it needs to be manufactured into the complex shape you want, or just into plain flat sheets.

To make it, you need a mold which is laid with the fibre. Then you inject (“impregnate”) the fibre with liquid dope under high pressure and high temperature. Its a lot like fibre-glassing, except you need an oven big enough to fit your mold into – check out the size of a Formula One workshop’s oven!!

Once cured into the shape of the mold, there is nothing else you can do to shape it. You can cut it, sand it, saw it etc, but you can’t thereafter reshape it with heat or pressure.

Contrary to popular myth, CF is not “strong” per se. Its structurally very stiff in certain dimensions, but it is also brittle and can crack/break if you stress it wrongly.

And most mythical of all… CF does *not* have a visible fancy weave pattern! The real graphite threads are BLACK! The fancy pattern you see on the top is merely printed on a plastic laminate, to give you what you’re expecting. 🙂

Be careful too… remember its carbon fibres.
1) when cutting/sanding, you must have RESPIRATORY PROTECTION.
People who don’t will die a long painful death like Smokers!
2) CF conducts electricity… fibreglass doesn’t.

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Might be better if banners open a new window…?

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LOL My current car is a weak piece of sh1t, i was going moderately fast and hit a wire fence, the front of the car is all crunched in and the susp wishbones are hanging off.

NOW you understand why we just go restore these old things
and then just plonk them for display on the shelf… 😀
(that slightly-used chassis tub came off brother’s restoration victim)

At least GH2 uses SuperHornet tub, so that’s still available.
(if you want I can go buy you a new one from the local store)
Or better still, just go buy a whole new SH kit… $140?
No such luck for the older cousins.

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D’oh!

Forgot to followup last week.
Would 1 more order make any difference? blackeye:

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Unfortunately Associated stuff is NOT cheap in Australia. Nice cars, great for the racetrack, but think a new B4 will probably set you back A$600+ for kit alone.

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Yeah i was looking at a TL01 on-road chassis a while ago, was very interested, but gave it a miss. I have decided i want a vehicle i can drive anywhere.

Oh you can drive them anywhere. The *only* place I haven’t seen a TL01 run is… at the track. 🙂

Certainly there are heaps that turn up, but honestly I haven’t seen one run… but hey, lots I’ve helped fix everywhere and I was probably too busy doing other stuff to watch them circulate. Chassis or other parts breakage is very rare on these tanks, they’re heavy but plenty solid.

And if you’re waiting for star-appeal… let’s just say GLENN RIDGE’s own son (looks like the kid from Jerry McGuire) has a TL01.

Plus Circus-Oz has one too… built as a ‘cyber dog’. Hey, if a Clown can build & drive the thing… :smiley2::smiley2::smiley2:

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HA!!!! I have a Kyosho laser ZX Sport sitting about 10 metres away from me right this second. It is my brothers, and he has no interest in completing it. It is an old thing, but in A1 condition. I might give him an offer, what are they worth today?? I think dad payed some ridiculus amount for it many years ago.

If you’re anything like *my* kid brother, you’d have long ago just walked over, grabbed it and just declared “Its Mine”. :dead:

Talking of ridiculous amts for Kyoshos, just did just that on an old Lazer Alpha kit few weeks ago. I had change from a green-bill, but I think you must be referring to ridiculous at the other end of the scale? :p

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…I am looking for an ELECTRIC buggy for general purpose use (ie club racing (just for fun)) that i can race on the road and take off road, it has to be EXTREMELY durable, reasonably priced, I would prefer 4wd but will settle with 2wd (or a car that can be converted) it also needs good tech support and good parts availability.

The only one by far for decent parts availability is Tamiya.

Their only buggy in Oz at the moment is the Baja Champ & Baja King, both are based on TL01B chassis. Shaftdrive 4WD, pretty darned tough chassis (built like a tank) and is first cousins to the TL01 touring car – can be converted narrower although probably not worth buying the parts separately to do it. The Bajas can be found for under A$200 (kit only) if you’re lucky. (RCCA magazine Review of Baja King)

Tamiya has recently previewed a new 2-belt-drive offroader (their 1st for about 10+ yrs, if one ignores the TL01B), but not many details are known yet.

Kyosho Zaboon came out recently probably worth a look too, think they’re around the A$250-300 mark. Kyosho parts supply is OK, but isn’t usually too cheap. Can also probably find some remaining Oz stock of the previous Kyosho Lazer Alpha/Sport/etcetc kits for a song but parts supply will be in decline… simplest to just buy a 2nd kit for spares if you find these older models.

On the tracks, you’ll find high-end 4WDs like the Losi XX4 and Schumacher CAT3000.

There’s not many 2WD buggies about these days. On the tracks you’ll find the Associated RC10B3 and now the B4 just out is big news, but these are serious racing buggies; T3 is the “truck” version ditto the Losi XXX & XXX-T. At the bottom end the Traxxas & Duratrax brandnames are getting popular (but dunno where parts are sold) but I think Kyosho’s base Ultima RB/RT are a better bet.

…And how about a touring-car-sized Rally Car?? :smiley16:

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Excerp from an article in The Age, full article is Here.

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Peter Dixon, senior technical specialist, Toshiba Australia, says the main aim with notebook battery manufacturing has been to improve the power-to-weight ratio, providing higher capacity at lower weights – which is essential for the mobile computing user.

Li-ion batteries weigh half as much as NiCads, but cost two to three times more, not least because they contain a circuit board to prevent overcharging. “They’re very volatile,” explains Bungate. “If they overheat and explode, they burn like magnesium – you can’t put them out.”

The latest battery technology, lithium polymer, has further reduced weight.

Toshiba’s latest Portege notebooks are the first to include this type of battery. While providing the same performance as Li-ion, lithium polymer batteries are only about the thickness of a credit card, and there’s more flexibility in the shape they can take. According to Toshiba, the whole casing of a laptop can theoretically now be a battery.

Despite these advances, the operating duration of a notebook battery appears to have changed remarkably little. New Li-ion ultra-high capacity batteries can bump this up to six to eight hours, but these are extra external batteries about the size of the notebook itself.

Breaking this barrier appears to depend on the fuel cell, a technology that has helped power NASA space missions since the 1960s and could offer an incredible energy density of 1000 watts/kg. Early developments focused on clean-energy applications, such as electric engines for cars, as the only byproduct of fuel-cell power is water. But attention is now turning to electronics too.

Basically, fuel cells use hydrogen to create electricity using a PEM (polymer electrolyte membrane), typically a sheet of platinum. This acts as the catalyst for a chemical reaction that separates electrons, the source of electricity, from hydrogen – which is now positively charged and combines with negatively charged oxygen atoms to form water.

The main problem for portable electronics has been size. A very large surface area or tank has been required to create sufficient reactions.

At least two approaches based on nanotechnology are providing answers. Neah Power Systems in the US is using a porous silicon PEM, allowing the reactions to occur in a denser, smaller area. NEC, on the other hand, is using carbon nanohorns (variations of carbon atoms) dusted with platinum particles.

Claims for how long a single fuel cell cartridge will last range up to days and weeks. But Toshiba claims its current prototype fuel cell, which powered a notebook at this year’s CeBit technology fair in Hanover, operates for about five hours with 50cc of methanol (the fuel most developers use to provide the hydrogen).

There are still many obstacles to overcome before we start running notebooks all day on a couple of AA-sized fuel cells. Methanol is a flammable fluid and, unless made safe enough, it is unlikely fuel cells will be allowed in places like aircraft cabins, especially in today’s security-conscious travelling climate.

Nevertheless, manufacturers are racing to commercialise fuel cells, and both NEC and Toshiba expect theirs will be in devices some time next year. Significantly, Intel invested in Neah earlier this year.

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The NiMHs in BCGs dont fully discharge. The car stops working at about 0.7 or 0.8 volts and this stays in the cell untill you recharge it. It IS quite flat but not completely, so it lives to be charged and run again.:)uA

NiMH cells hit the RC scene about 3-4 yrs ago, when capacities jumped from 1700/2000 up to 3000. (Today they’re up to 2400 nicads and 3300 NiMh.)

However what we’ve found is that 0.7V is still “flat” for a cell, and after storing NiMH cells like that they just don’t perform as good at the next few charges.

They’re best stored half charged; then before next run, they’re “equalised” down to 0.7-0.8V per cell before being charged up normally.

Nicads are equalised then stored, then simply bung’d on the charger in time for next race.

(Equaliser consists of a IN4004 diode and a R47 resistor in series with each cell. Resistor stops working when the diode drops out.)

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