PandaBear

[PandaBear]

Found a Picoo-Z at TRU in Adelaide whilst there over Easter… unfortunately
was DOA as the tail rotor motor refused to spin = unflyable.
(desperate bored! I still tried… hehe)

As was last one on shelf, drove like an hr south to the next TRU… and they
too had only 1 left on shelf… but hey, this thing flies!

Big-W sells ’em now eh? might have to give them a try.

my little yellow mozzie has cracked a main blade, now taped together.

[PandaBear]

whaddya mean – they’re still fun!
do a few donuts on the workbench whilst waiting for batts to charge. 🙂

little cells can be replaced with NiMH, they’re a industrial std size
so they won’t go out of production anytime soon.

am thinking also about all the LiPo bag batteries as used in other little toys
which would give more runtime & less weight… but LiPos are harder to get
as there’s few ‘common’ industrial sizes – they are made to order

[PandaBear]

@Aaron 225193 wrote:

Yup the big Five…

“I am Five”

gotcha, secret birthday project coming right up – gimme a week or 2

[PandaBear]

hmm… 5th Birthday eh…?

[PandaBear]

Internal resistance of AAAs probably higher than everything else in the circuit…?

[PandaBear]

What’s wrong with lead… tastes sweet!

Lead-free solder is such a pain too, sucks heat like anything and much
harder to work with… I’d better go stock up on the ‘old’ stuff
before the greenies get too carried away.

[PandaBear]

Another classic! great work

[PandaBear]

haha, that is just too cute!!

(looks like the OzPost resident elephant took a short seat on your parcel?)

[PandaBear]

Nice!

What’s with Steve Irvin standing atop the Hummer though,
he could be hurting himself doing dangerous stuff like that.

[PandaBear]

Where’s Central Vic… middle of Melbourne Central shopping centre? 🙂

[PandaBear]

You gunna go meetup at any of those RCD1 Monash gatherings, Leon?

[PandaBear]

Why not just rat poison?

(Aren’t they just big rats with antlers??!) :smiley2:

[PandaBear]

Haven’t seen anything done by enthusiasts.

Companies never publish circuits for ‘toys’.

[PandaBear]

betty.k wrote:

cheers panda, the countersunk purple chassis sounds good, just curious as to whether it has rolled edges? looks like it does. what about the stock one? rolled edges? i just worry that they may get in the way of the battery.
yes the nitros have a bit of a folded-up edge below the engine, you can see it in the Tower pix.

But nuttin’ a big vice + hammer can’t fix 😉 especially with the thinner stock plate. Gets warped regularly from running anyway, needs a bit of panel bashing occasionally.

as that bloke on rcu said the weak point is where the steering shafts screw in (see attached pic). i think i can make one stronger by eliminating the big cutout between the 2 holes.

Wouldn’t even bother making cutouts, just leave the thing whole – it don’t help cooling anyways. And give a bit more meat around the outer holes.

Can buy sheets of aircraft-grade aluminium quite easily, easy to cut with a nibbler or jigsaw. Maybe even the chequer-board stuff…

[PandaBear]

Leon’s got the right bit, HPI “A230” is the exact part number.

I just walked over to the shelf and picked up the RS4 Sport… yep same part!

Unfortunately I’ve also found this thread… which confirms HPI has run out of stocks and not making any more, but thread poster seems to have commissioned a run of aftermarket units.

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_4374163/anchors_4374163/mpage_1/key_/anchor/tm.htm#4374163

[PandaBear]

betty.k wrote:

that’s another option i’m considering, buying some other hpi chassis and modifying it.
do you think the nitro chassis’ are the same size as the rs4 electrics? :8ball:
If you’re talking about the 1st generation HPI RS4s, yes they are identical!

Both EP and GP RS4s from that era (which I think the Rally is based on)
use pretty much the same gearboxes front and rear, suspension identical.

Very surprisingly Tower still has the nitro chassis…
http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXM750&P=7
http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXM758&P=7

I searched last night but they don’t list any more RS4 Pro or Sport plates.

Aluminium definitely more forgiving for Rally use, better than FRP.

The silver stock one could be better for modifying as it uses panhead screws.
The purple option chassis (used on RS4 Racer) is thicker & countersunk
so would be more work to do screw holes.

I still have my RS4 Sport, Nitro RS4 & Nitro RS4 Racer here… np’s if you
want to take a lookie to check the differences – over xmas period maybe?

[PandaBear]

betty.k wrote:

i should have mentioned it sooner but if anyone can get me a chassis for a hpi rs4 rally/sport then please lemme know!!:D :8ball:
Should be similar to chassis for original RS4 Sport & RS4 Pro… but all discontinued now.

Wonder if you can take the HPI Sprint’s chassis and recut the holes to suit.
It looks wider and fatter than RS4’s design so should be enough fat there.
Not sure how much of the Sprint’s mechanicals are recycled from RS4
but the overall layout is pretty identical.

[PandaBear]

PCBs can be sandwich glued together with epoxy to double their thickness, usually plenty strong if you avoid the pre-drilled veroboard stuff.

CF is a bugger to cut & file. Your drills and files go blunt extremely quickly, even high speed steel and diamond files aren’t much tougher. Plus I also try to file/cut under water to avoid wearing big chunky repiratory masks.

[PandaBear]

10-15yrs ago we could get small panels of CF boards from the aviation service/repair industry, for which Vic was a pretty big player. But these days that industry has died, all gone offshore.

Your best bet for retail quantities is Fibrelyte in UK; they can supply sheets or if you’ve CAD’d a design they can cut it for you too. Either way its not cheap, but given the health hazards with CF dust – I’d prefer to pay with $$, not your lungs.

For other stuff, I’ve been doing my fabrication out of PCB fibreglass.

[PandaBear]

How are you gunna spot your 1/18th over 100m away??

We took my 2 Xrays out to the garden the other day, can barely see which way they’re pointing even only 30m away… (must be getting old hehe)

[PandaBear]

z-beam wrote:

also panda, the pics are slow due to your memory card. there is a noticable difference between sony sticks andthe sandisk ones. my neighbor shelled out for a sony high speed one, and yeah there is aa fair difference in pic load times. but i still cant fathom why all sony sticks arnt high speed… bastards!
hmm, worth investigating!

I’m using a Sony 1GB, standard issue not the hi-speed one.
Was trying to slideshow pix 1.5MB 6MP jpgs straight from the D70.

Next chance I find some hi-speed stix cheap might grab one to try.

[PandaBear]

ph2t wrote:

z-beam/panda/kero, you fellas interested on movies for the PSP? I’ve converted a fair few “backup copies” that I then watch on the way to work.
Tnx for the offer but Tried watching vids on PSP… once.
Forced meself to watch entire Tokyo Drift on it but heck,
the screen is waaaaaay too small. No wonder no one bought UMDs…

Dunno how Video iPods are supposedly so popular… or is it just because
you can get any other large-capacity iPod without video anymore.

PSP ain’t much good as a portable pic player too… takes like 2-3 secs
to load each pic, data transfer from the MStick ain’t all that fast.

[PandaBear]

pretty good!
could try mod the front grille to the billet look like on show Furds.

[PandaBear]

Cavo wrote:

Now to race and get some video…
love to see one put an onboard cam on that…!!

[PandaBear]

yay! I can now play Pong…!! 🙂

Had a v1.50 but never tried homebrewing with it;
got too tempted by GTA-LCS so had to go v2.00 subsequently.

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