Translator

Monday 4 November 2013

Electrics and other stuff…………….

So I had my chassis, after looking around, and now I needed the stuff to make it go, go go!!! This can at first seem pretty daunting, especially if you’re not up to speed with the latest technology or don’t possess an Electrical Engineering Degree, but it is in fact easier than finding the right car.

The same helpful pointers for choosing the right car can be used, with a couple of slight differences:

1st – When starting out, try to budget your electrics to match the cost of your chassis, if going all new.

This should get you a pretty good set-up of Speedo (the control unit), Motor and Lipo Battery too. There is no need to get the highest end racing gear, but at the same time you don’t want to get super budget equipment that you will need to replace within 6 months once you’ve got the hang of driving the car and everyone else is whizzing past you, leaving you frustrated and a little more out of pocket.

 

You can also apply the same amount again, as your limit, for getting a transmitter (the thing that you hold to control the car), a receiver, charger and tools etc. that you’ll need to get it built and running. Again there is no need to go crazy on price as most of the stuff is really good at the lower middle range of the market and it should last you for a few years with no problems, plus there are now some good combo deals out there for Speedos & Motors which are great when starting out.

2nd – DO use forums for information about what to get, but like choosing a car, don’t put up a general post asking what is best (for the same reasons as not doing this for what car to choose).

Instead use it to see what equipment has a lot of threads or posts stating what ones are having trouble, or are breaking, or are having un-diagnosable issues. Much like modern new cars (I used to be a car salesman) there aren’t really any awful ones anymore, just some that have niggles or glitches. Most of the time they will ultimately be repaired or resolved in later batches, but you don’t want to be caught with one of the early/problematic ones.

Ultimately, though, most of the mid-range Speedo/Motor/Battery combinations are ok and if used correctly will not be any bother for you.
 


 
This is all of course if you are not buying an RTR (Ready to Run) package and wanting to build your car from scratch. This way you will get the car, tyres, speedo, motor, transmitter and receiver all in one. I built mine all from the chassis up, installed the electrics, wired it all in and glued the tyres to the rims, but this isn’t the only or best way. RTRs are a great place to start if you have no prior experience in putting RC Cars (or models, real cars, IKEA furniture etc.) together. You will have a car that you can, in most cases, charge and run right out of the box as most will give you a battery and charger too and there are more and more competitive RTR deals available now from the top end racing manufacturers to cater for new starters and racers of all types. Just because you didn’t build your car from scratch doesn’t make you any less of an enthusiast or racer, it just means you either didn’t have the interest or experience to. They are all adjustable and able to be modified as you progress with hop-ups and options, so most of them are not limited in later use either.

Finally this is what I went for in terms of electronics and additional equipment:

DualSky 550TF-MJ Speedo
Speed Passion MMv3 8.5T Motor
Voltz 30C Stick Lipo
Spektrum Transmitter/Receiver Combo DX3C
Savox Servo SC1258
Core RC Charger
Schumacher Tools (with an RPM Camber tool though)
 
A little side note about my speedo choice.
I did originally go for the Speed Passion Reventon R (so keeping my motor and speedo the same manufacturer) but there were some issues with delivery from the shop I ordered it from. It was getting onto 3 weeks after ordering when I decided to try the Dualsky unit (which was my 2nd choice) instead as this would be delivered within a few days and I was eager to get on the track with the car. Also I had seen on oOple that a lot of people who had got the early delivery of Speed Passion Reventon R speedos had had trouble galore and needed to return them so I managed to dodge a bullet luckily as it turned out. The Dualsky unit has been bullet proof and never had an issue with it (other than user error) so have been very glad of the change and even switched my motor to Dualsky when I had some spare cash.

Thursday 26 September 2013

What's Everyone Running???

The choice of what to run within the buggy world really starts off whether you want to go with 4wd or 2wd, so first up I needed to look into this. The starting point I took, and I guess the best for most people, is to see what the local clubs to you are running. Simply because the bigger the number of people running that class, the more help and assistance you can get. Also, with a larger group of people running your class the wider the spread of abilities and the more people close to your level there will be. As someone just starting out, I don't think anyone will realistically be expecting to be at the front, but it is no fun running around the track with the few people racing you constantly lapping you, it is demoralising. So in my mind, more people, more practice, more banter, more fun!


So when I went to Dynamix and spoke to Paul, and the others, I found out that most people ran 2wd there so that was where most of the action was. But that was not all! Paul gave me some great bits of extra advice when it comes to choosing what to run which I have to say I'm now really glad I followed:
  1. 2wd is cheaper on spares etc as it has less mechanical parts that can break. This also means there is less to learn initially when it comes to building and maintaining your pride and joy.
  2. The driving style of a 2wd is trickier to master, but is a more traditional style of driving. You can drive a 4wd like a 2wd, but, not the other way round. If you learn to drive a 2wd well, then the 4wd will be a doddle to pick up if you want to go into it, but driving a 4wd first may lead you to learn driving habits not helpful if you try to go to 2wd.
With the information, and the extra pieces of advice form Paul, I decided that 2wd would be best for me to go with to start! On to which one now, as there are a few to choose from.............
There are in fact, many, many, many to choose from, with even more coming to the market since I bought my first buggy a year ago:
Associated B4.2, Losi 22, Schumacher SV2, Team Durango DEX210, Kyosho RB6, Yokomo BMAX2, Tamiya TRF201, LRP Twister, Maverick Strada, HoBao H2, Team C TM2 and there will soon be many more in the XRay XB2, Serpent SRX2, In-Tech...........

So it can seem very confusing what one to choose as each has its advantages, each has its downsides, each has its champions and each has it haters. With this in mind, I did what was probably the worst thing to do - I placed a post on oOple asking the forum world what they thought was best!
This opened up a discussion with everyone waiding in to give comments on why their current car is the greatest one they have ever driven, and hobby shop owners chipping in to say why their latest deal kit is the best for newbies! But, a couple of sane people gave me some real advice on what to base my choice on, which I will pass on to anyone reading this, below, as I think it is the best way to go:
  1. See what people are running at your local club of choice - more cars equals more spares for if you break something you didn't expect to and more advice on maintenance and set-up.
  2. If you can con/sweet-talk someone into letting you try theirs then you can get a feel - if you try two or three and one feels particularly comfortable (you will feel it when it happens, this isn't based on talent/experience) then that will probably be first choice.
  3. Set yourself a budget and check what you get in each kit from different online dealers or local hobby shops as your prefered car may be £350 but your second choice only £200 (if going new) and fits your budget better.
  4. If going second hand then you may have more flexibility, but it all depends on what is available at the time and how quick you want to get up and running, but look for deals that have spares included, these will massively help to keep initial and future costs down.
  5. Check out online and ask at the clubs about durability and parts/spares availability. If a particular manufacturer can only get parts sent from China once every three months then it may be tricky to always have what you need, so will need a bigger store of parts at all times which will cost more money.
  6. Even if you have little long term experience, don't ignore your gut feeling about a car. This is your hobby, your joy, your release from work etc. Much like your road car, house or gadgets there may be an emotional pull to one in particular because there is a "certain something" about it, either its looks, its name, the country it's made in. Whatever it is, if you can, follow it.
This was my chosen buggy:-

Team Durango DEX210 (my actual car after painting)

Now, I didn't follow all of these rules myself (number 2 is the one I missed, which is why I have since changed from my initial buggy, but more on that later), but I was buying new and followed the rest of them. This meant I had a very good piece of kit, within a good price, with a good support network at my local track, and all I needed from a very, very good first car. The rules above also apply for all the other kit you will need, if not buying a Ready-to-Run kit, so you should end up with everything you need to start.

This is where my attentions moved to next, the equipment you need to actually run the car.................

Sunday 11 August 2013

Where to go?????

From my last post, you can probably tell that I had pretty much decided on Off-Road rather than On-Road, but there was 1 final factor that could change everything....... Where were my local clubs????
If my local tracks were all On-Road, then this would ultimately be the deciding factor as a significant reason for trying RC Racing again was wanting a regular hobby nearby to where I lived.
I started off looking at the BRCA (British Radio Car Association) website http://www.brca.org/
They have a list of all the affiliated clubs that can be searched by area so I looked for the North East of England to see who ran what and where.


There were a couple of On-Road clubs, the main 3 being Teeside (which is a fair trek from me t o be doing each week), Barley Mow which is only across the river Tyne, but this is only indoor mainly for 1/12th scale and finally Tyne Met College which is also indoor in a college sports hall. Luckily there were also a couple of Off-Road clubs, Dynamix in Gateshead and NEAM-Seaham (linked to the right). I had a look on Google to see if there were others and I came across oOple http://www.oople.com/rc/ which is a forum website where pretty much ALL of the UK RC scene appear to go. On the forum I found the details for the 2 Off-Road clubs and decided to ping an email to the closest one at Gateshead - Dynamix.
Dynamix is run by a guy called Paul who was really helpful. He replied really quickly to my email and said that the best thing was to pop down and take a look one Sunday when they are running. So, 2 weeks later I jumped on the Metro (because I didn't have a car yet) to see what it was all about. Typical for me though, it was a Regional Event meeting that week, so no-one was there!


OK, not strictly true, as there was a guy running around testing his new car (which is how I knew it a Regionals weekend) but he was helpful enough to answer some questions and tell me to come back next week if I wanted to talk to Paul. The following week I headed down and Paul was kind enough to explain the basics, the types of cars, the progress in Off-Road over the last few years and how often his club run etc. The other racers there were really helpful too, letting me look over their cars, the equipment they use and what they prefer to run. Also, I got to see the cars in action, running round the track, over jumps (not always successfully) and watching them race. There were a few different types of car (I will get into those later) so I got to see a good mix of cars and came away with loads more information than I came with the most important thing - Confirmation that I wanted to run Off-Road Buggies!!! as there was a good local track nearby and the cars looked cool. This is something I have begun to find is common with newbies looking at the sport, the buggies just look cool as they jump over stuff, at high speed, on tracks that look much more challenging than a flat strip of tarmac.
The next choice was whether I was to run 2wd or 4wd and then, what buggy as I was to learn there are a few on the market.............

Monday 29 July 2013

Electric or Nitro, On-Road or Off-Road???



Now that I knew I wanted to get back into RC cars, and this time start racing them, I had to find out what type of racing I wanted to do:
Electric or Nitro?
Off-Road or On-Road?
1/8th or 1/10th or 1/12th scale?
2wd or 4wd?

There are plenty of types and variations of racing in RC and it did look a little too much to work through to start with. Each has its good points, and bad points, but it all depends on what you are looking to get out of it and what gets your inner child’s heart racing by looking cool!

I remembered there being a couple of magazines around when I was making RC cars as a kid, so popped down to WH Smiths to see what was still around. Luckily there were a couple, Radio Control Car Racer and Radio Race Car International, so I picked up a copy of each over a couple of months to read through. I found info on new equipment and racing reports, with Radio Control Car Racer particularly good for equipment information as they include what most of the top guys are running in their race reports. They also both included all types of RC Racing in the magazines, so I could get a view of what was going on in the ones I wanted to look at doing, and I could see how much had changed with RC cars since I had last built and run one. As it turned out, a lot had changed!


The first question, electric or nitro, was easy to answer. Neither my landlord or girlfriend would let me store petrol, or any other flammable liquid, in the block of flats I live in so it was electric for the power system. Also, I thought it would be easy to use plug-and-play electric motors and control units, rather than nitro engines which require running in, carburettors which require fine tuning and the noise makes it difficult to work on the car in the flat.

The second question was a little more tricky to answer. The first couple of cars I had were off-road buggies, but the last few were on-road touring car replicas, so I wasn’t too sure which way I would go. Initially I looked at on-road touring cars, looking at the entry level kits available, their cost, parts levels with hobby shops and reviews in the magazines and online. I also looked at what went into setting the cars up and the equipment needed to run and maintain the car. This is where it started to come apart for on-road for me. I looked at 1/10th touring and 1/12th “stock” cars mainly but kept finding myself put off a little by the complexity.


The 1/12th Stock car style RCs are simple to use, they looked quite nice as they are based on real cars externally and it was a growing scene so there appeared to be plenty of help. This appeared great, but then I realised that eventually I would want to make the next step up which would be into touring cars or pan cars. Both of these require very precise and exact setting-up. There is tyre balancing, tyre shaving, different tyre additives to choose and how to apply them, degrees of change of 0.1mms in setting-up, and many areas that are black-arts. Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with this if you are interested in all, but it was daunting to me in its possibilities and not the level I wanted to go into initially. It simply looked to me that to be competitive in Touring Cars I was going to have to spend serious money and spend forever trawling through websites to find out set-up information. There was also another issue to contend with, where was my local track?

Wednesday 24 July 2013

SO............. What to Choose???



While looking for my new hobby I thought about when I was growing up and how I had always enjoyed building things, first with Lego (which still holds a place in my heart as I can’t help getting drawn to it when out shopping!) then modelling kits (involving paint ending up everywhere to my mother’s annoyance), then to RC cars (which combined the ability to make something that worked, that could be modified and the ability to personalise).


I had had a couple of RC cars, my first was a Tamiya Grasshopper II, but they were all bought for me and I had limited input in (normally putting on wheels and stickers). I had got into them and enjoyed the thrill of driving them because my best mate’s dad built and bashed RC Cars (electric, nitro, monster trucks, buggies) as a hobby when I was really young and he allowed me and my mate to drive them in the park too (if we were good, otherwise we had to sit in the van and watch).



(Not mine but one found in Google Images)


The last RC car that I bought and built was a Tamiya TA03F Calibra Cliff Touring car. It was IMMENSE!!! I remember the joy of removing all the parts from their bags, reading through the instruction manual, matching the bits up then putting it all together. I painted it as per the box art (very simple as it was just black, everything else was stickers) with one small modification as I had gone to a craft shop and got some letters in a matching font so my name could be where the pro driver’s one was. I still remember the joy of running around outside in the street, weaving around a made up track and trying to avoid scratching the body on a curb after under-steering wide of an imaginary apex.



(Not mine, one still in good condition found in Google Images)


It looked like a real racing car, more specifically, the type I wanted to race when I was a little kid dreaming of being a racing driver myself. It was black, it was low, it had wide wheel arches, it was mean looking and it had that presence that all cool racing cars had (at least in my mind). It was my first, and last, RC Car that I had saved up for, bought, built, sprayed, stickered, personalised and promptly crashed all by myself.


This was it then, I had decided on my new hobby! I was going to start racing RC cars again! But now I had to find out what clubs/tracks there were local to me, whether they were on-road or off-road and which class I wanted to do once I had chosen……………………….

(Also, I had to work out how much it was going to cost and find a good time to break the news to my girlfriend)

Tuesday 23 July 2013

SO…… Where to start?




I guess the best place would be the reason for recently looking for a hobby.

A few months ago I began thinking that something was missing from my day to day life (not in a TV Soap dramatically over the top break down type of way), more specifically, that what I was missing was a hobby. So I started thinking about what type of hobby I might want. A possible return to a hobby I had done before? A hobby I knew a little about (or so I thought initially)? A hobby that would involve meeting groups of new people? A hobby that used skills not based on ones learnt at work? But, most importantly, a hobby I almost certainly knew I would enjoy.


I work in a rather generic call centre (nothing like the one on TV), a long way from where I grew up, so almost all my friends are work colleagues. Not all I work with currently, but still they were all met through our joint need for paying the bills. As nice as these friends are it is good to have a wider group of friends where your shared experiences, both good and bad, are not all related to a particular job, company or hell bent demonic boss.

 

Also, everyone needs a release. Something they can do where they are not thinking about work: worried about the latest staffing plans, running scheduling options through the back of your mind, thinking of business buzz words that will sound cool, professional and as if they warrant a pay rise in your yearly appraisal. Therefore I wanted a hobby that required concentration during participation and allowed me to get away from the rest of my world, so that my brain could switch off from work and home issues.

I already read and collect comics (I am happy to call them comics, not hung up on them being called Graphic Novels to sound cool) and try to get to the cinema often, mainly with my girlfriend, to catch movies. But neither of these is particularly social or likely to get me outside much mixing with new people.



Preferably I also wanted something with a slight competitive edge too, as we all like to think we are good at something, even if it is seen as unimportant by others. It is the sense of achievement, confidence and pride in being better, not necessarily better than someone else, but sometimes simply better than yourself before the last time you tried. Making steps forward in a new skill and finding out that you have learnt, progressed and now further forward on the learning curve than you were last month (something that is very much the opposite of office work where you can often feel you’re hitting a brick wall each day).


So I began scratching my brain for hobbies that might interest me………………………