Be Excellent To Each Other

Yes but I also need one of these:

http://www.fpvmanuals.com/2012/05/01/qav500/

I strongly expect myself to be buying another car with any birthday money I get next month. There's a nice looking Tamiya 2wd CRX that weighs in at £99.

The way I see it is I'm going to be spunking money on models/miniatures/geekytrinkets so I'd much rather build things that shift rather than sit on a shelf.

You should get a plane.

Maybe one day. I'm staying earth based for now though.

Managed to find a place that has a Aluminium/graphite front shock tower. I'll try and keep Mark off my buggy in one piece before it turns up.

STAY ON TARGET...STAY ON TARGET...FUCK THAT

http://youtu.be/xLcK8l9SXRI?t=3m49s

Got this thing flying pretty nice now. Open source flight controller is really nice, loads of tunability.

God fuckin' damnit.

I finally get some time to try and fix my Phantom, replacing the motor and clearing all of the dirt and gravel out of it, but I fall at the first hurdle.

I can't get the body shell off, because four out of the 28 hex screws have somehow been rounded out so my hex keys won't turn them.

What are my options here? They're recessed, so I can't grab 'em with pliers, I can't use a dremel to cut a screw head into them - I'm apparently boned.

What size hex bit are you using? I've come across a few that were actually imperial sized heads on 3mm bolts, it'll feel like they're rounded off.

Failing that you'd need to drill them out.

2mm, but I've tried the nearest equivalent imperial bit too, to no success.

2.5mm is too big to fit in, although it's tempting to thwack the screwdriver with a hammer to see if I can force it to accept the bigger size.

more or less, try hammering a slightly larger torx (star) bit.

Before drilling try a little superglue on the bit/screw. Might just give you enough purchase.

Will have to try superglue tomorrow, cheers for the suggestion. Have been told to try a rubber band as well, but I don't have any to hand.

On the plus side, the motor that seemed to be fucked seems to behave like the others when turned manually now that I've got it out of the shell and shaken the grit etc. out of it.

Yes, try a rubber band. And hex keys softer than the bolts.

I couldn't get the screws out, not even by drilling - they just won't shift.

But, as it happens, for what I needed to do I didn't need to take the motor screws out, so it's no biggie (although Lord help me if I do ever need to get out the one screw I tried to drill

I've cleaned all of the grit out of the insides, replaced one of the propellers (the one that had the biggest impact, and was bent out of shape) and put it all back together. Now that I know what the correct pre-flight procedure is, I can run through that - I've calibrated the compass module (amazed that still works) and the GPS seems to work fine - it holds it's position reasonably well and is much, much easier to fly.

Will continue with a few more "training" flights before I start to get more adventurous, but I'm just pleased that it lives again!

Excellent stuff.

Mark, do you know of any video cameras that are able to record to SD or whatever, but that are small enough that a Hubsan X4 could fly with it attached? Only indoors, of course

Yeah look for an 808 keychain camera, this sort of thing:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Mini-DVR-808- ... 2574daf79d

You'll need to take the case off to shed some weight and won't fly as well or for as long.

I think I might have figured out why my desert buggy has been mashing up the output shafts from the differential and why the diff itself now sounds like a bag of spanners. It has a slipper clutch that you are meant to adjust so that when you go to full throttle from a standstill it slips for a while to protect the drivetrain.

Luckily I have a new diff which I can pop in there ready for this weekend's racing.

Weather is looking good for tomorrow.

I'll see if any of the other wacky racers are available.

Awesome session. No breakages.

Hubsan Quadrocopters £25 delivered: http://www.banggood.com/Wholesale-H107- ... rrency=GBP

Very tempting, but I want to spunk more on cars at the moment.

Yeah fantastic racing yesterday mate. Need to edit the copter-cam footage and I'll get it posted.

Yeah really good fun, weather was cracking. look forward to seeing the chase cam vid

Been fettling with mine some more. Realised the adjustable camber type bar that had bent doesn't come with my other DT-02 buggy. It's got much more substantial upper arms which will probably suit me better, so they're swapped over. It's the same for the rear wheels too so I might try those on. I've adjusted the ride height as much as I can too without getting the dremel out so ill see if it handles better next time. Oh and I found another set of wheels where the rears are a bit taller and the fronts a little wider than what's on.

Ordered an iPhone tripod adapter (1.75 delivered ) and a 2s/3s no frills balancer/charger for £6 from good old Hong Kong.

Better in 720 and bigger.

Nicely edited, and well flew! Held my breath when you dipped quickly even though I knew you didn't ditch it.

Nice touch playing the piano too.

Looks like a great place to meet women!

Seriously though.. It looks like a hell of a lot of fun.

It is a hell of a lot of fun. It's like a computer game but with monetary consequences.

Need rockets on the quad and a harpoon for the buggy.

Incoming!

This is what started me off last Christmas my lovely bog standard Sand Viper:
 

Tamiya Sand Viper by MrZardoz, on Flickr
 
Four months of bashing, repairs and upgrades led to it looking like this:
 

Untitled by MrZardoz, on Flickr
 
Body mount holes are reinforced with an insulation tape stripe There's a 9t brushless motor and ESC in there and some Carson all terrain wheels (wearing very well too but need more grip on loose dirt).
 
I got a bargain Super Fighter Kit thanks to modelzone that I've been using for spares and I thought I'd use the new shell too as mines tatty, so I decided on a Mad Max look for the paint job and I thought I'd take pics along the way.
 
It was purple (should have took a pic) but here it is primed with acrylic (It's a hard shell, dont use on anything flexible!)


IMG_0413 by MrZardoz, on Flickr
 
The driver wasn't left out either, painted with citadel paints.
 

IMG_0415 by MrZardoz, on Flickr
 
then washed with acrylic inks.


IMG_0416 by MrZardoz, on Flickr
 
Gun metal for the areas down the centre.


Untitled by MrZardoz, on Flickr
 
Silver down the sides.


Untitled by MrZardoz, on Flickr
 
Washed with inks to dirty it up.


Untitled by MrZardoz, on Flickr
 
Found this plastic card to fill the gap under the driver.


Untitled by MrZardoz, on Flickr
 
Drybrushed the original colours over the ink.


Untitled by MrZardoz, on Flickr
 
Found some chequerplate sheeting and cut it to size and shape.


Untitled by MrZardoz, on Flickr
 
Added a few decals and primed/painted the 'plate'


Untitled by MrZardoz, on Flickr
 
Stuck it down and drybrushed with silver. So here it is for now, sure I'll keep tinkering


Untitled by MrZardoz, on Flickr
 

Untitled by MrZardoz, on Flickr


Untitled by MrZardoz, on Flickr
 

Untitled by MrZardoz, on Flickr

Very nice mate, bet you can't wait to smash it to pieces

Yep.

Wonderful work, buddy!

Thanks very much.

Mark, did you manage to fix that front arm last night?

Not looked at it yet. I will do though, I'll just glue and screw some fibreglass plates to it if needs be.

Shame we didn't get any race footage from tonight much closer matched now.

No (more) breakages! Fucking awesome.

Dude, that's fucking sweet!

Excellent work.

Thanks man.

Bring your buggy up to Fleetwood!

I'd have to fix it first.

In other news, I'd like to buy my buddy a RC car for his birthday - what are the best cheap options?

How much, roughly?

£50? £60?

You won't get much of a "normal" sized one for that, since I'm assuming that it needs to include everything, transmitter and whatnot.

These Losi micros are excellent, though:

http://www.modelsport.co.uk/index.php?s ... tAod7SIAwA

Perfect! Thanks, man.

It's just reminded me to dig mine out. I really should try it with a LiPo.

Thanks Grim... Although its spoiled the surprise now.

Deans to bullet adapter turned up today and I think my 2s LiPos are at the post office to pick up too. Interesting to see what they'll be like in my buggy. Hoping it will be just enough welly in them to 'floor' the trigger and keep it from flipping out.

Have you got a charger for them yet?

Oh shit yeah, that's still on its way.

Well I've got my 3seseses charged and ready anyway.

Some good racing again last night. Unfortunately my little Beetle is more wounded than I'd thought after its run in with a giant supersonic wrecking machine. Anyway, more parts are on the way from the communists, some aluminium shock absorbers in the hope that they'll work a bit better than the ones that were in, pretty sure that all the oil fell out of those long ago.

The little Losi car turned up yesterday so obviously I drove it around the office for a bit. It's ace! I'm amazed by the amount of power they managed to pack into the tiny little thing - I drove it around for at least ten minutes and the battery was still fine.

It handles jumps well, too

I hate hate hate the American-style "steering wheel" transmitter, but it's better than I'd expect for the price - at least you can set centres and trim.

Cheers again for the suggestion!