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Author Topic: Got back in the RC hobby after 19 years.  (Read 10302 times)

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chopperthedog

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Got back in the RC hobby after 19 years.
« on: May 11, 2019, 09:31:02 pm »
In the late 80's to late 90's I was huge into RC cars, raced at local tracks weekly and other events. Life got in the way, plus it was getting expensive keeping up with other racers at the tracks to be competitive. Always kept my cars and boxes and boxes of old rc crap.




Mid winter I was looking at the neglected interior of the train layout and thought what a waste of dirt, this needs to be an RC track. There were 5 tree stumps, scattering of mulch, other tree dbris and some walking stones dug in.




5 pain in the arse tree stumps removed also removed stones and cleaned up debris.




Spent a week or so cleaning and working the low areas in the soil while the dog thinks I'm a complete nerd.




Pic of the manicured track from a ladder.




I did not want to deal with any of my old AM radios, nicad batteries and brushed motors at all. Place an order for 2 2.4ghz radio systems, 4 lipo batts, sweet charger with a brain, 2 castle brushless motor/esc setups and a couple other random bits.






New electronics installed in old RC10b3. This was my last competitive race vehicle, was pretty hip bitd.








The Yokomo MR4 4wd rally, outfitted with new electronics, this was a pleasure vehicle bitd, I had it set up with stiff (giggity) springs, low ride height with road tires. I would drive in parking garages, launch off the down ramps and try to land into a sideways power slide and continue on. Shocks filled with lighter oil/springs, higher ride and some rally tires.




Fun little clip, it's pretty bada$$ to see the suspension working like that. It's like sega rally in real life man... but smaller.




This was the crap you needed to deal with nicad batteries back in 1994.




And 2019.

Been a blast driving these old cars again.



good day.

pbj

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Re: Got back in the RC hobby after 19 years.
« Reply #1 on: May 11, 2019, 10:34:37 pm »
Badass.  Are you planning on hosting competitions?

05SRT4

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Re: Got back in the RC hobby after 19 years.
« Reply #2 on: May 13, 2019, 11:11:29 am »
Welcome back and nice buggy!

Castle products are no joke, I bet that thing rips now

chopperthedog

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Re: Got back in the RC hobby after 19 years.
« Reply #3 on: May 13, 2019, 09:37:00 pm »
Badass.  Are you planning on hosting competitions?
Too small for full on sh!t for sure, but some beer drinkin afternoons or evenings with others could be fun. Got 2 coworkers and another friend that I never knew had cars. Couple of them just ordered new batteries. I might end up down the worm hole of a computer scoring system.  :applaud: Had a buddy stop by yesterday and we drove for a couple hours, was fun as hell, had some anthrax cranked on the outdoor system and it felt like 1990 again.

Welcome back and nice buggy!

Castle products are no joke, I bet that thing rips now
Got small pinions, 2S and throttle set at 75% for the track size I have, but yeah I can see the power potential to this new stuff. Plus I don't have to clean a friggin commutator every 3 runs or break in brushes with a slave motor for 45min.



Vintage garbage.


good day.

opt2not

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Re: Got back in the RC hobby after 19 years.
« Reply #4 on: May 14, 2019, 02:23:06 pm »
Looks like fun!  I never got into RC before, thank goodness because that's a rabbit hole I can fall into pretty fiercely. I'll just live vicariously. ;)

So I take it you're not doing anymore Vectrex projects?  >:D

Mike A

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Re: Got back in the RC hobby after 19 years.
« Reply #5 on: May 14, 2019, 02:27:24 pm »
Chopper. You do some cool ---steaming pile of meadow muffin---.

pbj

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Re: Got back in the RC hobby after 19 years.
« Reply #6 on: May 14, 2019, 05:55:46 pm »
Looks like I had a Nikko Lobo as a kid.  Google to the rescue on that one.  Figures, as it was sold by Sears.

Remember it being pretty damn fast but also killing batteries quick.



chopperthedog

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Re: Got back in the RC hobby after 19 years.
« Reply #7 on: May 15, 2019, 10:36:58 pm »


When I first started driving the cars on the track my dog was an obnoxious ---smurfette--- and I'd have to put her in the house. This clip from yesterday was the last time she barked at the cars, now she just either stands by me and watches the car go by or goes on the other side of the yard and plays with a toy.




Getting used to the buggy again and also trying out a jump.


good day.

lilshawn

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Re: Got back in the RC hobby after 19 years.
« Reply #8 on: May 16, 2019, 01:06:04 am »
that's funny, I actually ordered some new battery packs off amazon this week and got the wife's and my RC trucks we bought about 15 some odd years ago (before we'd even got married or had kids) ... up and going again. We had a blast this weekend racing around the yard. We let the kids try, but of course.... We went first.

chopperthedog

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Re: Got back in the RC hobby after 19 years.
« Reply #9 on: June 27, 2019, 07:22:05 pm »


 :cheers:


good day.

chopperthedog

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Re: Got back in the RC hobby after 19 years.
« Reply #10 on: October 23, 2019, 09:02:40 pm »


Fun little video I shot under some nice sun last Sunday. One day I'll gather some other pics and update this thread.

good day.

chopperthedog

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Re: Got back in the RC hobby after 19 years.
« Reply #11 on: May 04, 2020, 10:04:52 pm »
The track has evolved for sure, its turned into a nice racing surface. Was a long winter of waiting to get out there again.




Current state of track. Last year I ordered some nice lighting for night racing.




Wanted some custom looking rims, used cutter to come up with precision masks and a jig to pull sidewall back for painting.




Some nice variety.




Found some nice decal sets and also cut some logos myself, with some creative ad placement I was able to turn the stock bodies into some nice semi real looking trucks. Lower left is mine, but I've always loved the look of black rim, fluoro orange bead lock on the real ones.




Got track cleaned up, rolled out, reset all track dividers and added a couple jumps in the middle area over the last 3 weeks. The weather was picture perfect all weekend to finally get the rubber pounding the dirt.


good day.

Mike A

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Re: Got back in the RC hobby after 19 years.
« Reply #12 on: May 04, 2020, 10:42:57 pm »
That looks awesome. I wish I still had my car. Kyosho Assault. It was fun as hell.

chopperthedog

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Re: Got back in the RC hobby after 19 years.
« Reply #13 on: August 15, 2021, 02:03:51 pm »


Track still providing me with hours of joy.


good day.

Mike A

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Re: Got back in the RC hobby after 19 years.
« Reply #14 on: August 15, 2021, 10:51:56 pm »
Every time I watch one of your videos I want to empty my wallet and dive back into RC.

Nice video.

bobbyb13

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Re: Got back in the RC hobby after 19 years.
« Reply #15 on: August 16, 2021, 04:48:11 am »
Oh.....!
Wish I had time and money for yet another hobby!

Your track looks awesome (as do the cars.)
Really nice work.

My sister and I had cars waaaay bitd.
A Frog and a Hornet.
Stupid fun.  Now I wonder where those went.
Relax, all right? My old man is a television repairman, he's got this ultimate set of tools! I can fix it.

Vocalitus

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Re: Got back in the RC hobby after 19 years.
« Reply #16 on: August 16, 2021, 04:30:17 pm »
That track looks really cool.  I think it would be nice to reintroduce the train track as a feature.

Reminds me of the slot car racing I did back in the 80s.



Have you tried installing a Pi in one of those RC vehicles so it learns the track?







BadMouth

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Re: Got back in the RC hobby after 19 years.
« Reply #17 on: August 17, 2021, 08:42:47 pm »
This makes me want to create an Ivan Ironman Stewart's Super Offroad experience with RC trucks and the arcade control panel.
The music in your video is cool, but in the back of my mind I hear the arcade music.

Howard_Casto

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Re: Got back in the RC hobby after 19 years.
« Reply #18 on: August 17, 2021, 08:48:38 pm »
This makes me want to create an Ivan Ironman Stewart's Super Offroad experience with RC trucks and the arcade control panel.
The music in your video is cool, but in the back of my mind I hear the arcade music.

That would be awesome. 

lilshawn

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Re: Got back in the RC hobby after 19 years.
« Reply #19 on: August 22, 2021, 08:23:52 pm »
just recently modernized and converted my 1:10 scale Ratshack Hummer H2 to a brushless motor. it wasn't bad at all, servo steering, 550 motor, AWD. just wanted to have some more pep to it and modernize it, as it was the old 27mhz trans. type.

retained the 7.2v pack for now, but planning in the future to go to a 3C lithium pack. but also considdering just going to a 8.4 NiMh pack since i can easily modify the battery compartment to facilitate it.

bought a GoolRC 3500kv 3650 brushless motor and 60A ESC, ESC programmer, Dumbo RC clone controller, and a 20kg steering servo. all in, it was about 120 bucks of parts.

didn't have to hack it up too much, the original servo was pretty close to a standard servo and just needed a notch chopped out of the front to make room for the wires. and the motor bolted right up to the stock aluminum plate in the rear dif box. yanked the gear off the 550 motor and pressed it (with some locktite) onto the brushless shaft. fortunately they have the same shaft size.

definitely a spicy machine now...might even be a little fast to off-road at 100% throttle, fortunately the controller speed can be adjusted down.

going to start on the wifes ratshack truck that is equally as old..
« Last Edit: August 22, 2021, 08:31:49 pm by lilshawn »

eds1275

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Re: Got back in the RC hobby after 19 years.
« Reply #20 on: October 16, 2021, 02:22:16 pm »
May I suggest you order some RFID chips and make a lap counter?

I know, I'm awful. I just gave you a badass project. I assume you can do it if you're making a computer score system.