alfagta

great planes site , there are many others but its a good place to start , http://www.greatplanes.com/ , http://shop.dubro.com/c/aircraft , as for engines and scale ,that's something a more experienced flyer should help with but here is a load of plans to give an idea of scale and engines used , http://www.model-pla...power scale.htm , BEC is a device that takes all the load away from the receiver , it plugs into the receiver and battery and provides far greater current to the servo's tan the receiver alone can do , if you are planning on moving 3 surfaces with one uber servo then they will need a lot of power , this may cause the receiver to overload and brown out which leads to a very realistic WW1 tri plane crash! the hope you post a few pics when you get to building

yeah I think that using the good old control wire with Z bend pliers would enable you to get all three surfaces moving together in a rudimentary fashion , you could even use rose joints and 1.5mm threaded rod , with the extra load from the airflow it will take some strong servo's , having said that there are some good strong gutsy servos out there these days ,with a powerful BEC I reckon you could get it all to work , its not as if the plane is going to lack lift capability ,take a look at great planes web site for all the myriad of little inserts etc that will give you an idea of what could be used for connecting the three surfaces .

hi, I think you could just use the tail plane and top wing as a control surfaces , you could of course slave the two lower wings of the top 'master' wing but it would take some pretty meaty servos at the scale you are talking about so weight would be an issue, there is also the option of having all wings fitted with smaller servos and run all the wires through the wing struts but again the weight and complexity would pose issues , take a good look around and see what others have done , the only tri-plane I have seen up close had only the top wing active , it would seem hobby king have done the same http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__15131___Fokker_Dr_I_Triplane_EPO_R_C_Plane_PNF_.html , have fun

there are these too at a much lower price http://www.rcmart.co...th=595_744_1223 , , I use these on my TT01's with 3 racing uj's and after 5+ years of total abuse they haven't even notched or shown any sign of wear .

the 3 racing shafts are highly recommended , I think you can use these too http://www.fusionhobbies.com/product/53790-tamiya-df-02-tt-01-joint-cup-for-universal-shaft

I guess it would be useful for racers that have to sit and wait for long periods between heats , saves them from fiddling with their car and messing up a perfectly good set up just to relieve the boredom , a built in coffee maker would be more useful

just saw this on red rc , http://www.redrc.net...RC Car News DF) , surf the web from your battery charger ! , what next?

hi, as adam1973 suggested a different motor may be the way to go, from what I can gather the motor bed will only allow a 16t pinion, not sure if you could run a larger spur gear from one of Tamiya's buggies that would be compatible with the slipper and gear cover but it may be worth looking at , the 55t motor may be a bit slow but there are lots of 35t motors that may be just right ,good luck

thanks GregM

hi all, I thought it may be useful to start a thread dedicated to li-po stick packs that fit Tamiya cars as I haven't seen any detailed single source for this issue, please do add links if you have seen one elsewhere , I think I would useful if you could give any details about fit and if you had to make any mods to get the pack to fit , I have only tried the yeah racing 3200 2s li-po packs ,they are a bit too long but workable and have proven to be quite strong and reliable , I had to use cable ties to hold them in the mad bull , for the M chassis I ended up using the quick release battery holder with 6mm of spacers on each side , I used cable ties to get it to stay in the king cab too , will add more as I try them

hi, can you give details of the novak system motor winding? , there are some packs that will fit but they are fairly low C rated so we need to know how many amps they need to provide before any recommendations, cheers

yes you are I believe quite right, with the dynamite pack at least, but the reedy and IB5400 had labels on stating in bold print, DO NOT SLOW CHARGE !C RECOMMENDED , they were race cells and were 'pushed' and matched by the manufacturers so should have taken my slightly below 1C charge rate , not sure if you have noticed that some li-po suppliers are now stating 2C charge rates and more ! , its a scary thought that a guy next to you in the pits may be shoving 12A into his 6A race pack li-po

the first bad experience was with some reedy 3300 race cells, they had done about 10 cycles ,i had them on charge at 3a with a propeak charger as usual , they hadnt been treated badly ,all of a sudden , one of the cells had blown its guts, the contents had sprayed all over the shed the vent had stopped it exploding but it still sprayed its contents , second instance was with some IB5400 cells , this time with an orion advantage charger at 4a , inside an acrylic lined metal box (once bitten) , this time it was a proper bang , it blew the unsecured lid of the box open , there was some noise at the time about some racers having the same issue at race events which is never good with lots of people about , the last was a dynamite 3000 stick pack , it went pfffffffffffffffffsssssssstt pop, the end cap was partially blown off , this was being charged at 3a or 1c and so may have been a bit much for a humble stick pack , there are lots of videos on youtube with exploding li-po packs but, they are usually when running huge charge currents or racers trying to push the voltage . with all the packs i have owned only the vapextech 5000 li-po packs have let me down , add my mates packs and that gives a total of 3 failures out of around 40 packs , 2 vapex packs and one heli pack that was connected up badly , so under normal use conditions i would rather have lipo , i usually charge at 1/2 C ,i always use 3.4v cut off voltage ,my turnigy packs always give a little over 5600mah and have been great so far as have the zippy and gens ace packs , just stick to all the smart advice the members have given and i dont think you can go wrong, still wish that li-fe were more readily available and a little cheaper . have fun

a mate of mine had the same issue with a heli, after closer inspection we found that the pack that fried had the connector on back to front so it could only be used in one brand of heli , it would have fried regardless of battery type ,personally, I've had worse luck with ni-mh than li-po , for me the li-po is the no brainer ,I do wish li-fe would become the norm though ,given how much more efficient brushless systems are the drop in voltage of Li-Fe cells would not be of concern, they are also the most robust and fastest charging batteries out there at the moment but the prices are silly due to licensing issues .

hi , have a look here , http://www.tamiyaclub.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=68182 , send your chosen pic to the masters and they work the magic for you,

thats the way to go , if you go to the cell manufacturers web site you will get far more acurate info than battery makers web sites , i discovered that the actual continuous C rating is the point at which a cell should not explode or catch fire but some swelling is expected, around 15% swell is the norm at max cont C , so, a 10C rated cell should only be expected to last at around half or less than the stated C rating , most burst ratings are taken at 3 seconds but i have seen a few that claim 10 seconds , the min discharge voltage is another variable , manufacturers claim 3v per cell , again this is min safe point before swelling , actual volt min is more like 3.2v-3.4v depending current drain , as rc cars are fairly high drain then opt for 3.4v to ensure max number of cycles , just my experience .

hi, i will offer up my persoanl experience as oppossed to the well documented recommendations, i have had 23 lipo packs , some died from fairly gentle use with recommended storage/charge methods etc , others have been treated rather poorly with no care over storage etc without any issues, the most important factors are min discharge and discharge rate vs the packs C rating , i have yet to find a pack that can discharge at its actual claimed C rating without puffing, turnigy are the only packs i know of that state clearly that 5% swell is expected at the max continous C rate , all this has taught me that if i am going to be using a system that pulls 30a continous then the packs should be capable of 60a continuous ,i stick with brands that are well thought of such as zippy, turnigy , gens ace , orion , storage charge takes the pack to around 7.6v@ 1000mah on my chargers but i only use this when they are not used for about 4 months or more , i do use a charge sack just in case, just because i havent had one go pop yet does not mean i wont in the future but i used a metal box to charge my old ni-mh packs as i had 3 of these go pop on me ! IMO li-po is pretty safe , just keep in mind that any battery can let go when its being charged or discharged beyond its limits and of course , never leave a battery unattended while charging .

i understand that , but, automotive dies are often sold to outside manufacturers to make what are often referred to as pattern parts, for certain tamiya models there are are/were parts that were less than perfect and could be termed consumables , its these parts that would still be selling in good enough numbers to justify the continued production, since tamiya seam to have taken the stand point of stopping production of these parts i feel that other manufacturers should be allowed to do so and that members of the tc forum should be allowed to post links to those parts since tamiya have effectively given up on them as a viable product , to simply ban this just seems odd to me again ,the whole reason for the thread was just an observation rather than a criticism of tc forum. thanks for all the input fella's

from the stand point of a guy that loves tamiya rc cars i find it rather distasetful that a tamiya rc car should be collected but not driveable for fear of damage , after all ,what were they made for ?, tamiya do wonderful static kits to sit on display shelves , the rc kits are for driving and fun, but hey, this topic was just to see if others thought that tamiya should do a little more to keep their older products in use , they could even start another branch of the company to reproduce faithfuly parts for previous kits , you only have to look at the turnover on ebay of vintage stuff( and associated issues from duff traders!!) to see there is a market, how many guys do we get on tc forums asking "anyone know where i can get a part for 'X' ? ,

when there is no other option and you want to keep a kit in use then yes they 'can' , but, the point i was trying to make is that tamiya could make more effort to keep the supply of original parts to save us all from having to use repro stuff , it would only take a small dedicated dept within tamiya's structure to do so ,this would also promote a greater sense of tamiya kits being for life rather than 'until its broken without spares back up' .

hi, mr crispy i think thats a splendid idea, in the mean time here is a link to rctech that gives the difference for imperial to metric pitch(module) , http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_10475602/printable.htm

hi all, this is just a question and comment for you all, first off i have no interest in selling or linking to any repro stuff and also in no way am i disputing TC rules or decisions and i dont want any arguments starting because of my posts . the rule mentioned has me puzzled , if tamiya really dont want any repro parts being used that were obtained via tc forum/site why not just keep producing the originals in small back up quantities for premium price sales ? there are of course some original parts around for almost all tamiya models but some of the prices are truly astonishing , body shells for instance , if it were not for certain companies doing repro bodies many tamiya models would not still be in use , tamiya do seem to be making an effort of late to re-issue kits but they are not the original and so some parts are of no use to those who really want to restore/maintain kits they have had for decades , perhaps tamiya are not happy about others making money from tamiya designed kit when they dont pay tamiya for a license to do so , copyright is of course fair but unless tamiya are truly willing to stand by its products for decades after release and keep the supply of original parts needed i dont see how this can be a sensible decision , as a for instance i have 4 tb02 cars and the diffs were always a weak link , if i can be so bold as to say they were useless , i am now having huge issues trying to find the hop up parts for the diffs , should i realy junk 4 otherwise perfect rc cars because i cant find better diffs to fit the car but also not be able to have a tc club member point me in the direction of another companies diffs that are better and will keep my tb02's running? . as i said its an odd decision but one i can 'from a business standpoint', to some extent, understand , from a customer support stand point its rather poor and seems to be a rather blatant two fingers up to tamiya fans. this is just an opinion and is not intended to start any arguments but sensible and considered responses are welcome.

hi fellas, must try the jelly roll pens , never heard of them before TBH a tip i discovered many years ago was to use slow cure Cyanoacrylate ,obviously the brush is of no use after but you can pick up very cheap brushes for the task , pva is sound for display or dry weather but for off road and wet weather use the Ca method lasts and lasts. cheers

http://www.hobbyking...03X49475X26.jpg i think they all set up this way.

hi, they are all available on ebay uk , NIP or second hand , did a quick search for 'FF01' , there is even a complete rolling ff01 chassis for 99p start price.