Backlash

Yes, I'm still here.. Its interesting reading through this thread again...

Thanks Twinset.. It will be great to get it back on the main site again..

On the old site, there used to be an excellent Tutorial on "How to paint a Wild Willy" driver figure, but I cant seem to find it now... Is it still around?

While it may seem quite innocent in calling it OCD, I seriously doubt that you would making light of the disorder if you actually suffered from or with it......... Seeing as many of Tamiya's models use/share the same screws, may I suggest just creating a single "screw box" rather than collecting screw packs and keeping them separate for each car... For a lot of your M3 machine screws it may be worthwhile shopping around as you will probably find them sold cheaper in bulk lots of each length on eBay, or electronics or bolt / fastner suppliers.. I also use "Plano" type tackle boxes to store spare parts for many of my cars, and its not a bad idea to do this from the start as opposed to later on.. Bigger spare parts I either store in plastic tubs, Post boxes, or the kit boxes them selves.. As for cataloging my collection, well that is what Tamiyaclub was for... I have made spreadsheets on Excel for my RC trucks outlining what Motor, ESC, Servos etc each one has fitted, but that was only because I kept forgetting what each one had... I did start to think about that saying - "My greatest fear is that when I die, my Wife will sell all of my RC cars for what I told her I paid for them" and all jokes aside, it probably is something that many of us should really think about, especially if your family does not share your passion for RC and has no idea of what some of your collection may really be worth..... I started to do a spreadsheet of my collection, but I have stalled at the moment, but it is something that I really should get back to...

I think that if you are going to make a rigid, then a Day cab would be more prototypical.. Some ideas of what you could do with it.. (in addition to your ideas).. *Make a Flat Bed.. *Use it to haul a 20ft Container.. *Fit a Cargo Box.. *Build a Motor Home.. *Build a Tanker.. (Fuel, Beer, Milk, Water or waste water (sewerage)) *Build a Log/timber rig.. You could also get clever, and make many of the things above so that they are easily removable, and can be switched out for something else... Also, why can't you shorten the Grand Hauler's chassis to the length of a King Hauler, (or even shorter if you make it a Day Cab) and use it as a regular truck and trailer..?

You are correct... The big problem is that there just does not appear to be a standard by which all of our RC electronics are tested to... Even in comparing the Tamiya TEU101BK ESC to the HobbyWing Quicrun 1060.. Both ESC's are supposedly rated at 60 Amps, yet one has a motor limit of a Sports Tuned, and the other has a 12 turn motor limit... If you happen to exceed the limits of the ESC then you may trip the thermal protection, or at worst case, destroy the ESC... BUT I think that the bigger issue comes when selecting LiPo batteries.. IMHO you just cant really be sure how accurate that the manufacturers "C" ratings really are, and if you do happen to exceed the C rating or maximum output current of the LiPo then it could mean a puffed LiPo or worse, having your car burst into flames mid run...

It appears that the Radient Duplex II Twin charger still has a lower output on AC than it does on DC.. ( 2 x 60W on AC V's 2 x 100w on DC )..

What Supercoolnothing said... /\ /\ /\.. The soldering irons Tip size and Wattage needs to be proportional to what you are soldering... Personally I just use regular "stick" type soldering irons from reputable companies like Scope, Weller or Nicholson.. I have a 40W Nicholson iron that has a very flat tip (like a flat blade screwdriver) and I think that it gets hotter than the 40W Scope or Weller irons that I've used, and the flat tip seems to make it a lot easier to use, especially when tinning wires, and soldering Deans connectors etc.. I have used it to do heavy work like repairing battery packs, but you do need to give it a bit more time to heat back up (recover) between doing joints.... This is the iron that I carry with me in my pit box, as it seems to be the most versatile.. I also have a smaller 25 Watt iron for doing electronics work, and a larger 80W iron for doing the heavy stuff like making battery packs.. Soldering stations are nice, but IMHO they are more suited to electronics work, and they are really overkill for doing the everyday soldering that we do on our RC cars.. Whatever iron you decide to buy, the most important thing to becoming better at soldering is to Practice, Practice, Practice..

Logic suggests that of the 3 motor wires coming out of the ESC, the middle one "should" be the "B" phase... Likewise, the middle connection on the motor "should" also be the "B" phase.. Then it should just be a matter of identifying the other two phases... Have you tried using another sensor cable off a different model that you know works OK.? I have not had the opportunity or need to do any fault finding on a Brushless system, so it is hard to comment on what testing you can do.. You may be able to do some basic continuity testing on the sensor cable itself with a multimeter, but if you try to do it on the ESC, you could do some damage by introducing stray voltages where they are not meant to go..... The pinouts for a sensor cable are as follows.. (You can see that pins 2, 3 & 4 correspond to the A, B & C phase going to the motor) Pin #1 – black wire, ground potential (minus) Pin #2 – orange wire, sensor phase C Pin #3 – white wire, sensor phase B Pin #4 – green wire, sensor phase A Pin #5 – blue wire, motor temperature sensing, 10 k NTC (other end of sensor is on ground potential, pin #1) Pin #6 – red wire, sensors feeding, +5.0 V ± 10%. (supply voltage for sensors provide controller, don´t connect external voltage !) That information was found here... https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?1614786-Brushless-Sensored-Motor-Standard-Pinout

It would be really helpful if you could give us a link to the motor/ESC combo that you have that doesn't have a BIG popup wanting you to login before you can see what you have linked to...!!!!! I remember seeing that someone had a similar issue to this recently, and the issue was that the colours on the ESC wires were wrong, and when you connected the ESC to the motor using the colours, it meant that you were not connecting A to A, B to B and C to C, so you may want to check the ESC to see if the outputs are labelled A, B and C, and then that they correspond to the A, B and C on the motor.. The fact that the motor wont work with the sensor cable connected, but works without the sensor cable connected suggests to me that there could be an issue with the motor to ESC connections..

Would the Ford Ranger decals work? He can also do them in different colours as well.. https://mciracing.ca/products/1-slash-10th-tam-58027-ford-ranger-small-wheel-well-approx-80mm-decals

Check that your motor to ESC connections are in the correct order, i.e A to A, B to B, and C to C... On a sensored brushless motor and ESC combo, these connections need to be correct, as there are the same/similar connections in the sensor cable...

The other big issue with NiMh cells / batteries is that they will self discharge.. So if you balanced the battery, and then put a storage charge in it and left it sitting for a few weeks, you could find that some cells may have lost 20% of their storage charge capacity where others had completely discharged... To get the cells back in balance, you needed to discharge each cell in the pack individually.. It was not really a problem if you have "ladder" style battery packs, as you can get discharge trays to discharge and equalise or balance the cells (eg. The Novak Smart Tray), but it wasn't as easy with stick packs..... A lot of racers would have multiple batteries, chargers, dischargers and balance trays, so they could go through this system where they would take a battery from storage, discharge it down on the discharger at a high current (eg 10-30Amps), then equalise or balance the individual cells, then charge it ready to race... After the race, if you didn't have 1 battery per race, then you would have to let the battery cool, and then repeat the process, discharge, balance and then recharge ready for the next race.. At the end of the race day, the process was repeated once more, discharge, balance and then put on storage charge... It was a lot of work... This is one of the big bonuses with using LiPo... You simply do not have to go through the process that you do with NiMh batteries.. With LiPo, you take the battery from storage, and put it straight on balance charge.. When its charged you race.. At the end of the race, you simply put it back on the balance charger... Its just so much easier..

Why not just upgrade to a HobbyWing Quicrun 1060 ESC for about $20-$25 USD.. They have a LiPo low voltage cutout and they are waterproof... You can buy them from HobbyKing for $28 .. https://hobbyking.com/en_us/hobbywing-quicrun-60a-2s-3s-waterproof-brushed-esc-for-1-10.html Or if you have a look on eBay, you may find a better deal..

It appears that Tamico has them in stock if you are in the EU.. https://translate.google.com.au/translate?hl=en&sl=de&u=https://tamico.de/Tamiya-Achse-3x30mm-2-Stk-TA04-TA05-TRF415-9805682&prev=search

Just hope that the TA05 is still modern enough that you can buy spare parts for it.. ;-)

It appears that the TA05 uses M3 x 30mm e-clip hinge pins on the outer rear arms.. The part number is 9805682.

What car/buggy are you wanting the hinge pins for? I'm just trying to think of what Tamiya cars use e-clip style hinge pins, and the best that I can think of is some of the later on-road cars..

I buy my silicone wire from HobbyKing... They have it in a few different colours as well... I use 14 AWG wire for most of my cars, but you could probably use 16 AWG on a 540 "silver can" motor which is a bit thinner / smaller wire.. You can get the bullet connectors that Tamiya uses off eBay... I'm not 100% sure, but these may be close to what you need.. https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/50-Sets-4mm-Bullet-Crimp-Terminal-Wire-Connectors-Male-Female-Socket-w-Sheath/401284919766?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649

I just had a look on Google, and I came across these 2 pics... They came from a thread on RC Tech, where the owner was asking for more information on them, but nothing useful was given.. https://www.rctech.net/forum/rc-boating/746278-black-magic-motors.html Edit:- More here.. https://www.rctech.net/forum/radio-electronics/265613-black-magic-motors.html

I would expect that if it was a Team Associated motor that you had, it would have Team Associated written on it somewhere... It somewhat ironic that its called a "Black Magic" motor, but its actually silver in colour.. It looks just like a regular 540 "Silver Can" to me, so it could be like Willy has suggested, and be a slightly hotter motor (eg 20 turn) and a model shop put a sticker put on it.. Team Associated did have their own range of motors that they sold as spare parts, and also came with some of their kits like the RC10 and RC10 DS.. (see pics below) They also teamed up with Mike Reedy at some point, and developed a partnership using Reedy Motors as Willy said..

If all you are seeing is "sign up for free", then I guess that you are NOT logged into the main site.. Login for the main site and the forums are separate, i.e. you can be logged into one and not the other, but you need to be logged into the main site to subscribe, you cant do it from the forums....

Log into the main site, and on the right hand side below the banner photo you should see a box like in the pic below that says "Become a subscriber".. Click on it and it will take you to another page titled Paying for Subscription.. On that page, scroll down and you should see a yellow Subscribe button.. Click on that and it will take you to a PayPal screen where you can pay..

There are pro's and cons with every system.. The last charger I bought was a 4 output Turnigy charger from Hobbywing.. Prior to that I had been using a "Hotpower" charger (IMAX clone) but it was limited to a 5A max charging current on 2S, and I had just bought a 6000mAh LiPo, and I was having difficulty getting my single LiPo battery charged between heats at racing due to lower numbers... SO, IMHO, these are some of the pro's and cons between the 2 options... The Pro's and Con's of a Multi output (4 output) charger.. (DC input only version) The Pro's * Compact - Even though a 4 output charger is bigger, its still only 1 item to carry around.. * Setup - Can allow you to charge 4 different capacity or types of batteries (1 off each output) without having to alter the charger settings each time.. * Cheaper - This unit cost me just over $100.. At the time a single output charger with similar charging specs were $40 each.. * Output - It has the ability to charge at maximum output on all 4 channels, as long as the power supply is big enough to provide the power it needs... * Redundancy - If one output fails, then you still have others to use.. The Cons.. * Its physically bigger than a single output charger.. * To charge 4 batteries at the maximum output, you need a big 12Volt power supply.. * If one of the chargers inside fail, then it may not be easy to fix, so you could then be down to only 3 outputs on that charger... * You do need to be mindful of what charging display and controls refer to what charging output.. (This could be helped or overcome by colour coding or numbering the charger display/controls and battery connectors for each output to be the same colour/number) The Pro's and Cons of Single output chargers.. (AC/DC and DC only versions) Pros.. * Smaller - each individual charger is generally smaller.. If you only need to charge one battery, then its less to carry or take with you.. * If one charger fails, then it can be easily replaced.. * Are readily available in AC/DC models.. Cons.. * Power Supply - If you have DC or 12V chargers, you still need to carry either multiple small power supplies, or 1 big power supply to power them all.. * Cost - Buying multiple individual single output chargers may be more expensive than one 4 output charger.. * Messy - Multiple single output chargers appear to take up more bench space than a multi output charger.. * No Redundancy - If you only have one charger with you, and it fails then you are up the creek without a paddle, so to speak.. * Setup - If you have more battery types/sizes than you do chargers, then it may mean that you have to change the setup each time you charge a different battery..

The other option is to give it a light sand, mask up the bonnet (the hood) and spray it flat or satin black to make it appear to be either anti glare or a replacement panel...