Tarting up my Twin Detonator... (56k beware)

[Libertine]

Ok, so it's only a new body and shocks, but the body took me ages, and for only the third one I've done, I was absolutely chuffed with it. The lights took me FAR too long though - I had no end of setbacks (including finding out that my orange LEDs were actually purple once I'd wired it up!).

This is nothing compared to some of the wonderful crawlers etc put up on here, but I was pleased with how it looks and wanted to show it off, so I hope you'll forgive my indulgence![]

I am currently having problems posting up the images (every time I try it shows me the 'broken' image symbol), but it's in my showroom, here: http://www.tamiyaclub.com/showroom_model.a...d=35838&id=8024

Strangely, the correct Tamiya hop up shocks have lowered the ride height by about 1.5cm, so I'd like to change these in the future for slightly longer ones (maybe the Duratrax competition ones people seem to be using?), and I need some better motors and a set of chrome wheels to finish it off, but it's getting there.

EDIT: I've got the photos working now - thanks Twinset!

[rotor]

Looks good, i like the idea of the lights as well..

Maybe for another time with mine..

with your image issue, the easiest code you need it [ img ] ... url here.... [ /img ] without the spaces in it around your image.

but i dont think you can link from the showroom as i get the same broken link thingo

Chris

[Libertine]

I've tried linking from MSN and from my showroom (using the method you describe), and I could only get one of the pictures to work. Strange - I'm pretty sure I'm not doing anything wrong...[?]

[TWINSET]

Remote linking to showroom pics isn't as straightforward as webspace pics, read all about it here;

http://www.tamiyaclub.com/xforum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=11066

[Cul-Tech]

The lights look neat.

[Libertine]

Thanks![8D]

They took me quite a while, but now I know how to do them, it won't take me long to do my next one!

[Libertine]

For those that have asked, here's how to do the lights as I've done them:

Things you'll need:

Sheet of lexan (or a reasonable amount left over from cutting a body out etc).

Some thin wire.

Soldering iron.

Heatshrink tubing (or electrical tape, or a combination of both).

Connector blocks.

LEDs of your choice.

A dremel, or small drill.

Servo tape or a gluegun.

The first thing to do is mask off the head and tail light areas of your new body before you paint it. If you paint them, this won't work!

First get yourself a sheet of thin cardboard and draw the rough shape of your headlight onto it. Then draw lines out from each of the corners to create approx 3cm tabs on the top and bottom, and 1cm tabs on each side.

Then fold them all in the same direction and fold the excess bits on the top and bottom back the other way. You should be left with something that looks a bit like this, with the light grey bits forming the headlight itself and the dark grey bits forming the tabs that will attach it to the body:

Mate the cardboard with the body and see if it fits, then trim off any excess that isn't needed. Then draw on where you want your LEDs mounted.

Once you are happy with the shape, lay the cardboard over a piece of lexan and cut it out. Then turn it over the other way, lay it on another piece of lexan and cut that out. This will give you a mirror image of the first one, which you can use for the other headlight.

Lay the cardboard back over the lexan shapes you have cut out and use the drawing of where your LEDs are to go to cut holes in the lexan. I used a dremel with a tapered bit to make this hole as it allowed me to get the size of the holes the perfect size so the LEDs were a tight fit without any glue. However, a drill with a 5mm bit should do the trick, if you don't have a dremel.

Next use some pliers to bend the lexan in the same places as you bent the card - don't forget to bend it in the right direction depending on what headlight you are making (ie left or right) - otherwise you'll end up with two left headlights or vice versa.

This is where to paint the bits of lexan if you want to do so. I found that chrome silver or black is best on the front (mine are black), and white or silver is best for the back with the rear light areas of the body painted translucent red. Alternatively you could leave the rear light area of the body clear and do the light unit in red, but I don't think this looks as good.

Push the LEDs into the lexan headlight units and solder all three together in series, as follows:

Now for the electronics part - if you have wired in headlights before, or have a basic understanding of electronics you might want to ignore all this!

Solder a length of wire (that will be positive) to the positive of the first LED, the negative of that LED to the positive of the next LED, the negative of that LED to the positive of the next LED, and another length of wire (that will be negative) to the negative of that LED. It should look like this (all the LED legs on the left are the positive ones):

Sorry about the quality of my drawings!

If you don't know how to find which is the positive 'leg' of the LED, it's always the longest one - they don't work the other way around.

All you have to do then is repeat this for the other headlight units you've got, and connect all the positive ones to one side of a connector block and all the negative ones to the other side.

You can then use servo tape or a glue gun to stick the headlight units in place.

Then you prepare another length of wire to go from the connector block to be spliced into the power cables. You need to solder a resistor into the positive wire, or all the LEDs will blow as soon as you plug it in! (these are the ones I used, but I'm not sure what you would call them: http://www.ultraleds.co.uk/product_info.ph...roducts_id=380). Once you've done this, crimp a plug of some sort onto the end of this wire.

Then I simply crimped a new connector plug onto my speed controller and added another set of positive and negative wires coming out of this with a plug on the end. Then, when I put the body on my truck, I just plug this wire into the one coming from the body and hey presto, they light up!

This is roughly what it should look like when everything is finished:

Front:

Back:

Whole thing:

Sorry if this is a bit condescending for some of you, but I don't understand electronics at all, and was working on the assumption that some that read it might not understand either!

If anyone wants to correct anything I've got wrong, please feel free!

EDIT: some of these pictures haven't worked, so I'll try and sort them out tomorrow...

[scoobs]

Lights are wicked. As for the shocks - are you using TRF shocks? If so, these are touring car size which are shorter than the Twin Det shocks, hence the lower ride height...

I'm gonna do some lights one day, but all the mounting stuff makes me nervous - cheers for the tips though!

BTW some of the images don't come up - if you could fix them, that might give me more impetus to do a light job

[Libertine]

quote:Originally posted by scoobyben

Lights are wicked. As for the shocks - are you using TRF shocks? If so, these are touring car size which are shorter than the Twin Det shocks, hence the lower ride height...

I'm gonna do some lights one day, but all the mounting stuff makes me nervous - cheers for the tips though!

BTW some of the images don't come up - if you could fix them, that might give me more impetus to do a light job

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Thanks, mate![8D]

The shocks are the Super Low Friction Damper Set (53280) which are the recommended hop-up for this car, but even with the longer bottom mounts supplied, they are too short. Can't complain too much though - they make such a difference to the handling. I'm going to get some different ones soon though, because I do miss the extra ground clearance.

The mounting stuff is easy - particularly if you use servo tape to stick them in, because it doesn't take the paint off. Having said that, a glue gun works much better (servo tape loses adhesiveness after a while), and I've had no paint problems with that either.

Yep - I'll try and fix that - I've no idea why they're not working!!

[Libertine]

There you go - I've posted all this under 'extra info' in my showroom, so all the photos are there...[]

[Wild_Trial]

Greate looking truck there mate.

Like the lights, it looks cool.

[hornet69]

Excellent job on that body! If you dont mind my asking, which body is that, I have the pro-line one for my King Blackfoot, but I like the hood scoop on that one! []

[Libertine]

quote:Originally posted by hornet69

Excellent job on that body! If you dont mind my asking, which body is that, I have the pro-line one for my King Blackfoot, but I like the hood scoop on that one! []

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Thanks!

That's the standard Twin Detonator body - but I didn't have decals, so I did the lights and everything else myself with paint.

The roll bar comes seperately, but the one from the King Blackfoot is exactly the same.

[jakethesnake]

Looks real nice! is that a tamiya paint and if so what colour is it ?.

[Libertine]

It is standard Tamiya paint - it's PS-14 (Copper).

Thanks for the comments, everyone.[8D]

[jakethesnake]

I thought so [] I bought that colour to spray a Mini Cooper shell in but was wondering whether it would turn out how I expected it to.

That looks stunning ! a lovely colour []