So, What Have You Done Today?

[BuggyDad 5320]

25 minutes ago, Jason1145 said:

Keep it, you’ll never find another for the price, plus it’s cute!

Well that's true! 

It really is cute. 

[BuggyDad 5320]

Auction parcel, second installment: Falcon... 

 

 

 

It's all there, even a proper Tamiya battery, it's been run but not much (I could probably have put that much wear on the tyre spikes in one pack, although the front shock towers are cracked because nuts overtiggtenes and/or they should've been spaces/sleeved inside). Stickers are a bit lifted here and there, tyre rubber is good but old, and it could do with a good clean. Damping is way off but nothing else required. 🥰

[BuggyDad 5320]

Auction parcel, final installment. Madcap. Oh my....

 

 

 

It's immaculate. Unused. Tyres feel like they've just come out of the packet, Hi-caps are even nicely damped. Stickers are just a tiny bit lifted in a few spots but nothing significant. And there's another battery. 

Mind. Blown. Shelf. Required. 

Edit: I've just noticed it has the Astute type front wheels rather than the speed discs. Hey ho, I think they look great... 

[Jason1145 4683]

@BuggyDad I reckon these all came from the same collector who auctioned off an entire collection, the pre built BMW Mini Cooper was almost as mint and that had a  brand new Tamiya battery sitting inside, it was a real bonus.

Even some of the NIB kits had a brand new Tamiya battery loose in the box with some bearings anll ready for a build that never happened,  and some NIP hop up parts here and there too.

Get some Tamiya decal adhesive, apply with the brush, wipe any excess away and then gently tape down with something low tack to hold it while it sets for an hour.

[BuggyDad 5320]

And in a major milestone in my manufacturing capability, I have my first home CNC made part. 

The future is bright (and dust-free). 

[BuggyDad 5320]

22 minutes ago, Jason1145 said:

@BuggyDad I reckon these all came from the same collector who auctioned off an entire collection, the pre built BMW Mini Cooper was almost as mint and that had a  brand new Tamiya battery sitting inside, it was a real bonus.

Even some of the NIB kits had a brand new Tamiya battery loose in the box with some bearings anll ready for a build that never happened,  and some NIP hop up parts here and there too.

Get some Tamiya decal adhesive, apply with the brush, wipe any excess away and then gently tape down with something low tack to hold it while it sets for an hour.

Yeah mine might as well have been picked at random and they all have an original battery, the same period electronics in. It does seem very likely all from the same collector. One who must've had one heck of a collection. 

Thank you for the decal adhesive trick. I didn't know about that stuff. I can see it being useful elsewhere too. 👍👍

[urban warrior 407]

On 6/15/2024 at 5:19 PM, Honza said:

I released some magic smoke today

 

 

 

I know that I am late, but I was on vacation over two weeks, so please forgive me.

We have a quote for that, here in Germany: "All electronic appliances are working internally with smoke. If it spills out, then its broken."

Cheers

Martin

[Re-Bugged 11262]

Masking, waiting for paint to dry and laundry today.

Using inspiration from Alitalia liveries for the Giulia…

 

Not ideal conditions for painting, but doing small areas at a time shouldn’t be to much of a problem 🤞🏻

[Grumpy pants 5178]

4 hours ago, Re-Bugged said:

Masking, waiting for paint to dry and laundry today.

Using inspiration from Alitalia liveries for the Giulia…

 

Not ideal conditions for painting, but doing small areas at a time shouldn’t be to much of a problem 🤞🏻

This is going to be good, great skills and amazing patience 👏

[BuggyDad 5320]

6 hours ago, Re-Bugged said:

Masking, waiting for paint to dry and laundry today.

Using inspiration from Alitalia liveries for the Giulia…

 

Not ideal conditions for painting, but doing small areas at a time shouldn’t be to much of a problem 🤞🏻

Oh yes I look forward to this. 

[Re-Bugged 11262]

1 hour ago, Grumpy pants said:

This is going to be good, great skills and amazing patience 👏

 

29 minutes ago, BuggyDad said:

Oh yes I look forward to this. 

Thanks fella’s after settling on a rough idea my patience definitely found new limits 😂

Trouble is (this one included) I often change my mind in the process as I start seeing different ideas as the tape goes on & adding colour. Good job there’s no right or wrong answer for custom paint jobs but just to end up with something to be happy with 😄

[Tamiyastef 2503]

On 7/1/2024 at 2:11 AM, nowinaminute said:

out of control:

Those last two crashes 

No damage is a plus on build quality for Nikko. I expected it to be in pieces after that.

[Jason1145 4683]

Fixed my daughters Lunchbox with some spares kindly supplied by @toyolien 🏆, he even threw in some extra bits 😇

New lower shock holder fitted and all good to go, apart from the stripped servo I then discovered on it too 😂

Just replaced that with an new unused grey 25t Hobbyking servo I found in my box of spares, so all working again better than before and ready for the next outing 😇

[Wystan Withers 321]

Another in the category of "declared it finished today" rather than "got all this work done in one day" (I have now officially sworn off EVER trying to model pipes in CAD again after tweeks of foul mouthing my computer) but I printed a couple things and cut a couple things and am ready to stick a fork in the TA02 Sand Scorcher project.

Victory is herby proclaimed.

[Grumpy pants 5178]

I bought a 2nd XV-01 today as I’m all out of love for the ‘Salt ‘n’ Sand’ version I have 😂

Off the back of that I’ll stick the MB-01 up for sale - 1 in, 1 out 😂

[nowinaminute 3319]

Working on my Nikko project and just getting a bit stressed, really.

If you read my earlier post, you'd see I was having occasional "brown out" type issues with a loss of control. It would sometimes lose control, but wake up again, other times just shut off and need a power cycle. Sometimes it would just seem to lose power but then go back to normal again. Sometimes it seemed to lose power while turning but then be normal again when straightening up etc etc

I initially assumed it might be my Quicrun 880 ESC, as it was an unbranded "OEM" version from Aliexpress. From good previous experience from the seller, I'd always assumed they were genuine and just the same as the unbranded ones that get bundled with RTR cars, but it seemed like the first thing to rule out. So I fitted a genuine 880 but still had the exact same issues and even a couple of crashes.

So next step was to change out the fake MG996R servo, surely that's the issue? 

Well I changed it and still had the problem! Obviously frustrating, but another thumbs up for cheapo MG996R servos!

This time I didn't even need to leave the desk. I just put the car upside down and played around with various combinations of throttle and steering and it almost cut out a few times and there seemed like what I could almost describe as interference between the channels as steering one way seemed to slightly reduce throttle and then it would go back to full when I let off again, which seemed to happen during driving sometimes. I even made sure the channel mixing/tank mode on the Dumbo was disabled, just in case I was unwittingly mixing throttle and steering, but it's definitely set to normal.

That only leaves the radio system....but it's Dumbo RC and I've never had issues with Dumbo! I even switched from flysky to Dumbo because I was getting annoying issues with range and delays going on and off throttle etc. It would happen with all 3 of my Flysky transmitters and various receivers but seemingly only in certain places. I went over to Dumbo and the issues were suddenly gone and I had amazing range etc....so until now I've had the utmost respect for DumboRC radios.

Well, I decided to put in a flysky receiver just to try it and.....problem solved!

But a huge can of worms opened....I literally abandoned Flysky for the most part because I was frequently getting issues, and Dumbo is renowned for being a good quality budget option with good signal, range and resistance to glitching.

So I don't know what to think about that. Was it just a duff receiver? Has my transmitter gone bad? Does it just not like that type of ESC? I usually love problem solving with RC, but when it's something like this, it stresses me out a bit because the myriad of potential issues to do with something that had previously been dependable. I don't know if it's because I'm probably a bit on the spectrum, but I tend to obsess over stuff like this. 

Was it just a bad receiver? Has my transmitter gone bad? Is running a fairly power hungry dual motor rig showing up a problem that has always been there but just doesn't always rear it's head? Did either the transmitter or receiver just not get on with either of my 880 ESCs? Seems implausible, but don't want to rule it out! Arghhhh!!!


I've definitely narrowed it down to the radio system, and I know the batteries in the transmitter were good and I've used 2 different sets in there and had the same issues.

I know that transmitter was definitely tip top when I first got it. I could drive cars so far away I could barely see them with no glitching, latency or lag etc. I used it a lot at the local beach where my flysky stuff would have the weird range issues (maybe interference from coastguard radio or something?) anyway the Dumbo was in another league for range etc.

I guess I just need to try and methodically check different things. I know electronics can fail at any time. Maybe because I used it at the beach a lot something got corroded inside? Also my house has pretty high humidity and it's been sat dormant for over a year, so again, could be something to do with that. Maybe I'll take it apart and do a visual inspection.

I was going to order a second dumbo transmitter, anyway, so I guess that might be an idea if I get the same behaviour after trying a different receivers with my current one. 

Anyway, sorry for waffling on! Kind of frustrating again, today! The Flysky definitely solved the issue, but I have different issues with that stuff sometimes, so I'll be worried about that rearing it's head. Still, though, it was nice to have a drive without any kind of glitching, loss of power, or head on collisions with walls!


 

[nowinaminute 3319]

1 hour ago, Wystan Withers said:

Another in the category of "declared it finished today" than "got all this work done in one day" (I have now officially sworn off EVER trying to model pipes in CAD again after tweeks of foul mouthing my computer) but I printed a couple things and cut a things and am ready to stick a fork in the TA02 Sand Scorcher project.

Victory is herby proclaimed.

Just superb, mate. Weeks of swearing paying off!

[Grumpy pants 5178]

12 minutes ago, nowinaminute said:

Working on my Nikko project and just getting a bit stressed, really.

If you read my earlier post, you'd see I was having occasional "brown out" type issues with a loss of control. It would sometimes lose control, but wake up again, other times just shut off and need a power cycle. Sometimes it would just seem to lose power but then go back to normal again. Sometimes it seemed to lose power while turning but then be normal again when straightening up etc etc

I initially assumed it might be my Quicrun 880 ESC, as it was an unbranded "OEM" version from Aliexpress. From good previous experience from the seller, I'd always assumed they were genuine and just the same as the unbranded ones that get bundled with RTR cars, but it seemed like the first thing to rule out. So I fitted a genuine 880 but still had the exact same issues and even a couple of crashes.

So next step was to change out the fake MG996R servo, surely that's the issue? 

Well I changed it and still had the problem! Obviously frustrating, but another thumbs up for cheapo MG996R servos!

This time I didn't even need to leave the desk. I just put the car upside down and played around with various combinations of throttle and steering and it almost cut out a few times and there seemed like what I could almost describe as interference between the channels as steering one way seemed to slightly reduce throttle and then it would go back to full when I let off again, which seemed to happen during driving sometimes. I even made sure the channel mixing/tank mode on the Dumbo was disabled, just in case I was unwittingly mixing throttle and steering, but it's definitely set to normal.

That only leaves the radio system....but it's Dumbo RC and I've never had issues with Dumbo! I even switched from flysky to Dumbo because I was getting annoying issues with range and delays going on and off throttle etc. It would happen with all 3 of my Flysky transmitters and various receivers but seemingly only in certain places. I went over to Dumbo and the issues were suddenly gone and I had amazing range etc....so until now I've had the utmost respect for DumboRC radios.

Well, I decided to put in a flysky receiver just to try it and.....problem solved!

But a huge can of worms opened....I literally abandoned Flysky for the most part because I was frequently getting issues, and Dumbo is renowned for being a good quality budget option with good signal, range and resistance to glitching.

So I don't know what to think about that. Was it just a duff receiver? Has my transmitter gone bad? Does it just not like that type of ESC? I usually love problem solving with RC, but when it's something like this, it stresses me out a bit because the myriad of potential issues to do with something that had previously been dependable. I don't know if it's because I'm probably a bit on the spectrum, but I tend to obsess over stuff like this. 

Was it just a bad receiver? Has my transmitter gone bad? Is running a fairly power hungry dual motor rig showing up a problem that has always been there but just doesn't always rear it's head? Did either the transmitter or receiver just not get on with either of my 880 ESCs? Seems implausible, but don't want to rule it out! Arghhhh!!!


I've definitely narrowed it down to the radio system, and I know the batteries in the transmitter were good and I've used 2 different sets in there and had the same issues.

I know that transmitter was definitely tip top when I first got it. I could drive cars so far away I could barely see them with no glitching, latency or lag etc. I used it a lot at the local beach where my flysky stuff would have the weird range issues (maybe interference from coastguard radio or something?) anyway the Dumbo was in another league for range etc.

I guess I just need to try and methodically check different things. I know electronics can fail at any time. Maybe because I used it at the beach a lot something got corroded inside? Also my house has pretty high humidity and it's been sat dormant for over a year, so again, could be something to do with that. Maybe I'll take it apart and do a visual inspection.

I was going to order a second dumbo transmitter, anyway, so I guess that might be an idea if I get the same behaviour after trying a different receivers with my current one. 

Anyway, sorry for waffling on! Kind of frustrating again, today! The Flysky definitely solved the issue, but I have different issues with that stuff sometimes, so I'll be worried about that rearing it's head. Still, though, it was nice to have a drive without any kind of glitching, loss of power, or head on collisions with walls!


 

Sometimes I find walking away and leaving the ‘problem’ alone gives me some clarity and a eureka moment.

Reads like you broken the back of the issue and your methodical process of elimination is 100% sound 👍.

[Nikko85 3766]

Finishing off some older cars at the moment to tick them off the list! 

These are my three QDs, all have been widened and modded before, but I have just finished off a few tweaks to get them almost complete, I just need to add the cat driver like the blue FJ40 has to the rest!

The two FJ45s run 18T motors and are nice little runners on 9.6 volts. The Kei truck has a 12T motor on a 7.4 Li ion and is a beast, although mainly driven o flat wide open spaces as a crash could be fatal.

The silver FJ45 is new. 

The gearboxes all got drilled through with a nut on the other end, this makes them sturdier with less chance of stripping something. I also regreased the gears.

For the Kei truck I aslo made metal reinforcement bars to help support the rear bed. This means there is much less flex where it joins the cab.

Need to give them a blast now and drive them a little!

[nowinaminute 3319]

23 minutes ago, Grumpy pants said:

Sometimes I find walking away and leaving the ‘problem’ alone gives me some clarity and a eureka moment.

 

You're right, I just find it hard to switch off. 

It's totally true, though. Solutions, or even simply good fault finding ideas often just pop up randomly while laying in bed or doing chores etc. 

It's bittersweet, because it was nice to drive it and have full control for once, but obviously opened a can of worms for my "go to" radio system!

[nowinaminute 3319]

6 minutes ago, Nikko85 said:

Finishing off some older cars at the moment to tick them off the list! 

These are my three QDs, all have been widened and modded before, but I have just finished off a few tweaks to get them almost complete, I just need to add the cat driver like the blue FJ40 has to the rest!

The two FJ45s run 18T motors and are nice little runners on 9.6 volts. The Kei truck has a 12T motor on a 7.4 Li ion and is a beast, although mainly driven o flat wide open spaces as a crash could be fatal.

The silver FJ45 is new. 

The gearboxes all got drilled through with a nut on the other end, this makes them sturdier with less chance of stripping something. I also regreased the gears.

For the Kei truck I aslo made metal reinforcement bars to help support the rear bed. This means there is much less flex where it joins the cab.

Need to give them a blast now and drive them a little!

Those look great!

Funnily enough, I've been slowly working on putting a WPL pickup body on my QD monster beetle chassis. I was going to put it on my Lunchbox chassis at first, but the QD seems like a bit less work. I agree about it being one tip over from disaster, but I thought it might work quite well at the beach!

[alvinlwh 6884]

@BuggyDad @Jason1145 it is unlikely thr decal adhesive will work as it is for decals not stickers.

https://www.tamiya.com/english/products/87176/index.html

It exists in many names from different brands as "decal fix", "decal set", etc...

You can try it out by just diluting white glue with water. Even if it holds, it will not last long with stickers. It may work for a shelfer.

[alvinlwh 6884]

Got started with my entry to thr upcoming model show, a WR-02G that I bought when in Singapore in 2022.

I had gathered a handful of hopups bling for it and it will not be a serious runner.

First thing is to crack open the prebuilt gearbox to upgrade the bushings. I also got some lightweight hollow gear shafts for it. Not sure why Tamiya use 1 hollow shaft but 2 solid ones as standard. 🫤

This kit does come with 10 metal bearings as an 'extra which I will use in the gearbox. I got some rubber sealed ones for the external drive.

Gearbox reassembled and suspension arms on with the stainless steel shaft upgrade set and an aluminium wheelie wheel from GPM.

[Grumpy pants 5178]

10 hours ago, Nikko85 said:

Finishing off some older cars at the moment to tick them off the list! 

These are my three QDs, all have been widened and modded before, but I have just finished off a few tweaks to get them almost complete, I just need to add the cat driver like the blue FJ40 has to the rest!

The two FJ45s run 18T motors and are nice little runners on 9.6 volts. The Kei truck has a 12T motor on a 7.4 Li ion and is a beast, although mainly driven o flat wide open spaces as a crash could be fatal.

The silver FJ45 is new. 

The gearboxes all got drilled through with a nut on the other end, this makes them sturdier with less chance of stripping something. I also regreased the gears.

For the Kei truck I aslo made metal reinforcement bars to help support the rear bed. This means there is much less flex where it joins the cab.

Need to give them a blast now and drive them a little!

What a great line up and a really decent modern twist on some Tamiya classic’s.

[Grumpy pants 5178]

8 hours ago, alvinlwh said:

Got started with my entry to thr upcoming model show, a WR-02G that I bought when in Singapore in 2022.

I had gathered a handful of hopups bling for it and it will not be a serious runner.

First thing is to crack open the prebuilt gearbox to upgrade the bushings. I also got some lightweight hollow gear shafts for it. Not sure why Tamiya use 1 hollow shaft but 2 solid ones as standard. 🫤

This kit does come with 10 metal bearings as an 'extra which I will use in the gearbox. I got some rubber sealed ones for the external drive.

Gearbox reassembled and suspension arms on with the stainless steel shaft upgrade set and an aluminium wheelie wheel from GPM.

One of my favourite chassis’ the WR-02 👍