Mistakes made in RC

[Jason1145]

Doing letter writing onto a tyre sidewall before the tyre is mounted on to the tyre..... some tyres are so hard to get on the wheels you just end up smudging and rubbing off the paint all over the rest of the tyre.... looks like a drunk girls lipstick after a night out!

 

What other mistakes have you guys made that others can learn from?

[MadInventor]

Persevering with NimH when I should have gone LiPo.

Waiting until the end of last year to buy my first 2.4GHz radio set.

3S LiPo batteries are the cheapest way to liven the performance of a standard Tamiya vehicle running silver cans.

When you first open a tube of superglue, don't hold the lid you've just used to pierce the tube with in your mouth while trying to screwing the nozzle on .....

Running a hotshot with a vintage plated wheel set. The gold flakes off around the centre of the wheels pretty  much instantly.

[howaboutme]

Not paying attention to the instructions even though I swear I did....

[gary1365]

Don't glue tyres in bed. Also if you drop the glue while gluing tyres in bed don't squeeze the bottle when you catch it as it goes everywhere and ruins the bed clothes and makes your wife angry lol. On same subject CA doesn't wash out of cotton even if you put it on a hot wash lol.

Don't touch tyres, wheels, towershocks or anything else when your gluing them. CA and model parts are very hard to remove from skin lol. 

Don't hold things with or put things in your mouth while your gluing them or using glue.

Don't glue things when a curious kitten is around it will end badly lol. The kitten was fine btw I got hurt more by it lol.

Basically I need a responsible adult to do my gluing I have a very bad history with CA or superglue.  

[gary1365]

Erm a new one to add don't do donuts on your hard wood livingroom floor. On another note how do you get tyre marks off a hard wood floor lol 🤔

[yogi-bear]

don't grab the soldering iron while its on at the tip

don't bid on a Blazing Star, confusing it with a Dirt Thrasher and win

make sure to do a small test first when you want to remove paint from a vintage Audi Quattro body

When attaching hobby solid fuel rocket engines to Celica LB Turbo, make sure to reduce the steering

[casethejoint]

When attaching hobby solid fuel rocket engines to Celica LB Turbo, make sure to reduce the steering

That's not a mistake, that just automatically qualifies you as an epic individual

I threw away a bunch of R/C stuff in about 1986 before I realised that it would become collectable and I'd come full circle back to it one day. Now I never ever throw anything away, ever.

[MadInventor]

37 minutes ago, gary1365 said:

Erm a new one to add don't do donuts on your hard wood livingroom floor. On another note how do you get tyre marks off a hard wood floor lol 🤔

Power sander

Another one to add to the list, never start building anything that you know is going to take more than 2 years to build. Coming on the 2nd anniversary of starting the war rig build and still haven't started on the bodywork yet ......

[AndyjcClod]

Same as MadInventor for me with the sticking with NimH for far too long before I switched to Lipo.

Some of my other errors throughout the years have been..

1. I used to paint polocarbonate bodies before I cut them out and occasionally scrached my newly painted paint work so I have now stopped this and cut and paint (lesson leanrt!)

.2. Using too much locktight and having the plastic corrode when it was :/

3. R\C car VS milk float when R\C went out of control flat out (Milk float won) R\C car was crushed (back in the 90s.I was very upset)

4. Shooting a lipo battery with a air pistol (Do not try this at home) realising afterwards teh video camera was not recording  >:(

5. Buring my finger on teh square white black that used to come with teh old Tamiya kits (it was on my falcon) and I still have a triangle scan on my finger where it got melted over 25 years ago!

 

[speedy_w_beans]

I usually forget to slip the heat shrink tubing on the wires before soldering them to the connector...  Forcing me to take it apart and do it again.

 

[Macinnis]

Turn the throttle max all the way down on your controller before handing it to a child begging to drive your expensive toy.  

[TurnipJF]

Don't try to find the one perfect all round model - rather accept that different models excel in different areas, and to enjoy the hobby to the max, you'll need to have a fleet of them.

[iluvmud]

Old school days of am/fm radios and MSC..... hey let's see how far it can go.....

[zomboided]

6 minutes ago, TurnipJF said:

Don't try to find the one perfect all round model - rather accept that different models excel in different areas, and to enjoy the hobby to the max, you'll need to have a fleet of them.

Yeah but what are you saying, one for each day of the year?

[Theibault]

Don't buy cheap Chinese junk. Don't forget you have an RC because you have so many and buy a second one on accident. Don't paint when the temps are below 50F. Don't get upgrade fever, especially when you have enough cars that you basically have a car for every purpose. When flying FPV, don't ever fly that last battery pack (bad things happen on the last pack of the day, it always gets you lol). Don't look at the The "postman Brought Me" Thread, ever (unless you are ok being broke or choosing RC over food ). Finally, don't EVER sell any of your RCs (might require eventually buying a larger house to store them in). 

[Mad Ax]

2 hours ago, speedy_w_beans said:

I usually forget to slip the heat shrink tubing on the wires before soldering them to the connector...  Forcing me to take it apart and do it again.

That's dedication.  I usually just swear a bit, then wrap it with electrical tape.

45 minutes ago, Theibault said:

When flying FPV, don't ever fly that last battery pack (bad things happen on the last pack of the day, it always gets you lol).

I have exactly the same thing with motorcycle trackdays.  The penultimate session is always my best, that's always when I park up and say "that's it, that's the session I wanted today."  I know, deep down inside, that if I go out for just one more session, I'll try too hard and end up having a miserable time, and have to ride home feeling hot and sweaty and disappointed.

[markbt73]

If an X-Acto knife rolls off the table, jump back and let it fall. Don't try to catch it. (Thirty years later, I still have a faint scar...)

[gary1365]

10 minutes ago, markbt73 said:

If an X-Acto knife rolls off the table, jump back and let it fall. Don't try to catch it. (Thirty years later, I still have a faint scar...)

I caught a modelling knife with my bare foot that fell of the top of a wardrobe years ago. It stuck into my foot and just stayed there wobbling back and forth. I didn't really hurt and I just pulled it out again  it was more surreal than anything lol. 

[firefoxussr]

Don't switch off the transmitter while running the car to check if the loss-of-signal throttle safety is working.

[Catchy]

Cracking thread, I can relate to so many! Made me chuckle...

My one, forget to charge Lipo after use, next weekend end up on ebay buying a new one rather than going for a run...

[Supercoolnothing]

Not car but aircraft related, when working with cellulose dope never underestimate the importance of good ventilation and a respirator. I was working in the garage with the door half open on a very still day totally forgetting how the fumes can sneak up on you. Finish the job, walk outside and the moment the fresh air hits me I realised that I am suddenly as high as a kite and barely able to walk. Five minutes of sitting down outside later and I felt confident enough to try walking again. 

Fast forward to a couple of years ago and making a giant set of insect wings for my wife to do a cosplay only this time I'm working in the house blissfully unaware of the fumes and history like they say has the nasty habit of repeating itself.... 

When will I ever learn? 

[martinjpayne]

Back in the 80's when we used to assemble our own NiCad stick packs without these fancy plastic end caps, I put a fully charged one into my jacket pocket which also had a bunch of keys in it... burnt a hole in the jacket, keys and stick pack fell through the hole and I burnt my hand picking up the red hot keys!

[Wooders28]

I think @MadInventor hit some big nails on the head there.

Should have gone lipo, but for fear of them exploding had me worried, didn't think it worth it for 0.2v extra but reality is, a 2s is at least 1.2v extra, for 80% longer! (So yeah, while you're at it,may aswell be a 3s,or 4s or 5s!  😁)

Swapping to 2.4 - A (good) 2.4 radio has more features than i knew existed! Alter servo speed/movements , alter throttle curves, launch control and ABS brakes!?! 

Only sell a car if you have more than one, even then, you'll wish you hadn't sold it (4x Ultima's with 2x nip top deck, 2x nip wheels ! Why oh why!!) 

Tried actual tyre lettering paint pen for 1:1 tyres, knocked over the pen, turns out it lifts lacquer from your dining room table and stains it, I get reminded of this error most meal times.....

[moffman]

10 hours ago, Jason1145 said:

Doing letter writing onto a tyre sidewall before the tyre is mounted on to the tyre..... some tyres are so hard to get on the wheels you just end up smudging and rubbing off the paint all over the rest of the tyre.... looks like a drunk girls lipstick after a night out!

 

What other mistakes have you guys made that others can learn from?

Tyre wall writing is my big nemesis at the moment i was really good at the super gripper logo but then age and suddenly realising i couldn't see and needed glasses soon made me look at what a mess i was making (top picture is a few years ago which (not blowing my own trumpet) is pretty perfect! bottom picture is a few weeks ago and what's gone wrong) and also what was a monumental mistake I've done is selling my mud blaster on eBay and not putting a reserve on it and it went for peanut's (and i really mean absolutely peanuts)

[one_hit]

Turning off the transmitter first before turning off the switch in my 1/8 nitro buggy. Forgot that the failsafe was programmed to apply full brakes when there is a loss of signal, causing my expensive throttle/brake servo to burn out after a couple of minutes.  

 

Soldering a brushless motor to an ESC and not noticing that two of the three terminals in the motor were shorted with solder, causing my ESC to literally go up in smoke