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Brian_Blessed

First-timer build of Stadium Blitzer. Hand holding probably needed!

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Hi. First post, first RC purchase and first build! So there is a lot i dont know, but ive wanted a Stadium Blitzer for 25yrs so its about time!

So far, i have bought the kit (which now comes with a basic ESC), plus paint and a sealed ball bearing kit (might as well do it from the start). Otherwise, i still need everything else as its my first rc car, but we can come to that later....

Ill use this to show my build and also might want to ask questions as i go (i have a couple already).....

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So, this is how far i have got so far.....

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I am now getting close to the stage where i can't do any more until i have bought a steering servo, and at that same time i will also buy the radio gear and battery / charger. The instructions are vague on which types of servo will or wont work so wanted to run this past you guys first so i dont make a mistake. Also, with the battery, i intend to get a large capacity LiPo battery to enable 'long' sessions. My decisions also need to be in the context of my longer term plan to upgrade to brushless (mild power, 2S) so i need items that will work before and after that change. I also intend to use it just for fun, but do like good quality over cheap pricing.

Will these be suitable before and after? (I am in Sweden hence my website choice for the links)

Servo: futuba 3072hv    https://www.autopartner.se/en/electronics/servon/futaba/futaba-servo-6-5kg-0-16s-hv-s-bus-s3152

Transmitter / receiver: Futuba 3pv pack  https://www.autopartner.se/en/electronics/sandare/futaba/3pv-rattradio-r203gf-2-4ghz

Battery: vapex 8000mAh lipo   https://www.autopartner.se/en/race-shop/ackar/li-po-batteri-7-4v-8000mah-70c-efra2016

Plus a suitable cheap lipo charger.

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In terms of the build so far, i have encountered 2 issues. 1 regarding the amount of material to remove to restore full steering lock after doing the bump steer mod (swapping the two front uprights over), and the other being the outer bearings falling out of the rear drive shaft hubs.

With the front uprights, i can see that there is a little bit of excess screw sticking through that i can file down (see pic), but have read inconsistently that i also need to dremmel away plastic from the suspension arm. Ive searched a lot and have not found a clear and consistent answer. I only want to do that if its necessary. Should i wait until i have the steering all set up first to see how much lock im missing?

With the rear bearings, it is only these ones that are loose in their housing, all others are nice and snug. Its the same on both sides and also if i use the supplied plastic bearings. Gravity and barely any shaking is sufficient for them to drop out. Presumably the hubs are fractionally too big? Is there a way of taking up the slack? Loctite? Rough up the outer surface of bearing/ inner surface of housing? I assume it just needs to be a higher friction than the bearing rotation resistance itself (im sure there is a better technical term)?

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Can't help with your questions so far sorry, but I want you to know that I'm reading your posts in Brian Blessed's voice.

I haven't tried that bump steer mod btw.

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I think these are great to run, I’ve had 6 over the years and when time and money permits I’d like to have another one again.

I’ve never had any issues and the bump steer mod is definetly worth while imo.

Theres a very good thread on TC by Ian16VGSI? That is well worth looking at as well. 

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I don't have any experience of the bump steer mod so no wisdom to impart on that front I'm afraid.

As for your bearing issue, I wouldn't worry. It might seem loose right now, but as soon as the weight of the vehicle is on the wheel, that will be transferred to the axle which in turn will press the bearing against the side of the hub and thereby cause more friction between the bearing and hub than there will be between the inner and outer race of the bearing. You can test this by hand. Put a slight upwards load on the axle as you spin between your fingers and you will see the inner race of the bearing spinning with the axle and the outer race of the bearing remaining stationary relative to the hub.

 

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Little front to tub attachment reinforcement, drill out the tub holes to 3mm and put an M3 bolt with nut thru it.

Decreases the tension caused by the cutting screw on those four tub holes.

Length of bolt depends on the model you run. Bearhawk/Falcon/Beetle need short the others a longer bolt.

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Thanks for the replies so far.

Pablo, perhaps i'll add a bit more flamboyant language to make it more like BB! "Marvelous! !"

Grumpy, thanks ive found it and am halfway through it. Interesting.

Turnip, that sounds reasonable. Ive tried it and think it was ok. Hard to tell precisely, but am less concerned now.

Waterbok, looks good. I saw it mentioned in the thread grumpy highlighted too. I was surprised by how lightly attached it all is. Will add that to my list...

 

Can anyone help with the bump steer question, or the compatibility / suitability of the servo, radio gear, battery i listed?

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Happy to see another Stadium Blitzer build! Personal favourite tamyia. I've done the bump steer mod with no frame cutting or mods for what it's worth.

Looking forward to seeing the finished article! 

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4 hours ago, Brian_Blessed said:

Can anyone help with the bump steer question, or the compatibility / suitability of the servo, radio gear, battery i listed?

Nothing wrong with your radio or servo choices. Pretty much any standard size servo and radio of 2 channels or more will work. 

As for the battery,  many of the older Tamiya chassis are designed around rounded stick pack batteries with the cables exiting at one end. The battery you linked to shouldn't pose any problems in terms of the cables exiting upwards, but it might be worth confirming the length, breadth and height of the pack to make sure it fits the battery bay as rectangular LiPos are often a bit bigger than stick packs in at least one dimension. 

 

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Hi Bryan. If you are going straight for Lipo then I would recommend getting the Core RC CR293. It is a great performing battery but the big win is that it is shaped to fit any vintage tamiya. So it will definitely fit your stadium blitzer but if you pick up any other tamiya cars the battery will definitely go in those too. I bought a rectangular Lipo first and wish I hadn't as it only fits 2 cars. My Core RC  battery gets used loads as it will fit in any of them. 

 

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I was going to suggest the Core RC pack too, but it is a bit limited in terms of capacity at only 4000mAH.

I agree with you regarding its versatility though. I have two of them and have yet to find a Tamiya that they don't fit. 

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Thanks. So, the core rc is tempting for knowing it will plug right in but am wanting larger capacity as i wont use the car regularly but when i do ill want long run times without messing on with multple batteries.

Ive checked the dimensions of the tray area for the battery (142x49x27 max) for a rectangle hard battery so long as i dremmel down the curved fins to support a rounded battery. So the one above should be ok. But i do have another question about the battery... the image of it shows a cable that i can see at one end connects to the battery, but the other seems to end with heatshrink and... nothing. What am i looking at there? Do i need to solder on a tamiya type plug? Is there a simple solution?

Also what is the small white plug for? Balance for charging and/or adding a battery alarm?

By the way, i just got a shock at how much my shopping cart comes to for all the 'other stuff', about £250 / $300! (Other currencies available along with accurate exchange rates) Its an expensive business this when you need literally everything!! I guess there are cheaper options, but i dont want to buy again in a years time etc...

 

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Hi Brian, Blitzers are so cool! Great fun to run... I did the steering mod and grindet away less then 1mm to have full clearence with the adjuster at the end of the rods. It works without grinding but I liked to have the maximum of steering.
There are two othe mods, one are rods inbetween front an rear upper daper stay. The second one are the upper and lower brace which are available on shapeways. Definitly a winning team! Also I put some brass pipes around the damper stay where the screw goes in. All some weak spots on the Blitzers and if you want to run it hard, its a good thing to have it. Anyway, drive styles are different :lol: Her eis a link to my topic, there are some informations about driveshafts for exsample.

 

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For what is worth I fit hardcase 2s packs (cheap ones, £20 or so) in Blitzers with ease. Either some hardcore velcro or a bit of bendy plastic, HDPE or polycarb and you could easily fabricate a new "strap" 

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Might end up designing a printable strap for larger packs. 

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13 hours ago, Brian_Blessed said:

But i do have another question about the battery... the image of it shows a cable that i can see at one end connects to the battery, but the other seems to end with heatshrink and... nothing. What am i looking at there? Do i need to solder on a tamiya type plug? Is there a simple solution?

Also what is the small white plug for? Balance for charging and/or adding a battery alarm?

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The heat shrinked ends of the cables showing in the picture are indeed there for you to solder on your own plug, however I would strongly recommend against the standard Tamiya Molex connector. They might have been alright back in the days of low capacity batteries and low current draw motors, but with today's motors and batteries, they are prone to melting and self-destruction.

There are many alternatives out there with far greater current carrying capabilities, the most popular probably being Deans and XT60s. Both have arguments for and against. Deans are most widely used, with many different batteries and speed controllers coming with them fitted as standard. However XT60s are easier to solder, but they are also easier to unplug, which means sometimes they unplug themselves as you're driving. Deans on the other hand to stay together nice and securely, but can be a bit difficult to disconnect when you want to unplug them. Both are however more than capable of carrying the currents typically found in a 1/10 scale model car, so both are significantly better for the job than the stock Tamiya option.

As for the little white plug, that is indeed for balancing, and you can also use it to plug in an external lipo alarm if you wish to. This would be a very good idea if you are planning to use the speed controller supplied with the kit, as it does not feature a built-in lipo cut-off.

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An interesting read Collin, thanks. Nice work.

So, it looks like a hard case battery is a go, but i will need to purchase the relevant connectors and also swap the plug on the Tamiya ESC accordingly.

Ive also read about safety when charging Lipos, so will charge on a non flammable surface in a protective bag and also keep it stored in there when not in use. Am adding a battery alarm to my list too as ill be using it with the basic ESC until i go brushless in the future.

Havent done much with it the last few days other than internet research. Its going to more of a leasurely paced build than some of the ones ive read about!

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So, when I said it was going to be a leasurely paced build I obviously wasn't joking. But I've started again and bought most of what I need to complete it. Transmitter,receiver, servo, battery, charger. I have questions though....

 

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At this stage I want to hook up all the electrics to check function and also centre the steering servo before fitting it all. So the immediate problem I have is to get matching plugs for everything. My battery leads came without a plug, my charge cable has an m6 plug (whatever that is), esc has a tamiya plug and I bought two pairs of what I think are Dean's plugs.

Could someone check these pictures and confirm I'm on the right path or if not what I should buy to complete it?

Particularly on the deans plugs they have a smooth connector that looks more like something you'd attach a crimp connector to rather than solder onto it. Not least because the battery wires are quite bulky relative to the size of the connector/pin that I assume I should solder it to. Is that normal? Anyone have a pic of a 'good example'?

Thanks!

 

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1 hour ago, Brian_Blessed said:

Could someone check these pictures and confirm I'm on the right path or if not what I should buy to complete it?

Particularly on the deans plugs they have a smooth connector that looks more like something you'd attach a crimp connector to rather than solder onto it. Not least because the battery wires are quite bulky relative to the size of the connector/pin that I assume I should solder it to. Is that normal? Anyone have a pic of a 'good example'?

You are on the right track. I have much the same setup on many of my cars.

You would cut off the white battery connector from the ESC and solder on the male Deans connector. Soldering is a tad tricky, and is made a lot easier if you solder the positive cable to the outside of the terminal rather than the inside as you would with thinner cables. The connector on the right shows what I mean.

dean2.jpg

The female side goes on the battery and charger cables. The left side shows a nice example.

Heatshrink tubing of course is a great way of hiding less than perfect soldering, and is a good idea from a safety perspective too.

 

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17 minutes ago, TurnipJF said:

You are on the right track. I have much the same setup on many of my cars.

You would cut off the white battery connector from the ESC and solder on the male Deans connector. Soldering is a tad tricky, and is made a lot easier if you solder the positive cable to the outside of the terminal rather than the inside as you would with thinner cables. The connector on the right shows what I mean.

dean2.jpg

The female side goes on the battery and charger cables. The left side shows a nice example.

Heatshrink tubing of course is a great way of hiding less than perfect soldering, and is a good idea from a safety perspective too.

 

Thanks Turnip. I follow all of that apart from the bit about the charge cable needing a female plug. The charge cable I have (pictured above) has the banana plugs going into the charger body and the plug end (currently m6) presumably connecting to the battery cable. If I put a female on the battery cable I'll need a male on the charge cable.... unless I'm still missing a vital bit of basic RC knowledge (which is likely!).

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1 minute ago, Brian_Blessed said:

Thanks Turnip. I follow all of that apart from the bit about the charge cable needing a female plug. The charge cable I have (pictured above) has the banana plugs going into the charger body and the plug end (currently m6) presumably connecting to the battery cable. If I put a female on the battery cable I'll need a male on the charge cable.... unless I'm still missing a vital bit of basic RC knowledge (which is likely!).

Nope, you are right - the confusion there was mine.

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Just now, TurnipJF said:

Nope, you are right - the confusion there was mine.

Great - I now have the knowledge to move on to the next phase of building. I'll report back with progress, or more likely more questions!

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Rest of the chassis done now so will start on the electrics next.

Quick question: do I need to use tyre cement? I don’t have any but will get some if required. The tyres are seated very securely but presumably it’s more to seal the air path so they don’t compress so easily?

 

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With a Blitzer on a silver can it's not needed honestly. Plus the rear tires are pretty much decoration only and you'll need to change them after 3/4 runs. Schumacher make some great ones that look near identical but are world's apart. 

It's my understanding that when you glue tires you don't want an air seal. Some inner foams will probably be a good idea though. 

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