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Jml12

Help for an old newbie !

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Hi there, new to this forum and after some help if possible so I thought a short introduction might be worthwhile.

I had 2 Wild Willies & a Lunch Box & 3 (sssh) Kyosho Citroen ZX Rallye Raids back in the 80s that all ended up in the attic.Ten years ago I bought a Wild Willy 2 but never got round to building it. Fast forward to today and grandchildren are old enough to appreciate them all so I’m trying to build the WW2 and restore one of the WW1s. However my RC knowledge - not great even back in the 80s - is now totally out of date so help would be much appreciated. I only just heard of BECs back then !

So, today I see ESCs are the norm but, dumb question here, do they replace the receiver or do you need a receiver as well as an ESC ?

Also, I was pleasantly surprised to see that several of my dozen or so old batteries still have life in them so and one of them appeared to recharge ok with my fast charger but would it be better to use a trickle charger ?

I’ve still got 6 Futaba Attack SR & Acoms Techniplus transmitters which, luckily, I seem to have stored ok and they look like they’ll work ok. Is there any reason for not still using them ? What would be 5he advantages of using a modern set up instead.

Ok, that’s all of my questions for now. I’ve got quite a few spares for my original WW so if there’s anything you’re after, just ask - who knows, I may be able to help !

Cheers
 

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Couldn’t work out how to include pic with original post but I’ve taken a photo of a photo on my phone and it works !

 

 

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On behalf of the more knowledgeable folk who I’m sure will be along shortly, welcome to TC and back to the hobby. You had some great finds up in that loft!

The electronic speed controller replaces the mechanical speed controller in the older models, a transmitter (tx) still requires a receiver (rx) to tell the ESC speed / motor direction and the steeering servo its direction.

You should still be able to use your old tx/rx but the modern ones running on 2.4Ghz frequencies suffer less from interference, have a good range and I believe are less power hungry (four batteries in the tx rather than eight, for example).

I believe a trickle charger is best but as for why, I think it preserves the life of the battery - someone here will confirm and tell you about the new(ish) LiPo battery technology which could be a game changer.

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Thanks for your reply and for your welcome :)

what had confused about esc and receivers was that all of the ‘ready to run bundles’ appeared to show a transmitter and an esc but I couldn’t see a receiver so I thought maybe now everything was incorporated into just one unit !

Cheers

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My suggestion would be to 

A . get the wild willy 2 running with an esc, receiver 

B. Get the luchbox going too, by this stage you'll want a sports tuned motor 

C do a lot of research on here and other forums and u tube , get some confidence up with running  maintenance and then restore those two original Willys, 

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Welcome back!! 👍

Some of the RTR bundles have a reciever and Electronic Speed Control built in one unit, (you can get motors with a esc built in too now!) personally I don't like this way of doing things, as if you get an issue with either, then the whole unit is toast.

As for the old radio gear, absolutely no reason not to use it, if it still works, but,  as with all 30+ year electronics, you may find dry soldering joints may make them unreliable, but you can buy new 27mhz recievers for £2.50!

Some of the new radio gear do have a heap of features, Adjustable launch control, adjustable ABS brakes, telemetry and one i use with my kids , EPA (End Point Adjustment), this feature means you can alter full throttle to say, 30% ,giving young ones a chance to learn at a slower pace (and save smashing up daddy's racing car! 🙄😛)

If the cars ran before they were stored, no reason why they won't run now, although if you do get radio interference with a MSC (Mechanical Speed Control) it will just carry on going until either the battery runs out, or hits something, with an esc, if you loose signal, it stops.

If you are looking at buying an esc, the Hobbywing Quicrun 1060 (generally just known as a, 1060) are the goto esc for brushed motors, will run upto 12v (3s lipo) and with low volt Lipo cut off (if you decide to go down that route),  under £20 from model shops, but available for a tenner on eBay, but, most likely a copy at that price (Although my cheap ones have been fine)

Motor wise, stick with the 540 silver can until crashes are less frequent, then worry about it, I'd recommend the HPI firebolt 15t at around £8, although I think HPI are in the process of folding.

Batteries, I'd get new ones, things have moved along a bit since the nicad days, nimh replaced them and are a better battery , then lipo battey tech came along and now liHV (Although, I'd suggest the Nimh battery until you find your feet, lipo need some looking after to be safe). You can get a fairly good Nimh for under £20. 

Charger, I'd look at a new charger, like with the batteries, chargers have improved too, an Imax B6 are fairly cheap and will do pretty much everything you need, bar make a cup of tea! 😎

 

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I would keep Wild Willy 1 for my pleasure!  There are no replacement parts for Wild Willy 1.  I imagine Citoen would be equally hard to fix.  I would let the kids have at it with Willy 2, and Lunchbox.  The parts for them are abundant.  

As explained, 1 ESC replaces the mechanical speed control (MSC) + servo for MSC.  The innards would have only 3 parts: Steering Servo, ESC, and Receiver.  I see no reason why you cannot use old radio sets.  If you want to keep the old charger, that's fine too. 

I would cycle (not 'recycle' just yet) the old battery.  Meaning, fully charge (slow charge), let it cool if warm, and then drain it until the battery is noticeably weak.  Let it cool again, and slow charge again.  Repeat this 5-6 times.  You will notice that the battery gets stronger and lasts longer.  After several times, the battery is restored as much as it could.  If it lasted 15 minutes back in the days, it would only last 7 minutes, depending on the condition of the storage.  

If you want to keep the charger, you cannot get Li-Po (lithium-polymer) batteries.  They are better, but requires a lot of maintenance, fire hazard too.  With kids around, I'd get NiMH.  I would not get high-capacity like 7000mAh.  At the charge rate of 350mAh (for example), it would take 21 hours.  Also if you don't use all that power, you will have to cycle again, which will take weeks.  For bashing, around 3000mAh should be enough.  It will trickle charge in about 12 hours, and it will still run for 25-30 minutes with stock motors.  Kids get bored fast, so 30 minutes would feel like forever for them.  

I also have 1060 ESC bearing various manufacturers' names.  Some have none.  But they all seem to function the same way.  A few of those and a couple of NiMH would get them running.  

P.S. I thought the Citroen ZX was Peugeot 405--they look quite similar.  

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Hi folks, That’s brilliant - many thanks for all of your thoughts and suggestions.

I’ve now realised what had confused me ! In the WW2 instructions, they suggst a CPR unit like Wooders 28 mentions ( adspec GT-1) so I could only see one unit inside the model.

Anyway, as suggested, I’ve managed to get the WW2 working with one of my old TX/RX sets and, pending me painting the body properly, I’ve managed to loosely fit one of my WW1 shells to the WW2 mechanicals. However, bearing in mind what Juggular has said, I’ll get the WW2 body ready as soon as possible.

Re the Citroen ZX Rally Raid, I reckon that part of the reason it looks like the Peugeot is because of the colour scheme. Those were both in the original Camel colours and I actually got the chance to briefly drive one of the real cars which, with 330hp, was pretty exciting ! Later, they changed the colours to Citroen’s new corporate colour of red and I’ve got a couple of shells like that:

 

One other question, if I may ? Is the current (recent ?) Lunch Box body the same as the original ?

Thanks again to everyone :)

Cheers

Julian

 

FC259245-07A2-429C-A4A5-5D606982177F.jpeg

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Take a look at this - and, if you don’t like Clarkson, skip to the last 15 seconds or so. I built that car :)

 

 

 

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4 hours ago, Jml12 said:

Is the current (recent ?) Lunch Box body the same as the original ?

For the most part, yes.  It might have "PE" printed on the inside to indicate perhaps different plastic used, but by and large, it is the same.  

PS- Citroen ZX looks awesome. Both yours and Top Gear (I assume he ran Kyosho at the end?)

 

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Wow ! Thanks for replying so late at night ! and thanks for the info. Assuming I get my Lunch Box going again, which looks promising, maybe I’ll put a new body on it cos mine is pretty well battered.

And a final thank you for your kind comments about the ZX. I built about 6 of them and it was one of those that JC used in the filming - some of them have gone to the great model graveyard but I’ve kept the least damaged ones ! and yes, they were all Kyosho.

Cheers

Julian

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