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Pablo68

Pro Tips

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When going on a walk/bash with one of your cars, remember to put the battery strap back in to keep the battery in place.

I mean, who would go out without doing that......ahem....

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When finally installing/tidying up the wiring in a model to square it away, make sure you cut into the wires rather that the wire tie with your snips.

(not recently, but it has happened)

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When using bullet battery connectors and in a rush to get your mini ready for your heat, do not plug the - wire into the + hole on your battery.

The magic smoke will be released from your 2 run old Tekin RS Spec.

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When in a rush to complete adjustments on your car before taking it to the line for one of its highest-ever qualifications for the finals at a major race meeting, always remember to reattach the pinion to the motor before bolting it back in.

 

 

:blink:

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When trouble shooting... always make one change at a time and test before making another change.

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Dont accidently use gun metal paint instead of smoke paint on the windows on a shell you have spent the previous two weeks masking and painting perfectly to that point.

Read the labels on the cans as the lids look very similar.

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If you really like soldering Deans connectors make sure you forget to slide on the heat shrink tubing. If done correctly you get to solder the connector twice.

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this pro tips thread is now officially the bonehead mistakes thread. mistakes made by other people. obviously.

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Check hex size and compatibility of hop up wheels before purchase. 

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Stock up on cheap oil shocks from China.  The shinier the better.

Nothing says "professional racer" like leaking oil and bent shafts...

Terry

 

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On 12/18/2019 at 9:05 PM, MockTurtle said:

peel the protective film off the shell before applying the stickers

Done but luckily I always try and reposition and that’s when I realise haha

Im just always too excitable

 

JJ 

 

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8 hours ago, Problemchild said:

Done but luckily I always try and reposition and that’s when I realise haha

Im just always too excitable

 

JJ 

 

dug out my old ta03 corolla from storage (must've been more than 15 years?). the stickers and protective film were peeling off.... 

yep i stickered the whole body with the protective film still on :rolleyes::D ... too excitable. that must be it. 

worked out ok though - after removing the film i had an almost blemish-free shell. mci stickers and all is well in the world again!

JWcHgXU.jpg?1

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Read then measure 3 times 

Cut / paint / drill / screw 1 

If it’s still a mess that’s down to talent ...

But you’ll feel a better class of idiot 😂

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Back in the day, when you couldn't afford a fancy quick battery charger with a timer on it, hook up your ni-cad battery to a car battery using quick charge leads.
Walk away and do something else and completely forget about it.
Come back to check when you hear a dull thud and a series of popping and spraying noises.
(I was a young fella)

Do this several times over intervening years especially when you feel like trudging to the LHS to buy a new battery you can't really afford either.

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When going out on any bash or event, your pocket toolkit should always include:

  • Sufficient tools to access the pinion and tighten up the grub screw that will be loose
  • Spare drive pins to replace the ones you'll lose when the wheel nuts come loose
  • Spare batteries to replace the ones in your Tx, which went completely flat last time you were out and which you completely forgot about

Additional top tips:

  • When removing Tamiya plugs from your completely new battery fresh from the box, clip one lead at a time with the metal snips so as to avoid shorting the battery and blowing a cell
  • When you have learned the above through experience, prove your knowledge by not doing the exact same thing again 2 minutes later on the second battery you bought
  • Before trimming out the solid window portion of a window decal, check that it is actually a solid colour and not an attractive smoke tint
  • After going to lots of effort to mask the windows of your Lexan body, be sure that the window decal you are about to apply is actually a smoke tint and not a solid window decal.  You can easily trim out the solid window portion before fitting, but you can't easily trim it out after fitting
  • When test-running your very first 4S-compatible ESC, don't use extra long plug converting flyleads from the batteries to the ESC.  High-power brushless speedos induce high back-EMF in long flyleads which can fry your expensive ESC in less than 15 minutes
  • If your LiPo pack should expand to 3 times its normal size during the first final, check the gearing, drivetrain and power system before you fit an identical LiPo and go out again in the second final
  • If, in heat 1, your car clips the inside corner of the track at full speed and rips off the entire rear suspension, check that the track is properly assembled and doesn't have any hard exposed edges before you buy a used car off another racer and go out again in heat 2
  • When swapping pinions on any car that doesn't have a visible pinion mesh, check the pinion spacing in the manual.  Don't eyeball it and go out in heat 1 with only 0.5mm of the pinion's width in contact with the spur gear
  • Don't assume your 7-year-old transponder will be compatible with the timing system at a one-year-old race circuit
  • Don't assume that any car which performed superbly and achieved consistent fast laptimes will come out of the box, untouched, at the same track, in the same weather conditions, exactly one year later, and perform superbly and achieve consistent fast laptimes
  • If you charge all your LiPos for a major end-of-season event which is cancelled at the last moment, don't promise yourself you will take the opportunity to run all your cars and home in the next few days.  Definitely don't put all your LiPos on the shelf fully-charged and forget about them for 6 months
  • Don't race an SRB in a 2-hour endurance event, ever
  • When racing a TL-01 with stock gearing, don't assume that superior acceleration out of corners will make up for a serious lack of straight-line speed against cars running speed tuned gearing on a circuit with a very long back straight
  • If the weather has been warm, sunny and dry for a fortnight before a major outdoor race event, don't assume it will continue to be warm, sunny and dry for the duration of said outdoor race event.  Or, indeed, at any point during the outdoor race event
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On 1/2/2020 at 8:57 PM, Mad Ax said:

When going out on any bash or event, your pocket toolkit should always include:

  • Sufficient tools to access the pinion and tighten up the grub screw that will be loose
  • Spare drive pins to replace the ones you'll lose when the wheel nuts come loose
  • Spare batteries to replace the ones in your Tx, which went completely flat last time you were out and which you completely forgot about

Additional top tips:

  • When removing Tamiya plugs from your completely new battery fresh from the box, clip one lead at a time with the metal snips so as to avoid shorting the battery and blowing a cell
  • When you have learned the above through experience, prove your knowledge by not doing the exact same thing again 2 minutes later on the second battery you bought
  • Before trimming out the solid window portion of a window decal, check that it is actually a solid colour and not an attractive smoke tint
  • After going to lots of effort to mask the windows of your Lexan body, be sure that the window decal you are about to apply is actually a smoke tint and not a solid window decal.  You can easily trim out the solid window portion before fitting, but you can't easily trim it out after fitting
  • When test-running your very first 4S-compatible ESC, don't use extra long plug converting flyleads from the batteries to the ESC.  High-power brushless speedos induce high back-EMF in long flyleads which can fry your expensive ESC in less than 15 minutes
  • If your LiPo pack should expand to 3 times its normal size during the first final, check the gearing, drivetrain and power system before you fit an identical LiPo and go out again in the second final
  • If, in heat 1, your car clips the inside corner of the track at full speed and rips off the entire rear suspension, check that the track is properly assembled and doesn't have any hard exposed edges before you buy a used car off another racer and go out again in heat 2
  • When swapping pinions on any car that doesn't have a visible pinion mesh, check the pinion spacing in the manual.  Don't eyeball it and go out in heat 1 with only 0.5mm of the pinion's width in contact with the spur gear
  • Don't assume your 7-year-old transponder will be compatible with the timing system at a one-year-old race circuit
  • Don't assume that any car which performed superbly and achieved consistent fast laptimes will come out of the box, untouched, at the same track, in the same weather conditions, exactly one year later, and perform superbly and achieve consistent fast laptimes
  • If you charge all your LiPos for a major end-of-season event which is cancelled at the last moment, don't promise yourself you will take the opportunity to run all your cars and home in the next few days.  Definitely don't put all your LiPos on the shelf fully-charged and forget about them for 6 months
  • Don't race an SRB in a 2-hour endurance event, ever
  • When racing a TL-01 with stock gearing, don't assume that superior acceleration out of corners will make up for a serious lack of straight-line speed against cars running speed tuned gearing on a circuit with a very long back straight
  • If the weather has been warm, sunny and dry for a fortnight before a major outdoor race event, don't assume it will continue to be warm, sunny and dry for the duration of said outdoor race event.  Or, indeed, at any point during the outdoor race event

This is gold.

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3 hours ago, Pablo68 said:

This is gold.

it is also all true

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Some say that a Car you've just finished building/working on, will never run quite right and have bad feng shui unless you do a burnout on your lap with it....

I live by this.

(My sons also frequently laugh at me because of this)

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Make sure that you buy more cars that turn into major repair/restoration projects to put on the pile of major repair/restoration projects that you already have sitting around and haven't got to doing yet.

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Do ensure that you have your running shoes on when you have placed two batteries with litespeed connectors immediately next to each other and your 6yo goes to plug the plugs into each other. Also be prepared for his look of disdain at the arm flapping loud warning he is given, and to explain to him the consequences of his actions should the old man not have got there in time. I'm sure I prevented a black hole forming. But I didn't prevent my lad from receiving further proof his dad is an over-reactive idiot (at least in his mind). I soldered XT60's on the next day.

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