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FTX Outback Mini-X LC90

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Just a little ongoing project to rebody and convert an FTX Outback Mini-X to stick controls and add a trainer system for my daughter.

This began as a Christmas present for Chiana the Scwub, who was super-excited to unwrap her Very Own Car, but at 4 years old this week she is still only at the very start of her RC journey and hasn't yet mastered driving my cars around the garden.  I figured this would be a perfect starter since it's big enough to get over basic obstacles but small enough to drive inside without having to do 19-point turns and having to turn the throttle endpoint down to 2%.

Initial review: I'm actually very impressed with it.  OK, it's plasticy and lightweight, but the suspension geometry is good (it even has a 3-link with panhard rod at the front), travel is adequate but not so much it topples over at the merest hint of an obstacle and the LC90 body really is a good-looking thing - my photos don't do it justice but IMO it is a very good replica of a Toyota Landcruiser from an era when the Toyota Landcruiser was the perfect platform to cross the harshest of African terrain, stage a military coup or get your kids to school in complete safety.  However, the standard colour is grey, and while I think it's a nice grey and I'd be happy to have it grey if it was mine, it isn't mine, it belongs to Chiana the Scwub, and she prefers purple, because purple is her favourite colour.  And yellow, and red, and green, and blue, and rainbow, but mostly purple.

She has currently driven it twice.  First time was in Christmas day, second time was a fortnight later when I finally had time to sit down and set her loose with it.  However, tiny as the stock pistol controller is, it's still too big for her little scwubly fingers, and after twenty minutes she said "but Daddy, I like the square ones."  Which, after some clarification and with the aid of the budding skill of translating from Child to Adult, means she likes the stick controllers.  Of course, I have previously educated her on how to drive her Very Own Lunchbox in the garden using my Turnigy stick controller.

So - as her birthday was approaching, I figured it was a good excuse to double the money invested in the little Outback and get her a new body and a FlySky transmitter.  Better still, I could get a buddy cable to use the trainer system on the radio so I can let her drive it properly with the ability to take over without having to take back the handset.  The only drawback was the standard receiver is combined with the ESC and wasn't compatible with the FlySky, so I had to replace that as well.

Today started like this.  New clear body, new FS-i6 handset (converted to 4-spring operation), spare TGY-iA6 receiver, cheapo 2S ESC from Banggood, and genuine FTX LC90 body.

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First up - proof of concept. All the connectors on the new ESC were different, so I hooked it up using breadboard patch leads.

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Everything worked just fine.  The ESC seems to be backwards - i.e. forward is back, back is forward - but everything is hooked up as per the labels so I figured it was better to reverse the motor polarity than to reverse the setting at the radio.

Stock receiver / ESC removed - I'll keep hold of this, might be useful as a remote feature on a trailer or big rig, maybe a winch controller with additional servo output?

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All new electrickery installed.  I had to change the plugs on the battery and motor to ubiquitous JST connectors.

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Standard body refitted for now (for a basic test-drive around the workshop).  Only point to note here is I had to hugely reduce the endpoints on the steering, as the axle completely locks out and stalls the motor on full steering angle.  I doubt there's a CVD option for this truck but there's potentially loads more steering angle available if we can get around that foolish drive cup limitation.

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Next point of order - the radio.  It would be about 18 months ago when I first introduced Chiana the Scwub to my Turnigy stick controller, and she got blissfully confused by the 4-channel sticks.  "No, move the left one up and down, and the right one left to right." I would say.  But since she had no idea what left or right or up or down meant, it wasn't really very helpful.  Learning by experimentation (which young children are just mind-bogglingly amazing at) is twice as hard when you have two channels that do a grand total of absolutely nothing.  So, to aid her self-education, I wanted to make some gates to convert the FS-i6 to a conventional 2-channel transmitter.

First I roughly cut some discs from plasticard.

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Then I mounted them on my trusty old B&Q Own Brand cordless drill, which is still going strong in spite of how much abuse it's been given over the years.  Today's mistreatment involves pretending it is a lathe.

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There.  Lathe.

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And a darned good one, too.

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One cannot complain at the methods if the results are satisfactory.  Well, this is what I tell my boss.  And my wife.  Although admittedly not on the same subject.

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Fast-forward several hours.  The clear body comes with a decal sheet but no window masks, and since trucks with stickers for windows makes me feel decidedly uncomfortable (like drinking real ale from a plastic glass or listening to music on Bluetooth headphones) I decided to make my own.  Nobody shall ever say I'm not a dedicated father.  I did this when I could have been editing the next chapter of my latest novel.

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There.  Achieved with time left to edit the next chapter of my latest novel.

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Paint to be applied tomorrow or Tuesday, as part of a test-run of what will hopefully be my year-round paint booth in a heated loft room.  Fingers crossed the paint fumes don't get into the top bedroom or the wife will veto the idea!

More to follow when a) I have applied paint and 2) I have uploaded the photos.  No prizes for guessing which will take the longest.

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It was last Tuesday before I got around to finishing the LC90 body.  The paint had come out well despite being done quickly in a little loft room with no hair dryer to help cure it.  Tamiya metallic purple backed with Tamiya silver.

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The best bit of any paint job, right..?

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The masks had peeled back a little around the edges so I had some tidying up to do.  Probably happened because I pulled the body out of a cold loft room, hit it with a hair dryer to warm it up, then threw paint on it.  I'm planning to put some proper heat lamps in the room so it's always a good ambient temperature for spraying.  Never mind, the clean-up took but a few moments with some cotton swabs and Carson paint killer.

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Overspray cleaned and decals applied - this is a good looking rig, IMO :)

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Chiana the Scwub didn't get her present until Saturday afternoon, but she was very pleased with it - especially the FS-i6 transmitter with the purple discs and pink levers.  She spent most of the afternoon just playing with the transmitter!

We had a test-drive with the buddy cable on Sunday and it went supremely well, she's got the hang of forwards and backwards, she just needs to learn that the can steer and drive at the same time.

The only downside with the FlySky buddy system, is the Trainer tx (as in, the one the experience trainer uses) must be bound to the vehicle, and the student's tx is just a pass-through with no binding necessary.  The problem is I have to set up a model on my tx, and set up all the endpoints and trims, and the other tx is just a dummy.  So if I want her to start driving on her own I have to set up all the EPs and trims all over again, then re-bind to her tx.  Then if we decide we need more buddying we have to re-bind it to mine again.

The obvious answer to this is that I set hers up as the trainer tx and she drives using mine in student mode, but a) I have modified her tx to make it easier to learn and 2) she will want to use her one because it's got purple bits on it.

But it's not a big deal - just seems a bit backwards, is all.  It kind of assumes that the trainer owns the model and the student is learning on it, but I don't know how many RC flight instructors would let students use their aircraft - when I was learning I had to bring my own...

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Found some more pics of the transmitter adapters.  I sprayed them first with Halfords filler primer, then Tamiya PS metallic purple, then Halfords clear.  I was doing pretty well for a super-fast paint job in near-zero temps, before I managed to get just a little bit close with the nozzle on the final lacquer coat and put a big bulge on it that started to lift up the colour coat.  Those Halfords cans can be a bit lively for small stuff.  I managed to "make do" by gassing it off with the hairdryer then putting some more colour coat over it.  Couldn't really do much more as it had to be boxed up and wrapped.

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This is how you paint in near-zero temps.  A pair of 500W halogen lamps.  Put a tub of water on top and it'll get hot enough to warm a Tamiya tin after 30 mins.  Note that this was just the drying area - I was going outside to shoot the paint as it was sunny and humidity was low because everything was frozen.

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Finished thing looks pretty good and the Scwub love it :)

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