| Title: | Welcome To The Radio Control Conference |
| Notice: | dir's in 11, who's who in 4, sales in 6, auctions 19 |
| Moderator: | VMSSG::FRIEDRICHS |
| Created: | Tue Jan 13 1987 |
| Last Modified: | Thu Jun 05 1997 |
| Last Successful Update: | Fri Jun 06 1997 |
| Number of topics: | 1706 |
| Total number of notes: | 27193 |
I'm interested in getting a RC car. I've been looking around and
figure that I'll have to spend about :
75 - 150 for the car
50 - 75 for the radio and servos
30 - 50 for battery and charger
--------
155 - 275 total ???
I have no problem with spending the 275.00 as long as I don't end
up with junk. What I want is a Buggy that I can eventually race and
I like the idea of assembling it myself. My problem is I know nothing
about RCing can someone(S) give me suggestions as to what I should
be looking for as far as car, radio and battery. The car that I
like so far is the Tamiya Porsche 959 4wd it seems to have most
options and I like the way it looks. It is called an on/off road
car, I wonder how it compares to some thing like the Fox for off
roading? I saw this car for 250.00 at a hobby shop but Tower has
it for 120.00(at least in an ad). Also how do the trigger radios
compare to the conventional ones? Another question I have is exactly
what is meant by "3 Step FWD/REV" speed control? Lastly I want to
know if when people race do 1/10 and 1/12 cars race together?
Thanks in advance
-Bruce
| T.R | Title | User | Personal Name | Date | Lines |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 449.1 | SNDCSL::SMITH | William P.N. (WOOKIE::) Smith | Sat Jan 30 1988 09:58 | 61 | |
Well, I can answer a couple of those (does this mean I'm becoming
an expert?):
> I like the idea of assembling it myself.
That's good, because as far as I know, all such models are kits,
and I imagine half of the enjoyment is derived in customising your
vehicle. Note, however, that you should follow the directions
explicitly, jumping ahead caused me most of my problems.
Batteries I can't help you with, I've just converted to 12 volt
Gates cells at 2.5 amp-hours for my Clod Buster, though you need
a rather large vehicle to carry them around. I'm using different
motors, though, an RS-540 type motor would probably destroy any
gear train with those batteries. 6 Volts might give a lot of push,
but the weight/size might still be a problem. Check out Radio Shack's
cellular phone batteries ($9.99 ea) if you are interested.
> what is meant by "3 Step FWD/REV" speed control?
It's a rotary switch on a piece of phenolic board that is driven
from a linkage to a servo. Kind of a kludge, mine tends to be:
1) barely crawling
2) too slow
3) too fast to control
I'm currently in the market for an electronic speed control....
Some other hints:
If you think you want to get bearings, get them before you assemble
the kit. I wanted bearings but they were unavailable, so I assembled
the kit anyway, and I estimate it would take at least as long to
tear it all down and put the bearings in as it did to build the
kit in the first place. I'm told that plastic bearings don't last
too long, but I'll burn that bridge when I come to it. I'm not
too impressed with the quality (or the price) of the 4 ball bearings
that came with the kit..... Never seen so much play, and I need
16 at $3 each to redo my Clod Buster.
I used a tube of Lithium grease that I had lying around and
a couple of small paintbrushes to lubricate everything instead of
the supplied 'ceramic grease'. Note that every exposed surface
with grease on it is going to pick up sand and other abrasives,
so go easy on the lubrication of exposed parts.
Get an appropriate set of metric tools and a metric ruler, I
wished that I had the tools and the rular came in very handy in
telling the difference between 10 and 12 mm screws. Make sure you
use the right hardware at every step, if you use 12 mm where you
should have used 10 mm, sometime later you will need the 12 and
only have a 10..... Be careful of overtightening!!! I broke a
couple of rare 6 mm ball joints and had to do some creative machining
to finish the model.
I can't help you with painting, as I'm not using the stock body,
but you probably want to plan ahead so the body is dry when you
are ready for the final assembly.
Willie
| |||||
| 449.2 | MY VOTE | AISVAX::JONEILL | Mon Feb 01 1988 07:27 | 3 | |
IF I MAY, I PERSONALY WOULD RECOMMEND TAMIYA CARS, THEY SEEM TO BE
RATHER DURABLE, WELL BUILT, AND THEY MAKE ALOT OF REPLACMENT AND
HOP-UP PARTS.
| |||||
| 449.3 | Go rugged and good parts availability | MDVAX1::SPOHR | Mon Feb 01 1988 12:28 | 9 | |
Get a car that you can buy parts for, as in what does your local
hobby shop stock? I raced an Associated RC10, parts are individually.
As for Tamiya, they use a lot of plastic and most parts are bought
in sets. I can say that I never broke the chassis (its aluminum)
and the Tamiya cars seem to have weak plastic chassis'. I saw alot
of front ends broken in offroad racing.
Chris
| |||||
| 449.4 | Trigger/wheel prefered here | VINO::PALMIERI | Mon Feb 01 1988 12:38 | 12 | |
Re: Trigger radios My son has both types of radios for his cars and likes the trigger much better. His trigger radio is the Futaba magnum (I think) and you get more controls to customize the operation of the trigger and the wheel. Also, the wheel seems to have a much better feel for steering than a joystick. One other comment. Unless you plan to run the car on a smooth clean surface I would suggest not getting a car that is too low slung for it will be scraping the bottom often. Marty | |||||
| 449.5 | 1/10th scale for offroad | 3D::COMINS | Tue Feb 09 1988 08:38 | 15 | |
Since you seem to be interested in off road racing I would seriosly
recommend you don't buy a 1/12 scale car (i.e. the Tamiya 959 Porsche).
Most of the offroad cars are 1/10 scale. The longer/wider wheel
base makes a big difference in off road. Also, changing bodies
on your car is a relatively simple thing to do. There is an incredible
selection of body styles from many different manufacturers. The
point is that if like the features of a car but don't like it's
looks I would buy the car and get a body I like.
If you are interested in racing go to your local track(s) and see
what is popular. You might totally change your mind on what you
were going to buy.
Todd
| |||||