Anyone into RC?

I had a good and bad day with my helis today.

The wind wasn't as strong as it has been for a while today so I couldn't wait to get my 500 up in the air. I think today, with that heli, was the most fun I've had with this hobby so far. I was doing some rather smooth sport flying, practising big inverted and backwards circuits and also doing some transition work. I just wish I had more than 3 batteries! I'm really gaining a lot of confidence with my flying now. Before, I would only, for example, fly inverted or do back/forward flips high up so I had a lot of error room before I met Terra firma but I do it close to the floor now :)

After a good session with the 500 I then decided it was time to take my 600 nitro out after three weeks since it's last flight. For some reason it just wasn't right! It was wobbling around a fair amount and the engine wasn't developing much power and sputtering as I gave it some throttle. I put one tank through it and decided to call it a day. Perhaps it needs to be re-tuned as it's a fair whack warmer, about 5-7 degrees C, since I last tuned it (and it was running sweet) so maybe I need to lean it a tad?

Will try again tomorrow as the weather is supposed to be fabulous with the wind barely exceeding 4mph.
 
Last edited:
If it was normal and flying well before i would say its time for a new glowplug. A well tuned nitro motor wont blow a glow plug it will just go off performance. Also a lack of tail rotor rpm (caused by lack of motor performance) will give it a very wobbly attitude.
 
Hmm, you could be right. I do have a spare glow plug so I'll be sure to pop that in there and see if there's any difference.
 
Marine Iguana said:
Cool little mini.

I had a slight crash with my FG resulting in this :(
DSCF3307-1.jpg
Click to expand...

Not very looked after is it
 
YZFAndy said:
If it was normal and flying well before i would say its time for a new glowplug. A well tuned nitro motor wont blow a glow plug it will just go off performance. Also a lack of tail rotor rpm (caused by lack of motor performance) will give it a very wobbly attitude.
Click to expand...


Had a real problem starting a new motor which had an R5 glowplug, anyway switched it to an R4 and it started just about straight away. Thing is the engine manual recommends an R5 so I switched back to the R5 after the engine had been running awhile and it started. Plug does glow when the starter is attached.

Do you reckon the R5 plug is no good which is making it harder to start or would an R4 plug actually make the engine easier to start?
 
BigglesPiP said:
Was thinking that's quite slow for a bit, then it got warm. I'd forgotten how bad my Kyosho Super 10 is when it's cold, or the air is cold, or wet.
Click to expand...

The title of the vid may of put you off, "Warming the Bazooka up"?
We'd been running for half an hour or more, hence why the two Hyper's were out for the count. :p (I can't remember exactly how.)
Anyway I later found out the problem, the mid speed needle had come lose, hence why after one of the little jumps, the needle moved/rattled itself in a better position and it starts running a fair bit better.
*goes to find out about the Kyosho 10.
 
Ah right, I found out it was a 1:10 scale, thought it was a buggy though.
Just saw a beautiful looking one with a Suziki shell on Youtube.
I never really cared about the look to much, all about "bashing" for me. Is that a colloquial term in England? Picked it up off an Aussie RC forum. :)

Yeah I started on a 1:10 scale, they are quicker in a straight line, as I am sure you know; an Atomic Warhead it was (Don't, or rather do, check that name out on the urban dictionary for smutty lolz. :D) though being weaker than a 1:8 car, I was braking it left right and centre. Especially as I learnt on it.
Got one collision on vid, one of my first few times running it. :)
*EditOne more waffle the warhead has two gears and this was always stuck in first, in this vid, eventually fixed it with a dremel and some wd40.

Once I got the Bazooka I ended up boring the engine (and the socks off you :P) and man that flew then, till I blew the engine running it one cold autumn evening, running it too lean.
*Man I am waffling on.

You can hear what the gear change should sound like on this vid.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ys_dlXIEWwA
 
Last edited:
There's loads of funny goo in the tank on my super 10, it's been in storage for years, pulled some after-burn through it before I put it away, so it should fire up with new lines and a cleaned out tank.

Need to sort the clutch out too, for some reason the bell is wandering about.
 
Drukk said:
Had a real problem starting a new motor which had an R5 glowplug, anyway switched it to an R4 and it started just about straight away. Thing is the engine manual recommends an R5 so I switched back to the R5 after the engine had been running awhile and it started. Plug does glow when the starter is attached.

Do you reckon the R5 plug is no good which is making it harder to start or would an R4 plug actually make the engine easier to start?
Click to expand...

Just because a glowplug is glowing it doesn't mean its ok. What tends to be the cause of a still apparent working one(still glows) not being any good is the wire doesn't stay glowing or stay hot enough after the glow igniter is removed. This is just metal fatigue caused by heating and cooling the plug millions of times between engine strokes.

R4 and R5 plugs i'm not familiar with so can't say which is hotter or colder but R4 R5 is just a manufactures identification for heat rating. Some plugs run hot some cold and others inbetween.
Hot plugs stay glowing easier and cause combustion sooner, at a lower temperature (combustion temperature nothing to do with weather) and for longer so will make tick over better, tuning easier, fuel economy will be better among other things.
A colder plug will have a much more narrow window of combustion so the bang will be bigger and shorter. Basically more power only if the tune is spot on and disadvantages just about everywhere else. Hot, med/hot or ultra hot plugs is the way to go in my opinion.

So in short Yes if a R4 is hotter than a R5 it could help your motor start easier especially if the motor is new and has a factory run in settings which should be a rich fuel mixture. A rich fuel mixture will have more fuel in it than there is air to burn it and a hotter plug will help it burn. If it is on factory settings you shouldn't be running it like this for long and would suggest getting it tuned by someone or spend some time reading this and do it yourself. http://www.rcnitrotalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=60832
 
Last edited:
Well , this is the latest addition. An Ansmann Smacker. Much more nieghbour friendly for my little boy to play with outside the house. Goes quite well to for a brushed motor, fitted a Tamiya RS-540 sport tuned motor for a bit more power and the Ansmann transmitter lets me slow it right down for when the little guy is having a go :)

dscf1475.jpg

dscf1477.jpg


Thanks for the advice YZFAndy. Was running in the Vapor yesterday, was up to the 5th tank of fuel when one of the batteries on the car decided to bounce its way out of the battery holder causing a fair bit of damage as the car went head first into a very well made woodern horse jump!

dscf1478.jpg

dscf1480r.jpg


Car has a failsafe incase of transmitter failure but not a lot you can do when the batteries come loose in the actual car. 3 seconds of watching helplessly as it ploughed across the field straight into the woodern jump!

Oh well , have straightened the chassis out and stripped it down. Only actually needs 4 new pieces,a bodyshell and a new engine carb restraining screw which snapped off on impact. About 50 pounds worth.
 
Got some pics of my lot:

Traxxas Legacy Rustler - titan 12T 550 / XL5 ESC / RPM bits n bobs / 4200mah 8400 :D
140420101725.jpg


Tamiya Hornet - totally standard except for being full ball raced, awesome xmas pressie!
140420101726.jpg


Mardave 205 stock car - Palma stock motor / 3000mah 7.2v battery / HPI ESC
140420101724.jpg
 
cheers for the replies :)

yeah i had a hornet when i was about 13, remember me and my bro going to get it on the bus and building it together.....wish i never sold it to the pleb that i did, he trashed it :(

My bro is still an RC nut so got me a new one for xmas....OLD SKOOL!
 
I always hack my cars to be computer controlled :-)

Here are the latest 2.

The 1st is based on a boggo cheapo car. I have installed my Serial Servo Board, a camera and a Bluetooth link. I can drive it about using my Logitech G25 which is ace!

carbot.jpg


CIMG9406.JPG


control.jpg


control1.jpg


Now for the next one, this is based on a Tamiya Mad Bull.

CIMG9405.JPG


CIMG9403.JPG


They will soon be controlled by a WIImote steering wheel. The MadBull will have a pan and tilt camera connected to a set of LCD glasses. An accelerometer on your head will let you look around while virtually sitting in the car.

It takes more time to paint them, then to actually do the hacking!

Have a look at my site's page about the board here http://www.botbuilder.co.uk/ssb.html Probably the coolest thing I have designed in a while!

BTW they are not actual products, just demonstrators for that board thing I was talking about.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom