So, I was at a gas station one day, filling up the 30 gallon tank ( ) in my Expedition (which usually takes a couple of hours). Anyway, I happen to see one of those little matchbox cars go by (err Smartcar). I looked at the matchbox car, then looked at my Expedition, then looked at the matchbox car, etc. And I thought to myself. NO WAY would I be caught dead in one of those things. But then it occurred to me that if someone was in an accident with one of those death traps, they probably would! They're so small, they'd just bury you in it probably, instead of trying to remove the twisted metal from your face.

Expedition vs. Smartcar. Or put another way, 6,000lbs vs. 1,800lbs. I think I have an idea of who would win.

BTW, a friend at work calls the Excursion the "Evacuation".

Originally Posted by twinturbostang

Maybe I'll just get one of these: http://www.smartusa.com/smart-fortwo-passion.aspx Think I'll have enough room??

Put the wings from your plane on the roof of that thing and you can fly to your flying site! I think my telemaster may be bigger than that thing!

Originally Posted by Mr.Pibb

Put the wings from your plane on the roof of that thing and you can fly to your flying site! I think my telemaster may be bigger than that thing!

haha that's what I was thinking.

On the other note I agree with having a SUV with kids. When I get into a normal small compact car I feel like I could be run over by SUVs so I want to be in the winner seat if there's a accident esp. w/ the kids . I've been in 3 accidents in 16 years in my truck/SUV (none my fault ) and I was alway's able to drive home where the other guy needed a new car So get the alignment done and fix the rearend leak (I saw the RC car vid) and just live with the rear seat issue for now until the brushless electric conversion is avalible for your Evacuation .

Originally Posted by Crash9

haha that's what I was thinking.

On the other note I agree with having a SUV with kids. When I get into a normal small compact car I feel like I could be run over by SUVs so I want to be in the winner seat if there's a accident esp. w/ the kids . I've been in 3 accidents in 16 years in my truck/SUV (none my fault ) and I was alway's able to drive home where the other guy needed a new car So get the alignment done and fix the rearend leak (I saw the RC car vid) and just live with the rear seat issue for now until the brushless electric conversion is avalible for your Evacuation .

LOL!!! OK now that has got to be the most sensible thing I heard all night!!! Ok maybe that is why I bought my wife a Turbo Diesel Land Cruiser Maybe I should look into a Ford F350 .. or a Dodge Cummings Turbo Diesel! Oh boy looks like I might have opened a can of worms here.. next thing I know it, there will be words of war on which is the best truck/SUV. FORD, GM, DODGE.. etc... Maybe I should correct myself.. I need a Ford F350 Xtra cab Body with a Cummins Turbo Diesel and a Allison Tranny that rides like a GM and a fuel economy of a Toyota!

Originally Posted by Crash9

So get the alignment done

lol That was in reference to my comment (in another thread) that it veers toward the side of the road everytime I pass a gas station.

and fix the rearend leak (I saw the RC car vid)

Haha. Yes, I have to work on that!

and just live with the rear seat issue for now until the brushless electric conversion is avalible for your Evacuation .

OMG, imagine the Lipo's needed to power an Expedition!! 50S400P 500,000,000mAH I don't think my Triton is going to be able to charge that!

im trying to get a small tank going.



I think I need to ditch the base, and build my own..... cant figure out how to make it work tho I have a thread in the tank section. hopefully someone can help soon

will hold a small cam that has very good range for what it is. can go 3 houses down! and then it struggles.

plantraco made a similar thing with cam onboard.
Dont know if they still have it.

Originally Posted by FPVpilot

I got a Losi Micro-T for Chrismas and put some FPV gear on it. It's fun but the suspension is bottom out with the gear so a smooth ride is out of the question. It does very well inside on a smooth floor and the cat is having fun with it .

humm, with a little modding ( 5 mins) you can have a fpv micro like mine!





Damian123 yes I believe plantraco still sells them, I think I can order one from a local telescope/science shop, but wheres the fun in that lol going to see if I can work something out with my project. got bored so I put the gear on my micro for now...

that micro t looks great!
Good luck on your project!


damian

Ok, well Vova agreed to send me out a new 900 Tx. Awesome customer service! Thank you Vova. Hopefully I will get the new Tx next week.

In the mean time, I stuck my 2.4GHz Tx back on and had some fun today. Drove it around my front yard, sidewalk, etc. Lots of obstacles and stuff to drive around, so it was a lot of fun. Sorry, no video. I didn't have the camcorder with me.

Crash, I still can't get the vibration out of the camera though. I've got a standard size servo on pan now (HS-325HB), and the camera is directly mounted to a HS-65HB (for tilt). I don't know what else to do. I softened up the suspension quite a bit. I can see it deflecting a good amount now. It's also got a little bit larger tires. The difference I see between your car and mine, is that on yours, none of the parts on the car appear to be shaking. They are rock solid. Meaning, there is no movement of the camera relative to the car. On mine however, that's not the case. The front nose of the car including the shock towers is blurry when I drive, meaning the camera is moving/shaking relative to the car. I don't know what else to do to stiffen the mount though.

I think I finally figured it out. The problems are centered on the motor/gearbox. Everytime I run the throttle up, the camera starts shaking. I finally saw this on the bench, running the motor while watching with the video goggles. Some of the problem is caused by RF interference from the motor, so I twisted the last servo wires and installed ferrite rings. I think that helped. But the majority of it is mechanical noise from either the motor, gearbox, or driveshafts (dogbones). The amplitude of the vibration is substantial enough to shake the camera even with the direct servo drive. I can feel the whole car vibrating actually. I don't know if I'm going to be able to reduce the vibrations or not. Depends if I can narrow down where exactly the vibrations are coming from. So my best bet may actually be to just figure out a stronger way of mounting the camera. I remember seeing a few weeks ago a mechanical servo "stretcher" that somebody made. It was external to, and attached to the pan servo. Something like that might work good because it provided a large, stable base for everything to be bolted to. I can't seem to find the thread on it right now though.

That reminds me I need to send Vova an email not to send me your TX lol .

I'll have to ask for another prod date other then 10/07 . He's waiting for the 900 RX I ordered before he ships it all out to me .

lol

Looks like I figured it out. Dogbone suspension sucks. I removed the suspension arms and dogbones, and ran the motor up again. The motor and gearbox are hard mounted to the chassis. NO VIBRATION at all. So it appears the use of dogbone suspension is very inefficient, clunky, and causes lots of vibrations. Don't know what to do now. I could try to keep working on this Falcon. But I also seem to be breaking parts every other time I drive it. Control arms, chassis, etc. And it's not like Tamiya Falcon parts are falling off the trees around here. Lol I could just ditch this and go with a different chassis. But I'm not interested in putting a lot of money into it. Got enough things going on already! lol Any suggestions???

Originally Posted by twinturbostang

lol

Looks like I figured it out. Dogbone suspension sucks. I removed the suspension arms and dogbones, and ran the motor up again. The motor and gearbox are hard mounted to the chassis. NO VIBRATION at all. So it appears the use of dogbone suspension is very inefficient, clunky, and causes lots of vibrations. Don't know what to do now. I could try to keep working on this Falcon. But I also seem to be breaking parts every other time I drive it. Control arms, chassis, etc. And it's not like Tamiya Falcon parts are falling off the trees around here. Lol I could just ditch this and go with a different chassis. But I'm not interested in putting a lot of money into it. Got enough things going on already! lol Any suggestions???

try putting a small piece of fuel line at each end of the dogbone to keep it centered and it should remove some vibration
you can also check bearings for play and shim axle stubs if nessesary to remove any play.

Can you explain where to put the fuel line? I'm not sure where it should go.

BTW, after thinking about it, I'm sure dogbones work good in certain applications. But in this particular one (Tamiya Falcon) I don't believe it was designed with that much attention. The shafts are rather short, and the suspension travel is quite large. Meaning, there is quite a bit of angular deflection. That causes slight binding in the drivetrain. When I spin the wheels, I can actually feel it "cogging" a little, as the dogbone likes to be in a certain position. I believe that is what causes the vibration.