Alright, I'm dusting of the Tonka Summit for an upgrade! I bought the DJI Goggles Racing Edition and Air System (with external fan). I've been waiting for a long time for a long-range HD system to become available that wasn't proprietary but it looks like that might still be a ways off and DJI has the longest range so I took the plunge. The goggles are bulky and not as light and comfortable as my old trusty Headplay's and I can't seem to focus the screen without reading glasses so I bought some diopters. Weird I don't need diopters for the Headplay's but I do with the DJI Goggles. I'm going to make a new aluminum pan/mount for the DJI camera. I have a 3D printer but I just still really prefer using aluminum since it has lasted all these years with no issue. The one thing that's missing is audio so I bought some small UHF walkie Talkies. Audio just helps interacting with others, avoiding pedestrians, traffic and I like hearing the motors to tell if they're straining going over obstacles. I also bought a small USB drive-looking audio recorder so I can marry up the audio to the video later if I record anything interesting. I'm also replacing the horn with one that I can customize by uploading an mp3. I'll post my progress!



I went with the DJI Racing Edition Goggles over the DJI FPV Goggles because the Racing Edition has dual band Ocusync (7 km vs 4 km), built-in battery, built-in head tracking, additional analog receiver, higher resolution and HDMI input.

DJI

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I made a swivel mount for my GoPro out of a caster wheel and 1/2" PVC pipe to film the brushless Tumbler. I made a mounting plate out of scrap aluminum so I could mount the entire swivel assembly using existing screw holes in the top of the flap housing of the Tumbler. It turned out pretty well.

Brushless Tumbler GoPro Swivel Mount (2 min 55 sec)

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I modded another Tyco Tumbler but this time I made it brushless. The previous one I made with the engine sound module and working flaps is perfect but I am afraid to convert it to brushless and wreck it so I found another 1/6 RC Tyco Tumbler on ebay and proceeded to make it as fast as possible. I wrapped velcro around the Tumbler's rear plastic tires to give them a little more rounded look and also for cushioning and stretched four Pro-Line Interco Super Swamper 2.2 XL tires over as before and modded the steering and lights but skipped the Tamiya MFC-02, flaps and adjustable rear suspension. I wanted to keep the weight down, true, but I also didn't want to install a $400 sound module into a vehicle I may very well wind up destroying

I took a chance on a cheap $40 Brushless ESC/Motor combo and also bought a Noctua 40mm 5V fan and fan mount to blow directly on the motor to keep it cool since ldl0021 warned me that you need to keep the motor cool or it will melt the Tyco's plastic motor housing. The combination of the ESC's fan and Noctura fan sorta makes it sound like a turbine winding up when you first turn it on. It sounds awesome! I bought a tube of lithium grease for the Tyco's gears since it is geared low and wasn't originally meant for speed. Those straight gears at high RPM's really make it scream like the real Tumbler.

Brushless Batman Tumbler (2 min 24 sec)

Parts list:
Tyco 1/6 Scale RC Batman Begins Batmobile
RC4G 2.4GHz 4-Channel Digital Surface Radio...Continue Reading

I detailed a 1/6 scale Batman Tumbler full RC conversion I did previously but I really wanted a small one I could enjoy driving around the house. I got lucky and found a 2007 1/24 Scale RC Tyco Batman Tumbler on eBay for $8.25 shipped. It is only 7 inches long. It uses an IR remote and is the kind that goes forward and turns in reverse. It already had a rear drive train which saved a lot of work. All I had to do was come up with the steering and add some LED's for the headlights and jet engine.



I also bought this 1/24 Scale Maisto RC Ferrari F138 F1 Formula Race Car just for the front wheels and tires. They had silver paint on the rims and lettering on the tires so I dipped them in rubbing alcohol and luckily all the paint came off and best of all the rims were black plastic underneath.



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I sold my previous custom-built RC Tumbler but regretted it so I built another one. I changed a few things this time around. I used Pro-Line Street Fighter 2.8" tires on the front this time per my friend Lloyd's suggestion (user ldl0021 on YouTube) but those IMEX 7404 rear tires I used for my first Tumbler build are not available anymore but that turned out to be a blessing in disguise because Pro-Line just released their Interco Super Swamper tires in a 2.2 XL size. These are the same brand of tires and tread pattern used on the "real" Tumbler. They are still small but real stretchy so it wasn't a problem getting them over the tires but I didn't like the way the treads sat so flat on those squared-off, plastic Tyco tires...



I really wanted the rounded, bulging look of the Super Swampers on the real Tumbler...



I got a roll of thick Gorilla-brand, duct tape and wrapped it around about 15 times...

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I decided to install a faster motor in the Tumbler. I first installed a Tamiya RZ 23-turn brushed motor but the MFC-02's ESC couldn't handle the load and would go into thermal protection mode every time I touched the throttle. Then I tried a Tamiya RS540 Sport Tuned motor (don't know if it's 23-turn or 27-turn; there are two different versions) and while it worked better the MFC-02 would still shut down if I accelerated too hard, especially from a standstill. I was able to turn a few laps in the street in front of the house with careful throttle management and while the Tumbler did go about 25% faster it was too difficult to control and I even did a powerslide when I accidentally turned too sharply under power and I thought it was going to flip over with those big rear tires providing so much grip but it came out of it OK. Considering how hard it was to obtain the original Tyco body and all the hard work I put into building this thing I decided to reinstall the stock motor because with it the Tumbler accelerates great, handles great, goes plenty fast and I don't have any of the thermal shutdown issues. It turns out the Tyco Tumbler's stock motor is not a "silver can" at all but actually a Gold Effort Electric GCR534DM motor. I couldn't find out online how many turns it has but since I had an extra non-working one I unwound it and it is a 36-turn motor. I actually counted 37 turns when unwinding it but I could have lost count or it could be a 38-turn but I...Continue Reading

I have always wanted a big RC Batman Tumbler ever since I first saw Batman Begins in 2005. The biggest RC one they sold was a big 1/6 Scale Tyco version at Wal-Mart in 2005 but it was more toy than RC car in that it was a little out of scale, the front wheels didn’t turn and the back wheels were made of plastic. Also it came with a push-button remote so it didn’t have proportional steering or throttle. Another 1/6 Tumbler was made by Hot Toys and while it is almost perfect in scale, it isn’t remote controlled, is very fragile and now costs a small fortune. The Tyco version was made out of a single-piece, molded nylon plastic shell that is very durable since it was designed to be played with by kids. I also liked the hollow design of the Tyco for another reason I’ll explain later. I managed to find one used in good condition for $200 on eBay. I did a lot of Internet searching and found one person, “Porkchop”, who managed to install RC rubber tires on the back of his Tyco and I found another person, “FLMike”, who devised a steering mechanism for the front of his so I decided to combine these two mods along with a few of my own.

I couldn’t figure out how Porkchop replaced the Tyco’s tires with IMEX 7404 Swamp Dawg tires but after studying his picture closely I finally figured out he just trimmed the sidewalls and stretched them over the Tyco’s. Brilliant! That means I didn’t have to replace the...Continue Reading

FPV Tonka Summit: New Camera Mount Stability Test (6 min 48 sec)

FPV Tonka Summit: Music Test (7 min 57 sec)

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Below is a pictorial history showing the progress of my FPV Tonka Summit project. The entire build thread with all of the technical details can be found here....Continue Reading