Dr Jim's Limitless Build

[drjim]

I may have to bother ya, make a trip up north to ya and we do up some speed runs!! ? ?

Yeah, let me know if you ever make it up this way. I still haven't scouted out the four sites I've found with Google Maps, so I still don't have a decent place to run.

And I really want to get the MM2 installed so I have better brakes. Since I cut the drag down some from stock by trimming back the front and rear wings, I REEEALLY need better brakes than I have with the BLX185.

 

[jondilly1974]

Yeah, let me know if you ever make it up this way. I still haven't scouted out the four sites I've found with Google Maps, so I still don't have a decent place to run.

And I really want to get the MM2 installed so I have better brakes. Since I cut the drag down some from stock by trimming back the front and rear wings, I REEEALLY need better brakes than I have with the BLX185.

I hear ya on that one! My Typhon 3S with the BLX185 takes yards to stop from 20mph. Its quite bad actually.

 

[drjim]

Got the trimmed down battery trays back in. I can't believe they use a DOZEN freakin' screws to hold these things in.

It's almost as bad as the bottom part of the rear spoiler on my Supra.

TWENTY-FOUR screws to hold the small bottom panel to the rest of the rear wing.

I was thinking of mounting the MM2 like this:

But I think I like this better, as it gives me shorter leads to the motor:

Would have gotten more accomplished, but my PT session was rough, and I had to lay down for a while when I got home.

Tuesday I'll start making up the lead wires to the motor, and the harness to connect the batteries to the ESC.

I hear ya on that one! My Typhon 3S with the BLX185 takes yards to stop from 20mph. Its quite bad actually.

I've checked the radio settings, and calibrated the throttle, neutral, and brake several times. I bought both of the Hobbywing program cards to get one to work so I could read out and/or modify the settings in it. 50% is all the brake you can get, and that just don't cut it. What's worse is the default is something stupid like 37%! That's just nuts! I couldn't believe how loooong this thing takes to stop compared to my VTA car and my Senton. IMNSHO, it's not safe to drive the car with a BLX185 and speed gearing.

I've read where people tried to modify/hack the firmware in them, and all they got was a cute little fan-cooled brick, so that's not an option.

 

[drjim]

Got these today:

I'll get them installed tomorrow when I drop the spool back in.

 

[drjim]

Didn't get as much done tonight as I wanted to. When I first dropped the spool in, it didn't want to fit properly. Turns out I'd taken a bit too much of the freeplay out using the big washer, so I had to take it apart (twice!), and get the correct number of shims in there so it would drop right in.

Sure spins smooth now!

And I got the new bigger driveshafts installed. I used one of the smallest O-rings in my Harbor Freight box, and added a small dab of my red synthetic grease to the drive cups.

Hopefully I'll be able to get started on wiring up my MM2 and battery leads, although I'm disappointed to hear my MM2 does NOT do data logging.

Looks like a newer ESC is in the future.....any suggestions?

 

[jondilly1974]

MMX8S

 

[adidas303]

I agree with Jon, MMX8S if possible, if not maybe a Max6 as it can still go 8s.

Looking good my friend!!

 

[drjim]

I'll go with the Castle, as the data logging is something I really want, and I already have the Castle program card.

Downloaded all the info from Castle, and I'll study it.....

 

[drjim]

RATS!!

I just checked the "6.5mm" bullet connectors I bought on eBay, and they measure 6mm! They don't fit in the 6.5mm motor connectors on my MM2.

The little voice inside me was telling me to buy genuine Castle Connectors, but I tried to save a few bucks.

 

[drjim]

Cleaned up the bench and put my new Chassis Plate in place.

Now that I have a big enough FLAT, level plate to get the entire car on, I can study the chassis and suspension, and make fairly accurate measurements.

How much ground clearance are you guys running? I know I want it "Down in the Weeds", but of course that depends on the road surface.

 

[jondilly1974]

10mm or less

 

[drjim]

My VTA car is 5mm, but it runs on carpet!

How much rake does yours have, Jon?

 

[jondilly1974]

My VTA car is 5mm, but it runs on carpet!

How much rake does yours have, Jon?

About 2mm of rake on the speed runner. I think front has about 4mm of clearance and the rear has about 6mm sitting still I figure on throttle the nose might come up that 2mm and level it out. The GT body for sure keeps the nose down way better than any other body I've used.

 

[drjim]

Thanks for the info. I haven't even measured mine yet. It was on the list for today, but The Kids and grandson are over for Easter dinner.
I'm planning on making some "Shock Stops" out of tubing to limit how far it can squat under full power.

 

[drjim]

Spent some time examining and adjusting the suspension tonight. With the front upper spring collars screwed all the way up, I got the nose of the car set with about 8mm clearance between the chassis plate and bottom of the front splitter. The back is still at the out-of-the-box setting, and gives me 12mm of clearance between the chassis plate and the bottom of the car as measured immediately forward of the rear wheels.

And I trimmed the remaining bit of "wickerbill" off the rear wing and sanded it, making it completely flat. Once it warms up in the garage (gonna be TEN degrees tonight!) I'll spray it with some black satin paint to finish it.

6.5mm bullet connectors from Castle departed Denver at 0430 this morning, so they should get here tomorrow, and I can finish up the wiring.

 

[drjim]

Still waiting for my MMX8S, so I went ahead and stuck the MM2 I have into the chassis and made up the wiring harness. Now that I have some sketches and part numbers for the harnesses I can crank one out in an hour or so, which is what I'll do when my Big Bad VooDoo Daddy ESC gets here.

Once I can make consistent runs at some speed I'll start playing with the gearing and think about a different motor.

Get some pix later....

 

[drjim]

Been a bit under the weather with some seasonal allergy issues (my Doctor gave me some new stuff and I'm feeling much better!), along with some dreaded Home Owner tasks concerning the yard and a few other things, so the R/C car stuff has been on hold for the last couple of weeks.

Here's a quick recap of the little things I've done while I was running at about 1/4 capacity.....

My Castle MMX 8S is set for delivery tomorrow, and will get swapped out with the MM2 that's in there now. The new 8 gauge wiring is completed, and things look much neater. Got the Castle data logging software installed on my old Dell laptop, so I'll have to learn how to use it.

My "Flux Capacitor" cap pack is built, and I'm scratching around in the "Parts Room" for some large heat-shrink tubing to encapsulate it with. If I can't find or readily get some, I'll wrap it with some of the self-fusing silicone tape I have. The silicone tape is great stuff, and I'm lucky to have quite a supply of it that I procured when my last place of employment was shutting down, and boxes of new stuff were getting tossed in the dumpsters!

I took the original body parts and stripped the decals off so I could clean and scuff-sand the surface for my new Hi-Viz paint job. Still waiting for the paint to get here, as the only local place that stocks it (Hobby Lobby) is closed. I'd thought I'd ordered it sometime in the last two weeks, but can't find a PayPal transaction, so I guess I didn't order it, and went ahead and ordered some more last night.

I set the front suspension with the spring collars all the way up, and the back spring collars down a few turns to give it a nice rake, and slipped some tubing over the rear shock rods to limit the travel. I really don't want to see the car to a blow-over and do multiple back flips for a quarter mile, so fingers crossed on this mod.

The front and rear spoilers have been cut back to reduce drag while maintaining some downforce on the front.

It's really windy today (25MPH sustained, gusts to 45~50MPH), so no playing with the cars.

And I cleaned up the garage and reset the "Garage Config File" from "Winter" to "Summer" so I can get cranked up again on my 1:1 scale as I'd really like to cruise her around this summer.

Be safe out there! This virus business won't last forever......

 

[jondilly1974]

Been a bit under the weather with some seasonal allergy issues (my Doctor gave me some new stuff and I'm feeling much better!), along with some dreaded Home Owner tasks concerning the yard and a few other things, so the R/C car stuff has been on hold for the last couple of weeks.

Here's a quick recap of the little things I've done while I was running at about 1/4 capacity.....

My Castle MMX 8S is set for delivery tomorrow, and will get swapped out with the MM2 that's in there now. The new 8 gauge wiring is completed, and things look much neater. Got the Castle data logging software installed on my old Dell laptop, so I'll have to learn how to use it.

My "Flux Capacitor" cap pack is built, and I'm scratching around in the "Parts Room" for some large heat-shrink tubing to encapsulate it with. If I can't find or readily get some, I'll wrap it with some of the self-fusing silicone tape I have. The silicone tape is great stuff, and I'm lucky to have quite a supply of it that I procured when my last place of employment was shutting down, and boxes of new stuff were getting tossed in the dumpsters!

I took the original body parts and stripped the decals off so I could clean and scuff-sand the surface for my new Hi-Viz paint job. Still waiting for the paint to get here, as the only local place that stocks it (Hobby Lobby) is closed. I'd thought I'd ordered it sometime in the last two weeks, but can't find a PayPal transaction, so I guess I didn't order it, and went ahead and ordered some more last night.

I set the front suspension with the spring collars all the way up, and the back spring collars down a few turns to give it a nice rake, and slipped some tubing over the rear shock rods to limit the travel. I really don't want to see the car to a blow-over and do multiple back flips for a quarter mile, so fingers crossed on this mod.

The front and rear spoilers have been cut back to reduce drag while maintaining some downforce on the front.

It's really windy today (25MPH sustained, gusts to 45~50MPH), so no playing with the cars.

And I cleaned up the garage and reset the "Garage Config File" from "Winter" to "Summer" so I can get cranked up again on my 1:1 scale as I'd really like to cruise her around this summer.

Be safe out there! This virus business won't last forever......

It was gusty here today too. Hope you get that thing down a road soon. I'm excited for ya!

 

[adidas303]

Been a bit under the weather with some seasonal allergy issues (my Doctor gave me some new stuff and I'm feeling much better!), along with some dreaded Home Owner tasks concerning the yard and a few other things, so the R/C car stuff has been on hold for the last couple of weeks.

Here's a quick recap of the little things I've done while I was running at about 1/4 capacity.....

My Castle MMX 8S is set for delivery tomorrow, and will get swapped out with the MM2 that's in there now. The new 8 gauge wiring is completed, and things look much neater. Got the Castle data logging software installed on my old Dell laptop, so I'll have to learn how to use it.

My "Flux Capacitor" cap pack is built, and I'm scratching around in the "Parts Room" for some large heat-shrink tubing to encapsulate it with. If I can't find or readily get some, I'll wrap it with some of the self-fusing silicone tape I have. The silicone tape is great stuff, and I'm lucky to have quite a supply of it that I procured when my last place of employment was shutting down, and boxes of new stuff were getting tossed in the dumpsters!

I took the original body parts and stripped the decals off so I could clean and scuff-sand the surface for my new Hi-Viz paint job. Still waiting for the paint to get here, as the only local place that stocks it (Hobby Lobby) is closed. I'd thought I'd ordered it sometime in the last two weeks, but can't find a PayPal transaction, so I guess I didn't order it, and went ahead and ordered some more last night.

I set the front suspension with the spring collars all the way up, and the back spring collars down a few turns to give it a nice rake, and slipped some tubing over the rear shock rods to limit the travel. I really don't want to see the car to a blow-over and do multiple back flips for a quarter mile, so fingers crossed on this mod.

The front and rear spoilers have been cut back to reduce drag while maintaining some downforce on the front.

It's really windy today (25MPH sustained, gusts to 45~50MPH), so no playing with the cars.

And I cleaned up the garage and reset the "Garage Config File" from "Winter" to "Summer" so I can get cranked up again on my 1:1 scale as I'd really like to cruise her around this summer.

Be safe out there! This virus business won't last forever......

Glad you can get back to the wrenching there!
Can't wait for the weather to work with us, not against us, like it's been feeling!

 

[drjim]

Glad you can get back to the wrenching there!
Can't wait for the weather to work with us, not against us, like it's been feeling!

I'd say the weather has been "wacky" lately, but then we've only been here about 2-1/2 years, and Springtime in the Rockies can be pretty "wacky" even in the best of times!