JDowns Kraton 8S Build

[JDowns]

Front bumper, rear bumper, flip top cage parts are printed. No modifications needed to stock parts except drilling two holes in the rear stock bumper. All printed parts use existing mounts. Next up to figure out the mount for the front of the cage. I'm leaning towards some N52 magnets in the 20-30lb range. Should be plenty of holding force. Then I can start chopping up the cage and modifying it. Need to stop by the hobby shop today and pick up a wheel for the rear for wheelie's.

 

[JDowns]

This should be plenty strong to hold it down. Now to figure out the side supports so the frame can't twist to either side on impact.

 

[Aive]

Nice work! Was the cage printed?? It looks manufactured!

 

[Jimbobjr]

Very nice work. Lots of thought going into this, looking forward to the finished product. If the magnet pops open you could just make a little plastic latch. I could see it popping loose for a second and as long as it doesn’t flip fully up it will just click back on the magnet. So cool!

 

[JDowns]

Nice work! Was the cage printed?? It looks manufactured!

The cage is from a Losi DBXLE. It will get modified a bit, but not much. Just printing the parts to make it fit the Kraton chassis.

Very nice work. Lots of thought going into this, looking forward to the finished product. If the magnet pops open you could just make a little plastic latch. I could see it popping loose for a second and as long as it doesn’t flip fully up it will just click back on the magnet. So cool!

That may be a good idea. I could fit a latch off the front bumper. It is tough to pull up, you can almost lift the front end off the ground before the magnets pull apart. I'll have to play this one by ear.

Side supports printed up well last night. This way when pressure is applied to the sides of the top, the cage won't flex down to either side.

 

[JDowns]

This is not really a wheelie bar, but more as a last stop, to protect the wing and to not drag directly on rear bumper or wing.

 

[JDowns]

Torn between the lights up top or fabricate a bracket to mount to the front bumper. They are really only an option for if I drive it at night. So the top may be the best bet since they are easily removable and have a plug in slot in the back for wiring.

 

[jondilly1974]

I like the second pic location as it would look more authentic ??‍??

 

[JDowns]

I like the second pic location as it would look more authentic ??‍??

I think our right. They just seem too out of place up top. I can always add the cheesy light bar up top.

The bar mount can be flipped 180 and you can run the lights either up top or down below. I kinda prefer down below. Once the body is on there then it should look pretty mean.

 

[JDowns]

Front lights are done. Next up is to tackle the rear brake lights.

I'm thinking I might hydro dip the the interior carbon fiber prior to airbrushing all the details. Still lots of little stuff to do before I get to that stage.

 

[JDowns]

Brake lights / tail lights under the wing. These are the same lights I used on the Limitless build. There will be a micro controller paired with the lights to adjust the brightness and color based on throttle position as reported by Castle Serial Link.

 

[JDowns]

Starting to lay out the camera view and where body panels will come up too. I think I can get away with a 1" screen in the steering wheel area, and one in the center console area, slightly tilted towards the driver. Its a bit closer than I would like and I'll have to test if the camera can focus in that close without the text being too blurry. Camera needs to get pushed out slightly further from the helmet.

 

[JDowns]

Made good progress on the 1" x 1" OLED screen that will go inside the steering wheel area. May need to adjust the angle of the lens to match the camera view.

Screen set inside the base.

JST connector

Cutting thick glass into a 1.25" square is not the easiest thing. The dark glass acts as a contrast reducer to make the text as sharp as possible when going through the lens.

Fully assembled in the tube. The length of the tub matches the throw distance for the lens.

View from the camera. I'll need to play with some sort of hood to cut down on the glare. But came out pretty good with a crisp clear screen. I do loose about 20-25% of viewable pixels, but plenty of screen space for mph/rpm.

 

[Elzie870]

This build is incredible..

 

[gotnitro]

Very nice! I with I had the resources...

 

[JDowns]

Busy weekend soldering and making wires, with everything wrapped in Tessa tape Not my favorite part of a build.

There are junctions at the front of the tower to tower and the rear. So the brace can be removed with the wires attached. Also the cage can be removed with wires attached.

Everything is wired up and tested, rear brake lights, front headlights, camera system, Castle Serial link, and instrument panel. Most of the programming is done, will need to fine tune a few things once its ready to go.

I have a few ideas of how I want the body to end up. Just not sure the route to take at this point. I'll need to mull it over for a few days. But this is the part I enjoy. Once the body is done, then tear it all apart for paint work.

 

[JDowns]

Mock up is slowly coming along, but no rush since I have no idea how long it will take for the carbon fiber fabric to show up, let alone ship out.

Need to print the reliefs for the side panels, and duplicate for the left side. Then figure out what I'm doing with the rear and the wing.

Still tons to do though.

 

[JDowns]

Since the odds of this thing getting abused is high, decided to go a slightly different route and make maintenance easier and touchup a breeze.

Just waiting on the wing to show up this week, and still need to airbrush the interior.

But a tactical look should lend well to abuse and the paint is very easy to touch up.

Now I really need to figure out a way to mount a pair of full auto BB guns.

 

[JDowns]

Just waiting on the wing to arrive today or tomorrow. Going to finish the final setup tomorrow, setup the steering endpoints, shocks, and alignment. Will also give me a chance to go over the programming one last time and align the camera for the screen. Hoping to get a good test run in Sunday and get some video and pics.

But in the meantime I had some left over 8020 parts and modified a Rigid Flip Top into a pit stand for these larger vehicles.

 

[JDowns]

Is it me or is there a lot of slop in the arms?