isnt it about time? a Hobbyist rant..

[no mods]

How many of us stayed up all night looking over the forums or saying to yourself “ill just put this one more part on” with a total disregard of the morning reality and the crappy day that will inevitably ensue? Personally, I have been tossing and turning for over an hour so I finally got out of bed to get things off my mind about the hobby we all seem to love.

The short version goes something like this. After spending close to a thousand dollars to build a monster to run on electric power, I want to know why we must settle for overpriced mediocre parts? I read through page after page of guys like me who are having to redesign, enhance, modify, or simply live with components that don’t live up to expectations. A few thoughts go through my head …in fact I can already hear it now people saying that that it’s a part of the hobby or “ya, that just the way it is” but some times It just makes me mad to think that with all this collective brain power on here why can’t we build the better proverbial wheel? There are many things that fall in this category but I speak first, specifically about speed controllers. Personally, I own a quark monster pro. Great… Ya…280 hard earned dollars for a critical component to the puzzle all to be disappointed when it overheats, blows caps, or just plain pukes its gut out. Sure you can crack them open and try your hand at modifying it so that it doesn’t do one of the above options but then you have gambled you warrantee away all for an unpredictable result. Castle’s MMM controller… probably wont see that anytime soon but if you choose the MM as your destiny you end up with basically the same thing. Over a hundred dollars invested for something that was never even intended to be used to power any thing over 11 volts. Schulze… a little better rated but you also pay a little more, but that probably for the grand finale fireworks show or optional smoke screen. Tekin … um…how many times is this company going to be in and out of business?

Fellas, all im trying to do is drum up some encouragement, both for the consumer and hopefully the manufacture. I tell you there are lots of other forums that run open source information. I have seen it with the simplest things like beer; all the way to things like software and pcb’s that control automobile ECUs. Perhaps its time we put our collective thinking caps on and let’s build a product together. god knows we have some nerds in our community who would be considered electrical geniuses by any other standard. If you don’t want to participate thats fine...there are a lot of reasons not to. but please, the least we can do for ourselves is simply not to settle. Encourage our industry by demanding quality parts that live up to their claims and don't accept junk because its your only option.

thank you - no mods

[bigboi146]

First I would like to say that if people could build their own speed controls, don't you think it would be done by now.
These things are only toys no one told you to spend 1,000 on a toy.

On a good note. If it's anything I can do to help you build one shoot me a PM.

no mods, I've had the same feelings that you have, but you also have to remember that what we are doing here is, for the most part, experimental. If brushless and its associated components had come of age, we'd be able to walk into our LHS and walk out with a brushless buggy or truck straight from the manufacturer.

I'm not surprised that you brought up the Quark. After all of the good things that people have said about that controller, I finally got one. I have to say that I was less than impressed with it. Aside from the fact that I had to send two of them back, I was also not impressed by the build quality of the esc, especially considering its price.

If you only have $1000 into a brushless truck, you are doing well. Considering the cost of my Losi 8ight T, my JR Z9000T servo, Spektrum radio, Neu motor, and Quark/Compro controllers, I have well over $1000 invested in this ONE vehicle. All in all, I'm still glad that I went the electric route.

When you want performance, you have to pay for it. When I was running nitro, it wasn't unusual to pay way over $300 for a Novarossi that you knew wasn't going to last you much more than a couple of months (the way I ran, anyway); and it wasn't unusual for the $300+ engine to self destruct because of something stupid, like a pressure line leak.

I know that it's starting to sound cliche, but it is a hobby and an expensive one at that. Besides, the technology is starting to catch up, with the coming release of the MMM, the new Compro controllers, and the Tekin stuff. It won't be long before we will be sitting here talking about the pioneering days when we were making our own motor mounts and supplementing escs with external capacitors and becs.

In the last two months, I've had major problems with Quark controllers, a Compro controller, and now being sent the wrong motor when I ordered my Neu (not from Mike). I was ready to throw in the towel. I was looking at boats and helped a friend of mine set his up with an 8XL, HV110 controller, and dual 3S lipo packs. On the first run we got it up to around 45mph, according to the radar gun. Guess what happened. The flex shaft broke, because it wasn't meant to handle that kind of torque. The rig was a nitro conversion. I told him that it was just the beginning.

Whenever you break new ground, there are going to be some things that have to be worked out. I very recently had to remind myself of this. In a stupid sort of way, I'm almost proud to be a part of it on the ground floor.

Compared to many on this forum, I am very ignorant; but I get at least 10 phone calls a week from guys, some of which I don't even know, because they want to get into brushless and don't have a clue. When I ask why they called me, they tell me that my LHS gave them my name and they got my number out of the phone book.

I'm just looking, with anticipation, to the future and what it holds for this great hobby. It's a kick in the butt and I still enjoy it when I blow the doors off of someone that just got their Revo or Jato at the LHS and thought that they had something fast.

As for the MM, I have one in my 1/8 scale buggy running on 4S and 5S lipo and making a little Feigao 8L scream in pain. It's only good for short speed runs, but it sure makes the Jato guys cry. The best part is that I don't even have to tune it.

[bdebde]

Amen AAngel!

[supralover72]

I think people also forget that brushless for CARS is still pretty new (relatively speaking) and we haven't gotten the 6-8s set-ups yet because, to be honest, there aren't a market for it except for us elite guys. Think of how few people actually spend the money and the time for these conversions to run a 6s set-up?

Also, GO AANGEL!

[no mods]

other than bigboi146's attitude i totally understand and agree to what you all are saying. But i still think we have a collective potential to build something that will work. i guess i just have personal feeling because in the real car world if someone can't build a part worth a damn... guess what... you build it yourself. For years i used a software program that basically piggy backed onto the stock ecu of the car ( (for all who have no idea why im talking about that i have a turbo crx that makes 427hp on pump gas) and basically after fighting with the developers because there were too many short comings for too much money a group of guys finally sat down an worked out a similar system but the perforamace far exceeded that of the other manufactures product. the beauty of it was it was done all with an open source mentality. once it was finished people only purchased via donation to further see product development. it did two things... one the part that people desired was finally available. and two it forced the more corporate industry to realize they too need to get on the ball simply to outdue these so called backyard racers.

ya i understand we may be the ones pushing the envelope in what we do. but it gets old having to make up for incompetence's of a product that cost you hard earned money.

in the end i just hoped that i could help fire someone up to help build a product that is really good and does what it claims it will do. guess time will tell

[jnev]

Couldn't have said it better myself. I also agree that many members have the potential to build a good product together... but if this is actually going to happen, (far stretch IMO) the other problem will be everyone's location. Although, I am really liking your and the rest's idea's.

[snellemin]

It's the consumer that pushes the market. Most of the time, the majority of the consumers are not willing go beyond a certain pricepoint, which ofcourse effects development of better products. And then ofcourse like mentioned before, the Elite group that has surpassed the norm is stuck with inferior parts. But from a marketing point of view, we are just a small group compared to the norm where most of the money is made anyways. We as the smaller group could develop and manufacture better parts if we really wanted too. But there is the thing called Time&Money, which in turn effects the R&D of our wish of having the baddest high voltage/high Amperage ESC's.

[snellemin]

Originally Posted by AAngel

Whenever you break new ground, there are going to be some things that have to be worked out. I very recently had to remind myself of this. In a stupid sort of way, I'm almost proud to be a part of it on the ground floor.

Me too.