Project Mulligan

[Arct1k]

Neil. You may want to consider Sending radio to horizon for the throttle return mod. By default they don't return to zero.

The mod is standard practice for crawler use and they do it for free

[suicideneil]

Yeah- I can do that myself though for the throttle channel, did it with my laser 6- that freaked me out initially; I was like ' oh crap, I cant drive it with a throttle that doesnt return to centre by itself', but I soon figured it out after opening up the case and removing the little stop pin & ratchet thingy. Warrenty void ftw!

Photo time:















I had to relocate the esc to a tray behind the motor like I said- couldnt make it fit under the tranny without lowering the centre skid too much. That meant extending the power wires 3 inches, but since this isnt a schulze I have faith it wont blow up randomly as a result. Couldnt just spin the battery around as the wires exit right next to the spur- 'munch munch munch' if you get my drift. There isnt enough slack/ flexibilty in the wires for them to droop and get caught in the current layout, so it should be fine. Just waiting on my DX6i now so that I can get that installed and setup, then got to paint and trim the shell and its ready to rock & roll.

[suicideneil]

Got my DX6i today....

Opened it up to tweak the throttle stick and make it springy like the other stick, but... the clever/ tight fisted gits at Spektrum saved money by not installing the springy arm thingy and stop-pin thingys on the throttle side. When I did the mod on my laser 6 the arm thingy was included, there was just an extra pin/ screw lifting the arm thingy up to prevent it returning the stick to neutral when released- remove the pin/screw and the ratchet arm thingy and it was how I wanted it. No such luck this time; thankfully Im a resourceful sod and just swapped the whole gimble units over, plugs included.

Got the rx bound first try using an rx pack ( 4 aa batts in a holder ), and got the esc calibrated on the second try- took me a few dozen tries with the laser 6 so that was a relief. Had to reverse the steering and throttle channels on the rx as the gimbles for left and right stick have the pots wired up in different orders, resulting in reversed/ inverted controls basically. No biggie, the DX6i menu is pretty easy to navigate and the truck now lives...

...Sort of; the bloody fecking 3905 slipper wont stay tight- the lock nut ( ha! ) undoes it self if you look at it, so I will glue that sucker up nice and tight.

Just got to make a little mount for the rxs ( weird... ) and route the wiring/ ziptie it inplace, then the truck will be ready to rock and roll!

I got my paint & liquid mask today, so I may start doing the shell tomorrow- got a good idea in my brain how I want it to look, but I wont be giving anything away as chances are I'll feck it up again ( re: stone washed denim vs blue truefire ). Pictures and vids later...

[suicideneil]

Video time:



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zPOttz002U

Just a quicky, but rather... fun.

[lutach]

Looking good Neil.

[ANGRY-ALIEN]

... wow... that thing is going to be a handful Neil... looking good man... when can we see some rolling shots?

[suicideneil]

Soon...

The weather is still freezing here, but its not wet/ raining too often so maybe next week when I have my next days off I will shoot some footage.

I have the middle 2 weeks of April off for easter so I plan to do some serious amount of driving & filming then- will hopefully have a camera man too so the footage will be pretty good for a change.

[Bondonutz]

Looks great Neil
Balance those Tires !!!!!

[JoFreak]

Can't wait to finally see this thing in action!

+1 on the tires though

[suicideneil]

I know, I know

I need to tape the insides and find some foams that fit properly- the lack of balance is actually due to the 40 series foams inside; the hole in the middle is too large, but the actual outer diameter is too small = they do the hoopla inside the Imex tires which throws the balance completely out of whack.

[suicideneil]

Finally, gave the truck its first run outside today, a shake-down if you will.

Observed a few issues that need fixing:

1) pulls to the left, even with the radio trimmed all the way to the right.
2) suspension is a bit mushy
3) stock steering rods bend like uncooked spaghetti

Solutions:

1) tweak steering rods & check toe-in front and rear.
2) swap springs over with 4 of the 8 on the Gmaxx ( Gmaxx suspension is too hard so this is a win-win )
3) Buy some new steering turnbuckles.

Other than that the truck runs fine, brakes are nice and crisp, throttle is smooth ( no cogging ), doesnt wheelie on a hard surface ( block-paving ). Does traction roll though, so no sharp turns under throttle- need to fix my body posts as the fronts came loose. Also need to apply threadloc to prevent the kingpins coming undone. No video Im affraid, wasnt worth filming really.

I have ~2 weeks holiday over the middle of April so should get some video then, and have the issues resolved to make it handle better.

Laters

[JoFreak]

Originally Posted by suicideneil

3) stock steering rods bend like uncooked spaghetti

I gathered that you Brits have strange food, but spaghettis that bend when uncooked? That's just wrong!

Apart from that... Pictures! More!

[What's_nitro?]

Originally Posted by JoFreak

I gathered that you Brits have strange food, but spaghettis that bend when uncooked? That's just wrong!

I wonder if he means to say they snapped?

[JoFreak]

That might be a possibility I haven't thought of
I take everything I said back and claim the opposite!

[redshift]

" No video Im affraid, wasnt worth filming really...I have ~2 weeks holiday over the middle of April"

I'm starting to not like you, Sir Carrot Dangler.

Hehe I'm curious how she handles, what with the tires blowing off the rims on your bench test.... could be a bit of a handful eh?