I’ve had absolutely no time to work on projects this week, but I did get another desk light. I’m using the leftover LED bulb (75 LEDs per bulb) I had from when I swapped out my ceiling lights.
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Took Banshee for a run today. It was freezing, there was snow, ice and water. All of which was bad news for me because I’m still running slicks. I ended up crashing into a merry-go-round at the playground and got a crack in my bodyshell. Luckily it’s not too bad and I should be able to fix it with superglue and epoxy. Also this time I remembered to hit record on the camera so I have gifs.
I drove into my foot.
And ran over my other one 
The crash. This is my second time in the playground and I’ve broken something both times. The first time was the front right suspension arm in the dark run.
Here I jumped and landed nose first, the truck slid on nothing but the front bumper for a bit.
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another crash!?! Please pretty please be careful!!! Luckily it’s not a big damage this time… 
Anyway…the footages are super cool! 
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I told you, my crashes are nothing. RC cars are supposed to take a beating and I’m one of the more careful owners you’ll see.
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Lovely gifs! 
Wow there is no snow… all went away! There is still snowing in some places…
Lol those crashing ! You just got aside in one gif!
Oh yes… careful creator and owner 
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So yesterday I found out the proper epoxy stinks. I was fixing Banshee’s bodyshell and decided to try the gorilla epoxy, that stuff has a pretty strong smell and it isn’t even a nice one. Hopefully this one holds and isn’t like the crappy Lidl one I tried. The Lidl one could be chipped off with your finger.
Banshee’s repaired and ready for another run!? 
It was fine the whole time, it was fully functional even with a cracked shell.
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Behold, the world’s smallest 3S LiPo…probably. 75mAh capacity, made it from salvaged cells I got from the Q32 and the 2 extra PCBs I had to buy for it. I’m going to try and power Banshee from it tomorrow. I’ve got 3 theories as to what might happen.
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I plug it in, fire up the system, and it runs out of juice before I even have a chance to set off because of the fans.
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I plug it in, fire up the system, and it only manages to cover 2m before running out of juice.
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I plug it in, fire up the system, set off, draw more current than the battery can handle, it puffs, and then it goes up in flames.
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I just realised I forgot to post the results of my battery test. What happened was neither of my three predictions, but it was close to the first. I plugged it in, fired up the fans and then went to switch on the ESC, however, the moment I switched it on, the battery died.
At first I thought it had drained fully, but it turns out that it experienced a massive voltage drop. So after I unplugged it and gave it 15 secs it came back to its normal voltage. I tried again and got the same result. My system is too demanding for such a tiny battery. With that being said, I fully expected it, I only made the battery as a joke.
And now for a post run report:
Before I took it out today I was experimenting with some PVC pipe as shock preload for the front.
I decided to try out 17mm long pieces as that was the amount of preload I was running in the back. It worked, but at a couple of costs. The first is that the ride is now a bit too hard and the truck bounces around a bit too much, the second is that the nose is now higher than the rear, that means that the wheelie bar spends more time smacking the ground. I’m thinking of reducing it to 13mm or 15mm pieces for the next run. On the upside it now handles like a beast, but alas, it is an off road stadium truck not a road only touring car. So I’ll have to compromise a bit if I want it to still be a jack of all trades.
In other news, the weather on this run was crazy, it went from sunny, to rain, to hail and back to sunny. What completely blew my mind today was the tyre performance in the pouring rain. I’m still running the slicks so I expected it to aquaplane like a madman, but no, it stuck like superglue. I’m not exaggerating when I say this but the grip was better than in the dry or semi dry. I felt it hunker down, become far more stable and go from a cornering beast to something even more brutal. It got so much grip that I managed to pull a grip flip, I can only imagine what it would have been like without the action cam.
I honestly don’t know why this happened, I asked my dad and he was baffled too. If anyone here knows (perhaps @framos1792 ) can you please tell me.
Oh and I also fashioned some body clip retainers. The front is made from a metal woven cord of some kind that came with my action cam which I cable tied to the light bar (making sure not to obstruct the LEDs). The rear one is made from some wire (for circuits) that I wrapped around the spare threads on the body shell fan screws and some cable ties. Now I don’t have to keep looking for my clips when I inevitably forget where I’ve put them. Funnily enough, the clips are the only thing I tend to lose or misplace.
The retainers:
https://forums.lpunderground.com/uploads/short-url/jwTGZ66B6zuBD62qNNO0JFXJ6Xo.jpg
The PVC pipe preload clips:
https://forums.lpunderground.com/uploads/short-url/r6QVWBskZ4XglJZFJ0hX2NImmby.jpg
Some gifs:
This was a good run, but in terms of footage, there wasn’t anything too interesting.
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Slicks have higher contact SA, the tires are so small that hydroplaning is negligible(speeds would have to be up there to do so and you won’t get near that speed), I assume the tire profile itself is more rounded than a typical car tire so water would be less of an issue
Even in NASCAR I’ve heard that a wet surface helps certain tires depending on material they’re made of-granted oil on road etc would eff those findings up
Off top of head that’s all 
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Yeah, the contact patch is actually quite large, the tyres only round off at the edges just before the sidewall a bit. Otherwise in a straight line, the faster I went the more planted it became, even when the tyres started ballooning a tad.
I’m planning a new section for my site, I don’t want to give away too much, but I’ll say from now that it’s not a new project…not properly at least. More info soon.
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Yesterday I went for another run with Banshee. This time I went from 17mm preload on the front shocks to 13mm preload. That seemed to work, I have a good balance of resistance to weight transfer and ride quality. I know you might think that ride quality is irrelevant since nobody is inside it, but it’s better for the camera and more importantly, it’s better for handling if it isn’t bouncing around all the time.
The front is still higher than the rear but it doesn’t seem to be making much of a difference. The only thing that could be affected would be aerodynamics past maybe 35 MPH, but if I’m going for a proper speed run I’d tune the suspension to lower the truck completely.
My driving yesterday really wasn’t on point and although I have footage, none of it was really gif-worthy so there are no gifs this time. I can however reveal a ‘teaser’ for the new section of my site. I don’t have a set release date for it yet.
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So yesterday I was cleaning Banshee up when I noticed that the front where the extra LEDs were mounted has taken quite a battering. This time I don’t even know how. So I’ve ordered some smaller LEDs and have cut off a piece of my test shell to repair this shell. What’s really annoying is that the clear shells for my truck have been discontinued, so if I trash this one I’ll have to buy a pre painted one. Those are pretty scarce too. I’ll post pics later when I have light.
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Is that a schematics of a new prototype?
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Good guess, but no.
Is it a weapon of mass destruction? 
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No no, far less interesting than that.
Here are those pics, sorry for the delay.
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