Personal Projects

The Barracks
#663

There’s a few things I want to get through in this post.

Firstly is Banshee’s face transplant, it worked, but now it looks even more messed up than before. But then again, I don’t care about how it looks as long as it works. Along with the new face I fashioned an internal bumper out of a PVC pipe. So now when there’s a frontal impact that the proper front bumper can’t block, the body doesn’t bend back since the PVC pipe rests on the front body posts. The pipe also serves as a loom channel for the LED wires. Speaking of wires, wire length is now up from 15.10 m to 16.46 m! The inside of the bodyshell is a mess of gorilla tape.

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The second thing I want to get onto is a damage report.

I somehow managed to completely obliterate one of the bearings in my rear left hub. I first noticed that something was off when I saw considerable play in the wheel. At first I thought it was the nut coming loose again, but it was fine. Only when I took it apart did I see what had actually happened. This breakage wasn’t even my fault, hub bearings are generally put under a lot of strain, it was only a matter of time before it went. Also this one is the one that came on the truck from day 1, it hasn’t been changed. Luckily the ones I salvaged from my rim recently were the same size so I had spares.

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The third is a post run report, I took Banshee out again yesterday. In the bone dry (when the tyres had some serious grip) I noticed that I still had COG issues when I threw it into a corner too hard, but that was my fault, the truck performed pretty well. There were however a fair few crashes, and some of them were my biggest yet, with a lot of flipping. The best part is that nothing broke. Only my voltage regulator de-glued itself from its initially dodgy mount in one of the crashes. I’ll probably find a way to screw it onto the receiver box.

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This gif continues from the one above.

Staircase jump

Staircase jumpy Fail. This was my biggest crash of the day, it managed to dislodge my battery and ESC from their velcro mounts as well as de-glue my regulator. Nothing broke though.

The final thing I wanted to talk about was the new section of the site that I’m working on. Since I’m going to be studying for exams, I won’t really have time to work on it in the coming weeks so I might as well reveal what it was. I’m doing a section on my stomping ground. Sort of like a tour around the park where I do most of my testing. The sneak preview thing I gave the other day is the path outline. The section will go ahead, but I’m delaying it.

Here’s another teaser.

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4 Likes
#664

That map of the ground is a cool idea. Will you only do path outlines or more?

1 Like
#665

I’m planning on labelling sectors, talking about each sector and then running through it in gifs (I need decent weather and a relatively empty park for that). I’m going to go into some depth. As a testing ground it’s not great, but I try to make the most of it. Also I won’t be revealing the location as I live right next to it, but I’ll say that it’s in North West London.

2 Likes
#666

To google earth it is! Stalker status :stuck_out_tongue:

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#667

If you do happen to find it, drop me an email on my decoy account.

the_termin8r@yahoo.co.uk

:joy:

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#668

Any luck yet @framos1792 ? :stuck_out_tongue:

Ignore this part of the post

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#669

You know what I clicked because I thought there was some kind of hint or hidden details… loool :joy: :see_no_evil:

Guys don’t click! It’s a trap :stuck_out_tongue:

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#670

Nope, when I say you can ignore, I mean it. :stuck_out_tongue:

My website needs URLs for the pics, so I post them here.

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#671

Lol no i haven’t had time but challenge accepted, will report by the week’s end loll
The one thing I realized about London-there’s a crap ton of parks :expressionless: and the realization the US is a concrete jungle by comparison haha

1 Like
#672

Yeah, just switch on park outlines on GE and have your computer melt. :joy:

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#673

I fixed the de-glued regulator the yesterday. I just screwed it onto the top of the receiver box. The only minor problem was that I didn’t think to account for the screw channels in the regulator box, so one of the screws is right next to it and the nut is tightened onto the channel, it doesn’t affect anything though.

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3 Likes
#674

I’ve ordered some new dog bones and rear axles since I noticed that they’ve started to get damaged, can’t blame them though, they’re probably the components under the most strain in the entire truck. The cups on the axles are starting to get deformed and the dog bones have started to bend ever so slightly. As a result the truck can be moved back and forth a bit without the wheels moving due to the play. A bit like when you get out of an american car and it rocks back and forth a bit since americans don’t know what a handbrake it. :joy:

Notice where the dog bone pin has dug into the axle cup.
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I could upgrade to CVDs but from what I’ve read it’s better to keep using dog bones for bashing, CVDs are better for racing. Also the CVDs are twice the price of dog bones.

2 Likes
#675

Now they’re ready for another bumpy ride :smile:

They don’t? :joy:

#676

It was a joke, they probably do. But in all the movies when someone pulls up and gets out of the car, you can see it rocking back and forth a bit. That’s because they’re automatic and it just locks the transmission instead of using a handbrake and the rocking is caused by the distance between the gear teeth.

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#677

Ooh I see. Would be weird if they didn’t have a handbreak lol.

Also nice avatar

1 Like
#678

Any luck with the stalker quest @framos1792 ? :stuck_out_tongue:

#679

I’m planning something big for the summer. I’ve found a really cheap (and probably definitely rubbish) ESC and motor combo that come with a programming card too. The ESC is rated for 60A and the motor is a 4 pole 5200KV brushless. I’m also planning on buying some very small 3S LiPos for as cheap as possible.

My plan is to stick them in Hellhound and see what sort of speed I can get from it. The theoretical top speed would go from a brisk 38 MPH to a totally idiotic 90 MPH! Obviously the real top speed will be a lot less (probably around 60 if I’m lucky) due to things such as weight, aerodynamics (Hellhound’s are awful) and the rubbish electronics.

Also I’m certain the electronics are rubbish, because my good electronics which I run in Banshee cost me ~£123 (for the motor and ESC only). This motor, ESC and programming card cost ~£38 or ~£72 if you count the batteries too. I still want to try it and see what happens though. Also I say the electronics are rubbish, but the batteries are from a brand I trust (I run the same brand battery in Banshee).

4 Likes
#680

Can’t wait to see Hellhound on a speedy race! :heart_eyes: :muscle:

#681

It might take some time though.

1 Like
#682

Here’s something new, a PRR for Camazotz.

I decided to take Camazotz for a run on the kitchen roof today. I clocked the kitchen roof at 40C, I ran for 30 mins almost continuously (only stopping to take the odd motor temp reading and to flip the buggy back on its wheels), the motor reached 50C which is pretty hot, but it kept going without complaint. It seems that the pain and trouble I went through to swap out the MOSFETs has paid off.

Other observations I’ve made over time are that the kitchen roof’s sandpaper-like surface is excellent for grip and that the buggy gets badly unsettled by even the smallest of bumps. That’s because the front has no suspension and the rear “suspension” (it’s pretty much the spring from a Biro) doesn’t do anything since the motor and gearbox are unsprung weight. So every time the rear goes over a bump, everything gets thrown up in the air. Oh, and I inevitably drove it off the roof by accident (as always); luckily it weighs close to nothing so it was perfectly fine.

I even have a couple of gifs. My plan for the weekend is to draw out a basic track in chalk and try to drive around.

This gif makes it look like it has teleportation capabilities.

Here it looks like I’ve respawned in a videogame.

2 Likes