Personal Projects

So, Camazotz is out of commission…again. I have absolutely had it with this buggy, today was its record up-time, it survived for a whopping 4 battery packs! (Note my sarcasm). I blew another MOSFET, this time it was partly my fault, but it should not have happened at all. I wanted to get a voltage reading across the motor at full throttle, so I kept it at full throttle for 5-6 secs with no load (I even took the wheels off) and the MOSFET just went up in a puff of smoke.

Now, I can replace the MOSFET (I have spares), but I also started having handling issues where it would oversteer to the left to the point of it spinning out immediately when I turned the wheel even slightly, yet it would understeer like a pig when I turned right. I tried adjusting what little suspension geometry there is and saw no difference.

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I’m in all likeliness going to sell it after I repair it. Some other poor soul can deal with it. So this is probably the last PRR for Camazotz that you’ll see.

I drew out another track today since the thunderstorm washed away my last one. This layout turned out to be rubbish as it was too twisty for the buggy to be able to handle, yesterday’s layout was miles better and more fun. I tried drawing on bypasses, but it became a mess of a track. Also the car was packed full of chalk and even my foam tyres started losing grip because they were full of chalk. I washed them out, but they just re-accumulated it again.

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Here are a couple of gifs, my performance on this track was horrid, even after about an hour of running.

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Sit rep:

I fixed Camazotz today, I just need to iron out the handling issue and I’ll probably put it up for sale. Also on another note, I’ve started fixing the images on my site, photobucket wouldn’t let me post images to other sites without an account upgrade (that wasn’t the case a few years ago) so I’m using Imgur.

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Oh nice! How much are you gonna ask for Camazotz?

an account upgrade?

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Yes, sorry. :joy: I’ll fix it now, thanks.

EDIT: Done.

I’m thinking £85 with all the extras and my mods. I’ll offer it to my friends for £50 first. Not sure if I can ship abroad given the lithium batteries. I’ll have to look up the details.

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You’re welcome :smile:

That’s quite a lot. You could turn this into a serious business!

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I’m making a big loss actually. This stupid thing has drained me of ~£150 over the time I’ve owned it. The stock buggy alone is £32.

Hmmm… perhaps you can find a way to reduce costs? Cheaper parts maybe

The RC hobby is idiotically expensive, because companies know they can milk you. I usually scour ebay and other sellers for the cheapest possible parts.

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Camazotz’ handling issue has been sorted out. It turns out the the front right “suspension” arm was bent up slightly and the tyre was only occasionally making contact with the ground. That’s why it was understeering right and oversteering left, because the left had more grip than the right.

Does that mean you don’t want to sell it anymore?

Is that disappointment or relief? :stuck_out_tongue:

I do want to sell it. I’m actually working out its value now for pricing.

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:joy: relief, but it’s your choice obviously… :grin: sell at a good price! :money_mouth_face:

How come you don’t want to see it go?

Because seems that you repaired it better this time and maybe it wouldn’t have more issues in the next race… you found out the real balancing problem, so it would be almost perfect now… just this… :upside_down_face:

I didn’t repair it better, I replaced a part that has burned out 4 times (I’ve replaced 8 of said part) and there’s a chance that it will burn out again at some point. This project has been a total nightmare and has cost me an idiotic amount of money. Plus I have nowhere to drive it (the kitchen roof’s not an option anymore).

Umm…yeah, better to sell it… you have other cool cars to run… :upside_down_face: :muscle:

What?why? For the rain that washed away the track or because it’s not a “real/solid” roof?

Because me drawing and walking over it repeatedly will damage the surface, also because it makes a lot of noise in the kitchen apparently.

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Another update on my website photo issue:

All photos in the dedicated project pages of the R/C branch have been restored, I’ll get onto the photos in the R/C forums next, then I’ll move to the Lego branch, those will take a bit longer.

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Catched up with the last three weeks here and what impressed me most was how sensitive Camazotz reacts to the remote control- how fast it is and how great you control it driving in the circuit. Itzexactly the same feel I had when I saw Banshee live- awesome :clap:t2: RESPECT

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Yup so many things to read, can’t catch up.

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