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‘Ask Cubby’ Category

ASK Cub Reporter, 03.14.2013, Version- Oh Ya! Your Questions, My Drivel

Posted by Cubby @ 1:01 pm. Filed in: Ask Cubby

Hey cubby, where do you come up with the titles for the cub report?

Max R.

Cubby- Hey Max, your email has “hit the big-time” so shoot your snail mail info to Brian for a free BSRC sticker pack.

So… where do the titles for THE Cub Report come from? When I first started doing the CR about a half decade ago I decided to do a fresh “title” for each edition. Little did I know that the CR would still be kicking for years afterwards, and little did I know how hard it would be to come up with 52 original titles per year. In the early days it was quite easy, but for the last 4 and a half years (LOL) it’s been pretty hard coming up with something new and witty. So… often times the titles are simply an inside joke between me and the BSRC staff (or other industry people), or sometimes they might be related to the music I am listening to while I am writing up the CR (like last weeks “Paint it Black”), or sometimes the title might just be a combination of keywords for an SEO kick. To boil it down, don’t take anything in the CR too seriously, not even the title, it is for entertainment purposes only.

Hi Brian,
I am about to start racing mardave / supastox 1s lipo with a thunderpower 13.5t motor and lrp sxx esc.
I was advised that the Turnigy nano-tech A-SPEC 6000mah 1S 65~130C Hardcase Lipo Pack if worth getting as its only £15 in the UK compared to the Orion 1s Carbon 6800mah which is £50 in the UK.
I saw you have tested the 2s A-spec and it was similar but not as good as the Gens Ace. Have you any idea how much better the Orion or reedy 1s lipos would be compared to the Turnigy? Do you know if the Turnigy last very long, just trying to work out if they do not last if I will need to replace them more often than a £50 lipo.
I use a orion quad 6 ac/dc charger and always store my lipos at 3.8v per cell and charge them on the day I need them and discharge them for storage the same day.
Any advice would be great thank you. I could afford to buy 2 of the Orion packs at a push, but thats 7 packs of the Turnigy!!!!!!
Thank you guys, great tests on lipos too.
Robert

Cubby- Hey what’s up Robert? Those Mardave cars are something else eh? We should post more of their cars up. Ya, I know they are pretty much a Euro only brand, but they certainly make some interesting “bare bones” racing equipment.

So… your question is- how much better is an Orion or Reedy Lipo compared to a Turnigy.

First off, we’ve never tested or driven a Reedy Lipo, so I have no idea if they are junk or the cats meow. Personally I’d skip’em for the fact that they won’t give us the time of day. I mean, if they won’t even talk to the guys at your favorite website why should you spend any money with them?

So… how much better is an Orion than a Turnigy? A big part of my answer depends on the context of what you race. You race a 1S 13.5 class. In that class even a tiny amount more voltage is quite beneficial on track. Therefore- I am going to recommend you pop the extra cash for the Orion’s. They put out more voltage under load, plus, they simply feel faster on track than the Turnigy. You won’t be able to buy as many packs, but the extra voltage of the Orion’s is well worth it.

However… if you were racing 2wd mod off-road on a slick outdoor track my answer would have been different. On slick tracks the power difference between the two brands would become much harder to feel (if not impossible). I’d still probably recommend the Orion’s (because ours have lasted a long time), but the Turnigy’s would be a decent option if you were looking to save some cash.

That’s it for this week, shoot me your questions, answers, and subliminal messages to Cubby at BigSquidRC dot com. If you make the big-time you get free stickers, if I proclaim yours as “letter of the month” we ship ya a free BSRC t-shirt (even in the size you want!).

YOUR Cub Reporter

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ASK Cub Reporter, 03.07.2013, Version- More Questions, Less Answers

Posted by Cubby @ 11:47 am. Filed in: Ask Cubby

i have to say, the scale winch by integy looks freakin awesome! i really want one but i dont have a crawler, so, my question is, do you think it will fit on the my stampede? maybe with a little modding? i really want one but i dont want to drop the cash and it not fit.
Mason

Cubby- Hey what’s up Mason, thanks for the email and be sure to shoot Brian your address for a free sticker pack.

I soooo don’t know anything about scalers or winches. So… I’ll just make up an answer.

Having worked around Brian, Bill, and Adam now for such a long time now, I would have to say it would be no problem to mount that winch on your Stampede. I say this for two reasons- 1. I’ve seen Bill do things with JB Weld that would shock Stephen
Hawking, and 2. the Integy comes with a relatively “universal” mounting plate. So ya, buy one, bolt it to something solid on the front of your Pede then shoot us some pics, we wanna see how trick it looks when it’s done.

Question about the 1/12 scale HPI Mini Trophy Truck
I just want to say I enjoy reading all your articles on your website.

Do you know if hop-up parts going to be available for this kit?
I did a major overkill in this truck, I put a mamba max pro esc and a reedy sonic 4t running on 3s lipo. Im pretty amazed that for being so skinny it handles pretty well. With my setup its kind of loud, it reminds me of the Ofna Hyper 10 I had running it with an 1/8 scale motor but loud is good. This thing hauls
Thanks
Mike

Cubby- Yes Mike, I do believe you are a BSRC kind of guy, where “major overkill” is pretty much the norm.

And yes, I can only imagine what a beat the HPI Mini-Trophy Truck is on 3S brushless power.

One of the BSRC Bash Crew (Jim S) has gotten in a lot of time with the MTT. Straight out of the box it doesn’t handle that well so Jim put in the time and got it to handle/jump much better. If I remember correctly he spent most of his time on the
rear suspension. Personally I felt like HPI just missed the mark with the MTT, it didn’t handle well out of the box and it was a pain to work on. Oh and it was about an inch too narrow, which made it barrel roll like mad when crashing.

So… are there after-market parts for it? There are some out there. For example, GH Racing has a few aluminum parts for the MTT. Other than that, there aren’t many out there.

Not having a ton of aftermarket support can make the MTT fun in another way- finding parts from other vehicles that will work. If you are dialed with a kick ass local hobby shop you can take your truck in and find other shock towers, shocks, hubs, a-arms, etc that will either bolt up or you can modify to work. Yes, that is a bit more time intensive than just clicking “buy” off the GH Racing website, but once you are done you’ll truly have an uber one-of-a-kind machine that will astonish the guys at your local bash spot.

you guys did a radio shoot out a while back i was wondering why you did not include airtronics? or is any not worth considering, how would the best airtronics compare to futaba 4pks
thank you roger

Cubby- Yo hey Roger, thanks for taking the time to shoot us an email.

Why was Airtronics not in our last transmitter shootout? Pretty simple answer to that one- they don’t talk to us. We’ve tried contacting them multiple times, but they don’t/won’t work with us on any level.

Have we torqued them off at some time in the past? Maybe (read probably) so, I’ve definitely offended just about everyone there is to offend in the hobby industry, but the fact remains, “Cubby” is a very small part of BSRC, and I certainly don’t
speak for anyone else here. And more importantly, regardless of what kind of garbage I spew, BSRC could be considered to be one of the, if not the, leader in rc bashing websites. If Airtronics really cared about promoting their products to the bashing crowd they would work with us to some extent.

I can say first hand that Futaba actively wants bashers using their products, as does Tactic, Spektrum, and HobbyKing. These companies know that bashers are what make this hobby go-around, and have no problem catering to them. IMO, if you want to
support companies that support bashing I would spend my hard earned cash with them instead of other companies that might think they are “above” the bashing crowd.

That’s it for this week gang, shoot me your questions, answers, rants, raves, and manifesto’s to Cubby at BigSquidRC.com. If your email hits the front page you’ll get a free sticker pack, if I proclaim yours as “letter of the month” we’ll totally hook ya up with one of our new t-shirts.

YOUR Cub Reporter

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ASK Cub Reporter, 02.28.1013, Version- Your Honest Questions, My Dubious Answers

Posted by Cubby @ 9:15 am. Filed in: Ask Cubby

“Scale” short course comments

As a long time – 30 years – RC enthusiast and racer, I feel that you guys are way off the mark with your “scale” comments lately regarding short course. The class will never grow if we don’t move it more and more towards performance. We cannot go back to Slashes and hard “realistic” tires. Do that, and the best selling RC kits in a long time will wither and die.
Also – dish wheels are not only scale and realistic – they look cool.
Tony F.

Cubby- Yo hey Tony, thanks for the email and congrats, I’ve just proclaimed yours as “letter of the month”, thereby entitling you to a free (and quite uber) BigSquidRC t-shirt. Be sure and shoot Brian your snail mail and shirt size so he can hook ya up.

Don’t ya just love America? The land where everyone can have their very own opinion, one that can never be swayed.

There is a reason why DE Racing and JConcepts are selling “dish” short course rims, people like you Tony. You dig that look and that is totally your right, it’s part of the beauty of America.

However… my view is different than yours. I regularly “quiz” muggles on things like “How does this truck look to you?”, and I’ve found they immediately warm-up to a scale looking SCT, and come up with some pretty baffling answers when shown an 8th scale buggy or 10th scale “stadium truck”. It only goes to reason that if most “outsiders” find SCT’s attractive and inviting then that’s what we should be racing.

And… going to scale looking tires has absolutely nothing to do with going to a rock hard compound tire. On the full scale side of things, I don’t know if you’ve held a full scale SCT race tire in your hands lately, I have, and I can assure you
it was not composed of a rock hard compound. On the small scale side of things, a tire in M4 compound doesn’t “look” any less scale than one molded in the rock hard stock Traxxas compound.

On that subject, do you think it’s impossible to have a great performing rc tire in a “scale” tread? I can tell you from first hand experience that the stock tires on the Axial EXO Terra Buggy are phenomenal. They provide great mechanical grip on blue groove and drive like champs out in the fluff. Nobody talks about the EXO tires because they are rarely raced, but I’ve driven them on well over a dozen tracks from coast to coast, and while they do not give quite the traction of the preferred tire at each track, they are Amazing on a wide variety of surfaces. Given some development time I have no doubt that a company like Pro-Line could put out scale looking tires that would amaze you. Based on this I see absolutely no reason why scale looking tires are not mandatory in the SCT and SCB classes.

You say “The class will never grow if we don’t move it more and more towards performance.”. Here I think you sound like some sort of hard-core long time rc racer. Racing isn’t about knocking tenths off the track record, it’s about beating the guys you lined up against. Rc racing is horrible about it all being about knocking out faster lap times at any cost, not about actual competition, and really that’s one of the many reasons rc racing has become the joke that it has. And you say you’ve been in the hobby for “30 years”, but if you actually knew anything about rc racing you’d know that faster does not mean more fun or higher turnouts, far from it.

Lastly… you mention that dish wheels look realistic? Realistic to what, cars running on the Bonneville Salt Flats? In case you’ve never seen a full scale SCT wheel/tire combo in real life, HERE are three pictures. The pics are representative of what every truck in the TORC and LOORRS series are running. The photos were taking by me at a TORC race last season and I can absolutely assure you I didn’t PS them to remove a dish (LOL). If you still think I’m full of it simply Google Image search “TORC Racing” and see how long it takes before the first “dish” wheel pops up.

Short Course Wheel Gallery

And finally… have you ever thought about what you can do for your hobby? Just because you can run UFO looking dish wheels on your SCT does that mean you should? How many muggles see you driving/racing each year? Do you want to leave them with the impression “OMG what the hell are those things?” or would you rather leave them with “OMG those trucks looked awesome!”?

Hey Cubby, I have a question to you I have an hpi blitz with all stock.. im looking
to upgrade it with a brushless system Im thinking about buying the castle creations
sv2 4600 So here is my question: Can I use this brushless system with the stock hpi
radio and receiver??
Thanks! (no name given)

Cubby- Hello Mr No Name. I’m about all written out after Tony’s email so I’ll keep it brief. Yes, a Castle system will work with your stock HPI radio gear, but I’d recommend the 3800kv SCT system for your Blitz. Why? Because it has a bit more torque and it’s a lower kv, meaning it’ll be easier to gear properly, it will run cooler, and it’ll have more low end snap.

That’s it for this week folks, shoot me your questions, answers, comments and various rants to Cubby at BigSquidRC dot com. Get free stuff (read stickers) when your email hits the big time, and maybe even win a free t-shirt if your email is extra kick-a$$.

YOUR Cub Reporter

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ASK Cub Reporter, 02.22.2013, Version- A Day Late But Better Than Ever

Posted by Cubby @ 11:23 am. Filed in: Ask Cubby

Hello, sorry I didnt know who else to ask, so maybe you know. Will the carisma M10DT volkswagon beetle desert edition come to the U.S?
I sure hope so, it really looks sick.Thanks for your time, oh I love your website.
JA Sugar

Cubby- Hey what’s up Sugar?

The Carisma crew has introduced a bunch of new trucks lately, all of them look like prime bashing mobiles and we have been getting a bunch of emails about them. Back in the day, Carisma was distributed by Horizon here in the States, but not any longer. We’ve heard some rumors of Carisma possibly getting picked up by another distributor here in the states, but as of right now they’ve yet to work out a deal. To boil it down, if you want a Carisma product you’ll have to buy it from overseas. This might be expensive (and a huge PITA), but you will instantly be the coolest guy at your bash spot. If you do pick one up send us some pics.

Hi Cubby my name is Matt got a little problem and thought you might be able to help. I just got a hot bodies dirt demon for 99 bucks and it ran good for about a week and then the trans went to crap. I was wondering if you had any thoughts on replacing the hole trans with something ells being as they do not make the spur gear and more no one does it sucks . If you got any thoughts its a god rc just bad that they do not make the 4wd trans any more. All the help will be helpful .
Matt H.

Cubby- Yo what’s up Matt? That HB Dirt Demon was a cool monster truck back in the day. And… that’s exactly the problem, it’s an old platform.

I haven’t dug into it, so I have no idea what other spur gear might work or which tranny might drop in. The reason why I haven’t researched it is because even if you can find another tranny to drop in, that doesn’t really “fix” your problem. What if you break an a-arm? Or a hub carrier? If you drive your truck at all you are going to break other parts sooner or later.

So.. what I’m going to recommend is two routes for you. The first route is the cheap one. If you have a GOOD hobby shop near you, take your truck in. A good hobby shop will look through their parts supply and figure out what they have in stock that can be used to get your Dirt Demon back up to speed.

The second route is a bit more expensive but it’s the one I would take if I really liked an older platform vehicle. Search around on eBay, Craigslist, and the forums, then buy any complete Dirt Demon you can get your hands on. If you stockpile a
couple of complete trucks you should be dialed for at least a couple of years.

I bought a HPI 2WD Electric Blitz for myself and my son.. Both trucks have the same problem… Press full throttle forward and sometimes no response.. battery is fully charged and I believe to have set up the truck correctly.. I must be missing something???
Please help!!!
Randy

Cubby- Thanks for shoot’n us an email Randy, make sure to send Brian your snail mail so we can hook ya up with some stickers to plaster all over your Blitz’s.

I really like the HPI Blitz. It drives well and the RTR version can take some serious abuse. Sucks to hear you are having a problem with yours but that is part of the “fun” of our hobby.

If both your trucks have the same problem it sounds like you may not have calibrated the transmitters to the speed controllers properly. What this involves is having the speed control “learn” where full throttle, full brake, and neutral is from your transmitters. Read your manual for exact instructions, but this typically involves turning on your radio, then turning on your truck, then going from full throttle to full brake and then to neutral in the first couple of seconds the speedo is on. Depending on the speedo, you might have to press a programming button to accomplish
this task.

If it isn’t a calibration issue then it might simply be there is a lot of lag/delay between reverse and forward. On some speedo’s you can instantly go from reverse to full forward, on other brands it might take a couple seconds. It’s been several years since I have driven a stock brushed Blitz, I can’t recall off the top of my head if the Blitz had a bunch of lag/delay or not.

That’s it for this week folks, shoot me your questions, smack talk, or whatever else is on your mind to Cubby at BigSquidRC dot com. If your question makes the big-time you get free stickers, if I pick yours as “letter of the month” we hook you up with a BSRC t-shirt.

YOUR Cub Reporter

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ASK Cub Reporter, 02.14.2013- Your Weekly Questions, My Weekly Drivel

Posted by Cubby @ 12:26 pm. Filed in: Ask Cubby

Hey guys I check your site quite often for great reviews on new RC vehicles etc. I am in the market wanting to buy an electric 1/8th scale basher and when I saw the new Thunder Tiger E-MTA I fell in love. This is what I want to get. Do you guys know where I might possibly be able to get it as I am unable to find any dealers in the US that has this. I don’t mind purchasing over seas but I need to find a hobby shop or store that has this baby in stock and can ship it to me. I am emailing you guys because I believe you did a review on this truck. I tried contacting Thunder Tiger America and the guy on the phone said he has never heard of this truck and doesn’t know what I am talking about. I found that to be a bit funny buy oh well. Hopefully you guys can help. Thanks.

Sujal P

Cubby- Hey ya Sujal, thanks for the email.

So where is the Thunder Tiger E-MTA? I have no idea, and I’m with ya that I’d reallyyyyy like to see it hit the states. For you readers who might not have heard of it, it’s a new brushless monster truck from Thunder Tiger that comes with extra sic suspension.

We posted information from the European press release a few months ago on the E-MTA and since then we have asked the Thunder Tiger guys if it would ever make it to the states. So far the info says no, so Sujal, if you really want a E-MTA (which will instantly make you the coolest guy at any bash spot in America) you will have to buy it from over-seas. And yo sorry, I’ve got zero leads for ya on tracking one down. I can only suggest that Google is your friend. Good luck and shoot us pics when/if you get one in your hands. Till then, we’ll keep bugging the TT people about importing them stateside.

This next one is a big long for the front page, so I’ll get it started here.. but you’ll need to hit the ‘READ MORE’ button for the rest and the answer..

Can we give up on RC racing EVER going mainstream?

I was REALLY bored the other night and read some old Cub reports. A consistent theme of those reports were your ideas to get RC racing mainstream such as DC shoes or Red Bull sponsorship. It got me thinking and below are my 10 reasons (in no order) RC racing will not go mainstream:

1. Size. Racing small several thousand dollar 8 lb vehicles on tracks not much larger than a studio apt compared to multi-million dollar race efforts in full size vehicles on full size tracks. Same reason 1/8th racing is more popular than 1/24th.

2. Injury risk. It’s sad but true that anticipation of crashes is a top attraction at racing events. RC racing – one of the racers goes down due to trigger finger cramping (the nefarious relative of arm pump)?

3. Crazy factor. In most forms of racing people watch and say “Wow, what they do is crazy.” RC racing doesn’t have that.

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ASK Cub Reporter, 02.07.2013, Version- Your Questions, My Drivel

Posted by Cubby @ 9:21 am. Filed in: Ask Cubby

MG4 T3
Hi there
I just received a mg4 t3 from my wife it doesn’t seem to roll freely i haven’t turned it on yet because im waiting for batteries the buyer said that they don’t roll freely due to it having 3 diffs what do you think
Daryn B.

Cubby- Hey Daryn, shoot Brian your snail mail so we can send ya out some free BSRC stickers for your monster truck.

So… you have a Thunder Tiger MT4 G3 (I agree they need a simpler name) monster truck that doesn’t seem to roll freely. You don’t mention if it has the stock brushless motor or not, but if it does, then yes, it should roll very freely. For example, if you give the truck a push it should keep rolling quite easily after you let go.

There are a bunch of things that can add resistance/binding. Your truck could have a bad bearing, something could be bent and rubbing against another part, your gear mesh (spur/pinion, or ring gears in the diffs) might be too tight, or even an aftermarket slotted motor (slotless tend to spin over easy, slotted type BL’s turn over harder) can make it feel like there is too much rolling resistance. For sure, you do NOT want to drive the truck if there is too much resistance/binding, it will be torturous to the power system.

The first thing I would do in your case would be to remove the pinion gear then give the truck a push to see if it is any freer. By removing the pinion you can find out if the pinion/spur mesh was bad or if you might have a bad motor. If after removing the pinion you find you still have binding, I would attempting spinning different wheels to see if you can track down the spot where the extra friction is happening.

Best of luck and shoot us an email back to let us know where the problem actually was.

My son and I go to the local track to race our 2WD and 4×4 Slash trucks. We talk with a lot of RC nuts and test a lot of different ways to make our trucks better on and off the track. I was wondering what we would have to do to test your new products for the slash trucks. We know a lot of people that have that truck and are always looking for a better product. We would love to show off the new Pro-line product and tell them where to get it. Let them know to go to www.BigSquidRC.com to get what they need.

Matt H.

Cubby- Congrats Matt, I officially proclaim your email as the “Letter Of The Month”. This entitles you to a brand spank’n new BigSquidRC t-shirt, now you’ll instantly be the coolest guy at your local bash spot.

What would you have to do to test products for BigSquidRC?

When we do reviews we attempt to do them for who we think are our typical readers- everyday backyard bashers. The most important input we get during our review process is from random people we end up bashing with at the track, ball diamond, or local city parks. So while I might write up a review, or Brian might write one up, our reviews really are a sum of at least the input of a half dozen different people.

Local bashers are the kind of drivers that don’t avoid mud-holes and they use drivers stands for jumping their trucks off of not for standing on. We feel their input is the best for our readers. Matt, it sounds like you and your son are racers- while your input could certainly be part of our testing process, it would not be optimal for what we are searching for.

But… lets say you were a perfect candidate to be a tester. The hard part isn’t installing the new parts. The hard part isn’t driving the new parts. The hard part is all the hours spent getting the actual review on the website.

For example, in the Pro-Line performance review that you mention, it took us a “couple hours” to install the new parts. Then we spent a couple hours shooting pictures (you can read more about this on our G+ page), then perhaps another hour editing, resizing, and watermarking the pics. Then we spent 4 days actually driving the new parts, at roughly a half dozen packs per day. Of course we were also driving other review vehicles at the same time, but I’d say we spent roughly 4 hours of actual driving time with the new Pro-Line parts. That isn’t a lot of time by any means, but enough to get a good idea if they were going to break and if they were actually worth owning. Finally, we spent at least an hour writing up the review and another hour posting it to the web. All in all, I’d say we had a solid 10+ hours into the Pro-Line performance parts review. And no, 10 hours doesn’t sound like a lot, but when we are attempting to do 2-5 reviews a week, plus all the other stuff we do for the site, I can assure you there isn’t an extra minute left in our days. If you are a normal family man with a job, a wife, and kids, finding an extra 10 hours a week probably isn’t as easy as you might think.

That’s it for this edition of ASK Cubby, submit your questions, rants, spats, or whatever else you have on your mind to Cubby at BigSquidRC dot com. Every question that makes the big time gets free stickers, and letter of the month gets one of our new uber BSRC t-shirts. Don’t be shy, ask away!

YOUR Cub Reporter

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ASK Cub Reporter, 01.31.2013, Version- More Of Your Questions, Less Of My Answers

Posted by Cubby @ 10:15 am. Filed in: Ask Cubby

What’s the word Cubby? So here is my question that I am sure a lot of Father’s will ask. I have just recently (in the past two years) have gotten in R/C trucks. Mainly I bash and tear up the neighborhood. My son is getting older and I am hoping that this is how he will learn about mechanics, electronics, and general wrenching from his trucking fun. He is around 4. The question I have is what is a great truck to start a young kid on that will last and he can work on and bash as he gets older? I am not going Lipo and I currently have a Traxxas slash ultimate so the wife doesn’t want to spend that $$. Looking for electric and fun out of the box but very indestructible. What can you recommend?
Thanks
Sean M.

Cubby- Hey Sean, thanks for the email and be sure to shoot Brian your snail mail for some free stickers to slap on your Slash 4×4.

So… you are looking for a fun RTR that is nearly indestructible for your 4 year old son. For you are I am going to say buy the ARRMA Granite monster truck. Why? For a few reasons…

1. It was our “Bash Vehicle Of The Year” for 2012, meaning it has proven itself beyond a doubt in our eyes.
2. It steers slowly but predictably, making it a great learning vehicle for a noobs. Some vehicles have way too much steering- this is a nightmare for noobs who give too much steering input the way it is. The Granite doesn’t push, but it doesn’t react too quickly to steering inputs either, perfect for a beginner.
3. Ya, it’s crazy tough. Your son can slam into a LOT of solid objects and you won’t be running to the LHS every day.
4. Because it’s a monster truck it has a decent amount of ground clearance. This comes in quite handy for noobs who love to drive in the grass.

One tip I will give you if you do happen to buy the Granite- water dip the motor (if possible) and drop a couple teeth off the pinion. The stock motors aren’t known for long life, water dipping and dropping the gearing will help keep the motor alive.

Good Morning,
Saw your review and thinking of doing the whole Pro-Line conversion to my Slash 2WD.
In the end it ends up costing about the same as a 22SCT etc., but its something different and cool from other guys.
Do you think the Pro-Line slash is roughly equal to the other big 2WD names? Looks pretty competitive to me.
Cheers,
Derek A.

Cubby- Hey Derek, thanks for the question, it certainly is a good one.

We haven’t gone directly back to back between the Pro-Line Pro-2 Slash and its competitors. Actually we have driven them back to back, but not with set-ups that were identical (like electronics, totally stock, similar tires, etc). So while I can’t give you a precise answer on this one, I’ll give you some of our general observations. Oh and… a legit 2wd SCT shootout sounds like fun, hum….

Does the Pro-Line Pro-2 Slash roughly equal a full scoot “racer” SCT? At this time, not having driven them under equal circumstances, I would say yes and no. I would say on blown-out, loose, outdoor tracks that yes, the Pro-Line can haul ass with the best of them. On a high bite blue-groove or damp indoor clay tracks, I feel it’s at a bit of a disadvantage. Because all the Pro-2 parts can bolt onto a Slash, it inherently has to keep certain aspects of the stock Slash geometry. The stock geometry that it retains seems fine for outdoor/loose tracks, but limits its maximum mechanical grip on high-bite. But like I previously mentioned, until driving them all back-to-back on an equal scale, its really hard to tell for sure.

What I can assure you from first hand knowledge is this- all the Pro-Line parts are of extremely high quality, much better than the stock Traxxas parts they replace. Pro-Line perfected the geometry where they could and use high grade materials throughout, at the end of the day the Pro-2 is a great quality machine.

For bashing purposes the high quality parts mean less breakage and fewer worn out parts. Whereas you might blow a couple spurs a month on a stock Slash, you won’t blow any with the PL tranny. Where you might pop off a shock cap on every run with the Traxxas, it never happens with the Pro-Line gear. Where the stock hinge-pins are all taco’ed out and your a-arms refuse to move on the stock Slash, the Pro-Line pins and arms continue smoothly through their entire stroke without issue.

To boil it down, if you are looking for an uber blue groove racer, at this time I’d recommend elsewhere, but for pretty much anything else, the Pro-Line Pro-2 Slash would be incredibly hard to beat.

That’s it for this week gang, shoot me your questions, answers, random thoughts, and Jeff Hoy hate mail to Cubby at BigSquidRC dot com. If your letter hits the big-time you get free stickers, and I will be selecting a letter of the month next week, so get yours in for a chance to win an BSRC t-shirt.

YOUR Cub Reporter

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ASK Cub Reporter, 01.24.2013, Version- You Have Questions, I Have Questionable Answers

Posted by Cubby @ 9:00 am. Filed in: Ask Cubby

Cubby,
After reading some information on rctech I am confused as to which is the best way to break-in a lipo battery, can you clear this up?
Charley D.

Cubby- Yo hey what’s up Charley, and thanks for taking the time to write in.

What is the best way to “break-in” a Lipo? Actually, I think I have a better question than yours, how about “Do I actually need to break in a Lipo?”.

Doing battery tests take a lot of time, seriously. For example, lets say I wanted to truly see if there is a need to “break-in” a Lipo. IMO, that would take at least a sample size of 10, meaning I’d be doing some sort of break in method on 10 packs, while also testing control packs that were not broken in, just run normally for comparison. Lets say during the break-in process you are only using 1 or 2C charge rates, so that’s between 35-70 minutes charge time per pack, and lets say you are only discharging at 2-5C (12-30 minutes per pack) during the break in process. And lets say we test them out to 100 cycles to measure long term effects. You can do the math here, even if using 5 chargers (and dischargers) you are looking at hundreds of hours here.

Now I’ve seen a bunch of rocket surgeons who absolutely cry up and down that you must “break-in” a Lipo pack. But… out of all those guys, I’ve yet to see any of them show scientific proof that indeed it results in higher voltage, longer run-times, or longer cycle life. Some of them may post a few discharge graphs here or there, but only of small sample sizes (like 2), and they never show graphs of their “broken in” packs compared to control samples. Oh and they never show this data out to a bunch of cycles, like 100+. As stated earlier, it takes a lot of time to do these things, so I certainly don’t blame them for not doing extensive testing, however they shouldn’t be shoving the “you gotta break-in your Lipo” propaganda down peoples throats unless they honestly know it’s worth the time and effort.

What I do know from first hand experience is this- your Lipo’s are only good for a certain amount of cycles, the more cycles you use “breaking them in”, the fewer you will have for actual driving.

So… to get down to your original question, “what is the best way to break-in a Lipo?”. I personally wouldn’t waste my time until it has been proven to be worth it. But… if I had a gun to my head and was forced to break some in, I’d recommend three cycles at a 1C charge and 2C discharge. This method wouldn’t waste much time, it wouldn’t put much strain on the pack, and well, I’m just making this up, so why not.

But seriously, some day when I come up with a couple hundred hours to play with, I’m firing up the CBA and truly finding out if “breaking in” a Lipo is worth it.

Cubby-
So “Santa” brought my youngest son a new Kyosho DBX VE 2.0 this Christmas. And, after being away from RC for 20 years I have been plunged back into the hobby head first trying to learn about brushless, lipo, etc… Along with the technology advances this ride has 3 gear difs, which of course you know (saw the review), and I have been battling trying to get him a set up that will drive through
the corners.

My question pertains to gear dif set ups as I believe this will be the key to making this thing work. What are the typical effects of stiffer/looser difs in both front and rear of 4wd buggies? I noticed in the review you only added dif oil to the center, why? I have been given a couple of different ideas and feel a little confused about it. Also, with the center dif is there any great effect to the front or rear by heavier or lighter there? Thanks for the help!!

Mark S.

Cubby- Yo hey what’s up Mark, be sure and shoot Brian your snail mail so he can totally hook ya up with an uber BSRC sticker pack. Oh and hey, hope you are having a blast with your new K-car, the DBX is an animal no doubt.

Why did we put oil in the center diff of our Kyosho DBX buggy? Putting oil in the center diff ensures more power makes it to the unloaded end of the buggy. For example, if there is no oil in the center diff, every time you punch the throttle the buggy will tend to lift the front end, and once the front tires leave terra-firma all the power would get transfered to them, which of course does no good because they are in the air. Putting oil in the center diff helps to transfer more power to the rear wheels that are still on the ground where it can actually be used.

There is of course a major downside to running too heavy of center diff oil- jumping. Lets say you were to lock the center diff in your Kyosho. When jumping your buggy would be extra sensitive to throttle and brake inputs, making it harder to jump. A vehicle with a properly set-up center diff is easier to jump than anything else, easier than any 2wd, and easier than a 4wd with no center diff.

About oil in the front and rear diffs- to really boil it down for bashing, the heavier the oil you use, the less “traction” that end will have. For example, lets say you are having massive over-steer and you are looking to tame the steering down a bit- you would put heavier oil in the front. Lets say the rear of your buggy is sliding all over the place and you would like to have it more planted- install lighter oil.

As far as a set-up that will be easier for your son to drive- that depends a lot on his driving style. Many new drivers put too much steering input into the transmitter, resulting in them over-steering and darting all over the place. Taking out some steering, whether it be with heavier front diff oil, heavier front springs, or simply turning down the amount of steering on the transmitter (or a combo of all of the above), can help these drivers. However, some new drivers have a hard time steering because they never lift off the gas and push going into corners. Taking out steering won’t help these drivers, only learning some throttle control will.

That’s it for this week folks, submit your questions, answers, and whatever else is oozing from those sic brains of yours to Cubby at BigSquidRC dot com. If your email makes the big time you get free stickers, if I deem yours as “letter of the month” we’ll totally hook ya up with one of the new BSRC t-shirts.

YOUR Cub Reporter

tagged

Ask Cub Reporter, 01.17.2013, Version- More Of Your Questions, More Of My Rhetoric

Posted by Cubby @ 10:49 am. Filed in: Ask Cubby

Aloha Guys,

Read all your shoot outs and reviews and settled on the Turnigy 2s 5800mah lipos. Cheapest because shipping is sore. Bought 3 and charging them all on my icharger 206b they all only charged up to 4200mah. All three. Made sure to check all my settings on the charger but everything looks good. Do you have any of your readers asking the same question or get the same switched battery like me?
Any way we have a small track that we are building on Kauai for the neighborhood so if you’re ever out, come bash some with us. I race my 9 yr old boy (stampede vxl) against my slash vxl and suffice to say, ” he crushes me every time , but at least we play together.
Mahalo,
Keoni Kahn M.

Cubby- Hey Keoni, thanks for the email, and be sure to shoot Brian your snail mail on the islands so he can totally hook ya up with an uber BigSquidRC sticker pack.

First off, I’d highly doubt you’d be emailing me if you didn’t know how to measure capacity, but perhaps for others out there this is how we do it at BigSquidRC (and they way most cell manufactures do it, when they actually make the effort to do so).
Fully charge pack at a 1C charge rate. Discharge pack at a 1C rate down to 3 volts per cell, measure capacity during the dis-charge- that’s how it’s done.

So let’s say you are dialed and indeed you received 3 mis-labeled battery packs. You ordered their 5800′s, and you got mystery packs with a 5800 sticker that are roughly 4200 mah in capacity. What do you do? Well…. you can- 1. attempt to return them, or 2. attempt to run them. Best of luck if you attempt to return, and if you decide to run them, treat them as 4200′s of unknown “C” rating. By this I mean, charge at a gentle 1C rate, and monitor temps during a moderate discharge to see if they will be able to handle the current draw of the application you will be using them in. Because they are mystery cells, you have no idea if they were intended for a 1/2C discharge in the medical field, or for a 40C discharge in an rc airplane, so be careful.

Oh and heck yes, if any of the BigSquidRC crew hit the beautiful islands of Hawaii we will totally come over for an uber-bash session.

I have a couple of questions, first

1) What is the best power system for my rustler that can get me to about 40 MPH thats under 50 bucks?

2) Can i use traxxas XO-1 tires and rims on it? i dont have a use for the offroad tires that came with it.

Thanx, a important follower

Cubby- Because we’ve been receiving this email every week for quite some time, yes, I’ll finally take precious time out of my busy schedule to finally respond.

1. There is no BL power system that I would recommend to you for under $50. For your Rustler I’d recommend stepping it up to the Castle SCT Sidewinder 3800 kv combo at right around $120. Your Rustler isn’t exactly the free-est spinning truck in the world, the plastic motor mount sucks (I highly recommend the PL tranny, or at the very least the RPM motor mount), and you’ll be running high speed with it, that’s why I am recommending you pop for a quality unit at a higher price point.

2. XO-1 rims use a 17mm hex, the stock hex on your Rusty is 12mm, so no, they will not bolt right up. You can use hex adapters (I’d use the STRC units), but you’d be looking $50+ for the adapters, plus the cost of the XO-1 wheels and tires. And… the XO-1 tires are freak’n heavy, that means a lot of rotating mass to turn over at speed.

So let’s say you are looking to go an honest 40-50 mph with your Rustler, this is the set-up I’d recommend.

1. Brushless power system. I mentioned the Castle 3800 SCT system above, and it’s a great choice for your truck and application.

2. 3S 11.1v Lipo battery. I’d go with the Dynamite Speedpack that we reviewed HERE .

I recommend that pack because it’s hardcase and has proven itself to us over months of bashing abuse. This pack is taller than stock, so you’ll have to make some changes to properly secure it, but I assure you it’ll be worth the effort.

3. Street tires. For you I’d recommend Pro-Line Street Fighter 2.8″ pre-mounts. These are a street tread that should easily get you into the low 50′s.

4. Use Gearchart.com to make sure you aren’t gearing your truck too tall and use a temp gauge to keep from cooking any electronics. If you are looking to go 50, gear it for 50, not 110. Start slow, and slowly gear taller to increase your mph (if you want to save yourself loads of cash and wrenching).

Go straight, go fast, and don’t blow too much stuff up Mr VIP.

Do you have 2S lipo battery pack with 65C?
Or you have the best battery for electric car on road for the fastest speed?
Speeder
Sent from my iPhone

Cubby- Oh wow we get questions from some nut jobs out there…

So…. to answers your questions-
1. maybe
2. of course

(sigh)

Hello my name is BRANDON H. and I have been a rc hobbyist for about 3 years. I presently have a traxxas slash raptor edition. Everything on truck is custom. Except trans. My truck had the element combo from duratrax and castle creation. I wanted a
bigger stronger and faster esc and motor. So I bought the castle creation momba short course with the 2400 kv motor. Not knowing that it’s not recommended for 2wd. What will happen if I run this. What do I need to get for my truck to support this
motor?? I have pictures and I’m willing to send upon request.

Thank you for your time
Brandon H.

Cubby- Now see guys, this is how you ask a proper question. You give a decent amount of info, and say thank you are the end. Brandon gets it.

So Brandon, you have everything else uber’ed-out on your truck except the tranny. Hummm…. I think I see a Pro-Line tranny in your future. 1. Because how can you leave that the only stock part on the truck, and 2. because you are gonna need it if you crank up the power on that 1415 2400 kv Castle motor in your Traxxas.

To get to your direct questions-

1. What will happen when you run a Castle 1415 2400 kv motor in your Slash/Raptor compared to your previous set-up? Nothing bad. Your new motor is certainly capable of higher torque and overall power levels, but it is lower kv, meaning your truck won’t go as fast on the same gearing and cell count as your previous system. However, if you are gear taller, and/or jump to a higher cell count, you’ll be amazed at how much power you’ll have on tap.

2. What do you need to get your truck to support that motor? Nothing really, it will bolt right up the same way as your old motor. The 1415 is the same diameter as your old motor, but is slightly longer, which won’t be a problem in your application. However, with the identical set-up it’ll probably feel slower than what you were using, so if you leave everything else the same you won’t have to make any changes. If you do decide to unleash the power via gearing and/or cell count then you might want to seriously consider that Pro-Line tranny. Not only is the PL tranny capable of handling some serious power, but its metal motor mount really helps keep motor temps down. As always, if you do decide to go for big power, consult Gearchart.com to make sure you aren’t crazily over-geared, and use a temp gauge to make sure you aren’t cooking anything. Ideal temps are below 140 on the motor and below 120 on the battery pack.

That’s it for this week guys, shoot me your questions, answers, smack-talk, or anything else you want to ramble on about to Cubby at BigSquidRC dot com. If your question makes the big time you get free stickers, if I pronounce yours as “letter
of the month” we’ll shoot ya out a new BSRC t-shirt.

tagged

ASK Cub Reporter- 01.10.2013 – Your Weekly Questions, My Questionable Answers

Posted by Cubby @ 10:07 am. Filed in: Ask Cubby

Post on the BigSquidRC FB Page-
Lance B. 10:06am Jan 7

With all the people out there running our electronics to the max I have to wonder if anybody has ever done some side by side reviews on fans and heatsinks for brushless motors?

I think much value can be learned from a shootout on this subject. I know the fan is a low cost part of the whole deal but it can do much to protect an investment.

Cubby- Hi Lance, and thanks for leaving a question on our FB page. Shoot Brian your Pony Express addy so he can mail ya out some stickers.

There are some people out there that pop in a high cell count Lipo and slap on a huge pinion and use it for performance. They use the ridiculous power for one high speed pass, or one huge jump, then pull in and cool everything off.

Then there are idiots who use wayyy too much voltage with wayyyy too high of gearing with wayyyy too high kv of motor, and they keep on running till they see fire spewing from under the body of their truck. The moment they get home they jump on
the message boards and raise hell about what a piece of crap their “Happy Flower” brushless motor was.

And finally… you’ve got the racing guys sticking to the letter of the law, gearing and timing the holy crap out of ridiculously low kv motors just to squeeze another 5 watts out of it. The motto of the day is “gear it till it over-heats, then drop 2 teeth”. Most of these guys have been racing for 20 years and should put their big boy pants on and finally race mod, instead of continuing to kill stock motor after stock motor.

To finally get around to answering your question, I have never seen a brushless motor fan/heatsink shootout before. But lets say one fan/heatsink set-up was far superior to anything else on the market. My contention is- certain people would still burn up their gear, even with the best fan/heatsink that money can buy. Maybe they are just that stupid, or maybe they don’t mind spending $100 a week on rc motors, who knows.

What I do know for sure is this- you can run high cell counts, low kv motors, gear it properly, and still have so much insane power that you can’t control it all, while not running into heat issues. At the end of the day, if you are running a fan or heatsink, you are only putting a band-aid over a bigger problem. Either you are geared too tall, you are running too high of a kv motor for your cell count, or you should lose that love of timing that you have.

Hey, I’ve just moved & now have a decent BMX track across the road!, looking for something that would be up to the most skying with the least amount of wrenching. Prefer brushless or brushless ready

Keep up the good work!
Thanks!
Alan K.

Cubby- Congrats Alan, you are now going to be totally dialed with a perfectly prepped BMX track to use as your own rc bash-compound. Well, ok, lets get real here, you are going to need to approach the BMX guys and ask permission. If you are act cool, don’t tear anything up, and maybe let a few of the guys take one of your bash-mobiles for a couple laps they shouldn’t have any problem letting you drive on their track. Even an 8th scale buggy can’t do much harm to their handy work, and they usually go over their tracks pretty well before they race, so in theory, the BMX’ers should not have a problem with a neighbor running his rc toy once in a while.

So… what would I recommend for you? Something that comes brushless, jumps well, has a lot of suspension travel, and you rarely have to wrench on? For you I’m going to recommend the new 8th scale Thunder Tiger ST4 G3 truggy. The big truggy tires make it easy to drive on bumpy surfaces, they give it some extra ground clearance, and they also have a lot of rotating mass to aid in mid-air throttle corrections. The ST4 has loads of suspension travel which comes in handy when landing from extreme heights to the flat or when casing doubles. It also comes with a 2000kv brushless system which is fairly quick on 4S, and approaching gnarly on 6. Because it’s a truggy, it features a fairly low center of gravity, this helps it turn at high speeds without wanting to flip as much as a monster truck. Lastly, just like most new era Thunder Tigers, it can take a pretty good beating without breaking. We’ve been bashing one for a couple months now, look for our review in the next couple of weeks.

That’s it for this week. Send in your questions, comments, rants, and whatever else is on your mind to Cubby at BigSquidRC dot com. If your letter makes the big show you’ll get free stickers, if I proclaim yours as “letter of the month” you get an
uber BSRC t-shirt.

YOUR Cub Reporter

tagged

ASK Cub Reporter, 01.03.2013, You Have the Questions, I Have a Headache

Posted by Cubby @ 11:02 am. Filed in: Ask Cubby

Hello BSRC!

Got a Helion Dominus 10TR question? Picked mine up at Hobbytown and the tech guy said a slipper clutch would be good idea. So got home out slipper clutch in and have a binding noise coming from the diff area ever since.Took it back to hobbytown they took it apart and couldnt find problem..The slipper install was a nightmare in general…but i love the thing it jumps like a beast….But i cant run it with that noise drives me nuts…….HELP PLEASE!

Chris R.

Cubby- Hey ya Chris and thanks for the question via our Facebook page. Hit Brian up for some free stickers, tell him I sent ya and to too hook ya up.

This is one of those problems that is quick to track down in person, but difficult to do via the Internet. But if I had your truggy in my hand right now…

Here are my upfront guesses for where your noise is coming from- 1. from your new slipper/spur rubbing on something, 2. motor pinion/spur mesh (a slightly chewed up spur), or 3. you have a diff going bad.

First step is simply listening, listening to see if you can hear the actual area the noise is coming from. Sometimes this can be deceiving, but take the body off, put your truggy on a work-stand with the wheels off the table, then lightly hit the throttle and take a close listen. Hopefully this will give you a specific area that the noise is coming from, if you still can’t tell where it’s coming from…

Because this noise started after your slipper install I’d take a close look at the slipper/spur and see if it is rubbing anywhere. Look for scuff marks on the slipper itself. Also, look for small bumps or excessive wear on the teeth of the spur where it mates with the motor pinion. You would be amazed how much noise a slightly chewed up spur gear can make. A small bit of dirt (or small chunk of plastic) in the teeth of the spur can make one heck of a racket as well.

If you don’t see any scuff marks on the slipper and the spur looks good I would then loosen up the motor pinion/truck spur gear mesh, make sure the two gears are no longer touching. Lightly hit the throttle again and listen. Most likely you’ll hear no noise, as just the motor and pinion are spinning. Hear no noise from just the motor? Then we go to the next step->

Next, spin the spur with your finger and listen. Btw- the spur should spin quite freely without resistance. Is the sound still there? If it is- it might be the rear diff (or ring/pinion bevel gear inside the diff case). If you spin the spur and there is no noise, then the noise is being made when the motor pinion and spur gear are mated together.

If you are still hearing the noise when spinning the spur I would remove the rear driveshafts from the rear differential out-drives. I would then spin the spur again and see if the noise is still there. If the noise is, then you’ve narrowed it down to something inside the diff case. If the sound is gone, then it has to do with the wheels or driveshafts.

I could go on with the process here, but really it is a matter of taking some time and doing a process of elimination. This is a hobby, by owning a truck you are volunteering a certain amount of time to taking care of it. Tracking down a mystery noise is just part of the “fun” of getting to know your truck better and making sure it is in tip-top working condition. Good luck and be sure to shoot us an email telling us what it turned out to be.

I liked the review of the passport duo charger… I have a couple questions… After reading the article (which was nicely done) I wanted to ask you… can you charge any lipo 2cell battery at the 10.0 amp charge rate… if so, what benefits are there to charging at the factory default rate of 2.0. Also, I see you mentioned that charging at the balanced setting could take forever… I was told to always charge at balanced…. are you saying that you only charge at balanced to get the 2 cells back inline and while at the track you use fast charge all the time?

I purchased this charger off your review of it (thanks for the help) I was going to purchase the new Trax power charger with the matching power supply that plugs into it.. I choose this because it was one unit and Big Squid gave a very positive review. I just want to make sure i understand this a little better because i am newer to the sport and wanted to make sure I could charge at a faster rate.

Please let me know if you understand the questions i am asking…

Thank you again and I’m a big fan of Big Squid!!!

Paul P.

Cubby- What’s up Pauly, and thanks for the email. Shoot Brian your snail mail for to get your new T-shirt! Yes! I proclaim yours as “letter of the month”.

To get right down to business here…

Can you charge any 2S Lipo at a 10 amp charge rate? Absolutely not. 2S (7.4v) Lipo batteries come in many different capacities, ie- 1200 mah, 5000 mah, 5400 mah, etc. The capacity of the Lipo, along with its cell design, are used to determine its charge rate. With hobby grade rc Lipo batteries, a relative “safe” charge rate is 1C (just over a 1 hour charge time)- equating to a 1.2 amp charge rate for a 1200 mah pack, a 5 amp rate for a 5000 mah, and a 5.4 amp rate for a 5400. In the last few years the cell designers have changed the internals to be more friendly (read- tolerant) to higher charge rates, today we see Lipo’s with “recommended” charge rates as high as 10C (just over a 6 minute charge time). A 10C charge rate would be 12 amps for a 1200 mah pack, 50 amps for a 5000 mah pack, and 54 amps for a 5400.

At what amp rate should you charge your Lipo? This is typically listed on the pack itself. If you don’t see it printed on the battery hit up the manufactures website, and if you can’t find it there, give them a call. It is important to charge a Lipo battery at the correct rate, don’t charge a pack without knowing it.

Btw, to properly charge a Lipo pack requires two correct settings- 1. the cell count, such as 2S (7.4v) or 3S (11.1), in addition to 2. the amp rate.

Should you balance charge every time? That depends. For example- we have packs around the office that have nearly identical voltage for each individual cell even after dozens of cycles. There is no need to balance a pack that isn’t out of balance.

On the flip side- we’ve got a few packs around here that tend to go out of balance. When we charge those packs we balance them every time. Here’s why- if you quick charge an unbalanced pack one cell will be overcharged (a potentially dangerous condition) while the other cell will be undercharged.

About the Passport balancing slowly- if a pack is minimally out of balance (lets say .02 volt difference between cells) it won’t take that much longer than a “quick” charge, but if it is significantly out of balance (greater than .05) it can take a while. The Passport very slowly discharges the cell (or cells) with higher voltage down to the voltage of the lowest cell to balance them.

Do we fast charge at the track all the time? Yes and no. Yes- if it’s a pack that is nearly balanced and tends to stay that way. And no- if the cells in a pack are significantly out of balance, then we do take the extra time to balance charge.

Should you always balance charge? Sure, if you have the time and/or your batteries need it. But… if you want to save time and your cells stay well balanced, then go for the quick charge.

How much of a difference in cell voltage should necessitate balance charging? Different people will give you different answers on this one, but I balance charge when the difference is .03 volt or more. For instance… if you have a 2S Lipo pack and one cell reads 3.50 volts and the other reads 3.53 volts I would recommend a balance charge. If you have a 3S Lipo and the first cell reads 3.50, the second 3.51, and the third 3.49, I would go with a quick charge if you are looking to save some time.

That’s it for this week gang, shoot me your questions, issues, suggestions, rants, and chest beatings to Cubby at BigSquidRC dot com. Each letter that hits the big time gets free stickers, and if you are cool like Pauly and get “letter of the month” you get a new uber T-shirt.

YOUR Cub Reporter

tagged

ASK Cub Reporter, 12.27.2012, Version- G+/Facebook/Email, I Answer All The Questions

Posted by Cubby @ 12:52 pm. Filed in: Ask Cubby

Posted 11:08pm, Dec 22
Hey Big Squid!! whats the best Esc and motor set up made for slash?
Pitdawg Pit

Cubby- Hey what’s up Pitdawg, thanks for posting a question on our FB page.

What’s the “best” speedo and motor for a Slash? Unfortunately, you didn’t mention if you have a 2 or 4wd, so I’ll just take a guess and answer for the 2wd.

“Best” can be a whole lot different things to different people. For instance, “best” for Craig “The Uber Ramp Builder Guy” would be a motor/speedo combo capable of 6S and 2000 watts. Craig’s a little nutty when it comes to overpowering vehicles, we certainly can’t fault him for that, huge power is too much fun.

“Best” for Brian “The Editor Guy” would probably be the most durable system he could get his hands on. You see, Brian absolutely hates to wrench on anything, no matter the type of abuse he puts it through, he just wants it work each and every time he pulls it out of the garage. I think Brian would compromise on power, price, anything really, just to have the utmost in reliability.

The “Best” that I’m going to recommend to you is a system that is fairly affordable, fairly durable, yet is capable if insanely high power levels. I’m going to recommend to you the Castle SideWinder SCT 3800kv system. There are a few upsides that make the Castle system good for general bashing. The motor it comes with, the 3800 kv 1410, is possibly one of the best 10th scale motors ever produced, and it’s low enough in kv to not be insanely over-geared should you run on 3S. For raw power on 3S- you’ll have to be one incredibly talented driver to use all that it puts out. That system on 2S has very good power, but on 3S you are looking at turning your Slash into a full blown rocket. And finally… you get all that for a street price
of around $120. There is all sorts of winning with the Castle SCT 3800 system. To quote Ferris Bueller, “It is so choice. If you have the means, I highly recommend picking one up.”, and who can argue with him?

Your show officially sucks!

Tonights show is so bad forget about any more wednesday viewings by me. You have decided to add Chat wing, google +, youtube, what next? this has slowed everything down. Maybe you should get a real Web engineer to help you get the technical issues fixed. As it is now, IT SUCKS!
Thank You,
Jerry S.

Cubby- Yo what’s up Jerry? Oh ya, it seems you have a passionate dislike for the BigSquidRC Google + Live show. Actually, so do I, as it tends to totally pop up and ruin my Wednesday evenings. But I must digress..

We’ve received “around” 200 emails regarding our G+ shows. No, I haven’t counted them, that is a wildly “educated guess” on my part, but out of the ones I’ve seen (and I’ve seen all the negatives) 12 have been negative (including yours). Out of
the 12 negatives the other 11 actually had legit points as to why- such as “Tim is an idiot”, “Brian said the word “um” 87 times in show #3″, “Jeff looks like he’s sleeping”, ect. Legit gripes that I totally get, not that we would change anything
because of them, but I get them. Your reason for the hate-mail is “because it slows things down”. Slows what down? Your computer? Your evening? The space-time continuum?

Our “Live” show isn’t intended to be some shiny, heavily produced show, it’s intended to be on the tip of the technology and fly by the seat of our pants. We want to do now what the “other guys” will be doing 2 years from now, and we want to have a good time while doing it. If anything, a microphone going out or a guy dropping his iPad during the show should be part of its charm. BigSquidRC has always been about being just like our readers, just people hanging out having some fun, and that’s how we’d like the show to come across. We could certainly hire some uber web designer, personal stylists, a director, and build a full studio set, but some shiny, richly produced show just wouldn’t be our style, nor would it be the style of the majority of our readers.

That’s it for this week gang, send me an email to Cubby at BigSquidRC dot com, or simply leave a question on our Google + or Facebook pages. If your letter/question/comment makes our front page you’ll get an uber BSRC sticker pack, if I proclaim yours as “Letter of the Month” you’ll get one of our newly designed t-shirts.

YOUR Cub Reporter

tagged

ASK Cub Reporter, 12.20.2012, Version- Your Rants My Replies

Posted by Cubby @ 9:09 am. Filed in: Ask Cubby

Hey Cubby
So the question I have is, why can I run a LIPO on a car for 20-30 minutes but a plane only get 5-7 minutes? What is causing this large runtime difference?
Sean

Cubby- Yo what’s up Sean? Don’t forget to send us your snail mail to get some free stickers to plaster your rig with.

Perhaps a more relevant question for readers of BigSquidRC might be- why do some people only get 5 minutes of runtime when another guy with the exact same truck and battery can get 20? We all hate going bashing and being the guy whos truck dies first.

Let’s say “Iron Mike” and “Wrench” Bill both have identical Castle powered Traxxas Slash’s and use the exact same 2S 5200 mah Lipo battery. Iron Mike might only get 8 minutes of runtime while Bill gets nearly 20- there are a lot of factors at work here.

Iron Mike drives WFO all the time. The only time he lets off the gas is when his finger finally tires out, he might as well zip tie his trigger wide open. Iron Mike also likes to gear his truck for 189 mph, thus pulling more current through the power system, and chances are his Slash is covered with mud making it heavier and creating more drag in the drive-train.

Bill drives pretty normally, he lets off before corners, rolls on the throttle out of corners instead of just pounding it, etc. Bill tends to gear his trucks for a reasonable top speed, not for the salt flats like Iron Mike does. Bill also tends to take good care of his trucks, meaning there is no unwanted binding anywhere, thus wasting less energy from the battery.

The way a vehicle is geared has a huge effect on its runtime, as does driving style, as does how free its drive-train is.

In your case Sean, you are comparing apples and oranges. Your airplane may have a much different BL power system in it than your truck, thus yielding a drastic difference in runtime, or you might be running a comparatively larger capacity pack in the truck compared to the plane. Generally, the biggest difference is airplanes consume energy in a more continuous manner, where surface vehicles briefly pull power in spikes. In an airplane you might slowly go from 70-90% throttle during most of your flight, while an rc truck is quickly (and constantly) blipping from zero to 100%. But, given a few changes, it would be easy enough to switch those runtime figures of yours. You could mount a smaller prop on your plane, shave some weight, and install a pack containing more energy to boost its runtime. You could then gear the truck to death and throw some huge/heavy tires on it (or install a very small capacity battery) and get its runtime down to 5-7 minutes (or even much less).

To boil it down- runtime is easily changed for the better or the worse, regardless if its an airplane or a surface vehicle.

I have been in the RC hobby/Addiction since I was 13, that was 1995 and I have to say it has been a fun ride. Starting with a Losi JR t and owning something from almost every brand and style since then has been a great time. I have taken my breaks as most of us do, but never really left the hobby. My most recent come back was about 2 years ago, brushless had me interested so I started to bash a bit, and wanted to race but just couldn’t get the jump start I needed. Then I went to The Bobby Co. RC track and hobby shop in north central Illinois and it was the boost I needed. All the employees and fellow drivers were great. They asked what I had, showed me what they were racing, lent me tools, knowledge and sometimes even a part or two. It is the pinnacle of RC club racing. These guys do it for the fun, for the competition, and more recently because one of the “Race Teams” female member has been making and selling the best nachos we have had in a long time.

To sum it all up I travel for work, Seattle Wa, Dallas Tx, Fontana Ca, Pulaski Va, and Reno NV. The best part about the traveling is by far being able to find a club, or shop where great people are working and racing. Everyplace I go an attempt is made to find a track or club and drop in to watch, same story every time people are great, and I have even been “loaned” a car or truck to make some laps with.

So sites like this, and people who race are what keeps me coming back.

Donnie S.

Cubby- Hey what’s up Donnie, thanks for taking the time to write in, shoot Brian your snail mail so we can hook ya up with an uber sticker pack.

I also do a lot of traveling, not only for BigSquidRC, but for other work, and I agree with ya, there are some incredible people in the hobby. For every low-life-scumbag-cursing-transmitter-thrower there are about a dozen good guys willing to bend completely over backwards to help someone out. Like yourself I’ve been all over the country and walked into places where I’ve been blown away with hospitality, and not because I’m with BSRC because they didn’t recognize me, it’s the fact that they were hospitable to every person walking through their door.

Have fun, go fast, and thanks for reading BigSquidRC Donnie.
Thank you Big Squid and the RC world.

This next one is a bit long.. so keep reading for the whole story…

hang on2 ur handlbar musstash & 20 (fixed it for ya xerxes- Cubby) empty bottls of dom uv acumulated inda past 5yrs, xerxes da gawdking aka presidant of J.H.H.A. has arrivd wif a response 2 ur ask cuby report colum thnig. aktualy, a repsonse 2 ur last weeks ask colum question regardin 1 of many savage flux hp design flaws.

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