The Helion Dominus has proven itself an extremely poplar bash machine, so popular in fact that it won BigSquid’s March Bashness contest against some very stiff competition. Many of the people that have chosen the Dominus as their basher of choice use it strictly off road. While the stock Dominus tires do a sufficient job off road, they are far from offering the best traction possible. Over the last few months we have tried a multitude of different tires on our Dominus and have determined that we like the Pro-Line Badlands the best for all around off road bashing.

Here is what is needed to properly install a set of Pro-Line Badlands on your Dominus….

1. Remove the nut at each wheel to remove the stockers.

2. Slide your new Badlands tires onto new rims of your choice. We used black Pro-Line Renegade rims (part #2725-03) for our Dominus, these are the same offset used for the HPI Blitz and rear of the Traxxas Slash 2wd. Black was the color of choice to go after the popular “murdered out” look.

3. Use CA glue to secure the tires to the rims. We used super thin CA from Bob Smith Industries, this is a fast setting yet inexpensive glue available at most hobby shops. Use the CA glue where the bead of the tire meets the rim and allow it to dry for at least an hour. Remember, a little bit of CA goes a long ways and be extra careful not to get any on your skin or in your eyes.

4. Install your freshly mounted Badlands by securing them with the nuts you took off earlier.

5. Congrats, you are all done and ready for a test drive!

Total Cost of Mods-

2 pairs of Pro-Line Badlands tires- $44
2 pairs of Pro-Line Renegade wheels- $18
1 half ounce bottle of Bob Smith Super Thin Insta-Cure Glue- $2
Total- $64

Comparing the stock Dominus tires to the Pro-Line Badlands is like comparing a dual sport motorcycle tire to the full blown race knobbies on Chad Reeds Honda. The stock tires are very tame while the Badlands have huge knobbies made to shovel rock, dirt clods, and mud. It didn’t make a difference where we drove our Dominus, the Badlands gave a lot more traction than the stockers ever did, making an immediate and dramatic improvement in how the truck drove. Even Cubby couldn’t quit talking about what an improvement the Badlands made to our Dominus and I totally agree with him, the difference was quite pronounced. If you bash your Dominus off road we can’t recommend the upgrade to Badlands tires highly enough.

In the next installment of “Modding The Helion Dominus” we’ll be mounting up a new body to improve looks, durability and to improve in-flight aerodynamics, stay tuned!

By: Tim Mohr

No other single modification will give your Dominus such a dramatic increase in shear power as the installation of a brushless power system. Today I’ll be walking you through what it takes to install a brushless motor and speed controller in your Helion Dominus. If you are an old pro you can do this in your sleep but if you are new to the hobby I hope these instructions help you out.

By: Tim Mohr

Removal of stock equipment-

1. Use a straight slot screwdriver to pry off the stock on/off switch.

2. Unplug the 2 wires that go from the stock speed controller to the stock motor. Just pull with your fingers, they come right apart.

3. Pull off the two body clips that hold the lid on the receiver box, then pull out the speed control wire plug from the receiver.

4. Two 2.5 mm screws are used to hold the motor plate on, you’ll want to remove the top one and loosen the screw on the bottom. Remove motor plate with motor attached.

5. Remove pinion gear from the motor by using a 1/16″ hex wrench to loosen the pinions grub screw.

6. Remove the two phillips head screws that secure the stock brushed motor to the motor plate.

7. Take off the spur gear cover by removing 8 phillips head screws. We are removing this to aid in setting the pinion/spur gear mesh later in the install.

Installation of new equipment-

8. Re-install the two phillips head screws to secure your new brushless motor to the motor plate. Take care at which way the wires on the motor are pointing, you’ll most likely want your motor wires pointing upwards when the motor is installed in the truck.

9. Install motor plate back onto the truck. Snug, but do not competely tightening the two 2.5 mm screws that attach the motor plate. We are leaving these loose for the moment so we can adjust gear mesh.

10. Mount pinion gear to your brushless motor. Take care to line up the pinions grub screw with the flat spot on your motors output shaft. Also, the stock pinion uses a 1/8″ bore, if you intend on re-using it make sure the motor you are installing has a 1/8″ output shaft.

11. Set the pinion/spur gear mesh then tighten the two 2.5 mm screws that secure the motor plate to the truck. I use the paper method to ensure gear mesh is not too tight. Because we removed the spur gear cover you can look from the rear of the truck towards the pinion/spur to visually inspect the gear mesh. If the gear mesh is too loose you may blow a spur gear, if it’s too tight you’ll get poor run-times, excessive temperatures, and your truck will feel slow.

12. Re-install spur gear cover via 8 phillips head screws.

13. Solder battery connector on speed controller if necessary.

14. Insert the signal wires from your new speed controller into the receiver. The negative wire goes towards the outside of the receiver and make sure you insert the plug in the channel #2 slot of the receiver.

15. Use double sided tape to mount your new speed controller and switch to the chassis.

16. Tidy up wires running to receiver box with zip ties then re-install receiver box lid.

17. Connect the 3 large wires from your new brushless motor to the speed controller. Make sure all wires are zip tied out of harms way, notably away from the center drive-shaft.

18. Calibrate your new speed controller to your transmitter.

19. You are all done and ready to rip!

a href=”http://www.bigsquidrc.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/domin23.jpg”> <

For full disclosure, I am a factory driver for Castle Creations so naturally I used a Castle Sidewinder SCT 3800 kv ($145 from Tower Hobbies) system in our BigSquid Helion Dominus. I am beyond biased on this system, but I see lots of people using this system in their 4wd short course trucks so it seems to be a popular choice. The stock Helion pinion bolts right onto the 1/8″ shafted Castle 1410 motor and the stock gearing yields much more power than stock with reasonable temperatures and good run-times. Of course there are many other brushless systems that will work in your Dominus so I tried to make my installation instructions work for pretty much any system you decide to bolt up.

In the next installment of “Modding The Helion Dominus” I’ll be mounting up some upgrade dirt tires for serious off-roading, tires that give much better grip on dirt yet can tolerate some pavement action, so stay tuned!

So first things first was disassembling the Mini-Z, get yourself a quality set of Phillips head screw drivers and you will be fine. The entire lower front cowl and windscreen are one piece similar to the real deal bikes. Then there is a gas tank cover and separate seat and tail section again very close to what is stock. Dissecting the Maisto bike was a slightly different story they never really had any intention of the bike having to come apart so the front cowl is only really held on by two pins on each side of the fairing. On this version the gas tank is all one piece with the seat and tail section. Since these are both based on the M1 bike and 1/18th scale they are remarkable close to the same size but the Maisto is smaller!!!  Oh and did I mention the Mini body work is all plastic to save weight and the Maisto’s fancy tank/seat/tail peice is all Die-cast and that in itself weighed almost as much as the entire Mini Moto before I started… Doooh. Honestly I had some major concerns that putting that much weight up high was really going to  throw low CG to the wind.

Couple things stood out to me right away that I was not happy about on the Mini once it was in full autopsy mode. The power wires that go to the switch and complete the battery circuit had been pinched in several spots under the stock panels and let me tell you when you are working with 20ish gauge wire it doesn’t take much to cut clean through it. Then that pesky power switch for me looked a little odd the way it was mounted horizontally forcing the wires to take a hard 90 to get back to the Main board/battery.  This was a no brainer flipping the switch vertically would make the switch more hidden and have much better wire routing. There actually is some pretty solid chunks of plastic on the main chassis and I thought since there is no extra room here what so ever I could put a 3/16″ hole in the chassis for better wire routing and to make transplanting the body that much easier.

Like I said the panels from stock to Rossi are similar, BUT SMALLER. You know when you are doing something 10th scale smaller is no big thing, heck even normal 1/18th cars is still doable. But when you take a body that has less than 2mm of room on it stock and you need it to be 3mm thinner you have to get creative. The stock front panel has slots in it to hold the main board on the right side of the chassis and going thinner was not going to allow me to keep that set up. With better wire routing and a zip tie I thought I would be golden… Uhhh not so much.. Even a less than 2mm thick Zip ties was a show stopper when grafting on the new panels. So when in doubt I always resort to my two best non-living friends… Duck and Eli (that’s short for Duct and Electrical Tape). Using Eli with a  slight amount of stretch I was able to get one good wrap on the board fixing it the main chassis. Let me tell you I was really impressed with myself until I noticed that HUGE (about 4mm) plug for the power connection. Well I have already gone this far so why stop know… quick little tug and I was able to get the connector apart and solder the power wires directly to the main board(kids don’t try this one at home unless you are totally cool with assuming all responsibility if you fry that board).  Ahhh now that chassis is as thin as an Olson Twin after Lap-Band surgery!

OK so now marrying the new panels to the stock chassis was a little tricky I wanted to use as much of the stock mounting holes as possible… Time to measure 19 times and break out the Micro Drill bit set… slowly and arduously I was able to mate up a lot of the screw holes but in a couple spots that just wasn’t an option. So I went to the chassis with an even smaller bit and basically slowly made my own threads in the chassis for the new screws I had to add. Again … steady hands … lots of measuring .. stay off the caffeine, did I mention steady hands and Alt Nation thumping in the background to help my focus. That Die-cast top piece took some serious Dremel time to get the inside as thin as possible to A: lighten the load and B: make some room. The lower fairing actually had to sit about 3mm higher up on the chassis for clearance and to keep the look spot on so I had to notch the bottom to get it to suit my needs.

Again the Maisto bike is a beauty but was never intended to be grafted onto a working bike so it too had to be trimmed, sliced, filled  cut up and re-glued to fit just the way I wanted. Once that was all done the stock lower fork/fairing/brake assembly needed to better match the new theme. So I basically sanded off all the blue color and also put it on a trimming plan. If you look close the stock Calipers have nice details but they did not remove the excess plastic from the fork mount. Couple of strategically placed 1mm holes some handy hobby knife actions and the micro files and viola! The entire front wheel is actually cast adding to the stability of the bike, but the rotors are also in that cast and to save some time the painted the whole thing black. Simple fix on this was to take one of my sanding files lightly to just the rotors and presto the metal comes through and really sets off the contrast/scale look.  So what to do with the wheel fairing? Well I just got some cool Alcad 2 Chrome paint… Sure why not… First I laid down some good coats of Black Alclad per their instructions then I laid on the chrome… Not bad I thought …  but this is a MotoGP race bike not some poser chromed out v-twin that is all show and no go. So then I was thinking I normally use shelf liner or drywall sanding screen for a Carbon fiber look but this is way smaller than anything else I have tried to have a CF look. So in steps  Wifey… “You should check that craft box I think I have some thin ribbon that has that look”… Que? Ehh why not its only paint right? so once the Chrome was all set and dry I strategically place the ribbon on all sides and slowly airbrushed black over the chrome. Once I let it set up and I had a good look …sweet Jesus.. I don’t think you will find smaller painted on CF on any other RC Car. The look is just amazing and most pictures don’t do it justice… huge Props to Wifey for that one.   Then I took all plastic body panels (excluding the Die-cast tank/seat/tail) and laid some really good coats of clear on them. Then having to please my inner OCD side I went back and had to ditch the orange peel so I wet sanded it with 2000 grit and hand buffed it all back to a lustery finish.

I am hoping I did “The Doctor” and his 06 ride some justice…

Thanks for taking the time to read all this madness and be on the lookout for more Mini-Z Moto modz tips and tricks to help really make it your own…

The latest issue of HobbyTown‘s Hobby Outlook digital magazine has just been published and we have, once again, contributed an article of awesome utility. We show you how to assemble an all in one portable charging box. Inside the easy to carry case you will find two chargers, a power distribution panel, and 12 volt battery to power it all when away from the grid. You can read the magazine embedded after the break or you can click on through to the Hobby Outlook page for a look at the current and past issues. Our article starts on page 12.

Open publication full screen

]]> http://www.bigsquidrc.com/diy-portable-charging-box-for-on-the-go-bashing/feed/ 0 http://www.bigsquidrc.com/project-king-squid-build-an-rc-dragster/ http://www.bigsquidrc.com/project-king-squid-build-an-rc-dragster/#comments Sun, 09 Jul 2006 17:00:10 +0000 Brian http://www.bigsquidrc.com/?p=10748

Since we have been covering more RC drag racing lately, we have been getting questions about how to get started in the drag racing scene. Many questions are “where did you get the King Squid?” and “how do I get one?” Well, those are the questions I am going to answer here. It’s going to be a pretty short project, since RC dragsters are really pretty simple.

First off, you are going to have to start off with a good kit. There really isn’t a better place to buy RC drag racing kits from than Grand Motorsports! They are currently owned and operated by Mike Ogle. He’s been in the RC scene for a long time, and easily one of the nicest people in RC I have ever met. So head over there, and pick out a drag kit! Make sure to tell him Big Squid sent ya! The King Squid dragster is based on the Grand Motorsports dragster kit. The kit will cost ya about $200, and it’s worth it.

Ok, now we need a motor! Up until recently (Like within the last 8 months), you would of put in a 10th scale motor, probably 7 turn or something similar, and probably 7-9 battery cells. This setup was also a pretty good amount of $$ and maintenance. Well thanks to the amazing Mamba Brushless system from Castle Creations, you can now have a super fast, small and light brushless! This motor may look small, but it packs a major punch! Check the reviews section for what we have to say about this setup. In short, the Mamba is awesome! It’s completely programmable via USB or through a menu system you navigate with your transmitter. It’s very light, which is something you really want in a dragster. It’s durable, and oh yea, it’s frickin fast! I’m currently running a 3cell LiPo pack, while I get used to running the car at these kind of speeds. With a 4 cell pack, you can easily break the 80+ mph mark! And I’m not exaggerating! The Mamba brushless with speed controller will cost ya about $150. When people ask me about what brushless to get for their micro, I always tell them the Competition X package is too much power. But when it comes to drag racing, there’s no such thing! So go ahead and grab the Competition X package!

Now that we have the motor, we need something to power it with! I mentioned above that I was running a 3 cell LiPo. When it comes to LiPo, Apogee batteries from PFM Distribution are the way to go. Their batteries are very reliable, and their knowledge is awesome. Their web page talks all about setting them up, charging, LiPo Safety, and anything else you may need to get started. You can see my 3 cell 11.1v pack in the picture. While on the subject, make sure you wire everything up with DEANS connectors! They are really the best when it comes to transferring power, and they are cheap and easy to use. Don’t go making this awesome dragster, only to limit yourself by not getting a $1 connector.

Here on the right you can see 2, 2 cell packs wired in series. This gives you a total of 14.8v I believe. Wow! It’s pretty simple to wire up the packs in series. You can see here, that you just take the Positive from one pack, and the Negative from the other pack, and pump each of those into a single connector that goes to the speed control. Then take the remaining 2 wires, and connect them together. Note the special connectors, on the 2 wires that go get put together. These make it very easy to connect, and disconnect the packs. They are a little easier to see two pictures above.

You don’t have to take my word for it, but 60+ mph in under 2 seconds is pretty dang fast! It’s going to take some time, some practice, and a long, flat space to get used to pulling the trigger on this thing. Like I mentioned above, I’m still running the 3 cell pack, till I get used to controlling the thing. Take your time, get used to the feel. You’ll be much happier in the long run.

Your almost ready to go. You are going to need to set up the gearing. The dragsters are very simple. You want lots of speed. I recommend going with a 96 tooth spur gear. The HPI one or Team Associated ones fit great. For the pinion (the small gear on the motor) anything from a 11 to 15 tooth Team Associated (RC-18T size) gear will be great. The more teeth, the faster it will go. For the mesh setup, I have gone with the old standard. Stick a piece of paper between the gears, push them together, tighten, and spin. Once the paper comes out, your gears should spin pretty smooth. If not, do NOT try and run the motor, you are going to have issues. You want these to spin very freely.

Ok, we are almost done. There are just a few more things you will need to finish your RC dragster. You are going to want to throw in a micro steering servo. The lighter the better here. Dragsters don’t steer much, so you don’t really need anything amazing up here. I have my steering rate turned way down, so that small movements don’t send it off into a curb at 70mph. You can probably find a decent one for $30. You are also going to want to pick up some traction compound for the wheels. The sticky-er the better! You don’t want to be smoking the tires off the line, you want to be doing 70mph in 2 seconds! Last up, you need a radio system. Just about anything will do, but I’m finding out that you really want something with a lot of range. You’ll be surprised how far away one of these cars is in just a few seconds! I have recently installed the Nomadio Sensor radio in mine. I believe they currently have the farthest distance for transmitters on the market. It’s not cheap, but if you have a lot of vehicles like I do, the big upfront investment will be worth it later.

And that’s about it! So without the radio:

• Dragster Kit: $200
• Mamba Brushless: $150
• LiPo Battery: $40
• Servo: $40

For a total of about $430, (And a radio) You have one awesome dragster!

If you have any questions, or if I missed something obvious (me? never!) feel free to talk about it in the On Road Forum. I’ll start a thread there about this project write up incase anyone wants to comment or ask questions.

Here are links to all the companies I mentioned in this project. Make sure to tell them Big Squid RC sent ya when you order!

• Grand Motorsports – Drag Racing Kits
• PFM Distribution – Apogee Batteries
• Castle Creations – Mamba Brushless

Good luck, and have fun! If you see me anywhere out racing, feel free to stop by, say hi, and check out the King Squid!

]]> http://www.bigsquidrc.com/project-king-squid-build-an-rc-dragster/feed/ 0 http://www.bigsquidrc.com/project-portable-adjustable-ramp/ http://www.bigsquidrc.com/project-portable-adjustable-ramp/#comments Fri, 20 Aug 2004 17:00:48 +0000 Brian http://www.bigsquidrc.com/?p=10718

(We have a newer ramp design, which you can read about at this link.)

When we set out to build a ramp, we had a few restrictions:

1. The ramp has to be portable (has to fit in our trucks).
2. The ramp has to be adjustable (height and ramp curve).
3. The ramp has to be sturdy.
4. Time to bash: Can be built in a weekend.

Our Materials

4′ by 5′ plyfloor underlayment	$ 9.89
6′ plated slotted angle 1-1/2″ by 1-1/2″ (14Gauge) – 5 (@ $6.98 each)	$34.90
5/16″ flat washers (82 pack)	$ 1.18
5/16″ wing nuts – 5 packages of 5 (@ $0.79 each)	$ 3.95
5/16″x3/4″ hex bolts – 5 packages of 5 (@ $1.18 each)	$ 5.90
1/4″x1″ Flat Head Stove Bolts with nuts 4 packages of 4 (@ $0.82 each)	$3.28
Total	$59.10

The ply-floor underlay is basically 1/4″ plywood. One of our building restrictions was that the ramp needed to fit in our truck. If you have more space available, you can increase the length for a longer run up or higher ramp.

The plated slotted angles are strong lengths of steel with holes across it. They are available in several different thicknesses and lengths. You may want to shop around at local hardware stores to make sure you are getting a good price on these. We found one hardware store in our area was considerably cheaper than another hardware store with the same quality materials. We chose thicker steel for improved strength (and weight). The thicker steel was around $0.50 more expensive per 6′ piece.

Preparing Materials

The only difficult part of building this ramp is cutting the metal. We used a sawzall with a fine toothed metal-cutting blade. We found that a blade with larger/longer teeth bounces around more and makes cutting more difficult. Even with a good blade, the metal can be difficult to cut, so please use care and wear safety equipment.

We cut down the plywood to 42″ by 60″ to better fit in our truck.

The metal was cut as follows:

• (3) – 36″ pieces
• (10) – 12″ pieces
• (4) – 24″ pieces
• (4) – 6″ pieces
• (4) – 3″ pieces

We need to attach two of our 36″ slotted angles to our wood to provide support for the ramp. We also need to attach our 3″ pieces so we can attach the wood to our frame. Set each piece in place and mark the wood at each hole that will be bolted on. Remove the metal pieces and drill holes for each of the Stove Bolts. Insert each bolt with a washer in the wood and through the metal piece.

Now that our board is ready, it is time to assemble the frame.

Our frame is designed to be highly adjustable. The parts are held together entirely with our hex bolts and wing nuts, so we can assemble and make any adjustments at whatever location we decide to use it.

The main part of our frame is always assembled the same way. Start with two 24″ pieces of metal on the ground 3 feet apart and facing each other. Set the 36″ piece above these two. Add a 12″ piece standing up at each corner and attach with hex bolts and wing nuts.

Be sure to insert the bolts from inside of the frame towards the outside of the frame. This way, you should be able to attach the wing nuts without problems.

Attach two more 12″ pieces at angles to our vertical supports for additional strength. The metal we are using is strong, but it will twist easily without proper support. For a higher ramp, attach additional 24″ segments to the vertical supports. By overlapping the segments, we can adjust the ramp to any height we need.

Now we can attach our board to our frame. Place the board so the connectors at the top of our board line up with the top of our frame supports. Add a couple of bolts and wing nuts and we’re almost ready to go.

Now we just need to determine what the curve of our ramp will be. Let’s start with a straight ramp for distance jumping. Start with a 12″ piece of our slotted angle and attach it to one of the connectors in the middle of the ramp. Hold the ramp straight and line up the metal with a hole on our side support. If the metal is too short, attach a 6″ piece to extend it. If it is too long, replace it with a 6″ piece. Attach the metal with another bolt and wing nut. Repeat the same way on the other side and we are ready to BASH!

To get more curve in our ramp, we just need to adjust the length of our center supports. Using shorter supports will force the ramp to a steeper curve and give higher jumps. Keep in mind that it is not that difficult to break the wood this way. Also, if you make a steep curve, you may find your ramp lifting its frame off the ground in order to straighten out. To correct this, use some extensions on the side supports until they reach the underside of the wood. The frame should then be able to hold the curve.

While our ramp works well now, it is still pretty slippery. We are going to try covering it with a rug we saw at our local hardware store. It is a black rug with rubber backing that we are going to staple on upside-down. This should give us better traction and cover the bolt heads. We will let you know how it works for us.

IMPORTANT NOTE: We built this ramp for use with RC cars only. While we have attempted to make our ramp able to hold up to a lot of forces, this ramp is not designed to hold a person’s weight. Don’t try using bikes or skateboards on this ramp. Also, a flying RC car is a dangerous thing. Even good drivers can hit a ramp sideways and send their car in an unwanted direction. Break your car, not your head.

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