Big Squid RC

Brian is going to shoot me for filling the front page this week, but we had some good questions I didn’t want people to miss! Hang on and enjoy the ride!

Love the site and info and follow regularly through Google Reader (may want to throw an ad or two on the rss feed).

However I do have a comment/irk about your review scoring and since you appear to like the criticism every week I figured I would pile on! It seems like every review I have ever seen you guys do ends up being in the 7.5 to 9 range – especially recently. Of course, I have only been following the site for about a year but even when i randomly click back through the old ones this mostly holds true (except for some 2004 review of some plane that i clicked on – it was a 6 – man it must have really sucked). Anyway – it seems there is really no point to have those other numbers in there (maybe in bigsquid land 6=0 and 9=10 or the final score has to be close the number of arms a squid has)? Of course the devil is in the details and you guys do do such an excellent job of describing what you like and don’t it doesn’t really matter what the score ends up being – but maybe you could at least throw a 2 or 3 in every once in a while (my daughters have a HPI 18b that would probably qualify – maybe even lower) just for kicks or find one of the best past reviewed products on the site and change it to a 10?

Keep up the great site

John

Cubby- Hey what’s up John? Thanx for the criticism, hell yes we can take it as much as we can dish it.

Our entire review system has been the topic of many heated debates around the office. I have never liked the scaled 1-10 system, in fact during my early reviews on BigSquid I wouldn’t even fill out the bottom portion with the numbers (Brian hated that!). To me, something either kicks ass, works “ok”, or just plain sucks. So personally, I’m not a big fan of the 1-10 system, but that’s what we use here.

And… personally I haven’t tested anything that was horrifically poor here at BSRC. Of course I’ve used items in the past that give me a great reference point of what a “0″ would be (understatement of the year.. LOL), but I just haven’t laid hands on anything that bad while testing for BSRC.

So… with that said, if something is fairly usable I’m not going to give it under a 6. After that, I personally go by a “grade scale” of sorts. If it’s at or near the best in class I’ll give it a 9 or higher, if I consider it above average (compared to its competition) I give it around an 8, if I consider it average I’ll give it a 7, if it’s below average it gets a 6. That’s just how I score test product.

Btw, I try to include at least two other peoples opinions into the scores. There are many items I’ve really liked that other employees hated (and vise versa) and I’d like my reviews to reflect a wider range of views than just my own.

Also… every reviewer at BigSquid is different and scores in a different manner. For instance, if a product I review does not break (and by break I mean it won’t work properly until a new part is installed) I’ll give it a “10″ for bash-a-bility. I essentially use the term “bash-a-bility” as a replacement for “durability”. Other reviewers use the term “bash-a-bility” in a broader sense. For instance- when Jeff reviewed the Thunder Tiger go-cart it didn’t break a single part yet he didn’t give it a “10″ score in bash-a-bility. Jeff also considers other factors into bash-a-bility like jumping, can it drive in grass, and it’s general bash worthiness, I do not, my “bash-a-bility” scores are based 100% if it broke or not.

So to boil it down, each review is a reflection of the individual reviewer here at BSRC. Evan may give a car an 8 while I might give it a 9, and vice versa. If our readers relate a common school grading scale to our numbers I think you’ll get a pretty good idea of how a product really stacks up. In school 90% or above is superior and an “A” (or a 9+ on our scale), in the 80′s it’s a “B” and above average (an 8 to 8.9 on our scale), in the 70′s it’s a “C” and average (a 7 to 7.9), in the 60′s a “D” and below average, and below 60% is an “F” and not a product you’d EVER want to buy.

Lastly… if you think we’ve been too nice I hear Jeff has a review on the way that should change your mind. He’s been having all sorts of ugly issues with a particular truck and his review will reflect that. LOL. Look for it in the next week or so.

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Hey Cubby,

I just picked up an ECX Torment from HobbyTown Orland Park. I got it home and while waiting for my new Lipo charger to come in, (Should have bought
one at iHobby, I bought a couple new lipos but didn’t think to get a charger. Go Figure.) was looking around at what else I can buy for it. What other bodies do you think will fit on this? I know many manufacturers now have model specific shells, like Proline. They have the new Ford Raptor and version one says it fits certain trucks and another one fits other trucks. I know I can always cut anything to fit, but the less I cutting I do the better. I suck at mounting bodies so I’m trying to make it easier. I figure it would be best to ask you guys since you had a few to bash with and could compare with other trucks. If a slash body fits then great I can get one from the shop rather than ordering online.

Thanks for your help and hope to see you guys at another bash event. Hope you’ll do another Easter Bunny Bash at HT Orland.

See your around,

Erwin J.

P.S. Thanks again for the free iHobby tickets from your contest. If I hadn’t of won the tickets, I wouldn’t have seen the Torment and wouldn’t have wanted one.

Cubby- Thanks for your email and the props Erwin.

First off yes, I’m fairly certain BSRC has sold a lot of Torments for Horizon. Strangely, they don’t really talk to us anymore, go figure, LOL. But even if we aren’t on speaking terms we still drive our ECX products on a daily basis and are still having a blast with them.

About bodies and the Torment- the body mounts on the Torment are different than a Slash, but not by much. So… when looking for bodies anything that will fit a Slash is a good bet to fit the Torment. Oh and yes, the Torment’s body posts are enough different that you will not be able to use hole patterns labeled for anything else, you will have to custom drill.

And… I agree drilling custom post holes is a PITA. The method I’ve been using recently is the “double sided tape” method. Cut four tiny squares of double sided tape and apply to the top of your body posts, then position your body on top. This method easily allows you to make as many changes in position as you need before drilling. Remember, on short course trucks it is important to compress the suspension while making adjustments, the body may need to be moved to ensure none of the tires hit the wrong spots inside the body when fully compressed.

P.S.- Glad you enjoyed your iHobby tickets.

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This one was short and to the point…

Horizon/TP claims charge time of 5min or less Do you know of a lipo charger that can hit at 60a+?
http://www.horizonhobby.com/products/5000mah-2s-7-4v-g6-pro-power-65c-lipo-THP50002SPP65 and
HP50002SPP65

Cubby- A 12C rate by definition would be 5 minutes. But… is it even possible? Is it even desirable or needed?

First, let’s do some math. Yay. LOL

Let’s say you have a 5000 mah pack with a maximum charge rate of 12C (as stated by Thunder Power), that would be a 60 amp maximum charge rate. Let’s say you are charging a 2S 5000 pack at 12C, you’d need a charger capable of a minimum of 504 watts (8.4 volts times 60 amps), and a power supply capable of somewhat more (depending on the electrical losses of the charger, wire, connectors, etc), so you’d be looking at a minimum 12 volt/45 amp power supply.

Power supplies of that size are fairly easy to find at relatively affordable prices. The MaxAmps 12 volt 47 amp power supply sells for about $80. However, finding a charger capable of doing 60+ amps at 2S is a different story. The uber top of the line Thunder Power charger is rated at 1000 watts (which theoretically should be more than up to the task), but states a maximum charge rate of 30 amps. The upper end Hyperion 730iNet3 is “only” stated at 30 amps as well.

To actually get down to answering your question, while I am not certain, I’d speculate there are chargers out there for industrial/academic/testing purposes that can charge a 2S Lipo pack at over 60 amps. If any of you readers out there know of one feel free to shoot us info on it. But as far as off the shelf, easy to buy rc chargers, nope, I don’t know of any. I will say there is a certain speedo company (who’s name rhymes with “tassel participation”) who was rumored to have been working on an uber huge charger, but like I said that was just a rumor.

So… is there even a need for a 12C charge rate? Some would say no, but I’d argue yes. If you only own one pack and want to run as much as possible all day long 12C would be awesome. If you simply hate long charge times 12C should make you smile. If you run a bunch of classes at the local track with very little time between rounds fast charge times would be very important to you.

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That’s it for this week. We’ve been receiving crazy amounts of email lately so keep them coming! Even if your emails doesn’t make the front page we still read’em then pass’em around the office for everyone to get a kick out of them. Hit me up at Cubby at BigSquidRC dot com!

YOUR Cub Reporter