Sunday, December 22, 2013

TRF418 finished

I stayed up late a couple of nights and finished it. Had a very quick run at the Tamiya Track on Saturday, but it was a very cold day and the grip levels were far from normal. I'll do a comparison to the TRF417v5 later. (like I did with the TRF417X). The build was very enjoyable, I especially liked that so many of the new parts were keyed and the new stabilizer mounting mechanism.


Wednesday, December 18, 2013

TRF418 arrived

A friend of mine from Tokyo picked up a TRF418, it arrived in just 4 days and including shipping it's $150 less than buying it in the US. Do I give it to the wife to wrap in Christmas paper or do I start building? :)


Monday, December 16, 2013

Hopping up my TA06

  • 54485 - TA06 Aluminum Bulkhead - Front
  • 54492 - TA06 Alum Damper Stay Mount - For STD (not IFS)
  • 54486 - TA06 Aluminum Bulkhead - Rear
  • 54308 - TA06 Alum Steering Bridge
  • 54310 - TA06 Alum Racing Steering
  • 54498 - TA06 Carbon Side Brace
  • 54314 - TA06 Carbon Battery Holder
  • 54324 - TA06 Carbon Damper Stay F
  • 54325 - TA06 Carbon Damper Stay R
  • 54429 - TA06 Aluminum Rear Upright - (0 Degrees)
  • 54373 - TA06 Aluminum Rear Stiffeners
  • 54371 - TA06 Alum Motor Mount Adapter
  • 54172 - TA05VII Separate Sus Mounts - Version II (1A-1XA) x 2 (F & R)
  • 50994 - 5mm Suspension Balls
  • 54069 - TB03 Sus Mount 1A
  • 54072 - TB03 Sus Mount 1D
  • 54450 - 18T Aluminum Pulley - For TA06/XV-01 x 2 for center pulley. I got three but couldn't figure out how to mount it on the rear.







Some more parts are in the mail/waiting to go on:

  • 53928 - Short Reversible Sus Arm (stiffer than the kit ones)
  • 54309 - TA06 Stabilizer Set
  • 51332 - TRF416 Front Upright
  • 54546 - Carbon Rein Hub Carrier - For Reversible Sus Arms (6Deg)

Reviving lipo trick

Some lipo balance programs will not balance batteries if a cell's voltage is too low. I've had two batteries do this, in both cases it was when I had not disconnected my battery from my ESC and left them like that for a long time. It's a bad idea, don't do that... Using two chargers. I have balance port plugged into my LRP charger set to balance->view mode and the deans plug is plugged into my old charger in NIMH mode and set to 1.0A. Then I monitor each cell's voltage level (don't leave this unattended!!!). To get them both into the 3.3 -> 4.2 range. If needed I let one go past 4.2 in order to bring the lower voltage one up enough to get into balance mode. Or discharge it again to bring it down while still getting some voltage into the low voltage cell. Also, use some form of lipo charging bag for safety.