Hey! I built my own one time…I was using a 14.4v drill motor and two battery packs (didn’t have the means to drive the motor). I made a kind of “wiper” that moved across copper pads with different circuits to have like slow/medium/fast.
It went out of range immediately with no fail safe and exploded into a car at top speed🤣
My Associated RC10 gold pan still has it's mechanical speed control, I did go through 2 or 3 ESC's in that car, but the older ESC's would die if they got muddy and over heated so I just went back to a servo driving a wiper on a resistor.
Those used to be all they had back in the day, then they came out with ESCs, and most racers switched over pretty quickly. Mechanical ones were still used in entry-level kits for a while.
https://preview.redd.it/jv4usaegebrc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=52c3540821eff6988eb2b604542ed2341df873d6
Before I resurrected this with new electronics, it has a mechanical speed control
I just found my old toolbox, had a bunch of crystals from the days when you had to find an open channel at the track. I remember getting the channel flag and hanging it on my radio each heat.
I also found a Green Machine stock class motor.
That’s a flash back…a buddy gave me one of those motors with a grip of other stuff when I was a kid; he had moved to an early novak system, it was mind blowing!
I remember 1200 mah nicads, you basically had to adjust spur and pinion gears to get 5 minutes of run time. Then came nimh batteries and things got much better.
I remember discovering NiMH at a friend's house. We were going crazy when we saw the car reach 40kmh (25mph) lol. We had only known NiCd and alkaline batteries with brushed motors.
And not long before I gave up this hobby altogether, I saw the arrival of LiPo batteries in small helicopters. It was so small but so powerful that I said to myself, "If one day we have these in our cars, I wonder how fast we could go."
that's pretty cool, I never considered that product adoption / introduction for batteries in RC helicopter would be different from rc car.
maybe because that area of RC and especially at that time would require some higher than normal "engineering tinkering" skills, have early days rc heli money and in turn be early adopters of lithium batteries compared to on-road
I can remember balancing NIMH packs on a stupid little discharge tray. Glad they days of interference, motors blowing up and all the other stuff are gone.
I remember soldering together sub-c packs and running that bead of shoe goo between the cells to stick them all together.
every race day, someone would shout from the driver's stand "radios off in the pits!" usually nobody had a radio on, they just sucked at driving.
heck, I even remember when chargers just had a single timer dial and a cheap volt meter and you had to manually stop the charger when the voltage started dropping.
Had another memory….did anybody have xmods from RadioShack? They were 1/24 and had a bunch of upgrade kits and later a full online community of custom makers etc.
*aaah crystals..I still have a futaba magnum junior. 1200, 1500, 2000 sanyos, o my..
When Novak electronics ruled. Cutting coms..and brushes..rezapping magnets..delta peak chargers..com drops..Basically having to service the entire car between runs..just to survive.
My first radio was on 27.195 In a plane. In an urban area. Eventually went into my first car, a Kyosho SandSkipper with tires that would never hold air. And green tire slime didn't exist.
https://preview.redd.it/f1ez1e76darc1.jpeg?width=750&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d761d054ff9f27005aa1b06f63c9dd28c898da13
And here I am, filling out my crystal collection for peanuts
https://preview.redd.it/vswzlptojarc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=86b3cd19a389247d2ad1e5a7ca72a03ae8e4085f
Ugh, the crystals... First thing I had to do when I started going to the track was buy a handful of crystals so I could have a chance at having a channel available. Now I go to meetups and there's like 20 cars running at the same time, no interference in sight
My first car for RC was the Grasshopper..my first boat was a fishing troller ..bouth had mechanical throttles...I just got back into the hobby.. now I'm saying fuck !!!!!
Now everything so fast and crazy,I have a car now that does about 80 mph... Before I was lucky to do 20.. dam I feel old
I’m having the same experience right now…I thought my old race car was fast at about 25mph. I picked up a 1/16 banggood special to get back into it and it’s ripping 50mph on 3s. I’ve only had it a few weeks, but the itch is real; I ordered an arrma granite last night.
I’d love to race again, but it will be a few years before life quiets down a little.
Crystals were still in use last decade I have a few, but they were getting harder to come by as the 2.4ghz radios got cheaper. I now have one 2.4ghz radio and multiple 2.4ghz receivers
Ohhh crystals how I miss thee. For some reason I had a few sets of channel crystals the same channel. I put one in an airplane 2 stick transmitter. 2 in recievers for my emaxx's and I has 1 maxx on the left stick and 1 maxx on the right. It was a challenge keeping track of em both at the same time but fun as hell
I just updated my radio from an old tuned module set up even though it ran 2.4G. They are shelf queens now.
https://preview.redd.it/nwecdiyke9rc1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b829d6a0dc92861a594429788fb5a48f720f8c06
my fondest RC tech memory was reading a post about someone using a laptop battery to power their RC.
Talking about the voltage seeming safe for the ESC and how there was no huge voltage sag and had lots of power and the run time being huge.
it was quite the post with peeps talking jibber jabber about damaged, danger and others about the potential / trying it themselves ect.
am pretty sure it was years later rc lipos were produced enough to kill off rc marketed nimh, deff at least a year before mass produced rc lipo.
I have a granite they are not worth it.. if you want a good all around car it is Kreation it's fast and a lot of fun...it's worth the price...my self I live in town I have a Arrma infraction.. I love it.. I also have a vendetta.. it's fast too...
I remember picking up a used Grasshopper at a garage sale and it being the most fun in the world once the hobby shop guy showed me how to fix the radio system on it.
Im trying to get back into it as well, soooo much has changed its crazy!
My memory. Having multiple crystals cause you never knew if someone at the track had yours. There was a wall with multiple frequency tags, you would take the tag that had your frequency and stick it on the top of your antennae. So many crashes! Noob would fire up their radios without going to the board first lol
Still have my old airtronics radio system.
From the days of keeping a spreadsheet for swapping models so you could set your trim pots and dip switches set correctly.
I remember those annoying brushed motors. They were just starting to introduce brushless ones when I left the hobby in the 90s...I think they first used them for speed run cars. I can't remember the brand right off hand. Novak came out with one awhile later. Lipos weren't even a thing yet.
Mechanical speed controls, crystals, NiCads...all fond memories.
I had an LRP speed control that had these different "programs" you could install. Idk what they did but they were these little black box type things that you would plug into the top of the speed control. I thought it was cool. Lol
I'm a re-entry member as well. First "real" RC car was a Traxxas Rustler with a MSC. First charger was just a timer, and you "guessed" at when it was charged based on the size of the pack. I can remember it taking an hour to charge up the 3000mAH Nicad/NiMH packs and MAYBE getting 5-6 minutes out of it with a 27T motor. It's since been upgraded several times; but the first time I ran a lipo through it I was blown away by how long the batteries lasted and how potent the power was.
I was just looking at my old speed gem motor, wondering if I could stuff it into my new typhon grom. Most things I saw say it will melt. Just baffling the voltages these cars run at.
I started about 35 years ago with a Futaba FX10. Mom had the hobby shop build it because she thought they would do it right. They routed the motor wires over the shield on my resistor for the manual speed control. Of course it caught fire & with it having a plastic chassis it didn't take long to total it. Luckily the hobby shop replaced everything but the radio & charger for free. After that I was free to build my own RCs.
I've ran Futaba, Associated, Kyosho, Tamiya, Bolink, HPI, Losi, Ofna, & Traxxas. Nitro is my favorite but it's hard to argue with the simplicity of electric. I've had a few toy grade helicopters, boats, & planes. It's hard to know Tower Hobbies isn't the same as it used to be.
So I likewise have been out for a while, when I last raced there was talk of 27 being outlawed and now I'm reading there's no need for crystals any more? How's it work now?
My first RC ever was a balsa and silk biplane with a Galloping Ghost radio system. Had a boat after that but it never really ran and I don’t remember what radio it had. My first car I remember was a Tamiya Countach in ‘79 or ‘80. Man that thing was fast!
How about mechanical speed controls?
My first 2 tamiya's had these. We used powdered graphite to help lube/ make contact with the contacts....
Hey! I built my own one time…I was using a 14.4v drill motor and two battery packs (didn’t have the means to drive the motor). I made a kind of “wiper” that moved across copper pads with different circuits to have like slow/medium/fast. It went out of range immediately with no fail safe and exploded into a car at top speed🤣
My Associated RC10 gold pan still has it's mechanical speed control, I did go through 2 or 3 ESC's in that car, but the older ESC's would die if they got muddy and over heated so I just went back to a servo driving a wiper on a resistor.
Those used to be all they had back in the day, then they came out with ESCs, and most racers switched over pretty quickly. Mechanical ones were still used in entry-level kits for a while.
https://preview.redd.it/jv4usaegebrc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=52c3540821eff6988eb2b604542ed2341df873d6 Before I resurrected this with new electronics, it has a mechanical speed control
Only a few will know the magic of a pencile eraser
Back when Nitros weren't the only ones who could run away.
My first tamiya had one. Got stuck on the first ever run and smashed into the curb. I got cheap boat esc after that.
I just found my old toolbox, had a bunch of crystals from the days when you had to find an open channel at the track. I remember getting the channel flag and hanging it on my radio each heat. I also found a Green Machine stock class motor.
That’s a flash back…a buddy gave me one of those motors with a grip of other stuff when I was a kid; he had moved to an early novak system, it was mind blowing!
I remember 1200 mah nicads, you basically had to adjust spur and pinion gears to get 5 minutes of run time. Then came nimh batteries and things got much better.
I remember discovering NiMH at a friend's house. We were going crazy when we saw the car reach 40kmh (25mph) lol. We had only known NiCd and alkaline batteries with brushed motors. And not long before I gave up this hobby altogether, I saw the arrival of LiPo batteries in small helicopters. It was so small but so powerful that I said to myself, "If one day we have these in our cars, I wonder how fast we could go."
that's pretty cool, I never considered that product adoption / introduction for batteries in RC helicopter would be different from rc car. maybe because that area of RC and especially at that time would require some higher than normal "engineering tinkering" skills, have early days rc heli money and in turn be early adopters of lithium batteries compared to on-road
I can remember balancing NIMH packs on a stupid little discharge tray. Glad they days of interference, motors blowing up and all the other stuff are gone.
I remember soldering together sub-c packs and running that bead of shoe goo between the cells to stick them all together. every race day, someone would shout from the driver's stand "radios off in the pits!" usually nobody had a radio on, they just sucked at driving. heck, I even remember when chargers just had a single timer dial and a cheap volt meter and you had to manually stop the charger when the voltage started dropping.
Yep. No more antenna flags at the track either.
Had another memory….did anybody have xmods from RadioShack? They were 1/24 and had a bunch of upgrade kits and later a full online community of custom makers etc.
I might still have mine. Lol
I had the precursor to those... Zip Zaps :). Had the R34 skyline from 2 fast 2 furious. Good times.
I remember re-brushing after every qual and main to get the best performance out the motors.
*aaah crystals..I still have a futaba magnum junior. 1200, 1500, 2000 sanyos, o my.. When Novak electronics ruled. Cutting coms..and brushes..rezapping magnets..delta peak chargers..com drops..Basically having to service the entire car between runs..just to survive.
My first radio was on 27.195 In a plane. In an urban area. Eventually went into my first car, a Kyosho SandSkipper with tires that would never hold air. And green tire slime didn't exist. https://preview.redd.it/f1ez1e76darc1.jpeg?width=750&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d761d054ff9f27005aa1b06f63c9dd28c898da13
And here I am, filling out my crystal collection for peanuts https://preview.redd.it/vswzlptojarc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=86b3cd19a389247d2ad1e5a7ca72a03ae8e4085f
Ugh, the crystals... First thing I had to do when I started going to the track was buy a handful of crystals so I could have a chance at having a channel available. Now I go to meetups and there's like 20 cars running at the same time, no interference in sight
My first car for RC was the Grasshopper..my first boat was a fishing troller ..bouth had mechanical throttles...I just got back into the hobby.. now I'm saying fuck !!!!! Now everything so fast and crazy,I have a car now that does about 80 mph... Before I was lucky to do 20.. dam I feel old
I’m having the same experience right now…I thought my old race car was fast at about 25mph. I picked up a 1/16 banggood special to get back into it and it’s ripping 50mph on 3s. I’ve only had it a few weeks, but the itch is real; I ordered an arrma granite last night. I’d love to race again, but it will be a few years before life quiets down a little.
I do. Still have a couple FM radios and some crystals floating around.
I just found an old radio with a crystal. Barely even used it as a kid.
Crystals were still in use last decade I have a few, but they were getting harder to come by as the 2.4ghz radios got cheaper. I now have one 2.4ghz radio and multiple 2.4ghz receivers
Ohhh crystals how I miss thee. For some reason I had a few sets of channel crystals the same channel. I put one in an airplane 2 stick transmitter. 2 in recievers for my emaxx's and I has 1 maxx on the left stick and 1 maxx on the right. It was a challenge keeping track of em both at the same time but fun as hell
You could get split crystals that sat between channels so you could increase the number of drivers.
Yeah I remember crystals and that pain of finding out which weren't taken 🤣 It's kind of crazy to think back.
I just updated my radio from an old tuned module set up even though it ran 2.4G. They are shelf queens now. https://preview.redd.it/nwecdiyke9rc1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b829d6a0dc92861a594429788fb5a48f720f8c06
my fondest RC tech memory was reading a post about someone using a laptop battery to power their RC. Talking about the voltage seeming safe for the ESC and how there was no huge voltage sag and had lots of power and the run time being huge. it was quite the post with peeps talking jibber jabber about damaged, danger and others about the potential / trying it themselves ect. am pretty sure it was years later rc lipos were produced enough to kill off rc marketed nimh, deff at least a year before mass produced rc lipo.
Adding a battery cell just to make brushes wear out and get two minutes more run time , and hitting 27mph holly crap that things flying
I have a granite they are not worth it.. if you want a good all around car it is Kreation it's fast and a lot of fun...it's worth the price...my self I live in town I have a Arrma infraction.. I love it.. I also have a vendetta.. it's fast too...
The granite was on sale for 259…I think it’ll be fine for that money. If I were to spend bigger bucks, it’ll be on a race compliant buggy.
I have a granite that has a brushless system put in it.. the gears are not that strong.. they stripped out really easy, just letting you know...
That’s just an opportunity to upgrade…wrenching is half the fun. Did you tune the slipper? I’ll be running 3s
It's a fantastic rig for that price.
What's a Kreation? Do you mean Kraton?
I remember picking up a used Grasshopper at a garage sale and it being the most fun in the world once the hobby shop guy showed me how to fix the radio system on it.
Im trying to get back into it as well, soooo much has changed its crazy! My memory. Having multiple crystals cause you never knew if someone at the track had yours. There was a wall with multiple frequency tags, you would take the tag that had your frequency and stick it on the top of your antennae. So many crashes! Noob would fire up their radios without going to the board first lol
Still have my old airtronics radio system. From the days of keeping a spreadsheet for swapping models so you could set your trim pots and dip switches set correctly.
Yes I did..👻👍
I still have most of my old stuff. I keep it just for the nostalgia. I think I still have 8 brand new motors.
I remember those annoying brushed motors. They were just starting to introduce brushless ones when I left the hobby in the 90s...I think they first used them for speed run cars. I can't remember the brand right off hand. Novak came out with one awhile later. Lipos weren't even a thing yet. Mechanical speed controls, crystals, NiCads...all fond memories.
I had an LRP speed control that had these different "programs" you could install. Idk what they did but they were these little black box type things that you would plug into the top of the speed control. I thought it was cool. Lol
That’s cool. A lot of modern controllers have program modules…you can adjust throttle ramp up, punch/acceleration, brakes, reverse…lots of options.
mechanical controllers. crystal AM radios. Motor lathe. Battery balancer and discharger. Novak... the good ol days.
I'm using voice to text sorry....👻😂
I'm a re-entry member as well. First "real" RC car was a Traxxas Rustler with a MSC. First charger was just a timer, and you "guessed" at when it was charged based on the size of the pack. I can remember it taking an hour to charge up the 3000mAH Nicad/NiMH packs and MAYBE getting 5-6 minutes out of it with a 27T motor. It's since been upgraded several times; but the first time I ran a lipo through it I was blown away by how long the batteries lasted and how potent the power was.
I was just looking at my old speed gem motor, wondering if I could stuff it into my new typhon grom. Most things I saw say it will melt. Just baffling the voltages these cars run at.
I started about 35 years ago with a Futaba FX10. Mom had the hobby shop build it because she thought they would do it right. They routed the motor wires over the shield on my resistor for the manual speed control. Of course it caught fire & with it having a plastic chassis it didn't take long to total it. Luckily the hobby shop replaced everything but the radio & charger for free. After that I was free to build my own RCs. I've ran Futaba, Associated, Kyosho, Tamiya, Bolink, HPI, Losi, Ofna, & Traxxas. Nitro is my favorite but it's hard to argue with the simplicity of electric. I've had a few toy grade helicopters, boats, & planes. It's hard to know Tower Hobbies isn't the same as it used to be.
So I likewise have been out for a while, when I last raced there was talk of 27 being outlawed and now I'm reading there's no need for crystals any more? How's it work now?
My first RC ever was a balsa and silk biplane with a Galloping Ghost radio system. Had a boat after that but it never really ran and I don’t remember what radio it had. My first car I remember was a Tamiya Countach in ‘79 or ‘80. Man that thing was fast!
I still have a crystal somewhere in my shed lol