Customize Your RCP Track Pins

There's a few members in the DC GTG that have track. We are currently exploring new places to race when we can't get into Hobbyworks and there's always the question of who is going to bring the track. Once you start sharing track you need an easy way to identify what's yours.

I have been mentioning the idea of custom colored RCP track pins to RCP for a while and a few of us have even tried spray paint to identify our pins. The paint works for a little while but just ends up flaking off. One day Arch2b asked if the pics could be dyed. I hadn't thought of that but when I was in a craft store yesterday I decided to pick up some RIT dye and give it a shot.

Here are a few pictures...





And some warnings/tips
* There are two techniques for dying, washing machine and stovetop, I chose stovetop.
* This stuff will stain anything. Read the label carefully.
* Stir the pot regularly to guarantee a uniform color
* It took a while before the blue dye started to take. After 10-15 minutes I noticed the color change and after about 30 minutes I had a nice deep color.
* I have only tried this with Navy Blue. I suspect you will need darker/stronger colors for it to really show up on the gray plastic.
* You should be able to find RIT at any craft store or even in the grocery store.

Good Luck!

The Classic That Crushed Us All

I told the Ringer if her could get me a picture of the car that rocked the last DC HFAY GTG I would set aside some time and space to recap the day that featured all of us getting rocked.

Ringer has had his share of ups and downs. We all have issues with our Z's but I've seen Ringer pack up in frustration and actually wonder if he was ever coming back. He usually does.

Our April HFAY gathering had most of the usual suspects, me, TallGeese, VAzRacer, CCSON, Soulstice and a couple of new guys. We were missing Arch and Soy but these summer GTG's are hard to populate with a full roster. Anyway, VAz and Geese have been putting in a lot of time and it has been showing in the last few GTG's. Actually, now that I think about it, just about everyone has been showing consistent improvement. I don't know if I had the chance to say it out loud buy Soulstice is really starting to drive some consistent laps and turning out some very good performances...we almost look like racers.

The star of the day was our silent one. The Ringer just sat back and did what he had to do to get into the A main for the second set of races. He, VAzRacer and TallGeese were driving particularly well that day and ended up in the A main together. Usually one of the non-drivers will call out lap counts and remaining time but we were pretty quiet for this particular heat. I think all I said was "You guys are on a really good pace!" and I just let them duke it out. Without distractions and with a very clean run, The Ringer, TallGeese and VAzRacer took 1, 2, & 3. A full sweep coming out of DC.

Here's the car that stood the tallest that day.




You can see how DC rocked both directions here.

Quick Update

It's been a little over a week since I've given an update. Nothing too specific to report on but there's a lot in the works. I have cleared out two AD cars and am in the process of selling one more 27MHz car. I have replaced those with a pair of 2.4GHz cars. Once HFAY season 6 is upon us I plan on maintaining 3 racers, one 94mm (C5R), one 98mm (McLaren) and one 102 mm (LM) all in the new 2.4 format.

In general I've been doing some streamlining, trying to sell some extra batteries and just cut back on the excess Mini-Z stuff that I have. I still have a small collection of bodies that I like to keep around but just a handful.

I've also got an F1 off of Ebay that I need to spend some time with. Unfortunately my AD F1 never really worked out so I decided to pickup a used chassis. I am waiting for some parts and once they are in I may end up doing Ruf's 64 pitch conversion on my F1 diff.

Oh, I guess I've moved all of my racers to 64 pitch. I don't really see a huge difference but maybe I just need to spend some time with it before I can write a full review. Gear mesh seems better but I haven't noticed the improved handling characteristics that people have been raving about.

Anyway, there will be some updates soon as I get things built up and tuned up.

PN Racing 64 Pitch Gears

I don't know what rock I was hiding under when these got released but by the time I heard about them people were already making a lot of noise about these things. I did a little bit of research and posted my minimal findings and decided to order some gears.

I've got a few cars that I need to setup and I usually drive on smaller (2-3 Wide L) tracks so instead of getting the full 64 pitch kit I used the gear ratio chart from PN's website to try and get some gears that would be close to the ratios I currently use.
I ended up getting all three spur gears with sets of 9-12 pinion gears. I also got enough bearings to outfit my HFAY, 2.4 GHz and F1 cars.

Since I drive my HFAY car the most (usually with a 41/7 setup) and it's got an atomic diff on it, I decided to set that one up first. With an Atomic or PN diff you don't have to make any modifications to the differential itself. I decided to keep it simple until I had more time on these things.

I installed the 52/9 setup which is pretty close to my 41/7 and ran it on Tuesday night just a little bit. The gear mesh wasn't silent but it definitely sounds a lot better than the standard pitch setup. Maybe I just need to fiddle with it a bit more. Also, I can't say that I noticed that much of a difference as I was driving it. I will admit that I wasn't really pushing the car to its limits or focusing 100% trying to put forth my best 8 minute lap count so it may need some more testing.

For now I'll say that it has promise but I won't call it the holy grail until I've had more time in on it.

Either way, look out for some new car setups soon as I get my 2.4 GHz setup dialed in with these new pinion and spur gears.

Hiro Seiko TX Wheel

I've picked up a few new parts for my Mini-Z's lately so this will be the first in a series of product reviews. Up first is the Hiro Seiko Alloy TX wheel.


I originally picked this up strictly for bling factor. I saw them when they popped up on RCKenon and figured I would get one eventually. It turns out this was a practical purchase because I can now put my stock Helios wheel on my KT-18.

The wheels come in a bunch of different patterns and finishes. I opted to go with the 5 Spoke flat Ti. First thing to note is that you have to purchase the wheel and the adapter for your particular radio separately. This isn't a big deal and the whole thing will cost you about $40 before shipping. From the current lack of adapter stock at Kenon it looks like a lot of Helios owners are picking these up. You can find the entire lineup of Hiro Seiko wheel styles on their website.

So, if everything goes well, the only thing you should need to install the wheel is a screwdriver to remove your stock steering wheel.

Once you've got your TX wheel removed just slide the adapter in its place. It may take a little bit of force since it's a tight fit, but not too much. Adapter Installed

Here's where I ran into some trouble...The hex screws come with a driver that should work with the screws, unfortunately, mine didn't. I think the hex was a little too small and even though I've got a lot of hex keys around the house I don't have a 1/20". So I figured I had a few options, I could try different screws (Mini-Z screws were too big) or I could try to buy a better hex key, or I could return the whole thing. I thought about it for a while and decided to try a time-tested Dremel trick. I had an extra bolt so I tried it out...here are the results.

Okay, now that I've gotten through the installation...how does it work? I haven't actually driven with it but it feels awesome. The foam is very soft and seems to be just tacky enough to inspire confident steering. I'll post a quick update after I get some time in on it but I am very pleased with the look and the feel of the wheel. Also, I don't have to keep swapping my TX wheel to drive my 2.4 LM car!

Lots of New Stuff!

Seems like a lot of stuff is going on in the Mini-Z world. For some reason I have had my head in the sand with these new PN Racing 64 pitch pinions and spur gears. I've spent a little bit of time trying to figure out exactly what the hype is about and I think I've got it squared away.

Here's what I've got so far.

PN Racing Pro-Match Pinions
These are not 64 pitch gears, they are just a better matching pinion gear for stock Kyosho and old PN racing spur gears. This is probably the cheapest and easiest way to get a quieter drivetrain. No fiddling required.

PN Racing 64 Pitch Spur and Pinion Gears
This is a new system of pinions and spurs that mesh much better than any current stock setup. You've got to get the pinions and spurs separate from your current diff and retrofit these into your PN, Kyosho or Atomic diffs. The spurs are a lot larger than the current spur gears and the pinion sizes have been increased to match. PN has a gear ratio chart on their website to help find the same ration that you've been running.

I think I am going to dive in and try this system on at least one of my cars. Maybe my new LM chassis is the way to go. Lower, quieter, smoother, no antenna. Just more stealth overall. No one will know what hit them.

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Well, I've also got a bunch of new tools and parts that just showed up from China so I'll have to sort through all of that mess and start posting some more pics and product reviews. You should see those very shortly.

I finally get a chance to see what all of the hype is about!

My 2.4 GHz car arrived Monday and I got a chance to play with it a little bit yesterday.

This thing had a few things going against it at first...

1. A box stock Mini-Z is never fun to drive.
2. Long wheelbase, new body...I had no idea how it was going to handle.
3. It was so pretty I didn't want to mess it up
4. I had to actually read the instructions to figure out how to use it!

Anyway, I got it running and it seemed okay. I'll have to get used to the reverse but I figure that will come with time. Obviously the tires just weren't quite right for the track and I had a stock motor on a 6 tooth pinion so I just wasn't impressed.

Then I decided to take my AD band car (which is pretty well tuned) and swap all the parts over to the 2.4 chassis. I also took the wheel off of my Helios and slapped that on the small 2.4 controller and BAM! I understood what it was all about.

No gitching, super fast response! This thing is great, I am sold. I think it's time to cull the herd a little bit and just move everything over to 2.4.

BLOG ON!

I just wanted to take a moment to encourage all of my readers here to contribute to the Mini-Z community. Chances are you have something interesting or unique to display to other Mini-Z racers and the forums at TinyRC have provided a great way to share. With the latest round of upgrades to the forums user blogs have been added.

I am not saying you should commit to posting new content every 3 days (I sure wouldn't want that burden) but even if everyone that's on the forums RIGHT NOW posts once a year there will be new content almost weekly.

So, next time you've got some cool mod, have an opinion about a new product or even snap a couple style shots of your latest purchase...take a few minutes to blog on. I know there are even some DCGTG members doing some cool things with paint jobs, motor building, parts testing and even racing in new venues. Post up!

A Little Frustrated

I've been trying to get CORE setup at the local track for a while with extremely limited success. I've used two different loops (including a brand new one) and at least 5 different computers. I think there are just too many environmental factors conspiring against me. It's frustrating because I know the CORE software so well and I already have about a dozen CORE transponders for DC racing.

At this point I am willing to consider other options though. I know Giro-Z is out there but I wasn't really impressed with the software. I don't even know if AMBIT is still around but I think that's really expensive. Anyway, if you have any suggestions...I'm all ears.

Also, I don't know if you've seen Beerfest but every time I actually say "frustrated" out loud all I can think of is this scene...then I laugh.

I haven't done a serious race in a while so I knew I would have to shake the cobwebs off for the Feb HFAY. Unfortunately, work kept me from the January HFAY races so I had already spent all of my drops for S5...I suspected this would be a factor.

I also knew that I was getting a little burned out on Mini-Z's. It about 2 hours to get to the racing then we've got to setup, keep everything moving, make sure no one at the hobby shop is messing with our stuff and then when it's all over, I've got to get back in the car and drive another two hours to get home.

All of that being said, it was really good to be back with the guys in Northern VA just talking about Mini-Z's and whatever else came up (paintball, Chapelle show, cars, etc). After track setup and some lunch we got down to practice. We usually let everyone get two qualifying heats so everyone's cars are setup and the kinks are worked out. I had a rough start for the clockwise direction but for the current layout I decided to switch to a 7 tooth pinion and actually did a little better with during the mains. It's a technical course this month and I liked having the torque coming out of the corners. I was never able to get the 8 tooth up to speed so I thought the 7 would be good. I also had to change my rear tires because my PN 8's seemed to be losing their grip. I actually put on some newer PN 10's in the rear and I managed to get a respectable lap count for the CW direction.

Then...things started to fall apart during the CCW race. First, the glitching, which led to the tires ripping off, which led to fresh tire tape, which led to more tires ripping off. Without all of the boring details, a single thrown tire cost me about 6 laps in the CCW direction. With my drops already sacrificed I figure my chances of a top finish for S5 are pretty much gone. I was very lucky in S4 to only have one bad race that cost me some laps but I think my luck caught up with me this time.

No matter what I try, the I always go back to Atomic 20 degree front tires for my HFAY car. When they start to get worn I usually tape up another set and let them sit overnight so they are ready for racing. This time around I just didn't have the time to let them setup (I started glitching really badly across CORE and that was enough to start ripping my tires loose).

I think since I pretty much always run the Kyosho 20's I'll give my tube of griplock another shot and see how that works out. At this point it's an experimental season for me.

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Oh...and I am still the DC FET B$TC# :) I came to the hobby shop with 3 recently done FET jobs and came back with 3 more FET jobs to do. It just means more use out of my soldering iron and my cool new Panavise Jr.

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Sorry again for the lack of pics. I have been looking for my digital camera for about a week and I have no idea where I put it...go figure!

Till next time...