Better days

On the RC front, I received the radio yesterday, and fitted it today. It's a big difference from the RTR stuff in the HPi pack. Nice light handset, much quicker response, and loads of features.

Had a good run for the first time since the hop-ups were fitted, back on the plastic stock HPI knuckle arms. The Edit ones are just plain the wrong shape. I've told Mirage this, and will be sending them back for a replacement. I think it's shocking that an HPI company, with access (probably) to all the original designs can f*ck up this badly. The front brace needs shims to fit, and the knuckle arms need a miracle to fit. Not good. Not good at all.

So, for the minute, my opinion is very far down the "Edit Suck" end of the scale.

Good shops, bad shops and badly fitting parts

Today has been a bad day. The radio arrived, but the goofballs had shipped a DX3.0 and not a DX3R - so had to send it back. They're shipping the DX3R today (so they say). All this was ordered on the 9th Aug - so it's terrible service all round. Though the shop has been very good about correcting its mistakes, it's been so slow and then getting the wrong radio shipped was the straw that broke the camel's back.

I'll not name names, unless pushed to do so. But it's the last time I'm ordering from them.

Next bit of bad news is that the Edit knuckle arms don't actually fit. They rub on the rims of the wheels even before the wheel nut is tightened, and when the nut is tightened they press so hard that the wheels don't go round. I didn't notice this at first after the build in all the excitement about taking photos for the blog :) . With this and the alloy brace not fitting without using shims, I've gone from quite impressed with the perceived quality while building of the Edit parts to a sense of disappointment that some of them just don't seem to fit. I'm even starting to struggle to believe that they've actually tried these parts...

On a better note - I must say how good Mirage After Sales have been. I contacted them via that URL and have had a few very good emails back about my questions. Doesn't make the parts any better, but makes me feel better about the people selling them. I've asked Mirage about the Knuckle arms, and we'll see what they have to say - but I suspect my next mails will be about sending some of the parts back to the e-tailer that I bought them from.

Photos of the firestorm

Here's a few snaps of the e-firestorm as it currently stands. Only hop-up left is the radio, which should be here tomorrow :)

Front alloy hub carriers :



Rear alloy hub carriers :



There's also the titanium turnbuckles, and of course those magnificent shocks, of which you can see a small part :)

Here's what the whole lot looks like now without its clothes on :)

Hop-ups

Today has been a good day. I got the pinion gearing down to 15t which has helped somewhat. the ESC now takes a while longer to get too hot. I'm still thinking I might add a fan to the ESC...

As for the hop-ups, today I built and fitted all the Alu shocks - they look so much better than the plastic stock ones, let's just hope that my build ain't too bad. I've also added all the Edit parts I received (all of these except the titanium ball studs). They look great, and seem much lighter and stronger than the original plastic parts. I've also changed the suspension arms for the composite ones, front and rear.

The only exception is one of the Edit parts, which I don't quite understand. I've asked on Oople so we'll see what comes of that. Basically the front brace looks too thin. I've put back the HPI Alu hop-up part for the moment.

Back in business

I got most of the pieces today to put the e-firestorm back on the off-road :) Had one stripped screw in a piece I didn't actually need to replace, that pissed me off a bit - I'm particularly careful about screws in plastic since I used to work with skis, and even so, it stripped. Not the world's best quality, I fear. As for the screws that sheared that started all this off I can only recommend DO NOT USE THREAD LOCK ON THE ALUMINIUM PARTS. Though the rest of the world generally can cope with thread lock on metal/metal screws, it seems HPI's "top quality" screws can't take it, and the heads will shear when you try and unscrew.

Took the opportunity to fit the new composite suspension arms on the front - they are way stiffer than the stock ones.

Hope I'll get to start on the track tomorrow - plan is to take the flail mower to get the grass as low as possible then to take the rotavator to the top few cm's of soil.

Disaster

Disaster has struck the E-Firestorm... While starting to take it to pieces to change the suspension arms for the stiffer hop-ups, the heads sheared off some of the screws. The crazy thing is that, though these screwed had been put back with some thread lock, it was alu on alu, and yet rather than move the screws, the heads sheared off. I've ordered all the required spare parts and a Spektrum DX3 radio :)) Should have them tomorrow or the day after, will need a rebuild of much of the front end to get all the parts back.

Track Project

This is the biggy. I've finally got approval from my very, very dear wife-to-be. There's a spot where she'll entertain the idea of having some kind of RC track (off-road, of course). Hopefully will get time to get the tractor to it in the next couple of days, and see what I can make of it and with how much effort. It'll need the flail mower taking to it first, and then, ideally, I think rotovating and watering then packing. Might have to invest in a roller ;)

Will keep you posted here...

Upgrades

Well, well, well. Had a bit of time today, so fitted the new servo and soldered the Dean's Ultras in place of the existing connectors. They are not so easy to solder, particularly as the LiPos have stupidly thick wire, so getting the female connectors on needed a bit of a fine hand (hint, I have dexterity that would make many gorillas giggle). Once in place they are, however, fantastic. No idea why other connectors exist :) The connectors are wonderful - much better solution than the big (6mm!) bullets I had before, and much safer. I had also ordered a LiPoSack for charging, so feel better about that too.

Now the servo. After a bit of farting about, I got it fitted and it makes an incredible difference. It's a BLS351, if anyone cares. The setup I had to correct the understeer now makes it oversteer like a crazy banana - so back to the drawing board on that - but I think I'm going to wait until I get the stiffer suspension arms and uprated shocks on and do a setup once things have stopped changing so frequently :)) Undoing bits of it also make me think that some bits might be better replaced by something stronger. Might have a chat with the local CNC shop if they can help me in exchange for a beer or two ;)

I also knocked back the advance on the ESC, mostly cos after all that I couldn't be arsed to fiddle around with the gearing. Motor reached about 90°C and ESC about 95°C after about 20 mins hard bashing with the advance knocked back. Now at least I have the thermometer thingy to check it. I'd like to change the gearing too, as I'd like a bit more acceleration, and am willing to trade top speed (which is still CRAZY).

Next step - get the rest of the hop-ups done (essentially the stiffer suspension arms and the better shocks) and then a decent radio :)

Parcel

Well, I'll not apologise for not posting before now. A few things happened that changed my plans somewhat. Anyway, back to RC - my parcel of spare bits has arrived, so I have a Futaba BLS351 servo to fit, and some composite suspension arms, some dean's ultra connectors, some alloy hub carriers as well as the thermometer thingy and a load of pinion gears from size really small to normal.

Next step is going to be resoldering the battery connectors with the Dean's stuff, then fitting the servo and running and checking temps. According to findings, gear changes will then take place, and possibly some ESC tuning..

Watch this space.