Waiting For Tools

Not much to report here, since I can't do much. I'm still waiting on the tools so I can rebuild the servo horn and get to it. Until then I'm stuck looking at a pretty truck that doesn't steer.

Axial SCX10 2 Chevrolet Blazer with rear ride height adjustment.

Adjusting the ride height was pretty easy, once I found out how to do it. Right under the body mounts in the back are tiny screws. Undo them and you'll be able to pull the body mounts up from the posts, revealing more mounting holes. I went one hole up and the truck leveled perfectly. At first I tried two holes, but it ended up causing strain on the hood [bonnet], especially when the body clips were in. So I backed off to one hole and didn't need to go further. Any other ride height adjustment would likely be longer shocks compared to the 90mm ones that are on the truck now.

Once my hex drivers get here I'll have the truck up and running in 20 minutes. It rained pretty hard last night, so I'll have to check the backyard once I'm ready to go. It's wet now, but it's not raining anymore.

A 1:10 truck isn't really suitable for driving indoors, unless you have a lot of room. I cleared off my 20' x 10' x 5' deep slot car table, made a few obstacles, and it's pretty tight up there. Yesterday morning, before I wrecked my servo arm, I went out back and took a few laps around the grass. Even in longer, uncut over winter, slightly wet grass it runs great. My wife saw my getup on the slot car table and thought it would be fun to make a course in the backyard to run it through. I had already been thinking that, and had started looking at things I could use for good outdoor challenges. We have a big stack of bricks that I haven't done anything with. I was thinking of making a hill out of them. I've got a collection of stones and stuff like that, so I can add those. We also did half of our backyard in a few-inch-tall stone wall, to separate the grass from the plants. It's perfect height to use in a course. I also have lots of expendable wood scrap that I could build with. I'm thinking of a rope bridge, some ramps and a side wall. I have a bunch of these neon colored laundry marker thingies that would be great for stage markers. I have a feeling my wife is going to like doing this, even though she hasn't tried it. She thinks the truck is cool, but she doesn't know what I'm going to do with it yet. Once a course is set up, her competitiveness will force her to try it.

Other Noob Notes:

I'm getting better hang of the Tactic TTX300 controller. At first it felt really sensitive, and it's still a bit too sensitive for my tastes, but I'm getting used to it. I'm also getting used to right-hand drive, since I'm left-handed and thought that was going to be an issue. It felt more natural after the first hour of driving. Now I don't feel the need to look for a controller that can be swapped over. I thought it would be a bigger issue, turns out it wasn't.

I'm going to do a tire comparison between the Falkens and the Hyrax G8s. There's a big difference between the two, and I think it's super important to consider tires immediately upon first purchase. I know it sounds intimidating, especially when you're not sure what you want, but if you look for a good all-around tire, it'll be an improvement over the stock tire right away. And not just a little improvement, but a big difference. And I got these replacement tires with the wheels already installed. They're plastic wheels, but I can at least exchange them when I'm ready to.

I was surprised that I didn't figure out the rear ride-height thing sooner. There are little screws hidden all over this thing.

[NOTE: Just after writing the last sentence, my doorbell rang, and my tools showed up. I have already reinstalled the servo arm and am headed out back. Will report.]

This is what I was waiting for. Hex drivers. Nice set for 20 bucks.

SUCCESS!

I had the part replaced in 10 minutes, and after a quick coffee with my wife, was into the backyard for it's first real session. Went great. I think I'll need to go back into the servo arm and fine tune the steering a little, though. It wasn't right down the line, so it turned a bit better right than left. I need to zero out my steering control on the radio first. Otherwise, it already felt stronger and much more capable with the aluminum servo arm.
I spent about an hour outside before it started to rain again. The ground was damp, but not puddley. The grass is pretty long in parts, and there are a lot of pine needles and small branches all over. So I did get a few things caught in the truck, but otherwise had a blast. I'm definitely going to build some kind of course, though.

A few hours later - I found an issue. I feel a bit like HAL9000. There's a fault in the AE35 unit. Actually, there's a fault in the servo arm I bought. Remember how I mentioned that it was turning better right than left? Well, as I was re-re-installing it, I did some tests here at the desk and discovered that the reason why it wasn't turning left so great is that the servo arm was hitting against the inside of the chassis rail. I'm glad I caught that now. I reset my steering settings so that it stopped just before making contact, and it sorted out. It's only about 60% of the total turning ability, so I have ordered another replacement that's shorter and should give me a bit more turning radius. That should arrive sometime middle next week. Until then I'll keep the current replacement in. It's fine for outside on a trail or in the open, but it's about a 7 foot wide turn. That's pretty weak.
The servo itself doesn't seem to have any problems doing what it's told, so I don't think there's anything wrong with it. It's actually quite good.

I had the truck up at maximum speed for quite a bit today. I wanted to see if I could get and keep control of it. Since I had dialed back the steering control, I didn't have any jerky movements, which helped. I found it more fun at lower speeds, though. I tossed down some bricks and made a small pile, and it was fun going over that. This spring I'll start on the backyard course. My attic thing really isn't going to work, and I need my slot cars back up and running.

So now I have my tools and can get started on properly inspecting this truck. I'm going to go over all the parts and make sure they're securely screwed in.

Oh, and I am still running off that initial first charge of my 3S Lipo. Incredible.