Tag: RC

What are RC cars?
They are only a small version of real cars. These remote controlled or radio controlled masterpieces are a huge example of the gaming world. Whether you are an adult or a small kid, this hobby can literally fascinate your enthusiasm and excitement by bringing it to use. Normally, the remote controlled cars are operated through a remote which controls all the actions. While the radio controlled cars are a new invention. These cars are wireless and work through radio frequencies.

What are the types of RC cars?
There are basically two types of RC cars Electric and Nitro powered. Electric RC cars are perfect for beginners and children. They are comparatively easier to learn and handle. Nitro powered consists of higher speed and are have more powerful engines. As you become habitual, you can buy this version. The other factor about types of RC cars also consists of on road and off road cars. The on road cars work well on the roads, but cannot be worked on soil, grass or hills. For that purpose, you will have to buy off road RC cars.

Who can develop this as a hobby?
Literally anyone, Age is no limit. RC cars are good at influencing the kid inside you. This hobby is very useful as it will keep you active and passionate. It is easy to learn and fun to explore.

Is it expensive?
Well, not actually. If you are a beginner, it is certainly not. You can start with the electric RC cars as they are not expensive and any damage to it wouldnt hurt you too. However, if you go for nitro powered or custom made RC cars, it definitely is expensive. Due to higher powered engines and structure, the prices become more. But, with high prices, comes better and advanced designs as these RC cars are huge in size too.

How to select the best RC car for you?
Its easy. Do not get carried away with the structure or looks as, later you have to deal with its functions. So, concentrate on that while purchasing and RC car. They are available in huge number of designs. Buy the one that perfectly fulfills your purpose. If you do not want to invest a lot of money, you can simply buy the electric versions to begin with.

What is the difference between RC cars and real cars?
The new advancements in technology used for the production and designing of RC cars is commendable. You can run your RC car on the road, grass, hillside or anywhere else. There are few models which can literally perform stunts and can easily move forward, backward, or round. So practically, the only difference between real cars and RC cars is the size for that matter.

Ever turn a corner and find one of those nifty little remote control cars speeding down the middle of the road? They go pretty fast and they make that neat bees-on-steroids buzzing sound. You know, you can buy one of those ready to go, but in order to get the most enjoy you really have to learn how to build your own RC car before hitting the road with it. Half the fun of the whole RC car subculture comes from knowing that you built it yourself.

Knowing how to build your own RC car may sound like something you should take a course in, but its really not all that difficult. Think youre going to need one of those shiny red toolboxes you see on all those TV shows about building things? Nah. In fact, once you know how to build your own RC car you may look at all things youd like to try building and decide to do away with half the tools you own. Heres what you absolutely have to have: a couple of Phillips screwdrivers of various sizes, a few flat blade screwdrivers, including a smallish set like you would use to tighten your eyeglasses; pliers, of course, including slip-joint and needle-nose varieties. Needle-nose, that sounds like a supervillains name, doesnt it? Speaking of villains, youll knives, blades, the sharp stuff. Youll be working with lines that need a nice clean cut so make sure the blade is sharp and honed and, hey, be careful out there.

Why not just go and buy one thats already street legal? Because if you know how to build your own RC car, youll know better how to race your own RC car. Each miniature racer has its own idiosyncrasies, just like the big ones. And they break down, just like the big ones. If you already know how to build your own RC car, then youll probably be better prepared to repair your own RC car. And if you decide to get out and race it, nothing is worse than having a car that could easily have been fixed in a half hour if only you had known how.

Not to mention that youll save money. The ready to run models can cost serious cash, at least compared to the take home kits. And repairing them yourself can save you even more money. If you know what youre doing, in fact, you can salvage a perfectly good car that you might otherwise have trashed.

So now that youve almost decided to build it yourself, you only need to know what to really expect in the process, right? A lot depends on how you approach it. Theres not nearly enough room here to run down the process step by step. But you will definitely want a step by step process to guide you. So when it comes to the process of how to build your own RC car, theres really only one piece of advice you need to know. The one piece of advice that will come far handier than anything else you may read on any web site.

Read the instructions that come with the kit before you begin.

Setting up a remote control car is as much a science as it is an art, the physics behind rc cars is exactly the same as the physics that governs real cars, if you know how setup changes in a race car work, you already know how to setup a remote control car.

The problem that most people have with setting up RC cars is that when you make a change in one area it always has a knock-on effect on the rest of your settings, setups are very much a balancing act

To start with I’ll concentrate on the basics of handling, over steer and under steer. The physics behind this is pretty simple, if you turn into a corner the center of gravity will move in what ever direction you were initially travelling. Your tires via friction push back with (hopefully) an equal amount of force. When your wheels lose traction and start to slide the energy that was being turned into heat in your tires gets released as inertial energy in the original direction of travel. With cars, both back and front don’t break traction equally, this creates either under steer or over steer, which is how we describe the experience the driver has under these conditions.

Under steer

Under steer is when the front of the car loses traction while the rear of the car still has grip on the tar, the effect is that the nose of the car drifts away from the direction you are turning, turning harder makes it worse, the only thing you can really do is back off the throttle and bleed off speed.

Over Steer

Over steer is the opposite of under steer, and in most cases it’s best to have a little of this. The front of the car keeps traction while the rear lets go. One of the key benefits is that you can typically corner much faster in a car that has some over steer

Over steer / Under steer Tuning tips

There are a lot of ways to tune the handling or your radio controlled car, the easiest is to adjust the front and rear shocks. While there are a lot of options with springs, different oils and all sorts we are just going to concentrate on the basics, most decent shocks have adjustments, either with spacers or bolts that let you adjust how hard or soft the shocks are.

As far as maximum and minimum stiffness goes, make sure that the bottom of your car doesn’t scrape the ground, and on the other end make sure it doesn’t bounce and leave the asphalt, apart from that you need to find the setup that matches your driving style, most people get winning setups off the internet and try to learn to drive them, mind you this is a great starting point, and most championship winners post their setup sheets

Shock Stiffness guide

Stiffen in front = increasing under steer or reducing over steer
Stiffen in rear = increasing over steer or reducing under steer

You may be wondering why one setting makes two changes, this is because it’s all about balance, you could for example setup your rc car by only every changing the rear stiffness, but you would find that when you got the perfect amount of over steer under braking the car would then be uncontrollable during the exit of the corner. It’s all about balance,

Another thing to keep in mind is that when you change the shocks you also change the roll of the car, this the the chassis of the car moving with the inertia, in effect pushing the front tires into the road during breaking and the rear during acceleration. If your shocks are too soft then the transfer might dig your front wheels in and lift the rear enough to make you car spin out, or lose steering under throttle, you have to find the right balance

More to come…

RC car painting is typically done using one of two methods: spray cans or an airbrush. Needless to say your skill level will be the ultimate determining factor since most people just arent that familiar with the intricacies of airbrushing. Both methods have their particular idiosyncratic advantages and disadvantages, however.

RC car painting via spray cans is the choice of many not only because they either dont have access to an airbrush or know how to use one, but also because it can be done quickly. A huge amount of space can be covered relatively quickly with a spray can. But RC car painting isnt the same thing as changing the color of a flag pole.

You want to be proud of that car and make it look as good as it runs. Although personalizing and detailing can usually done much better by airbrush, if you take your time and plan ahead, your spray can RC car painting can wind up looking quite impressive.

Of course, RC car painting with an airbrush is ultimately what you should aim for. The benefits of using an airbrush is that you have access to so many more colors than you can get from using spray cans. And thats saying a lot, because even if you do choose to use spray cans, youll still have over fifty different colors from to pick. But when RC car painting with an airbrush, you can exponentially expand those choices through mixing and blending.

In addition to more flexible use of coloring, airbrushing also affords more control in application. Unlike spray cans, an airbrush can be adjusted, allowing you to spray the paint as thickly or thinly as you like.

The downside to using an airbrush, besides your own level of artistic ability, is cost. For RC car painting with an airbrush youll need a compressor. You can try using canned air to begin with, but youll quickly find yourself spending more money than you planned on saving because they empty pretty quickly. Better to shell out for an actual compressor, preferably one that produces 25 to 70 psi. By pass the 1/8 HP hobby compressors and go for the HP. Since most RC car painting is now done with next generation water-based paints, also make sure the compressor comes with a moisture trap; if it doesnt, youll quickly find car covered in thick gobs of paint.

RC car painting with an airbrush requires not just air, obviously, but brushes. Ideally, you will want to own more than one brush, but since they can be pricythe good ones anywayyou may just want to start off with one. The reason for owing two is pretty obvious. RC car painting at its finest creates a work of art that combines both thick lines and fine lines, therefore you want a brush for both thicknesses.

In addition, the paint itself comes in various thickness and some of the finer brushes just handle the thicker paints at the psi the compressor puts out. RC car painting with an airbrush obviously requires more effort, time and expense than RC car painting with spray cans, but the end result usually shows.

Electric RC cars are the most popular today. This might be because of the fact that every RC car beginners will get started with this type of RC car, this is due to operation of an electric RC cars is easy to be understood. Electric RC car which powered by battery packs have a lot of advantages compared to nitro / gas RC cars. If you are new in the RC world , you might probably face difficulty to choose the right electric RC car which will satisfied you. The most important thing before you make a purchase, you need some information to guide you to avoid wrong choice.

First what are consideration to be made. This is important to every person who would like to be engage in Electric RC cars world.
1. What are Advantage
2. What type of RC cars
3. What size of RC cars.
4. What options to choose.
5. Convenience.

1.Advantage of electric RC cars.
– User friendly
– Easy and less maintaining
– Less tuning and set-up
– Less cost
– Noise less
– Smoke less
– Light weight

2. Type of electric RC cars
– On-road RC cars. Consist of Touring , racing and Drift cars.
– Off-road RC cars. Consist of Buggies and Monster truck.
– Indoor RC cars . Consist of mini / micro cars.

3. Size of electric RC cars.
– 1/ 10, 1/ 12, 1/ 16, 1/ 18, 1/ 24, 1/ 27, and 1/ 30.

4. Option to choose.
There are two options available in the market.
Option 1.
Electric RC car – RTR kits ( Ready to run )

This option is specially design for beginners.
RTR package are comes with ready build RC car included:
– RC car body / Chassis
– Electronic speed controller
– 17 turn motor
– Radio transmitter and servos
– 4 tires
– Painted body shell
You don’t have to worry about assembly RC car parts and painting the body shell. All that’s left for you to do is to add your battery and you are ready to lay down on the track. After experiencing good in handling and maintained of RTR RC cars, you are now ready go to a step further.

Option 2.
Electric RC car pro kit

This option are design for racer.
Feature of this kit is only RC car body ( chassis ) and you will need to assemble all of single parts of this body . Normally it’s will take about 4 to 5 hours to complete this task. To run this kit on track you have to add another parts or accessories such as:
– 4 Tires ( Completed with insert + rim )
– Motor ( Brushed / Brushless )
– ESC ( Electronic speed controller )
– Battery pack. ( 6 cells )
– Battery charger
– Body shell.
– Radio Transmitter and servos
All RC parts or accessory as listed above can be buy separately from various brand or maker around the world.

5.Convenience.
In this last consideration you have to know where:
– Play ground or track available at your area.
– Hobby shop nearby to find your spare parts
– Is this shop sell electric RC car parts which you will choose.
– Is there any technical support or advised provided by this shop.
– Is there have any others community run a same model or type which you choose.
This will help you to improve your driving skill faster then you run alone on the track.