m4inbrain

It does - it's not 100% there yet, but it's fully adjustable (as opposed to my prior chassis'), and i'm stubborn. 😄

Hey there, long time no update from me, mainly due to being slightly more involved at the drift club now. Following the trend of my two other threads: and We have now the unreasonably priced Yokomo SD 2.0. I won't go into as much detail since i'm writing this after the car is already built (and around 70% there in terms of set up already), but i thought maybe someone is interested in what a slightly higher end kit looks like. Lets get straight into it, here's what i ordered. A Yokomo SD 2.0 (their newest kit, basically one step below their absolute high end), the "purple special edition". Together with a Scale Reflex Gorilla mounting system, and a rear ESC holder - both, of course, also in purple. I'll "reveal" how much i'm into this chassis at the end. Starting the build, it looks like this. Not particularly impressive. In fact, the one thing that struck me throughout the build is how, for the most part, "not special" it is. It just is very solidly cut/built - it's quality over gimmicks. Lets speed through this. A few steps later, you'll arrive at this point. I assembled gearbox and differential already, didn't take pictures since they were straightforward - the differential is a gear diff running 10000cst goop, and it's a four gear transmission (not as in four ratios, but four cogs, two idlers). You can set it up as a three gear transmission, too, but didn't fancy it. The difference is basically one idler added/removed, and it translates into different behaviours of the rear. On a very basic level, four gears promote the rear to squat down, three gears prevent squatting. There's no "better" variant, there's just preference, i personally like my car to squat because it makes it behave more like a real car. More on that in a bit. The transmission as can be seen is open, which is a bit weird, just added maintenance since i have to clean it out of dust every few runs, but here we are. I am currently running the standard gear differential, because i couldn't really get on with the centrifugal differential that i installed in the RDX - it made it harder to control, because i could never really tell when the diff was starting to lock. This is simpler, and while not as trick/competitive, for a sunday drifter like me, much easier to drive consistently. Slide rack installed. My first slide rack. Also the last slide rack i'll ever install. I found a tool, pictured above, that'll help with the "install" of the next one. I don't know if this is particular to this chassis since it's the only one i've ever built with a slide rack, but christ - it genuinely took me 45 minutes to get it situated proper, i.e. not binding and running smooth. Absolutely zero fun and easily the worst "piece" i've ever assembled in any RC. Drove me up the wall. Shock towers etc on, around this point it struck me what kind of gorgeous piece of kit this actually is. Very high quality on all parts. Not as nice to assemble as the plastic RDX, mainly due to the manual being rather old school and not being 100% obvious sometimes, but fitments were 110%. Which brings us to the shocks: These are Yokomo Big Bore shocks, for many people the first upgrade part they ever do on their drifter, regardless of which make. They're reasonably priced (around £80), they're decently pretty (and purple!), they work really well and i've sold them immediately. I basically just assembled them to put them on the rig for a picture, that's it lol. Of course i did build them like my own, with all O-Rings properly greased with 1UP etc. And finally: Not setup yet, also not on the final wheels, just attached what i had for the picture. The shocks look saggy because i didn't add the bladders (the guy who bought them wanted the shocks dry, didn't want to damage the bladders by dry-rubbing them inside the shock), but as i said, i've never driven on these shocks. The front body posts also weren't trimmed at this point, because i had a new shell in the making and hadn't taken measurements yet. It's a pretty rig, no doubt. Now, for electrics, i basically threw my RDX electrics at it, with a few tweaks, as can be seen here. Being an XD10 Pro ESC, D10 10.5t motor, Reve D RS-ST servo and Reve D Revox gyro, paired to my NB4. This is the first stage of setting it up, result being: Decent enough for the girls i am dating, so while i did adjust weight balance a little bit by shifting wires, it was nothing to write home about. You'll also notice that the stupendously expensive Overdose HG3 shocks are mounted to this, despite not being purple. Can't have it all. Now after doing all that, and getting a base line set up, of course i thought that a new motor was required, including a full rewire of the car, throwing everything off again - but the naked wires did annoy me, and the rear wire salad was too much for the shell to handle, so i gave "resoldering ESC side of motor wires" a go, with.. meh results. In my defence, the wires are actually not heat resistant (it's not silicone), so i couldn't do much there. Was my first try, in the future i'll get bloody wire that doesn't melt when you try to solder it (well, the sleeve anyway). The motor was changed to a 13.5t D10 (same motor, less RPM), this time in purple. Which is the current setup still. Now, the shell. It's a shell that i had for absolute ages, started building it either with the RDX or the RMX, can't remember - probably had it close to a year just sitting in the cupboard, finally got around to have it finished. And i absolutely love it. Kustom Kulture of course being the drift club, it's "our" livery. As it sits right there, with the shocks and electrics, it owes me around £1300 now. Which is completely moronic, it's more capable than i'll ever be, but you know.. that's how the hobby goes. I'm happy, can't put a price on that. At least that's what i 'm telling my wife, and myself at night. Lastly, here's how it drove last sunday. Keep in mind, first day with new wiring, motor and shell (which i only noticed afterwards, didn't sit proper, it's fixed now). Just look at how lovely and smooth it runs, as well as how amazing those shocks are. I do love it, i just don't think about the money i paid for it. Much. Thanks for reading: it's a shorter one than the others, but i "had to" build this kit within 6 hours, didn't leave much time to take detail pictures etc.

Cheers mate, yeah it is, love it. Though i am running something else now, need to create a new thread for that.... 😉 😄

Cheers, yeah most complicated ("busy") diff i've ever laid eyes upon, that's for sure. Was a pain in the neck to build, those springs (they're like small V shaped ones) are sharp as heck and the tolerances are tight, so pressing them in ruined my thumbs for the next two days as well lol. I do like this mechanical stuff though, as opposed to the electronic shipfuttery that i have severe issues with. I understand how this diff works, and i understand how to tune it. As opposed to the entire boost and turbo and whatnot programming on ESCs. Same with the new shocks, even bought a rebound setup station for them, so they'll be properly dialled in once i've built them. Forgot to mention, i do not run carpet anymore, i am now a regular at an actual drift track running concrete - much different to what was going on at the carpet track. That was more evening bashing, with other 4wd rigs on the track etc. This is where i'm going now: (i did run black wheels for a while due to requirement of different tyres for concrete) I think this is where the upgrade idea comes from in the first place - monkey see, monkey do. Or rather, monkey needs to spend way too much money for stuff he really doesn't need just yet. Most of these rigs aren't stock anymore, and well.. i wanted shiny bits too. The track is 45 miles away, so each sunday it's an hours drive there and another hour back, but well.. Got nothing else to do on sundays really. Also get fed: Freshly prepared at the track by lovely Michelle, the trackmum. Did deep dive though, highly likely i'll sell up my bashers and stick to drifting and keeping the Capra around for the occasional crawling. Just suits me best. In fact.. here's my christmas gift from my mother in law lol.

So, long time no update, time for a small one i suppose since today i've fitted the first of a few less reasonably priced upgrades. Electronic wise, still the same, albeit i am now running turbo and boost settings (still don't really grasp them, had a clubmember "tune" it for me). So, today we fitted two things: a new bodyshell, because i finally got around to buying and finishing my KE70 station wagon that i was after for literal years. Looks like this. The colour is called "CHOGLOT" by me, it is in fact TS-1 (yes, TS, not PS). It turns out that it's completely fine to spray a lexan shell in TS paint, if you seal it first with a coat of pearl. Which was done. The silver trim is painted on the outside (cut the overspray film, then sprayed), which was a meh idea in hindsight - but i do like the effect it gives now that i handled the shell a bit, looks worn. Same on the bumpers (both are chrome too). Ride height isn't set yet, it'll come down a good bit but the reason for not doing that is the second upgrade. This particular one isn't fitted yet, because it's somewhere between RCMart warehouse and, well, here. But it's a beaut: These are Overdose (in case you didn't notice) High Grade Shock Spec 3, or HG3 for short. These puppies set me back over £200, and they don't even come with springs nor oil or o-ring grease. That was extra. With that i've ordered a set of Reve D R-Tune springs (soft) for both front and rear, as well as the accompanying oil and grease. One interesting tidbit is that these run mineral oil out of the box, Apparently quite a few guys made the mistake of running silicone in them, making a right old mess. So with these and the springs i've also ordered Overdose #10 mineral oil (around 5-10wt) as well as 1up o-ring grease. At that price, i've got to build them right. So, these are on the way, should be another week or two. What did arrive was this. This is a Rhino Racing C-LSD, or "centrifugal limited slip diff". Looks like any old spool, but that look changes vastly once you open it up - inside, it looks like this. There's springs in the outer black caps that these pinions/shafts slot into, and basically what it does is magic. It's an open diff, until you punch the throttle, then it locks, and it unlocks once you let go of the throttle (centrifugal). It's highly tuneable, with a variation of pinions (either 4 or 8 ) and springs (soft or hard) you can set how much throttle you need for it to lock, as well as how fast it locks (whether it locks up slowly or rapidly). It's the most complicated diff i've ever seen, haven't run it yet - it does seem to work though from benchtesting it. More expensive than an X-Maxx diff, too. That's a recurring theme, anything drift related that isn't a bog standard plastic part is abhorrently expensive. These are the upgrades purchased so far, and i'm talking to a person in Canada for a different chassis plate. Looks like this. Basically, the carbon fibre-y bits there. Ain't much, but still is going to set me back another £200 by the looks. But that's for future me to worry about - now i'm just waiting for sunday to give that new diff a shakedown. So much for now, thanks for reading.

No worries lol, i'm chewing the ears off people who know how to paint hard shells currently lol.

Not really. The one i linked is all you need. It will do everything you need it to do and more, and it lasts (mine's over 10 years old). If you don't want to go "cheap", you buy a Hakko FX888D. That's it. Everything else is either worse, or not as much value. And i very certainly wouldn't suggest going over £150 on your first soldering station unless you intend to start doing it semi-professional to get paid. edit: for MB soldering i'd certainly suggest getting a sucker pen too.

Many moons ago i purchased a chinese clone soldering station (like, actual 10 years ago): https://www.amazon.co.uk/Soldering-Station-Welder-Rework-Repairing/dp/B074Z84TDL?th=1 works a treat to this day. If that at some point goes poof, i'll be sure to order another one. I genuinely never had the need for anything else, and i've been through a lot of RCs/solder jobs. In regards to soldering itself: as was mentioned a lot, your joints there were rather dry. It does look to me like your iron doesn't get hot enough (or doesn't transfer enough heat). For small pointers, try to heat up both sides generously, without melting stuff (both pad and wire need to be hot to form a nice joint). Solder doesn't flow well over cold surfaces. Pre-tin both your wire and tip generously (not so much that it drips, but enough that it is all nice and shiny). A pre-tinned wire doesn't need additional solder to adhere to a pad, if you heat up the pad and melt the solder of the pre-tinned wire, it'll flow together. A pre-tinned tip on your iron (clean the tip in a copper sponge, then add "a cm or so" of solder) helps it to spread heat much faster. As was also mentioned, solder is important. Personally i discovered eutectic solder a year or so ago for myself, won't go back to anything else. The difference is the way the solder solidifies - normal solder goes hard slowly, so you melt everything, and then you can wiggle stuff around until it "slowly" hardens. Eutectic solder is basically "on" or "off". It's either melted, or it's not. It immediately solidifies, not gradually like normal 60/40 solder. I use this solder in particular: https://www.flyingtech.co.uk/accessories/tbs-multicore-6337-rosin-core-solder-wire-real-100g-05mm and i absolutely swear by it. Soldered everything from tiny SBUS wires (24 gauge or something) to QS8 connectors (6-8 gauge), and it is rock solid. Other than that, there really isn't much to it. Heat up both ends, pre-tin the wire and tip, and just have at it. Make sure the iron has the "correct" temperature (mine's set to around 380 degrees for most jobs apart from big wires for 8s+), understand that solder only really flows on hot surfaces (meaning both wire and the stuff you wanna put the wire onto need to have temperature), and it'll become super easy. The two things mentioned here (station and solder) don't break the bank and will do 100% all of the jobs required in RC use, with ease. edit: as an example for an XT connector, this is how i do it: get the connector/bullet into a 3rd hand (invaluable help for connectors), pre-tin the soldering tip generously, hold the wire against the tip (from the bottom, so you can "push" against the wire a little bit), and hold the solder where the tip meets the wire. After a few seconds (can take a little while for thicker cables) you'll see the solder pull into the wire, at that point just make sure that all of the exposed wire is covered in tin (if a drop forms, it's too much). Once the wire is pre-tinned, i just stick the soldering tip into the bullet connector for a few seconds (making sure that there's a generous amount of solder on the tip again) - while holding solder against the metal of the connector. The connector itself eventually becomes hot enough (few seconds, again) to melt the solder itself - fill the bullet around a quarter to a third way up with solder and let it cool down. Here's where things can go a bit wrong, in the beginning i did melt a few connector housings this way, but once you've done a few connectors, you can easily judge how much heat you can throw at the bullet inside the housing before melting the plastic. There's a slight help you could use there as well, by connecting the connector that you're soldering to the corresponding male/female connector (just a connector housing, not attached to an ESC or battery). Once both sides are pre-tinned, i just stick the iron back into the bullet while at the same time holding the wire against the tip (so the tip is basically sandwiched between bullet and wire), liquifying the solder on both parts (you can see it become shiny). Once liquid, you just pull the soldering iron out of the bullet while pushing the wire into the connector, wait a second until solid, done. It's kinda hard to explain, i hope it makes sense. Looks like this then. That's straight from the iron, no brushing or anything.

On the topic of EAV: Not sure how appropriate it is nowadays, wasn't an issue when i was young lol. One of their best songs. 🤣 edit: currently listening to I don't speak swedish, but i know the text anyway. Watch with subtitles.

Okay, admittedly, i've been rather lazy recently (and a bit annoyed from hunting down parts/trying to make things work the way i want it to), so while i do have pictures etc, i've not gathered the "energy" yet to finish the build thread as is. I will, probably within the next week, but for now.. It's done. It took quite a lot of work to get it ready (not the chassis, that went brilliantly - getting the shell mounted/done on the other hand....), but i got there in the end. Had to make my own LED light kit (no kits in the UK with warm white flat top LEDs), leaning on the MyTrickRC light controller, had to order three different mounting kits to get the shell on (finally got sorted with a mix of a Yokomo set and Scale Reflex kit, bloody expensive endeavour that was), etc pp. Here's a quick 30 or so second video of what it looks like running. Ignore the bumper cars on the track, we don't discriminate against beginners so not everyone is on the same level (and two cars were 4wd too). I absolutely love it. More on that when i finish the build thread, but safe to say, this one's gonna stick around for a long time. edit: noticed that you can see it in the video - in the back we had a small "sandbox" with cat litter, for us monkeys to play with excavators/trucks/wheel loaders lol. Need me one of them excavators now too ffs.

Would require me to faff about with tiny JST connectors and pinning/crimping, cheers for the suggestion but for cases like this, i just order a pre-done set of LEDs that fit the light controller. 👍

They do, sadly i don't have any 3mm LEDs left (thousands of 5mm though -.-) - so had to order some in, stalled until then again, harumph.

Many moons ago there i swear there was a Stagea/R34 front shell available, of course i'd take it immediately lol, but can't find anything anymore, not even a normal Stagea. I tried for literal months to find this one: also no luck. That all said.. for now, the 2000gt will do. Small preview:

Also, small teaser of what's to come.