So, how’s it going in the RC scene ? Here at Team Vebra we’re trying to make the most of these new rainy days to catch up with some needed maintenance.

The T3R has had:

• New set of tyres fitted – 34 shore – Kindly obtained by a fellow driver at the track and for a bargain price. Thank you again!
• The rear gear-diff has been stripped, cleaned and fitted with 1000 oil, a new silicone ring has been fitted and will hopefully keep it “oil-proof” from now on.
• The rear suspension arms have also had their lower ball-joints replaced (xray original replacement parts bought from http://www.jmt-rc-shop.lu/)
• The two worn out ball-joints have been improvised as lipo battery backstops to keep the battery pack from sliding inwards towards the front-belt (underneath the top-deck. A surprisingly good fit!

The next opportunity with a dry and clean track will hopefully yield some good track times. Although, all things considered, we’re pretty pleased with the recent lap times. 26 laps with an average speed of under 24seconds.

Strangely enough, the best lap has not been beaten since April 27th (21.871seconds)

See you at the track everyone and thanks for reading us, as usual.

Astoria

Today’s Lap sessions felt … well … good. The weather improved throughout the day and by the time we hit the track it had had the time to dry off in the evening sunshine. The grip was good, the car behaved well… the driver… did “ok”

A little improvement in what was the TL01 best lap to date. Considering how much easier it felt driving it, we’re somewhat disappointed to see nothing more than a 0.1 seconds improvement but, never mind, that’s what the next session is for.

Now, here’s an improvised list of things that could help the TL01 get some better lap times:

• Get a better driver to drive it round the track for us (?)
• Increase the ‘fix’ in the front diff.
• Steady the ESC within the chassis
• Review ESC settings:
  • Try more drag brake with less braking power.
  • Try less drag brake with more braking power.
  • Play around with punch control.
• Review the oil situation in the shocks
• Try stiffer springs (F/R)
• Re-install anti-roll bar at the front
• Try anti-roll bar at the rear (low expectations)

So, as usual, stay tuned (or keep stumbling on this blog, by mistake as you might have done today) for some more RC News !

Astoria

These new tyres really made a big difference ! Check out these new BEST OF Laps.

The TL01 has had its front diff. blocked with blue-tack- a friendly tip gathered at the track – and it really has improved the car stability, especially when braking at the end of the  long straights. Corner exits can still be a bit tricky with some under-steering and the ride settings (ride height, camber and toe-in) could do with some tweaking but, all in all, we’re looking MUCH better than before.

The T3R has given us Team Vebra’s fastest lap to date: 22.554

Yes Yes Yes … We know that there are those who average a better time than this but we’re pleased

Thanks for reading us and stay tuned for more Spring-Time-RC-News!

Astoria

No, the title of this post doesn’t want to refer to that difficult time in life that some of us are in; it sadly hints at the recent Lap Times of Team Vebra.

A more suitable title could have been “Injury List” and this is why:

• The M03L flew off the last straight’s rumble strip and landed casually near the pit lane; after some further checks, the Servo had gotten stuck – Result = Dead Servo.
• The T3R had a bad encounter with the pit lane wall and broke a front universal joint – still waiting on new parts to arrive from Hong Kong –  Result = Undriveable 2wd touring car made only slightly better once turned into a 2Fwd (as opposed to a 2Rwd)
• The upper desk of the T3R underwent some major “workshop-mishap” and ended up having one of its “rear-tails” snapped off. Result = unbalanced Flex; and the Xray 301190 upper deck doesn’t seem to be stocked by anybody (anymore)
• The TL01 has been a constant under/over-steering machine ever since last season; recent attempts based on tips gathered from fellow drivers at the LMCC have seen us trying to block the front differential but limited improvements were seen. Result =  a touring car that feels and looks more like a part time drifter.
• The M03s which until recently was our entry level pride and joy has mysteriously decided to join the over-steering club. Result = a nervous little devil whose 15T brushed motor has quite frankly seen better days, slow in the straights and no longer predictable in the slower sections.

The sum of the above “results” has seen us “stuck” around the 29.8 or 31.2 seconds per lap; not quite what we’d gotten used after installing our MyLaps RC4 transponders but ….. folks …… the season has only just begun and our Bold (very very Bold) predictions want to be:

1. the T3R will do a lap under 23″
2. the TL01 will do a lap under 25″
3. the M03L will go under 28″
4. the M03s (brushed) will once again happily cruise around the track with an average lap time per session of under 31″

so, stay tuned and be ready to make fun of us come October time when the season will be over and we won’t have achieved anything apart from having had some fun.

Thanks for reading us !

Astoria

 Editor’s note on April 23rd 2014, Goals 1 and 2 have already been achieved ! :) 

Today, Team Vebra has seriously improved their looks and credentials ! Check out our brand new Sworkz Racing Case, as per title this is courtesy of Bobby.br ! Our official new VIP-Member and sponsor of the Team

The three drawers will comfortably carry our TL01, our T3R and both M03′s ! SUCCESS!

For more gear form this company check out http://www.sworkz.com/

Thanks for reading us !

Astoria

But last week Team Vebra took quite a deep “turn” when not only it acquired one, but actually two more cars, that aren’t Tamiya.

Team Vebra got hold of a very nice XRay M18, from our favourite local dealer, Kit. See it below in all its beauty.

Everything is still stock, except for the receiver which has been replaced with an OrangeRx DSM compatible receiver. Not only 2/3 cheaper but also smaller and fits better on the M18 board.

The car comes with a 5cells Nimh battery rated at 6v for 1600Mah, but I’m waiting on an online retailer to re-stock on these. Also ordered the following kit. This will replace both the stock ESC and brushed motor with  a TrackStar 1/18th Scale 7.5T Brushless power System (6100kv), which you can see here below in all its glory.

(image courtesy of HobbyKing.com)

Also planned is an upgrade to the M18Pro chassis, a nice silver graphite board to replace the stock M18 chassis. This is not the Lipo version but a Lipo can be used anyway. Whatchout if you plan on doing the same type of upgrade. There are little things to bear in mind:

Although most mounting points are the same between the M18 and M18Pro chassis boards, motor, antenna mount and esc mount are placed in a different way. For the motor you have no way around buying the optional alu motor mount that costs around 25Euro just for that little mettalic mount.

A Lipo battery shouldn’t exceed the following dimensions: 98mm x 34mm x 15mm, otherwise you’ll need to buy the M18Pro Lipo chassis which has a different battery lodging.

When switching to brushless 360 or 370 motors, instead of the stock 180 motor, the spur gear needs to be replaced with a 42.

Remember that using too powerful motors may require other parts to be changed (e.g. differentials) or there is a risk of breaking some very important and expensive parts.

Another nice upgrade to perform to this little car is replacing the “hop-on” wheels for some proper screw-on hex hub tyre shafts. They cost 25Euro a pair though.

The M18 really looks like a nice little pack of fun and we’re eager to try it on the track!

Same for her bigger sister who also joined Team Vebra… A T3R! But this will be occasion for another post.

Once again, thanks for reading this.

Ka.

kV work the other way around. It’s a calculated value based on RPM / Volts, or how many spins the motor does with just one Volt. The higher the value, the faster the motor.

A little table shows a comparison between Turns and kV

For example, as posted before, our Micro-T now sports a 10250kV… Well, that would read (nearly) 3.5T! Scary, isn’t it?

Hope this could be helpful, in case you’re still learning as I am.

Thanks for reading,

Ka.

This little bad-boy may not be the classic on-road race car, and not only due to its “Lilliput” size, but mainly because of its original purpose, a road-type-buggy shall we say. Nevertheless, after a few little changes, upgrades, it turns into even more fun than expected or hoped.

We first did a “massive” upgrade, as posted last year when we replaced the brushed motor for a 8750Kv brushless one, put a Lipo battery and Spektrum receiver. But that wasn’t enough for our little micro car.
Those “funny” (read “awful”) tyre clips were replaced with some proper threaded axle ones… And last time I worked on it, I (this time I say “I” ’cause it’s only my fault) tried to fit 4 oil dampers and broke one of them.

As the oil dampers are only sold in packs of 4, I was forced to buy a full set to replace the broken one.
My fav online store was out of stock so had to rely on another one, who didn’t have the official-original Losi oil dampers, but the 3Racing version.

I must admit to be quite impressed by the 3Racing Losi Micro-T oil dampers. They really look “the part” and come with various accessories, including a little plastic eye-dropper containing oil. They come pre-filled and ready to “run”.

We shall never order an item alone… Isn’t it? So, took the plunge and ordered also a Losi 10250Kv brushless motor!

Wanna see how it looks after fitting these parts? Well, there it is, our little Mascot in all its beauty!

You can’t really see the new motor, but believe me, it’s there. And you’ll believe me as soon as I’ll post a video of it running, hopefully soon.

Once again, thanks for reading!

Ka.

A couple of pics of our recent mishap. The steering arms of our oldest M-03 (originally the M03L BMW Mini Cooper) broker after a series of abuse.

See how the rim of inappropriately sized wheels chewed into the plastic of the steering arm.

So it was time to bring out our Tamiya F-Parts (slow basket from ModelSport.co.uk (months ago) and install them. We realised two things that may be known by most Mini enthusiasts but which were new to us. The C-hubs are not the same size and the bearing are also different. Luck has it that our local supplier Kit had some spare bearings for us but we’re still waiting on the appropriately sized kingpins (yes, the kingpins are different as well)

In the picture above you can see the “solution” we found with Tamiya’s standard Stepped-screws. There is a lot of give in the steering now and therefore the behavior can be described as erratic at best.

Thanks for listening and stay tuned for more TL-01 and M-03 mods and upgrades.

Astoria.

]]> https://vebra.lu/broken-steering-arms-m03m/feed/ 0 https://vebra.lu/mascot-happily-upgraded-losi-micro-t/ https://vebra.lu/mascot-happily-upgraded-losi-micro-t/#comments Mon, 22 Jul 2013 14:40:56 +0000 http://vebra.lu/?p=529 Team Vebra’s little mascot, our Losi 1/36 Micro-T received another little upgrade. You might remember a post some time ago, when the Mascot received a brushless motor and 2.4Ghz receiver. There are still many upgrades available, I must admit Losi is doing a very nice job in providing upgrades, even for such a small little car.

So, once again with a feeling, took the plunge and ordered:

	Losi Micro-T Front/Rear Threaded Axle Set
	Losi Adj Threaded Shock Set
	Losi Micro 22 On-Road Tire Set, Chrome

The threaded axle set I got it only because changing wheels is a bit of pain. Battling with their proprietary clip is really no fun at all. This way it’s much easier to replace the wheels when needed and you don’t risk having micro parts flying around.

The shock set got it because… Why not? Will it really make a difference? Only time will tell. In the mean time some proper on-road tires will make it look more “on-road” and less “buggy”.

Fitting them all was pretty straight forward. There is only a limited number of screws to remove.

The final result is…

And it’s really very nice checking your finished work… Till you realise that those dampers needed to be filled with oil, which didn’t come with the kit and you forgot to put. Back to square one… But that’s part of the game, isn’t it?

What’s the next upgrade? Is there anything already planned? Yes! The motor will be replaced soon with a 10250Kv Xcelorin brushless. It is going to fly!

As always, thanks for reading this!

Ka.