Welcome to NullMind's Lair, the blog of a cranky Web Hosting Geek

Sponsored A-Class Driver

Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008

About a week ago, I was talking to my rep for Horizon Hobby when the subject of “sponsored” drivers came up, he felt that in lieu of RC NUT growth it was time to have a proper sponsored driver, and they would back us up.

I immediately tough of Sham, he’s an amazing driver at NNRC, and I knew SMD / BMM where already putting some offers to him, so I’d had to act now if I was to have a chance.

Luckily enough, Sham preferred the deal I presented him to the prospect of still having to wait for the CRT X2 to drive, you know what they say, the early bird and all.

So last Saturday, we spend a good 5+ hours rebuilding a brand new Losi 8T for him to race with, we basically tore the roller apart and change oils, settings, as well as some hop-ups, while the 8T is solid from the box, there is always room for a little improvement here and there :) .

This coming Sunday is the first time SNRC opens, a nice relaxed atmosphere on a Astro track is just what we need to run the car in for the first time, so Sham and myself will be there for testing and practice .. I hope to have my own 8T rebuild by then so I can take it for a spin as well :)

I’m very excited, I know Sham is a A-Main contender for the truggy nationals, and that in turn will mean more exposure for RC NUT .. very exciting indeed.

New Fioroni Parts

Monday, April 7th, 2008

We received a shipment of new Fioroni parts today, and some of them really surprised me :)

My first pleasant surprise was the new Losi 8/8T engine mount, granted its not cheap, but gosh is it lite .. but my real suprise was when i notice .. it SLIDES !!

fioroni4.jpg fioroni5.jpg

The way the screws for the engine mounts work, they have a rail that allows them to slide about 5-6MM .. perfect mesh anyone ? :)

fioroni3.jpg

We also got in the new “Low Innercia” bits (for the 8/8T only at the moment) .. again, they are feather weight .. amazing

fioroni13.jpg fioroni14.jpg

We are shipping the first pre-orders of those today, so I should get some feedback on how they perform in the upcoming weeks

Last, some people have asked me the difference between the FR50 and FR51 flywheels .. basically the FR51 is slightly longer, great for the older Kyosho engine and those who need a couple extra MM to reach the spur gear

fioroni12.jpg

FR50 on the left, FR51 on the right .. the FR50 is the Standard one and used by most cars.

Mini-LST Project Update

Friday, March 28th, 2008

Here are some updated pictures of my Mini-LST Project

No Standard parts, all upgrades, most of them I had to outsource from the US, so this project is taking time .. it will be done when it’s done, no hurry

One of my favorite features are the Alloy Wheels

It will of course be Brushless & Li-Po

mlst3.jpg mlst1.jpg

mlst4.jpg mlst2.jpg

Losi 8T & SMD Box (OFNA 10244)

Tuesday, February 12th, 2008

On March of last year, Ash from BMM posted a howto on modifying the SMD box to work with the Losi 8IGHT-T

Since then, it’s been countless times that I have had to dig for it to help somebody on the various forums that ask how to do it, so I decided to just post it on my forum, this way I know how to find it in a Hurry .. this is Ash’s (Ashalak ) guide, not mine.

Firstly you need to remove your motors and starting assembly from underneath the starter box, this is easily done by removing the 3 screws as shown:
step1.jpg
Once removed you will note that there is actually a second set of three holes on the underside of the starter motor assembly, you need to re-attach the starter motor assembly with the three alternative three mounting holes. This moves the motor assembly more into the centre line of the starter box which helps align the starter wheel much more accurately with the centrally mounted engine in the 8T.
step2.jpg
Next we move on to adjusting the guides, first of all the front guide needs to be positioned all the way down toward the edge of the box, and then tighten up the two screws securing the bracket to the lid:
step3.jpg
For the rear guide we need to completely remove it in order to remove some material from the underside, this is best achieved with either a very sharp hobby knife or my personal favourite method – The Dremel! The section which we need to remove is the small plastic lug on the underside of the guide, you need to remove this lug entirely ensuring that you make this area entirely flat in relation to the rest of the guide:
step4.jpg
step42.jpg Finally you can re-attach the rear guide onto the starter box lid, however you are only required to mount the inner most securing lug on the underside of the lid. Don’t forget to put the nuts in on the underside of the guide for the mounting pegs as you will be required to remove the guide completely again to do so. With the rear guide secured with only one lug slide the guide all the way back and align the whole in the top guide, with the hole in the rear switch mechanism on the starter box. Rather than having an individual screw for securing the lid to the mounting switch, we need to use a slightly longer screw to mount through the rear hole in the guide and into the hole in the switch mechanism:

step52.jpg
step5.jpg

The final step is simply adjusting the front and rear mounting pegs on the guides in order to secure the chassis. You are also able to move the complete starter motor assembly forward or backwards in relation to the opening in the chassis, this is easily done be loosening off the three screws shown in the first step and positioning the wheel so that it is central with the flywheel opening. Here is what everything should look like when setup correctly:
step6.jpg
Hope this helped!

it sure did :)