Hi all,
Of course another newbie here. I got my RC feet wet with a couple of traxxas models, which were pretty good offroad but "way too fast" to be much fun except when racing or doing stunt jumps. Rock crawling, though, more closely resembles offroad driving, which you do at low speed for safety and controllability. So after a few years off, and a move across the country from Seattle to Indiana*, I made the switch to rock crawling. (* me = Purdue engineering PhD student.)
The guys down at the local hobby store seemed pretty uninterested in rock crawling, saying it was "boring" and that they didn't sell many crawlers. Customers here like "fast" stuff. Hey, that makes sense, we're somewhat close to Indianapolis after all. I, for one, am interested not only in rock crawling by itself--as a substitute for offroad 4x4 driving** --but wish to eventually build a somewhat autonomous planetary rover, and what better platform than something that doesn't roll easily and can get over obstacles? (** I'm too chicken to drive my Land Rover Disco II offroad. It's my daily driver and needs constant TLC.)
From lurking I see this world is highly technical and mechanical. My engineering background doesn't help me much here; I've so much to learn about steering setups, shock and spring locations, why links are where they are, etc. Fortunately I do know a little about NiMH batteries (LiPo kind of scares me) and ESC's. (Those little boxes that make the whining sound as you drive.) But optimum weight distributions for rock crawling? How about where to put the barbie doll? I am clueless.
Obligatory list!
- Bought a Traxxas Buggy (used, craigslist) and Slash about 7 years ago, just before the 4wd Slash came out. I liked 2wd fine but it couldn't get over complex terrain and wasn't as fast around corners compared to 4wd racers.
- I gave these away, gratis, to local friends before moving from the west coast. (*Karma!*)
- I have two little (not micro) drones that take truly terrible videos.
- Have one slightly better drone that shoots first-person video and displays it on my smartphone. But this one is easily blown by the wind, which pretty much blows constantly around here. (We are downwind of a major windfarm.)
Oh, almost forgot:
- Just bought a Redcat Gen7 (Everest Pro). My first mod: remove the spare tire off the roof. Battery is charging in my office as we speak. But it's about 0 degrees F out, no country for old men.
Anyone from the Purdue U. area have recommendations on where to run a rock crawler, please let me know! Else I'll just bring it with me on the trails. At least it can drive faster than I walk.
See ya around!
