Masterless GOM

[the.ronin]

I know I'm a bit late to the party but I'm generally new to surface RC (spent several years building and flying quadcopters though). Before this, I got my feet wet with an Axial Yeti Jr. I found myself wanting more pretty quickly. I was on the fence between the GOM and the Bomber. Despite all the pros weighing heavily on the Bomber (namely availability of parts and Axial's clever build designs if the Yeti Jr was any measure), I went with the GOM. I remember going into the local RC shop after having researched the Yeti Jr and my attention was quickly diverted to a very cool looking off-road car. The guy at the shop told me I might want to wait on that one and encouraged me to start out first with the Yeti Jr. That very cool looking off-road car was the GOM.


I opted for an RTR because honestly the build videos on youtube looked awfully intimidating. This despite knowing I would likely go out and buy the upgraded parts anyway. Which is what I am waiting on now.


I spent a lot of time coming up with a color scheme knowing that this thing would arrive unpainted. I really liked the beige look of the 1/8 TA Nomad so I wanted to go that route ...

I think it turned out great but I may redo everything because I messed up the tail panels. I got so excited to paint (first time painting lexan parts) that I forgot I wanted the tail panels gold and sprayed them with the gun metal. So I ended up having to spray the *outside* of the tail panels. Everything is covered with flat coat though.


Ok guys more to come ... :mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen:

 

[soze]

Looks pretty good! Man, I really need to get my GOM out for a good run again. I actually plan to remove those tail fins, but I just haven't gotten around to it yet.

 

[the.ronin]

Thanks! I love that tail thingy. I know a lot of folks shaved it down especially for a rear tire but I really like that look.

Also, while I'm starting to really like rock crawling, I always got into surface RC for FPV. I plan to use that cockpit area to hold all the video transmission electronics and and HD FPV cam on a servo. It's even got the area for fans to cool down the video transmitter which can get very very hot.

 

[soze]

I need to swap out my powerplant. I've been meaning to put my Puller pro 3500kv in there for the longest time, but I just can't seem to find time to do it. Mine has been running a SkyRC 4100kv motor made for racing buggies since it was built.

 

[the.ronin]

I am very impressed with the brushed Gmade motor in this RTR version. The low throttle control is really nice - in my limited experience. Maybe I need to recalibrate the ESC or change a setting in the RTR radio but the top speed is really slow. My little Yeti jr took off like a rocket. Not that I am in it for speed but I admit it is fun sometimes to just gun it and try not to flip over.

At some point I will upgrade to Mamba SW and a brushless Holmes motor. I had the Mamba Micro and Holmes Revolver in the Yeti Jr and really liked it.

 

[soze]

I'm running a Mamba X for the aux crawl mode.

 

[the.ronin]

Well this was a rabbit hole LOL. Not sure I mentioned earlier I was aiming to turn this thing into an FPV rig ...

I'm super stoked on the paint job lol. This was my first lexan paint job and I wasn't at all sure the "champagne gold" would work out. I went with an asymmetric dilly ...

The Mamba X is probably overkill for my application but I figured why the heck not lol. I have an equally overly indulgent servo coming in the mail too.

The dual fans were just begging for ... well ... dual fans lol.

It's not all for show though. They do a decent enough job of keeping the electronics cool when idle especially the video transmitter.

The FPV camera is mounted on a servo I can turn with my radio. I need to reposition it somehow because it is smacking the frame when it pans left. Also would like to get a servo stretcher to get 180 degree pan or better yet a 270 degree servo.

The passenger side is actually going to house a Baofeng FM transceiver (walkie talkie) I'm just waiting for the antenna adapter I need to arrive in the mail lol.

Good times lol.

 

[soze]

Wow, really nice work with your GOM. Ok.. I gotta do some work on it once I finish my Capra...

 

[HumboldtEF]

Nice work with the 3D printed parts!

Turn the camera into a robot looking thing and you've got yourself a driver lol
It looks like its almost there already it just needs a body.

 

[the.ronin]

Thanks. I tried that before - embedding a micro camera into the helmet. It became a lot more trouble than it was worth. Also this is an HD camera (Runcam Split Nano 3) so it has a beefy cable leading up to it.

 

[the.ronin]

Ok guys I know I'm not really driving this thing like most of you do crawling rocks and stuff but damn this is so much fun LOLLLLL ...

https://youtu.be/Wi9-79ZX9m8

 

[soze]

Ok guys I know I'm not really driving this thing like most of you do crawling rocks and stuff but damn this is so much fun LOLLLLL ...

https://youtu.be/Wi9-79ZX9m8

It's cool, nice work! Sub'ed ya.

So your thread got me working on my GOM. I swapped out my SkyRC Ares Pro 8.5T for a HH Puller Pro 3500kv. Then..... I noticed that almost all my axles were bent. LOL. I don't know why I didn't notice before. I'll probably get a new set of rear axles and try the universal mod up front. I'm now contemplating if I should go all out for vanquish rockjocks though.

 

[HumboldtEF]

Looks like fun @the.ronin and now I understand the thread tittle!

It's cool, nice work! Sub'ed ya.

So your thread got me working on my GOM. I swapped out my SkyRC Ares Pro 8.5T for a HH Puller Pro 3500kv. Then..... I noticed that almost all my axles were bent. LOL. I don't know why I didn't notice before. I'll probably get a new set of rear axles and try the universal mod up front. I'm now contemplating if I should go all out for vanquish rockjocks though.

I bent a rear axle shaft after a good tumble where the tire/axle hit the ground at an angle. I checked right after and sure enough it bent the axle shaft, though this was before installing the aluminum lockout on the rear axle which I assume will help some.

 

[the.ronin]

Sweet cant wait to see what you do! Your guys' threads have been a huge inspiration.

Lol yea it's just a nod to my handle "the.ronin" which means masterless samurai.

 

[Peaker]

Driving FPV take scaling to a whole other level, even if i just did it with a screen as there wasent really goggles around back then.


Also i dident have telemetry or anything, so when your car was out of hearing range, and not least if you was in a new place, and you would be lost pretty darn fast.
I would kill for a proper FPV VTX / goggle kit, my old stuff are too big ( 900 MHZ big wattage ) + that is a illegal FRQ here.
So new VTX with a moderate wattage in a legal FRQ and more east to make element proof, + goggles and i am surer would go back to the forest more often.

 

[the.ronin]

Yea I'm running a pretty high end analog 5.8 setup here. I'm using Fat Shark HDOs with IRC Rapidfire kitted with a VAS Ion V2 for omni and VAS Crosshair Extreme directional. I come from a racing drone background so the video transmission has to be pretty on point. The hard part with surface FPV is the line of site. With drones you can go out miles on 5.8 with the right directional antennas since you have better line of site. On the ground, so many obstacles and you lose video fast.

I had initially planned to run 900Mhz radio on this thing for real long range. But then that necessitated using a Frsky radio with the traditional two sticks and I didn't want to lose the benefits of a surface radio. If there's a way to run 900Mhz on my Futaba 4PL oh man that would be too awesome.

As an aside, I've been beta testing Fat Shark's new HD system Byte Frost and it is pretty fantastic. I won't fly drones again on analog.

 

[the.ronin]

I designed these window netting to protect the electronics from debris. But I also think they look pretty cool in general. I designed them to be toolless and you can jam them into the triangular holes in the upper corners of either window frames. You really need to print them in TPU though. I uploaded the design to Thingiverse so anyone can print them out ...

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3988370

 

[the.ronin]

Having some fun with a Session 5 and some custom gopro mounts LOL ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxPAMTu2dLI