So why are so many of them responding by taking the mickey on pricing?

Twice in the last few weeks I have been into local shops looking for a Ukulele and a Brushcutter respectively.

On both occasions I was impressed by the product on show.

On both occasions I went home to search for reviews and do some price comparisons – only to find that both shops were charging significantly MORE than the manufacturers own RRP! By £7 for the Ukulele and £30 for the brushcutter!

Now, I don’t expect a bricks and mortar shop to be as cheap as the internet, but I buy locally for the service and to support the local economy. But I’m buggered if I’m going to pay MORE than the RRP to do that! I don’t like being treated like a mug because I happened to use my feet to shop rather than a mouse.

So that’s two more businesses on my “won’t shop there” list.

PS Actually, it’s thrice in the last couple of months… was also looking at flat screen TVs in a “local” shop, he was quick to offer me a deal on their soon-to-be-discontinued ex-display model… suffice to say that even his “deal” was the same price as a brand-new model from John Lewis. So that’s three on the list since Easter!

The increased intensity of the separate side lights greatly decreases image noise and improves the clarity – you can clearly pick out the edges of the diamond.

Here is my setup…

It’s pretty rudimentary. The microscope is raised up on a couple of cookbooks (got to find some use for them!), two cheap IKEA desk lamps are placed level with the microscope stage, a blob of blu-tack is used to hold the stylus at the desired angle – et voila! You can see how good the images are in the first snapshot – and that was taken with my underwhelming Samsung smart-ish-phone (a topic for another day perhaps).

Here are a couple of those images in higher quality. Both were taken after cleaning the styli with a microfibre cloth (it’s surprising how many tiny lumps of crud get on there), and both are taken looking along the cantilever as the record itself “sees” it.

Below is a Goldring Elektra (which I think is a re-badged Nagaoka C51M MkII-E – my suspicions were raised by the “Made in Japan” mark on the back of the cartridge)…

Next is an Ortofon Super OM10…

To be honest, after looking at four different styli under these lights, I was hard pressed to tell them apart, and I couldn’t see any damage or wear once they had been cleaned. These are styli that are either of unknown history, or have been clumsily cared for by myself – I have been known to drop the arm from time to time (haven’t we all…)!

Each one is supposedly an elliptical, but I find it hard to pick out clearly the flats that are cut into the stylus, perhaps just a little sign of it in the hard line where the illumination stops.

Perhaps an experienced eye can see more.

But I do think that the pictures are beautiful, even at 200x magnification you can see the precision with which even these relatively cheap styli are made.

Dodgy camera-photo proof of the QX3+ microscope working on Vista!

My new/old hobby is vinyl – so I bought this Intel QX3+ USB microscope on eBay to look at my styli. It’s also quite good fun for my daughter to look at insects legs and spores and stuff like that.

This dates from 2001-ish, but compared to the contemporary USB microscopes it has a proper illuminated stand that allows you to focus on what you are looking at. It also comes with a few specimens to look at and some software.

As a tool for inspecting styli it is actually quite limited. You can easily tell whether a stylus has major damage (none of mine do), but the images are pretty noisy, especially at 200x magnification, and it is hard to see much more than that. Some people have rigged up a pair of side-mounted light sources which are apparently better for checking wear – I will try the same with a couple of desk lamps.

Back to the installation. Because of it’s age, the microscope is only advertised as working with Windows versions up to XP.  However, there are a couple of solutions posted online to get the microscope working on Vista. I initially tried one that didn’t work, but Googled a few of the filenames and found them elsewhere on Intel’s site. While writing this very post, I found a solution that has the correct file locations here. Easy.

Although it runs, I do find the software a little temperamental. It crashes if you go in and out of it, and the TWAIN driver doesn’t really work with my other image editing software.

DON’T try and top-up with your credit/debit card if you want to get online quickly!

The online registration won’t work until the dongle is activated (which they don’t mention in the documentation, cue multiple failed attempts to register online). To activate the dongle you need to call them (their online contact form is also disabled, cue hunting around in the documentation for a number). T-Mobile then tell you they won’t take a payment from a new card for 24hours (cue futile rage). Plug-and-play it is not.

What does work is the top-up card included in the box. I had to pop out to the Tesco garage on a Sunday evening to get £5 credit on it – good thing I live in the city.

If only they made this clear from the start.

Of course, when you do get online, T-mobile’s content lock stops you from viewing “inappropriate” sites. Which includes that well-known source of peril, the National Lottery! And how do you disable it? I still haven’t managed it. The online credit card verification did not work, and the number they give can only be dialled from T-Mobile phones (which I don’t have). Looks like another call to their (foreign) call-centre is in order…

It’s pretty good now that it works though. Plenty fast enough for normal browsing, and surprisingly miserly with the bandwidth – it has a data compression utility bundled with it which mean that 4 hours browsing to date has used just 33MB! Perhaps a realistic alternative to a fixed broadband connection?

Which is basically inaudible.

Good news though… simply “Reset Factory Settings” and change your location from “Europe” to “Rest of World” and the “Volume – High” option returns!

The motor is held together by three long cap screws. Easy enough to remove. The next thing you notice is the incredible strength of the rotor magnet. You wonder whether it will pull half the motor out with it!

Exploded view of the SP v3.0 motor

Once disassembled you are left with the above. From left to right: endbell; sensor board; silicone seal; can with windings; rotor; faceplate; screws.

The endbell is made from aluminium and has holes for the three plugs and the sensor socket. Contrary to the markings on the endbell, the sensor socket can actually be moved a total of 20degrees, factory setting is in the middle at zero, rotating the sensor anti-clockwise advances the timing.

A little more on brushless motor timing. According to reliable sources, a “wye” wound motor (like this 13.5) will perform terribly at its true 0deg timing position – which is with the sensors in the middle of each winding. So, in practice, 30deg advance is treated as zero timing.

30deg timing is "zero" advance in a wye wound motor

Hopefully the image above shows this, albeit in a slightly blurry way! Looking down into the motor from the faceplate end, the red line marks the centre of the stator winding, the true odeg timing position. The green line marks the position of the sensor, 30deg advanced from zero. In this position, the sensor socket is in the factory “zero” setting.

Speed Passion v3.0 sensor board

Another view of the sensor board which has three sensors, one for each phase.

Speed Passion v3.0 13.5 rotor

Finally, the rotor. This is 12.3mm in diameter, and very strong. There is a small amount of balancing epoxy on it (hidden below the shaft) and also a couple of brass spacers.

The motor is hand-wound, ballraced and very fast. But best of all it is virtually maintenance free. Just blow away the dust and put a drop of oil on the bearings from time to time!

• It’s super fast
• Stripped down and easy to use with a big viewing window

But…

• No supported ad-blocker (I could deal with this)
• It doesn’t work with eBay selling forms!

Reason for playing the field was that I have been having issues with Firefox recently. More and more websites seem to display incorrectly, or have limited functionality; and the add-ons are starting to be abused by selfish apps (such as Microsoft’s “compatability” hack that they force install on the browser).

The only browser that seems to run every website correctly is *eek* Microsoft Internet Explorer. However IE8 is possibly the least user-friendly browser you could imagine. I am left scratching my head every time I try to do more than write an address into the address bar. As usual, Microsoft’s approach would appear to be to stick a million monkeys (programmers) at a million typewriters (“I’m a PC!”) and wait for the complete works of Shakespeare (a web browser). And as usual they end up with the equivalent of a Katie Price “autobiography”.

Computers, eh?

These are what I developed at the Carpet Thrashnal on the 15th November. They were good enough to qualify 5th in 13.5, and finish 5th and 2nd in the finals. There is definitely a lot more to come.

The initial setup is what I threw on the car before arrival. It has a few tweaks to the roll centres, shocks and bars compared to the kit setup. It proved to have a bit too much steering, so during the day I stiffened the oil, springs and bars, and raised the roll centres to get the final setup, which was well balanced but a bit edgy at the limit once the grip came up.

Unfortunately I ran out of parts before I could try any stiffer suspension or chassis settings! Will be trying the foam top-deck and 1.4mm bars at the next meeting – possibly more. These parts seem to be working well in other hands.

Sorry about the poor image quality – I don’t have full Acrobat so re-scan the sheets into the computer!

photon_thrashnal_15_11_09_initial

photon_thrashnal_15_11_09_final

If you try these setups and have any feedback, please let me know!

TOP Photon

I’m now running the latest car from the TOP stable, the Photon.

In time-honoured fashion I will run through the build with a few badly-lit pics and tips that you may or may not find useful.

Overall impressions

What's in the box?

Building the Asphalt Rubber Pro version of the car, I was very impressed by the quality of the parts, a clear step up from its forerunner, the Scythe. The drivetrain in particular is outstandingly smooth. Mouldings are very precise; press fit where they need to be; free running where they need to be. With two exceptions, no fettling is required to build a car that works as it should. So despite there being a lot of screws and a lot of components, the quality means it goes together very easily.

The two disappointments are the spur gear adaptor and the shock pistons. More on these later.

General build tips apply as they would to all model cars. Use quality hand tools, tighten parts evenly, use a little threadlock on metal-to-metal fixings, and lubricate accordingly. This car uses a lot of M3 set screws and some M2.5 screws which need a quality 1.5mm driver. I chose TOP’s own driver (#PT-021025). The car is quite unusual in that it comes with no lubricants, fluids or tools, so a well equipped pit box is an asset!

My car is from the 3rd batch to enter the UK, and has a few updates compared to the manual and addendum.

Step 02

TOP Photon spool - still just 18g with the steel outdrives

First change from the paperwork is that the car now comes with steel spool outdrives, which are held in place by long 15mm screws. These take a lot of tightening, but it’s worth it. I’ve got two race meetings under the car’s belt now, at the first one I did a lot of crash-testing (oops), and the spool was completely unharmed. The alloy driveshaft bent though! Changed to the steel driveshafts for the second meeting, and although I crashed a lot less, there remains no damage.

Step 04

TOP Photon diff - just 26g

The rear diff is truly superb. If your kit is anything like mine, you may be concerned by the slightly coned appearance of the diff plates and the inclusion of steel balls instead of an expensive alternative. Well you needn’t be. This is the best diff I have built. It can be confidently set to rotate smoothly with zero slip. I think the Belleville washers on the screw may be the key (most diffs use a coil spring).

On the subject of Belleville washers, the addenda suggests removing a couple to stop the driveshafts fouling the diff screw. This is no longer an issue as the kit now comes with shorter driveshafts – more on that later.

Other great features of this diff are the precision alloy outdrives, the press fit dust covers, and the easy external adjustment.

Step 06

Spur gear adaptor mod

The first problem part is the spur gear adaptor/layshaft pulley. For whatever reason the pegs on the adaptor have been moulded at the wrong centres for “standard” spur gears – this includes the Kimbrough included in the kit, and my preferred Kawada gears. TOP acknowledge this in the manual and suggest reaming out the spur gear. I chose to go the other way, and just trimmed the outer edges from the adaptor pegs. This does mean that there is less material for the screws to thread into.

The good news is that spur gears with the correct sizing are being developed right now.

Step 07

Assembled layshaft

The quality of the pulley mouldings is very good, and the layshaft runs true. However there was a little lateral movement on my car which I decided to shim out after my shakedown run – 0.2mm on each side should do it.

Step 08

Insanely adjustable steering crank!

The steering crank is possibly the most adjustable on the market today. It has a big impact on the amount of steering the car has. The longer the crank, and the narrower the insert, the more steering you have. The kit setting does not generate a huge amount of steering, one of the first setup changes I made was to move the crank to its longest setting which was a significant improvement.

When building it, a tip I have been given (but not yet used) is to superglue the nut into the bottom for easier adjustment. You also want threadlock on there, loose steering mid-race will not be a happy experience!

This is the first appearance of the 5.3mm diameter ball nuts that the car uses. They are robust and smooth, but because they are built onto long set screws, they need careful threadlocking to stop them working loose. A 3mm hex driver fits into the ball end to tighten them.

Step 10

Starting to take shape...

Two important tips at this stage. One is to carefully threadlock the layshaft mounting screws in place – I know of two UK team drivers who have had it come loose mid-race. Second is to spend a little time on the belt tension. I found the front belt way too tight in the default setting, so much so that it would bend the front of the chassis up. Three notches looser was right for me.

By the way, a good tip I was given on using threadlock is to just run your finger over the thread to spread it around without having a big blob that might goop up something you don’t want to. On this build I gooped up a driveshaft with threadlock, and in the past I have gooped up chassis screws which then refused to come out!

Step 13

Upper decks fitted

This stage is where a lot of the smaller-than-usual M2.5 screws get used to fit the top deck. Take care not to overtighten or strip these – a good hex driver is essential. This is also the stage where the steering crank is bolted in – after my shakedown I found it had a little free play, a 0.2mm shim cured it.

Step 14

46mm and 44.5mm driveshafts

TOP responded quickly to the problem of driveshafts hitting the diff screw and the kit now comes with a pair of 44.5mm shafts. These must be fitted in the rear and use the blades. The kit also comes with alloy 46mm driveshafts for the front instead of steel – I bent an alloy one during my shakedown (admittedly I did crash a lot), so I have now fitted the steel ones.

Step 15

Extra shim on rear axle

Another part that isn’t mentioned is the pair of shims that come in the driveshaft bag. These are for the rear axles and take out a little bit of play.

Step 17

Be careful with the kingpins!

The steering hubs need careful assembly. The kingpins are screws going through collars – if you tighten these down fully, the steering will lock up. So, they need to be backed off 1/4 turn. To make this work on the upper kingpin requires careful threadlocking of the ball nut, otherwise it will work loose.

Step 21/22

Fully adjustable roll centre and toe

The new suspension mounts give a lot of scope for adjustment of roll centre (6 positions, 0.5mm apart) and toe (0.5 deg or less at a time). Although there are a lot of parts, the quality is very good and it all goes together easily to make a solid yet free suspension. Threadlock is important here.

On the front suspension, a 2mm spacer is supplied instead of the published 1.5mm one. I chose to use it on the rear of the shaft.

Step 23

Building turnbuckles

Building turnbuckles is bloody hard work! Especially ones made of hard plastic like the new TOP ones. Fortunately I have a couple of tools that make it a bit easier. One is an M3 tap (TOP #PT-081030), another is an old Yokomo (Lunsford?) turnbuckle wrench which is just the right size. It is still difficult to thread the left-hand threads though. My finger is still recovering a week on!

The human cost of RC...

Step 25

Using a small tool to thread the anti-roll bar links

The anti-roll bar links are really excellent – the smoothest ones I have come across yet, which is sure to have a positive effect on the handling. But they are also quite a fiddle to assemble, so again wise use of the tap and threadlock pays dividends.

Another small disappointment with the roll bars is that the aluminum shock tower mounts do not hold the smaller diameter bars in place properly. I am working on a solution to this.

Using the M3 hand tapping tool on the ball ends

Step 28/29/30

Using side cutters to grip the thread of the shock shaft

Here we find the second big disappointment on the car. The shock pistons.

The finish on these is a little rougher than other parts of the car; they have an unusal design with a groove around the centre; and they move up and down on the shock shaft if left unshimmed.

From talking to others it would seem that the pistons themselves are fine if you clean them up a little. But the movement on the shaft is a definite no-no. It builds a shock that clicks and has inconsistent damping. You will need 3mm shims (TOP do some, #PA-100305), maybe as much as 0.3mm worth.

I have chosen a different solution. I have rebuilt the shocks with Tamiya 3-hole pistons (#53573), and to avoid using shims I have also fitted Tamiya shafts (#53575). In my opinion, the quality of the pistons is higher, and the shocks feels a lot better for it. I also fitted some Tamiya o-rings (from #53574) and a Yokomo bladder (#YS-8DMH), although that was mainly because I had them to hand and they made the shock a little easier to build – no performance gain was intended.

The shocks also benefit from a thin 10mm shim (TOP #PA-101012) between the bladder and top cap to improve the seal, otherwise they may weep.

Otherwise, assembly is very straightforward, the shock bodies and other plastic parts are very good quality. One thing to watch out for is that the shock bottom will not thread on fully – so don’t try! The exposed threads are hidden by the spring cup.

Step 32

Front shock - you can just make out the engraved rate

Because the Photon uses the same bulkheads front and rear, the front shock mount has this slightly unusual reversed layout. Works perfectly though – again, all it takes is a little careful threadlocking and the mounting is very secure.

Step 33

Bumper needs trimming

One small detail is that the front bumper needs trimming down a little. The bumper is built for a 3mm chassis, the car has a 2.5mm chassis, so it creates a lip at the front of the car which needs to go. The Scythe used to have some optional fine bumper shims for a very professional finish, unfortunately the Photon does not, but it is hardly an issue.

Step 35

TOP Photon Lipo Tray

One of the most noticeable features of the Photon is its deceptively simple LiPo tray. Just mount the LiPo in the usual place, and stick weights in the tray until the car is balanced. No ugly lead on the pack itself!

This solution was great… until the BRCA dropped their weight limit to 1350g. I’m running relatively heavy electronics, and I couldn’t get the car to balance using the tray unless I added 60g to it – which took the car up to 1440g!

Instead, I have chosen to mount the LiPo further out – 16mm to be exact, so that the centre of the LiPo is in line with the tray mounting screws. I have made a little plasticard tray to give the LiPo some protection and to help me put the pack in the same place again and again. With this setup the car is perfectly balanced at around 1380g.

Many other Photons are near 1350g with standard parts, and don’t need to run the LiPo so far out, or choose to use a little ballast in the tray. Others don’t bother with balancing it at all and still compete. Run whatever you are happy with!

Step 36/37

TOP Photon servo mounting

Another thing that is a bit of a fiddle on the Photon is mounting the servo. For some reason the mounts are way off fitting my Futaba S9550, a common low-profile servo. A healthy selection of screws and shims is required. This setup is using the larger TOP mounts, 5mm of extra spacers, a large M3 washer, and an M3x15mm screw. It has proven to be very secure, and the steering arm is lovely and straight.

A servo saver is highly recommended. Running without can break the steering crank. I’ve never believed the claim that servo savers make the car sloppy in the steering – I can’t tell the difference between a good saver and a solid servo arm (although I do know a weak saver when I drive one). This is the Tamiya High-Torque saver (#51000), which I was very happy with in the Scythe. The outer hole on the saver is in the same position as the kit arm so the geometry is correct.

At the end of Step 37,  TOP claim that the Photon is ready-to-race… well, they did overlook a couple of parts that are in the bags. One is the wheel nuts – I’m sure you can all manage to fit them – the other is the antenna mount. As far as I can tell there are two spare holes for it, one on the lower deck near the motor and one in the middle of the upper deck. The upper deck worked out better for me.

Wiring up these cars is almost as time consuming as building them. After much wielding of the Weller, I settled on a fairly straightforward layout. There is not a great deal of room between the servo and the motor, even with a small ESC it seems that only a micro receiver could fit on the lower deck. My receiver is on top of the servo, but it only weighs 15g so it is not making much of a difference to the CG.

Finished at last!

TOP Photon - Speed Passion/Much-More/Futaba/Intellect power - yes I know the tape is done wrong!

TOP Photon - PF Mazdaspeed6 - coming soon to a track near you! Or maybe not!

More to come on the Photon soon… ish.

A couple of things have impressed me about the B4 over a few months of owning and racing it.

First is how incredibly durable it is. I am effectively learning 2wd from scratch, racing on a pretty unforgiving multisurface indoor track, and I haven’t broken a single thing. The only part I have had to replace is the rear bulkhead, which was my fault for mistakenly threading a 5-40 screw into it (instead of a 4-40).

Second is how astonishingly well sorted the car is out of the box. After trying almost every alternative part Associated do, and trying various ballast arrangements, I keep coming back to an unballasted car, with springs, 30 degree caster blocks and black steering rack ballstuds being the only parts that are not in the box. Considering the B4 was released 6 years ago and developed on clay tracks, that is just amazing.

Associated B4

Still running the simple white body on my car. Easy to see, easy to paint. Tamiya PS1 cans if you were wondering. I’m running the JConcepts 7″ V-wing (#0109) which is brilliant. Super durable and looks a lot better than the tiny little kit wing – which cracked at the first race meeting. This JConcepts wing is still rock solid. Does it make the car faster and better handling? No idea.

Associated B4 electrics

Under the shell at present is the following…

• Futaba S9451 servo – this will stay.
• Futaba R133F reciever – also staying – I see no need to go to 2.4GHz when 40MHz works so well and there are fewer crystal clashes nowadays!
• Keyence Rapida Pro ESC – such a good speedo, no capacitors or diodes hanging off it, full on-board programming – perhaps one day the brushless speedos will be this good?
• Orion V2 12×1 motor – I don’t like these at all – no power and a nuisance to work on. Only put it in because my 19×1 needed new brushes.
• East Power 4200 NiMH cells – I’m amazed that these survived 2 years of infrequent use and misuse. During that time at least two cells dropped to zero in storage but came back to life. They are totally shot now though.

Not that it is particularly relevant now since so few people use NiMH, but to get the pack to fit neatly in the B4 tray (which was designed around earlier, smaller cells), I had to rebuild it using the Trickbits economy battery bars, which are flat and thin (#TB2001). Stepped bars make the pack too wide.

B4 steering ballstud

You may just be able to make out in this photo that I have drilled out the top of the Associated ballcup. I have also replaced the ballstuds on the car (at great expense!) with Associated’s socket-head versions from the GT2 and B44. This allows me to undo the ballstuds without unpopping the ball ends. Frankly this wasn’t worth doing. If you want to copy me, use a 2.4mm (3/32″) drill bit to clear the 2mm (5/64″) hex wrench.

What is worth doing is replacing the silver ballstuds that are standard on the steering rack, with the black ones (#3981). These are 30thou lower than the silver ones, and remove the bumpsteer that you get if you use the 30deg caster blocks (an essential in my book – #9593). On the topic of caster blocks, have a 2.8mm (7/64″) reamer or drill bit handy to open out the hinge pin hole – the moulding on these has got incredibly tight since Thunder Tiger took over. My Dremel saw a lot of service during the build!

Associated B4 axle pins and nyloc nuts

The only other change I have made to the car is a few parts from Nortech Racing. These axle pins are very simple but well worth having in my opinion. The standard B4 axle pin is a rough roll-pin that isn’t as big as the slot in the wheel. Stripped wheels seem likely – thankfully it did not happen to me. These Nortech pins are slightly longer for a better fit in the wheels, and are smooth and solid too which should make them stronger. I was hoping that the longer pins would stop the wheel nuts from working loose, however that has not really been the case. They need checking after each run. It’s a shame Associated don’t supply flanged or serrated nuts like the Japanese cars have.

The other Nortech part is the 4-40 nyloc nuts to hold the camber link ballstuds in place. The plain nuts in the kit can work loose, I lost one myself. I suppose a little threadlock would help but that doesn’t help assembly and disassembly. Nyloc is the way to go. Associated also make a few different kinds of nyloc nut if you prefer.

So, that is the car, all that remains is the setup. As I said earlier, I have tried most things, but kept coming back to the same settings. A few observations…

• The 30 degree caster blocks get the balance of the car spot on.
• Moving the camber links in one hole at the wheel tightened the car up nicely and stopped its tendency to roll deep into the corner.
• Since I run on a mostly carpet track, I found that the stiffer I went on the rear springs, the better the car got. More precision and greater corner speed.  Generally I’m running silvers or greys in the outside hole on the wishbone (truck blues are a step too far and make the rear lose grip).
• Front springing is in balance with the rear (generally blues or silvers in the outside hole). I also prefer #1 pistons as the #2′s seemed to make the front end a little unpredictable.
• Anti-roll bar has never been better than running a slightly stiffer spring rate. It upsets the balance between roll and pitch stiffness
• I could barely tell the difference between wheelbase settings
• I tried putting more ballast on the front bulkhead to keep the nose down in fast corners. It failed to do that and just made the car feel a little more sluggish on the steering. Stiffer rear springs and shorter links did more to keep the nose down than.

Associated B4 indoor setup – b4_caldicot_19x1v2_DA.pdf

That’s it for now!