WOWIO

Wow. I really am digging WOWIO. I found it several weeks ago from Steve Rude's update he sends me. It is a free service that has free books. It really is awesome and I recommend it to everyone. Check it out here.

Toonlet

I found this mildly interesting toon blogging site. I think it might be ok. I created a sample. Please check it out and let me know.

Novak XXtra Synthesized FM Receiver

I received my synth receiver the other day. I decided to order one up a few days ago because I have a Hitec Lynx 3D with the Spectra add on. That allows me to select a frequency for my transmitter rather than swapping in/out crystals. It pretty much a matter of turning a couple of dials and we're good to go.

My problem was that I didn't have this capability on the receiver side. So i figured I'd just pick one up. Somewhat expensive, but not too bad. In retrospect, it might have been smarter to get one of the newer 2.4Ghz radio setups like FASST from Futaba or Spektrum. Still makes more sense than picking up two or three more crystals.

Astroflight 115D and NiMH

Continuing on the topic of RC cars, I did a little research on my old charger. It is an Astroflight 115D Digital Peak Charger from the late 1990s. This was the era where NiCd was the standard and NiMH was just coming out, so I wasn't sure if I could charge NiMH.

Anyhow, I found some threads regarding it and was pretty surprised what I saw. It looks like the Astroflight 115D has peak detection cutoff voltage of 10mV per cell. From this article I read it sounds like 16mV or better is the key.

I'm going to try pick up a cheapo pack or two and try it out. Hopefully it work. More on it later.

Associated RC10B4RS RTR

Photo 1
Originally uploaded by hellpop555

Ok. I guess here we go. I picked up a 1/10 electric buggy today. It's the Associated RC10B4RS Ready to Run. I picked up some 2400mah NiCd batteries too. I decided to pick up NiCd despite NiMH or LiPos being the hotness. It was mostly a cost savings since I wanted to just use my existing peak charger.

Anyways, this is the beginning again. Time to start charging those batteries.

Radio Control Cars Redux

Well, its been years, but I guess you can't keep a good thing down. Recently, I've been looking at returning to RC cars again after a 5+ year hiatus. Over the last few months I've been talking with a couple of people and they've been planting the idea about it in my head. I think it's taken root and I may be going to get some stuff.

My first RC car was an HPI RS4 Rally car. It was a 1/10 electric. I bought it as a kit in the late 90s and it took a while to assemble. It was my first attempt at assembling an rc car. Prior to that I had just toy RC cars and this RS4 was something else.

Anyhow, I got into it more and got a bunch of other cars. I bought a Tamiya F103 car at least I think I did. It was actually the Toyota GT-One TS020 and I bought a McLaren MP4 body. I can't remember for sure which MP4 body it was but I think it was the MP4/13.

After that, I went nitro. I got a Kyosho Superten for my first car, followed up by a Traxxas T-Maxx. I traded the T-Maxx for a Ky0sho MP6 1/8 buggy. Lastly, I picked up a nitro 1/0 touring car, Mugen MTX-2.

That was it. Long story short, I kind of gave up on them and got into other things. But, I've recently been interested in starting up again. So I am looking into what to get for my re-entry. I went to check out a dedicated RC track and it was pretty nice. I think I'll try to get going and run there.