Micro Terrain Titans / Q-Steer

[sidewinder]

If you find a spot on the edge of a parking lot where there are tire ruts and small bits of gravel these things are a blast. It actually can do some off roading...well, on 1/64 scale bumps.

[Smoke&Mirrors]

I think a fet mod or stacked steering FET's might help and it might be cool to stick a bit RF RX in one if it will fit. The turbo button is awkward but I can jam mine for full time boost.

You can wire it in the TX so you essentially reverse the function of the boost button - making it anti-boost, hence CrazyDave's Anti-Boost Mod. The only this is you would want to add a simple on/off switch on the controller since it would be continuously putting out a signal. Not too difficult stuff though, just basic soldering.

As far as off-road bits go, I like the new Buggies, and I really like the ZZ 3rd gen I made that looks like this:


It's just a ZipZap third gen that has had lego tires and rims CA glued on to it. That's pretty much it. I detailed the body and added lights, and a functional bumper, but most of that stuff is cosmetic. It only took me 5 minutes to do the actual off road conversion. Because of the power of the 3rd gens and the steering servo as opposed to coils, it pops wheelies and turns on a dime. Also, since it's RF and not IR I can run it in pure, raw, unadulterated sunlight with no interference.

Just my little plug since I'm still stoked off of the result.

[PimpFloyd]

After about 10 runs or so with the Hornet - I kinda like this little guy. Definitely worth modding! As far the IR TX goes, it actually works pretty well indoors.

Thanks for the heads-up on your ZZMT project S&M! I wondered how these conversions could steer those big shoes in the front but now it makes sense; using the ZZ's with the servo motor.

I'll assume yours is using a stock ZZ motor and gearing unless you say otherwise. I have a new generation ZZ Camaro that I'm not really "feeling" so I think I know what I want to do with that now - thanks! I need to find a VW body for it because I want to do a Baja project. I'll have to search the bay for 1/64th scale bug or Baja body.

Thanks for the heads-up on the Anti-Boost mod too - pretty clever idea, I just wonder if it will somehow interfere with the charging function as you need to use the turbo button to start the charging routine on this TX. I'll figure something out there.

I may need another one of these no more Hornets left though

PF

[sidewinder]

I'd like to find one of the Grasshoppers but they never stocked them around me, I may have to break down and order off of the net.

Where do you get those Legos wheels and tires? Do you have to buy a whole project set or do they sell them separately? I've looked on ebay but all I find there are huge sets.

[Smoke&Mirrors]

I checked my lego stash and found them. I pulled them off of an old little fire truck that came with a giant lego train set I bought. This way they were all the same age (new condtion) and super soft. If you look at Walmart, you could probably find a model sooner or later that has a set of 4 wheels for under $10 which is what you'd pay with shipping damn near.

Also, I brought my Hornet out again today after a week or so on the shelf. It really is a fun little micro. Those Q-steer motors offer good torque. It's just the right scale speed and the full suspension helps alot. They show the bumper on the packaging and say it's designed to bump the car up and over - it really does help. I can climb big ledges and jump off of bigger ones thanks to that little thing. The ZipZap can't, it has a really low front end.

[PimpFloyd]

I was at a Meijers department store at lunch today and they had little lego individual vehicle kits with the wheels for around 5.99...I should of picked some up!

My next stop in Detroit has a Meijers nearby...I think.

[sidewinder]

Good grief, people still buy stuff in Detroit? Last time I went through downtown looked like Beirut after their civil war. Good luck and if things get bad you can swim to Windsor.

[PimpFloyd]

Is anyone getting tired of this thread yet

On a whim, I went to the Target next door tonight and bought the white Boomarang(sp?)...I guess I just liked it.

There must be a huge variance in production quality on these. The boomarang has wider front tires than the Hornet so I wasn't expecting much; I thought it would be a good parts back-up for the Hornet.

Well - this thing rocks the free world! It was fast out of the box, faster and more powerful than the Hornet and it turned better too...WTF!?

The other unusal thing was that it seemed to run forever on a single charge. Maybe the weak link in some of these are the batteries - something to think about if you have one that seems like a dog.

Finally, as luck would have it, I scored a Matchbox Baja bug...I gotta thing for Baja bugs. I was looking for something like this to vac-form a body for one of these Titans or maybe a future bit mod...so, I'm mildly stoked! The match box is pretty narrow though...we'll see.

PF

[sidewinder]

Naw, not tired of it at all. That is one thing that never seems to change, you can buy two identical bits on the same day from the same store and one will be great while the other one sucks. It does sound like you might have a battery problem in the first one though, if the run time is that much different.

[Smoke&Mirrors]

As long as it stays on the topic and doesn't grow into some unrelated tangent, I don't really get tired of threads. Hell, I've still got stuff to contribute, like this:




Sidewinder, I was at my local Walmart and was browsing through the toys (duh) and looked into this for you. It appears to have a set of 4 tires for 5.44. That's a tough price to beat on ebay or online with shipping.

[sidewinder]

Cool thanks! I'll have to hit Walmart as soon as I'm off of house arrest...well, not arrest, the doctor told me to stay indoors and away from people until I'm done with the antibiotics for a stomach flu, which is Tuesday. I normally wouldn't listen to him but this morning what seemed like a mild stomach upset nearly made me go to the emergency room. You really don't want this virus...I've had other viruses that took a while to heal, but this one is especially miserable. Speaking of miserable, tomorrow is the opening night at our local track and not only am I car-less again this year but now I wont even be able to go to the first night. Not that it would be great anyway, it will still be cold and it takes a while to get used to sitting on wooden bleachers again...but with as wet as it's been at least the dust would be under control. I might go for a while and stay as far away from people as I can, I'd hate to make anyone sick, but damn it, it's opening night.























Opps, was that rambling off topic. sorry.


Seriously though, thanks for the heads up on the Legos.

[crazydave]

Is anyone getting tired of this thread yet

On a whim, I went to the Target next door tonight and bought the white Boomarang(sp?)...I guess I just liked it.

There must be a huge variance in production quality on these. The boomarang has wider front tires than the Hornet so I wasn't expecting much; I thought it would be a good parts back-up for the Hornet.

Well - this thing rocks the free world! It was fast out of the box, faster and more powerful than the Hornet and it turned better too...WTF!?

That's what I'm saying WTF? I got two defective Boomerangs. When you said, "There must be a huge variance in production quality on these." I totally expecting you to say how much worse the Boomerang is... That's not fair.

[PimpFloyd]

Sorry Dave, didn't mean to bum you out. Both don't steer nearly as snappy as a zipzap or decent clone, they're just driveable enough out of the box to be fun on a relatively smooth service.

Based on your experience, I guess I didn't expect much of anything out of the boomerang.

These things have some sort of sleep mode in them, I haven't read the instructions completely but it "kicked-in" at one point on my Hornet and for a few moments, I thought it went south on me. I turned it off and waited a few moments and turned it on again and it came back to life...just FYI

PF

[sidewinder]

That's just weird.

[crazydave]

Sorry Dave, didn't mean to bum you out. Both don't steer nearly as snappy as a zipzap or decent clone, they're just driveable enough out of the box to be fun on a relatively smooth service.

Based on your experience, I guess I didn't expect much of anything out of the boomerang.

These things have some sort of sleep mode in them, I haven't read the instructions completely but it "kicked-in" at one point on my Hornet and for a few moments, I thought it went south on me. I turned it off and waited a few moments and turned it on again and it came back to life...just FYI

PF

Well that settles it, even my Hornet is weak, because the steering is not as snappy as a Zip Zap for sure.

Yeah, I figured out that sleep mode business is probably the reason I was having problems with the Boomerang that night. I felt like a dork when I realized.