Goodwill... The home of lost and abused bits!

seeberg · Post by **seeberg** » Sun Feb 13, 2005 2:11 am

Check this: Me and my bro's have been scanning the Goodwill stores in Salem for rare goods(old records and electronic parts, and other vintage stuff-I look for audio equipment and find some great stuff from time to time). There are about three or four in Salem Oregon, and recently they stumbled onto a fucking shitload of shit!

First, I found 2 Panther controllers for salvage/replacement and a busted bit clone that takes watch batteries and is smaller than 1:64 scale. The body had a functional hood, but it sucked ass-it looked like a bastard son of a Honda Element. I might be able to use the gears and motor though

Second, my brothers fround a complete fully working ZipZaps Civic, an Atomic Z-Car Mercedes SL500, a controller-less 27mhz chassis(with all the fixin's for use) a Honda Accord body, and a busted bit chassis with a motor and gears for salvage. I hooked my bro that found the ZZ up with a 2.8 orange motor, 9.86:1 gears- he already had 8.25:1, two sets of rims, a set of slick and treads, and Mustang Boss 302 and Plymouth Cuda bodies. Basically the whole Muscle car upgrade kit, but I kept the 12:1 gears and the 3.4 NX motor, it's sweet. Could use some help adjusting the ZZSE bodies to fit a ZZ standard chassis, if anyone can give some advice.

I'd say to anyone out there to consider Goodwill, or any other used shit store like Value Village or St. Vincent dePaul to look. You never know what you might find. The shit we found might cost about 5$ tops. Very sweet!
Drop a line and let's get this out if it hasn't yet been publicized!

Shameless attempt to start yet another thread,
Abe

sg219 · Post by **sg219** » Sun Feb 13, 2005 3:34 am

The "Thrift Store" is where I've been finding alot of stuff.

I usually look for different bodies from old RC's and toys that'll fit on something else I may have.

I've also have gotten lucky with a couple of bits in the hotwheels and matchbox bin.

Always check the old cell phone bin there, just incase some good nimh's or Ion's pop up.

I love the Thrift Store for cheap parts and tools. Found a multi-drawer (21) storage thingy for micro parts.$2 bucks.

seeberg · Post by **seeberg** » Sun Feb 13, 2005 4:49 am

(damn straight. Nobody talks shit about us thrifty niddle-to-lowr-middle class types!)

killer. I have a 7-bin cabinet for my bit's, but I'll have to get a bigger one when this one fills up. At least it was free- it would've been thrown out otherwise.

Can you use those lithium ion batteries in a Bit or ZZ? I want Lithium Ion! a single cell with a variable voltage charger-so you can still run regular bits- and i'd have a dream machine. I'd still need a custom job done on the rest of the car to finish what I started. Ohhh.... shit, now that I've imagined that, that is the shiznite...

I'm :owned:

by the need to collect and mess with my bits,
Abe

crazydave · Post by **crazydave** » Sun Feb 13, 2005 7:24 am

Well, gee, I guess I hadn't considered that micros have been around long enough that we'd find them second hand in the thrift stores.

The Goodwill by me blows for toys, I'm gonna have to check the Salvation Army.

seeberg · Post by **seeberg** » Sun Feb 13, 2005 7:51 am

I didn't think about Salvation Army... hmm. Check it out, then. You might be pretty surprised at what you find, if you find anything. The stores here get shit in all the time. I guess the average kid with a bit is pretty fickle, but that gives freaks like us the advantage: their trash is our treasure. And didn't the first generation of bits come out in Japan in 2000 or 2001 or something?

Oh, I dream of the day I see a Ferarri Testarossa body in a thrift store...

,
Abe

crazydave · Post by **crazydave** » Sun Feb 13, 2005 7:56 am

If you think about it, bits are way too easy to take apart. Little kids will wreck 'em real fast. My boss has bought his kid a couple and they never last more than a week. He gave me one and all that was wrong was the heatsink needed pushed down.

seeberg · Post by **seeberg** » Mon Feb 14, 2005 1:29 am

Yeah, they don't seem to be made to endure well in kids' hands- Good in mine though. Even if a bit is "broken", I always find something worth salvaging. Panther bits are like that, great from the box but way rough around the edges. My last shipment of LXX's bits had a short in my 35mhz 2-speed control(fixable), so they would place higher on my lemon list. I use 2-speed bits almost exclusively, so go figure. Tomy/microsizers bits probably have an excellent track record for durability in comparison. I'll be getting some of those soon. My headphone gear is higher on my get list though, so the bits wait.

,
Abe

viperdout · Post by **viperdout** » Mon Feb 28, 2005 5:44 pm

seeberg wrote:(damn straight. Nobody talks shit about us thrifty niddle-to-lowr-middle class types!)

killer. I have a 7-bin cabinet for my bit's, but I'll have to get a bigger one when this one fills up. At least it was free- it would've been thrown out otherwise.

Can you use those lithium ion batteries in a Bit or ZZ? I want Lithium Ion! a single cell with a variable voltage charger-so you can still run regular bits- and i'd have a dream machine. I'd still need a custom job done on the rest of the car to finish what I started. Ohhh.... shit, now that I've imagined that, that is the shiznite...

I'm by the need to collect and mess with my bits,
Abe

I use a li-po in my fetted ZZMT, and it pulls wheelies from a dead stop with the orange/orange combo. It's a small battery and can put out a lot of current (considering it fits in an MT with a little trimming and can put the board and PCB cover on to look stock and can put out an amp of current).

seeberg · Post by **seeberg** » Tue Mar 01, 2005 2:54 am

What's li-po, is that lithium polymer or something? And how much does it cost, and what does it take to charge one with wall current?

viperdout · Post by **viperdout** » Tue Mar 01, 2005 10:40 am

seeberg wrote:What's li-po, is that lithium polymer or something? And how much does it cost, and what does it take to charge one with wall current?

Mine was 4.25 from www.b-p-p.com . You'll need to buy plugs, and I'd suggest the controller mod I did so you can keep your MT a sleeper (up until you pull a wheelie from a dead stop). They also have a 1-3 cell charger there for 30 bucks (you need the correct voltage to charge a li-po, and it should have ma settings too). Anyway, the cheapest one there is 30 bucks, but if you want to consolodate your chargers and charge a regular ni-mh or ni-cad bit on the same charger, buy one of these for 40 bucks: http://www.allerc.com/product_info.php? ... ts_id=1321

Here's the link to just the lith charger: http://www.b-p-p.com/BatteryChargers.htm#C

You want the Apache 1215, and if you go with the kokam from there, charge it on either the 100 or 250ma setting (the 100's better for the battery, but the 250ma setting is faster). Also, if you have liths on your xmod, that charger can charge them (set it to the 2 cell 700 ma settings).

seeberg · Post by **seeberg** » Wed Mar 02, 2005 12:24 am

Thanks for the suggestion, although its a bit pricey. ph2t suggested getting a KANS type 1/3 AAA 7.2v NiMH battery cluster and extracting the single cells from it, and he said they have great punch for what I need-I'm no wheelie popper, at least not yet. What I've been looking for is a nice endurance cell with a high play to charge ratio. The Perfection 200mah, for example, plays for 15 minutes and charges for 5, on my charger which runs 800ma @ 3vdc. That's 3:1, which isn't quite an endurance cell by my standards. I heard from crazydave that the stock 50mah Tomy NiCd has a 6.5:1 ratio(play for 20, charge for 3), which is fucking awesome.

viperdout · Post by **viperdout** » Wed Mar 02, 2005 2:38 pm

seeberg wrote:Thanks for the suggestion, although its a bit pricey. ph2t suggested getting a KANS type 1/3 AAA 7.2v NiMH battery cluster and extracting the single cells from it, and he said they have great punch for what I need-I'm no wheelie popper, at least not yet. What I've been looking for is a nice endurance cell with a high play to charge ratio. The Perfection 200mah, for example, plays for 15 minutes and charges for 5, on my charger which runs 800ma @ 3vdc. That's 3:1, which isn't quite an endurance cell by my standards. I heard from crazydave that the stock 50mah Tomy NiCd has a 6.5:1 ratio(play for 20, charge for 3), which is fucking awesome.

My stock MT did about 15 minutes on a single charge, but leaving a ni-mh without a charge I discovered was bad, which lead to the li-po. IMO, go with what you like best.

seeberg · Post by **seeberg** » Thu Mar 03, 2005 1:25 am

will do. I just have to wait until I get some bank.