Orca 4000 20C lipo review Part 2

After 4 runs on the Orca 4000mAh 20C lipo, I feel its crap! The punch is really poor but it did feel that it last longer. Anyway, I want more PUNCH in the lipo. Honestly, I dont think the pack is 20C at all. Even my Yeah Racing 3200 20C gives better punch than the Orca. Should have stick to Yeah lipos all the way...

TRF416 1st run with IP 3800 lipo

Had my 416 first run this afternoon. One word - WOW!. The car has a lot of grip and steering even with a spool. I was using old set of tires but the car still sticks to the ground. Rear diff was really smooth and acceleration was great.

The IP 3800 was very punchy and may perhaps live up to its 35C claim. Only thing is that I have not added weights to the pack which causes the car's balance to be off during corners. I will be designing a lipo weight pack and check whether a friend of mine is able to machine it for me :)

Intellect IP 3800mAh 35C LiPo

Got this new Intellect IP 3800 35C lipo pack to power my TRF416. It is hard casing with 21mm height and comes with deans plugs. Will see how it performs soon.

Projecto TRF416 WE completed!!

Finaly completed my TRF416 WE. Very excited and cant wait to test it at the track.

Here are some pics of it.











The electronics: Futaba 9550, Tekin RS Pro, Hacker 11.5 BL motor, Spektrum mico rx and still got a lot of space left! :)


Got a new lipo Intellect IP 3800mAh 35C to power the 416. Going to test it later and see whether it live up to the 35C claim.

Pangkor Trip (Dec'08) with BB Boys

Had a blast in Pangkor island with my high school mates... spent 2 full days of chilling and pigging out. Worst part was I was down with a cold so missed out the booze session with the guys. Nonetheless, it was one heck of a trip and a great gathering.

Projecto TRF416 World's Edition (Part 1)

Finally laid my hands on the TRF416 WE!





Had a very busy week while building the car. Preparing the carbon fiber parts is really a looong process but the end results is worthy. Assembly tolerance is really tight and ended up some parts binding especially on the lower arms but not a biggie with some sanding work.

Rear diff with JAAD ceramic balls, ceramic thrust bearings and diff covers


Front spool


Still work in progress...

Orca Lipo 4000mAh 20C (Stick Pack) Review

My VXR 3600mAh has bloated up a little and the charge is less than 60% of the pack. I should be disposing the pack now but stubbornly using it. I am storing and charging it in the LiPoSack.

After some research and comparison, I purchased the Orca 4000mAh 20C stick pack configuration for my M03. It comes with Tamiya plugs, 12 AWG wires and some Orca stickers. It is a soft pack but I was hoping it would be a hard lexan - I was wrong! The lipo is not packed to the brim with some air gap between the cells inside and the soft casing. I really doubt this is a 4000 pack. :(

If I have time, I will cycle it and give it a full charge to see its actual capacity. Testing will be done this Sunday at the track and will compare with my current Yeah 3200mAh 20C pack.

Here are some pictures of the Orca pack

Xray T2R gone...

Finally sold my Xray T2R after posting it up for months. Out goes the old and still waiting for the new! Jeez... the wait is terrible!

M03 Setup Guide

Excellent guide for setting up a M03.

Now I feel like ripping up my M03 and rebuilding it...

TRF416 World's Edition

I want it!! Badly!!!! Supposedly available in my LHS in 2wks but I still doubt his words. Hehe~~



Marc Rheinard's winning TRF416



Source: Redrc.net (where else? :))

M03 Swift

I think I got my M03 setup nicely now. It has stopped traction rolling and I feel more confident thru the corners now.

Things that I have done to make it handle better and faster:
1) universal joints - the car is much smoother and faster thru the corners
2) ball diff - felt more traction and acceleration exiting corner
3) heat sink - thanks my Adrian bro who CNC-ed a anodized blue heat sink! Well, I dont think it helps much in heat dissipation. But, hell yeah it does looks cooler!
4) TRF shocks - good shock travel length thanks to Ben
5) Weights - tonnes of it! Car stopped traction rolling mainly due to added weights.

However, Swift still rolls a lot thru corners due to a lot of droop. Next hop up will be short springs which I tried and it works to great effect of reducing droop and roll.

Marc Rheinard World Champion!

Hacker Motor update

Geared that bugger at 5.3 FDR with temp max at 140F after 8mins run. Still not up to speed as my buddy on Speedpassion. All this was done with 0 timing on the Tekin RS Pro. I just had the Hotwire hooked up and set the timing at 100%. Will see how it goes this weekend...

Lexma 2.4G Nano Laser Mouse Review

My reliable and faithful Logitech optical mouse has decided to be unreliable and unfaithful one day giving me non-stop glitches which irritates the crap hell of me. So I have thrown it aside since then until I finally decided to forked out some dough from my RC trust fund to purchase Lexma 2.4G Nano Laser mouse. Due to the RC trust fund is a negative ROI fund, I decided not to buy Logitech since it is more expensive for the same spec I get with the Lexma.

Quick run down on the Lexma mouse. It is 2.4G wireless, laser, DPI settings from 1000 to 2000dpi and nanoguard technology which supposedly anti bacteria up to 99.9% efficiency. Maybe it is good for people who dont wash their hands after using the toilet. All marketing cock and bull to me.

The overall ergo or feel of the mouse is not too bad for its price. Connectivity and binding between the USB receiver to the mouse is straightforward. The receiver 'stores' itself by sliding onto the mouse externally. The mouse uses 2 AA batteries so it does not have any more room to fit the receiver inside as opposed to
some Logitech models.

The mouse wheel is 4-way. The wheel scroll can be wacky at times where it is not that sensitive. I do not use much of the left and right scroll but it would be nice to have them programable to be Back and Forward buttons when surfing the web.

The mouse glitches sometimes which puzzled me since it is using 2.4G band. Perhaps it is not using Futaba FASST or Spektrum DSM! Lol! I hate it when the bloody thing glitces!

I have yet to verify the battery consumption of the mouse as I have been using it for less than a month. The mouse goes into standby mode after a few minutes to save battery.

Overall, if you can live with the occasional insensitivity or glitch then this may be ok for you. If you have the extra dough get a better mouse such a Logitech. Well, I guess it sums up you pay what you get.

Hacker Brushless Motor

Ordered the Hacker Brushless motor from US. I was really excited after following the thread in RCTech. As soon as I saw the packaging, I was quite disappointed as it didnt look very presentable. The packaging was made from cheap cardboard material and just a sticker stating Hacker motor. I was having high hopes that this motor was made in US or Germany. I was dead wrong! LoL!!


The sensor wires does not have shrink tube or the wire coil similar to Novak.


The PCB board has a flash on top which is not appealing.


Well, lets see how this motor performs in the next few weeks...