"Flipper" to right the car back to the wheels, anyone done it?

[Firemandan]

That looks like it works good! I can't wait to see the final version.

[iamsuperbleeder]

I can't believe you're actually putting this together; that thing is awesome! I wish I had a 3ch rx/tx now, lol

[krallopian]

Thanks for the comments guys, I'm really driven by doing things to then post and say, "see how you can do this!" and getting the response of course haha. Glad you like it so far! I bought the 3ch system originally to control LEDs but then realized I could just put a switch in and said "blah no need for this thing what a waste... at least now I have no antenna to worry about!" Because I went from a 27mhz to a 2.4ghz I at least didn't have an antenna to feed through the body and an antenna to worry about on the transmitter.

This Spektrum DX3E (probably the others from them as well) has a nice button on the side where you thumb is, you can set it to step the servo, do 3 position (left, center, right) or full. What I DON'T understand is that the servo can do 180° turn, but the remote only makes it do 100° which is fine and what I WANT, I just don't know how or why it does that. Maybe it's a config thing somewhere in the esc. Ah well. The remote is set to full lock.

Here's a video of the thing flipping over twice in slow motion, the shutter speed is HORRIBLE - thank you Galaxy S2 phone - but it gets the idea across, shows that the only thing that touches the ground is the arm and the wheels, no spoiler rubbing, no top shell rubbing, it's worked out great!



If you watch carefully you can see the servo torque against the chassis, but there are rubber washers there to protect itself against damage to itself and the chassis/screws. The brace I made also helps disperse the force further back in the chassis.

[drex1971]

Problem solved



Hehe... your build is looking great... after you have taught it to roll over successfully then teach it to fetch a beer

[SimbaDC650]

How many trail runs did it take to actually get to stand back up? Once was enough or trial and error? Keep up the amazing work watching this thread!

[krallopian]

The first time I tried, I had only a plexiglass arm. Second time I tried I didn't give it gas. Third time I tried, I gave it gas and it worked as in this video. I recorded the whole thing incase something just.... blew up or caught fire at least I'd have it on video.

Drew that seems it would solve one problem and create 50 others hahah. Also that car probably goes 150mph!

I'm working on a "quick disconnect" today, hopefully I can get something developed that's SOLID and lasts.

[krallopian]

*#@&%^!@*%&^!@*$&^@*!$&^!*@&$^!*&@^$

Spent all day on this car and now I'm blowing out shocks. First my rear right, then just now my rear left. GREAT!

I've yet to come up with a quick disconnect, so it's SUCH a pain to turn it on, put the shell on, screw the arm on, test it and find a shock spring come flying out... disconnect the arm, take the shell off, unplug it, remove the esc, remove the motor, remove the shock, rebuild... put the shock back on, put the motor on, put the esc on, turn it on, put the shell on, put the arm back on... BREAK!!!!! EUGH.

I need a break, so........ no update today, lots and lots of thoughts lots of ideas just no food in me so maybe that's the problem? I haven't eaten so my MERV is blowing shocks.. makes sense.

[krallopian]

So I've fixed the shocks, and ordered some purple stripe ones from the summit.

Under acceleration and stopping I notice it pulls to one side. When I balance the car it's pretty much perfect balance between front and rear, left and right however that changes now under braking/acceleration BECAUSE when I brake hard, there's more weight on the front left because of the servo, and acceleration more weight on the back right because of the large ESC.

SO, a few preload adjustments and it's taken care of.

I have yet to find an arm I want to use. I bought a set of 100 dremel bits and found that the aluminum I was milling was too weak. I made an arm, and bent it by hand, what a shame! I've broken two horns already and the only metal one that my LHS has is an integy and it doesn't fit right because it's been painted so you have to smooosh it on which basically creates new teeth in the middle out of paint/crushed aluminum.

SO there's an update.

I just ran the car outside for the first time in two weeks! Between new shocks, and all the other upgrades I haven't even brought it outside yet, it needed a cleaning off in the ice/snow/water of all the dust crap and dog hair it picked up driving around my house. Looks like new again, it's always nice when these things clean up! =D

[jimbo74]

run a tbone skidplate and bumper set, i bet it would minimize a lot of that chassis torqueing.....

[krallopian]

The ONLY reason I'm not is that I simply don't like the look of it. I'm also always taking the thing apart and to have all of that there as well is only going to drive me nuts, let alone all the dirt and debris that will get stuck between it and the chassis!

[jimbo74]

it is no harder to remove the tbone than it is to take off the stock skidplates... and i run in all conditions and don't get dirt and debris stuck between the chassis and the tbone skidplate

[krallopian]

Oh, well thanks then, I didn't know that... all the pics I've seen there seems to be upwards of an inch gap at places, and there's all this talk of spacers that are hard to position etc.. I've just come to the conclusion it's a major pain in the butt and on top of all of that it adds weight! I'll look in to one

[hskb]

Wow, didn't pay much attention to this thread until now.
Any new progress on this.
Very fun and entertaining to read.
Great work

[krallopian]

Not as of yet, the arm I want to use (in the design pic) is out of stock till the end of the month. Once I get that in I'll keep this thread updated! .. and thanks! =)

[krallopian]

FINALLY got the arm in today! (with my 100k diff fluid)



Here's a rough placement using the hardware from the Traxxas wheelie bar to mount it! How lucky am I that the holes fit the wheelie bar wheel screws perfectly!







Now to fab up some sort of solid connection to the servo horn! I wasn't excited about the blue colour but now that it's in my hands it's a really really nice blue I'm not interested in changing it's colour anymore!

[krallopian]

SO I've made up a brace for it and it works great and weighs very little.

I took one of the screws from the wheelie bar wheel, and another shorter screw to use as a locking screw - basically this screws in to the bottom of the chassis brace, and I tighten it against the wheelie screw so that it cannot rotate:



So you get the idea, here it is installed:



Now how do I mount the servo horn to the brace:



I took a stainless steel bracket and cut it up and drilled it out, I used two screws that are used to screw in the RX box and screw them through the steel and in to the horn: - still have to sand'm down to make them look all purdy



Here she is! Only thing left is to trim down the screw that holds in the wheelie wheel at the other end of it, and we're good to go!

[iamsuperbleeder]

very clean!

[erx4x4]

super sick dude

[korn0307]

That is awesome! good thing you have an amazing motor to handle all that extra weight!!

[drex1971]

Bout time... now get to work on one for your Summit !!!!

[dwmoss]

Great work right here!!!

I have found that....

A: the bug body seems to land upside down less then the stock body
B: find a friend with another merv or a stampede (they can flip you over as well)

dm

[krallopian]

Hah thanks a lot guys! I haven't tried it out yet - not sure why not, but I will shortly - it had better work!!

[RcSummitVXL]

Hello krallopian,

How is the project coming along?

[krallopian]

Heya RcSummitVXL! I replied to your thread in the Summit forum! =)

This project worked for what I needed but I ended up getting a Summit before really taking advantage of this system so it was kind of just.... "Oh look it works! ANYWAY Where are you Summit!?" haha

*cheers

[robl45]

This looks like a lot of work and complexity. Heres what I did, Find a girl, wait approximately 9 months, wait another 3-4 years and no monkeying around with all this complex stuff

[krallopian]

Hahahahaa rob that's hilarious!

[the finisher]

This is very cool! ! I'd like to see a vid of it flipping your car over.

[krallopian]

Thanks man!

Look up at post #43

[the finisher]

Thanks man!

Look up at post #43

Didn't see that the firsr time I looked at this thread. Thats awesome. Very creative!

[photon_trap]

When I first saw this posted I didn't really take it to seriously but I gotta say you guys are doing a good job with this!
Pretty cool methinks

[rctwin]

This is a good design. Im not sure it would work for my kids cars though. Anyone see any other ways of self righting rc cars?

[barakhav]

Hahaha looks like a cool project!! but was I the only one thinking jousting MERVs ?? lol

[rctwin]

searching youtube theres only one other self-righting idea on there. how about this one?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRTTrb1n6Uw&sns=tw

[revoman78]

This is pretty cool. Always have wanted to do something like it.