Looking forward to seeing pictures. :)

As for removing wheel slop... can that actually hamper performance? :lol:

Okay, so now I get to commit the crime of a triple post, though perhaps it is not that big a deal. I figured that some of you might be interested to see what I have so far on the redesign of the chassis so I present my half Carbon Fiber, half Aluminum chassis!

What you see there is the bottom of what will be the entire chassis, the idea being that the top will connect at a few points similarly to how the carbon fiber chassis on atomic mods go together. The theory behind my work so far is an attempt to make the car as easy to work on as possible.

basically I plan to have a double wishbone suspension in both the front and the rear, so in order to make that happen, I purchased the all wheel drive upgrade for the evolutions. I would have prefered the upgrade that was designed for the Gen 1's but i figure that I can find a way to make the Evolution's all wheel drive kit work out at some point. Actually it just occurred to me that I may end up with a slightly wider wheel base in the rear than that of the stock Gen 1. That should be an interesting thing to have.

On an altogether different note, I want admit to the purchase of an Xmods Evolution starter kit. I couldn't resist it after I saw that it was selling for half price! ($25.00!!!) So in the mean time, while I am waiting for my chassis to come together and be completed, I have put the all wheel drive kit on my evolution, and have been just haveing some fun with it.

No Promises, but I did work out a way to completely eliminate wheel slop for almost no work or cost. I can post a tutorial on it later if there is a desire to have it put up there. Also of note is the fact that the method "should" hamper performance minimally, assuming you take the time to test it properly and adjust your car as you need to.

well, I think that i am gonna go back to work on my car now, so have a great day guys!!!

~Catachan

So, just a little bit of a bump here, but you'll have to forgive me. ;)

I found something interesting today. JB weld doesn't hold very well to smooth aluminum and smooth brass. Really in retrospect it makes sense that I should need to roughen up the surfaces some, but you live and you learn right?

I am beginning to think that my current designs (which are pretty skinny with the chassis itself not expanding in the middle around the batteries) may be flawed in that it relies on the questionable stiffness of Brass L-beams to hold it together. I think I am going to rework it so that it is made of more tubes than it currently is.

Of course I am leaving home again in a few days to head off to a camp on lake Michigan, but we shall see what I can get done before then!

;)

~Catachan

So it occured to me that I could move the electronics forward on my Chassis. This would do me the favor of placing more weight on the front wheels, and as a result, increasing traction in the front of the car, however, it would move weight off of the rear wheels, leaving me with a rear end to the car that was much looser than the current one.

I guess I will just have to decide on how I want to handle that bit at some point, but for now, I am going to stick with the plans I have recently drawn up.

;)

~Catachan

the NSX is one fo the less-roomed bodyshell...

Yep, actually, I figured that a hobby shop might be able to hook me up with a gas engine if one this small existed. it occurs to me now however that there may be a fact that could hamper using a motor much larger than the standard.

My body for the car is the Acura NSX. I really don't know how much space is under most of the bodies, but it seems like I saw somewhere on here that a forumite referenced the lack of cockpit volume in his NSX as a problem with his project. Honestly, I don't know my self, but I figure that I will get it all figured out any way.

Actually, in researching engines, I have seen lots of interesting designs. However what struck me as the coolest was a heat engine that GAINED efficiency as the size decreased. Most of my research has shown that this engine is in fact the closest in efficiency to the Carnot heat engine. Of course, it appears to work best at a static RPM. Many of you may know it by name as the Stirling Heat Engine.

Of course other engine ideas have piqued my interests, at least one of which I designed myself. Though I do believe I would need to look at the apparent efficiencies of those engines before I actually tried to use them.

So, does any one know what sort of size I would be looking for in an engine if I was hell bent on putting one in my car?

Insanely yours,

;)

~Catachan

99.9% of Nitro cars, trucks, and buggies use a clutch like you described. They can be had really small, there's 0.05cubic inch motors with those clutches. Visit a hobby shop, they can hook you up..

Interesting, it seems like such a simple thing to add to a weed whacker. . . I am supprised. Honestly, Though, I don't know how "High End" the weed Whacker I use is, since it is probably like 20 years old now. It doesn't get all that much use, but hey, it works and that is all that really matters when it comes down to it.

So yeah, Hooke's law, Sorry I couldn't help myself as far as refrencing it. My research last summer involved it since I dealt with the Yield Stress and Ultimate Tensile Stress of Steels. . . But I won't bore you with details.

Any way, on the subject of an engine, I have been thinking of a few types that I could use. There is the stirling Engine, and all sorts of rotaries. Along with the standard types of reciprocal engines. I sort of wonder if I would be better off inventing my own engine. . .

Hmm, well in honesty, I realized that perhaps I was approaching these ideas the wrong way. I spent some time looking around, and noticed especially at AtomicMods that they had a chassis for sale. Amazing how minimal that chassis is, isn't it? But really I saw that I have been trying to do this so simply. I think what I want to do is entirely rethink my designs.

I do like the way that one turned out, but I still feel like if I want a better design, I have to start from scratch. So, consider that sheet of paper crushed and stuffed into the "Scrapped" Drawer (Not the same as the trash bin mind you, I may come back to it! ;) )

;)

~Catachan

I know perfectly well about centifrugal clutches, Ive burned through many over the years on my go cart :lol: My go carts clutch has weights that are held to each other by a spring that wraps through them. When the motor hits a certain RPM, centrifugal force causes them to expand out, and engage the clutch's bell/shell which has the drive chain on.

But of the ones I use, non of them have that. The head just spins all the time with the motor. Total pain to start them sometimes if the line doesnt flip out, causing the head to be unbalanced. So maybe its a feature for the 'high end' weed wackers, I just use the $70 ones because in the end... all you do is cut a little bit of grass with them, haha...

Texan, are you sure that your weed eaters don't use centrifugal clutches?

They work like this: A spring holds the disk attached to the motor (I assume that it would be something along the lines of an iris sort of thing, like you see on those iris doors, only that it expands it's OD rather than closing the ID).

Hookes law would allow us to calculate the rpm's needed to over come the spring's restoring force and increase the size of the clutch disk so that it engages with the drive shaft of the weed whacker's head.

So, when you gun the WW's engine and the head starts spinning, it is working like this and engaging the clutch. As a result, there apears to the user to be no obvious clutch that they have to engage by hand.

;)

~Catachan

Weed eaters dont really use those clutches, atleast my 2 dont.. Either way where can you find an engine this small? That would be pretty sweet.

They do melt down, don't they. . . that is a bummer, though the transmission would not be that hard I don't think.

I figure the way to do it would be with a centrifugal clutch like you see on a Weed Eater. Of course it would have to be on a smaller scale, but I doubt that that would be all that difficult to do.

Of course, there are a number of other methods available, such as a turbine, and a tiny steam engine. *(Don't really bother asking unless you really want a long and overly detailed description of a design I would probably be imitating. . . Honestly, I don't want to have to do that description.)

Of course there is Throttle control, but, like the transmission, I feel confident that that would not be all that difficult. Here's a hint, You already have a variable voltage set of wires!

;)

~Catachan

Damn,good luck if you try,but you should ask some engineer about the model teory and the proportion in power related to dimensions....
and off course you will have to fix many issue:

First of all:dimension,weight and heat dissipation(xmods body can barely contain a 6th cell and a nelly...and most of all melt down even with an hand saw...)
the you'll have to redesign the whole trasmission....

Nope, gas engines for this scale are too small to deliver the necessary power.

Go brushless. Mamba. ;)

Nifty Site man! I will be browsing it for a while sometime soon. . .

Has any one managed to put a gasoline engine in an Xmod yet? I Was wondering because it occurred to me that perhaps I could manage to do just that if I built my chassis right.

Actually, on that very subject, would there even be an advantage to running an Xmod from a gas engine?

Thanks Guys!

;)

~Catachan

If you want some good ideas check this.

There's a perfect suspension,steering system,and most aff all the camber can be adjusted without removing wheels..

The page is translated from Italian by google,so don't scream in front of any grammatical mistake...have a nice reading!

http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http://www.m24-pro.com&langpair=it|en&hl=it&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&prev=/language_tools

I'm sure someone as colorful as you would know much about the later end of the sentence...

Looks good.. Reminds me of F-1 Suspensions and Super Car Suspension... Want to see this..

Neos are nothing special, just replace the standard motor magnets with them and they improve torque.

Good luck with those hinges on the chassis, anything involving scratch-made hinges is a pain up the butt.

Double Post! Oh well! LOL Sorry, I know some people hate these. . .

Any way, one quick question: What do Neodium Magnets do to your motor, How do you set them up to do it, and If I wanted to use them on a Gen 1, Do I need to worry about their positioning?

Thanks!

;)

~Catachan

So, a period of time later, I have this to present to you, both the believers and the skeptics.

It is a scale 3D model done entirely in Blender, with each centimeter corresponding to a Blender Unit.

As I was making that work of art, I carefully measured many of the dimensions of each piece. What follows is a list of those measured dimensions.

Dimensions of parts in the car.
**For the purposes of this model, Blender Units directly translate to Centimeters.
**All dimensions are given in Centimeters.

MAJOR DIMENSIONS OF CHASSIS
8.8 Length of the wheel base
6.745 Width of the wheel base
3.5 Width of the rear end (minus the wishbones)
4.0 Width of the actual rear end (Not from the outer ends of the main axle's bearings)

WHEEL DIMENSIONS
2.4 Diameter of the wheels with tires on them
0.96 Depth of the wheels with tires
1.78 Inside Diameter of the Wheels
0.545 Inside Depth of the wheels

BEARING DIMENSIONS
0.6 Outside Diameter of Bearings
0.4 Inside Diameter of Bearings
0.2 Depth of Bearings

MINOR AXLE DIMENSIONS
0.3 Diameter of Axles
1.95 Length from ball joint to tip of axle

MAIN AXLE DIMENSIONS
2.40 Inside Width of Main Axel Bearings
0.275 Width of Fixed Axel Bearings
3.52 Length of axle from one ball joint to the other

MAIN AXEL SUBSECTION: LONG BEAM
0.3 Diameter of main beam
0.6 Diameter of the Cup (Ball Joint)
0.4 Outside Depth of Cup
0.95 Length of the black Plastic section
2.53 Total Length of the main beam

MAIN AXEL SUBSECTION: SHORT BEAM
0.3 Diameter of smaller section
0.6 Diameter of cup
0.4 Outside depth of cup
0.95 Length of section

DIFFERENTIAL DIMENSIONS
1.65 Diameter of Differential
0.875 Depth of Differential (includes Bevel Gear)
0.54 Depth of Differential (Without Bevel Gear)

DRIVE TRAIN BEVEL GEAR
1.365 Diameter of the outer ring of the Bevel Gear
0.860 Large Diameter of the bevel section
0.965 Depth of entire Bevel Gear
0.150 Diameter of the tip pin
0.800 Depth of Bevel Gear (Without tip pin)

;)

~Catachan

PS: Yes, that is a rocker arm suspension.

Breaking lugs, welcome to Xmods.

Better get some aluminum ones.

So I rebuilt my car back to the stock state last night so that while I was working on my own chassis i would be able to play with it some. Ironically, after I charged up the batteries last night, I took it out to play just now, and was bringing it around to a stop after stretching it's legs in a straight across the cul-de-sac. Sadly, the pavement is not perfectly flush with the curb, and despite my best attempts at braking, the car dropped about an inch to the sloped concrete curb. The lug nuts on the right-front and left-rear wheels cracked straight in half. I plan to take some pictures for your amusement, but I believe I may have an other toy with the same size nuts, assuming I do, I will be putting them on to replace the old nuts that broke. ;)

http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=5z78snp

There it is! The two washers are my "anti-wheel-Slop" parts. Note that one of the lug nuts disappeared, and the one in the pic has a very large crack running from the center to the rim. Enjoy!

Also, at the moment, I am working on a 3D model of what I think that this chassis might look like, hopefully, when it is done I will be able to use that model to build it!

;)

~Catachan

Just use a kingpin suspension (a la Mini-Z MA010), simple and effective. Granted, I doubt your car will be a regular runner at the track, so feel free to go all out c-hub front and double wishbone rear... :lol:

Just a Friendly warning: These images seem to be HUGE, so follow the links only if you think your internet pipe can handle it, okay? Thanks!

http://i13.tinypic.com/5z1e8t1.jpg

Above we have the first picture of the Differential Assembly being made. This was only the first one, Later I would add more to it, and At the moment, I am thinking of throwing that idea out all together.

http://i18.tinypic.com/5y7hrur.jpg

This Next image is another of the Differential while I was still designing it. At this point, it really is not worth that much as far as completion goes. I Admit that I do like how it looks, I just am getting sort of tired of bending the wires with my fingers and two Needle Nose Pliers. . .

http://i16.tinypic.com/4vov03q.jpg

This Image is of the bottom of the Rear Chassis assembly. The other part shown in the two previous pictures is attached to the larger piece by a thin wire wrapped around the two pieces.

http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=68jkzet

Here we have a different angle on the same part as in the last image.

At the moment, I decided that I wanted to have some fun with my Xmod, so I removed the stock parts from this assembly and reassembled the stock chassis, However, this does not mean that I am not going to continue on this. Actually, I realized a short time ago, that i might be better off cutting some of these parts from a sheet of plastic, so I will be looking into finding such an item so that I can cut the suspension from it.

Also, as for the Electronics, I currently have completely stock electronics in my car. I have considered the Tight Turns Mod, and some other mods, like the multiple FET's but I haven't done anything to them yet.

With the home-brew chassis, I will be using the origional electronics from my car, simply because one of my goals is to do this with as little expenditure in the capital department as possible.

For the Suspension Springs, I am tempted to build my own actually, using springs from various mechanical pens that I have collected over the years. But for now, the plan is to use the stock shocks and dampeners.

Thank you for your comments guys!

;)

~Catachan

PS: If any one would like to debate the merits of the different forms of suspensions please feel free to suggest one. Honestly, I am not exactly sure what sort of suspension I plan to be using on this vehicle chassis as of yet.

Also, for those of you who may be slightly more sharp eyed, yes, that is a "Fabled" pen drive shaft. Though technically, it is not made from an ink pen, and it only serves to hold the bevel gear in place since it is too short for use as a full drive shaft. It was made from a mechanical pencil's lead barrel. I cut off one of the little grip things that grip the lead when you advance it out to use it, and it fits in the gear nicely. ;)

this seems fun... i have been wanting to do this for a while. i been thinkin of makin a gen one truck. that would b freakin fun. so i might build along with u

Sounds like a good idea, like the Haynes manuals you get for cars...

Ive got lots of pics of the ball diff if you want them, I showed someone how to rebuild it long ago

Sounds cool. What materials? Aluminum? Carbon fiber? Graphite? Are you using GPM/alloy parts, or are you making your own? What electronics are you using?

P.S.
Welcome to the forum!

THis looks interesting, keeps us posted. :D

Figured it belonged here. :wink: