Snowman (the Abominable) - born as a beast, Yeti build thread

[Chris-NL]

Originally Posted by magic_yeti

If they don't set you up i can send you my one, but will take till next weekend, if've changed to gpm alloy ones.
https://www.asiatees.com/display?Axi...Yeti&id=103331
they also came in blue

#metoo, the black ones

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[Antsiranean]

Originally Posted by magic_yeti

If they don't set you up i can send you my one, but will take till next weekend, if've changed to gpm alloy ones.
https://www.asiatees.com/display?Axi...Yeti&id=103331
they also came in blue

Originally Posted by Chris-NL

#metoo, the black ones

Thanks a lot for the offers! Very friendly indeed. I'll let you know what Hobbico has to say about the matter.

[Antsiranean]

I have now contacted Hobbico in the U.S., who refered me to the Swedish distributor, who refered me to the Danish distributor... One more referal and I'll be happy to take you up on the offer above, happily paying any postage fees. But first we'll see what the Danes have to say in the matter.

[Antsiranean]

Got the interior painted. Heads to be added soon.






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[Antsiranean]

Heads done. Not perfect, but certainly good enough when seen from a normal viewing distance.







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[Antsiranean]

As I wrote at the beginning of this build, it was to be a humble homage to the Yeti and the home range of this seldom seen beast: Nepal and the Himalayas. I had the good fortune of visiting that wonderful country together with my family earlier this year, and when I later started to look into RC again and found out that there was an RC car named Yeti, well, I was rather prejudiced towards it. And when it came to painting it, I figured it had to pay tribute to the Himalayas.

All the graphics are adaptions of photos taken during our trek this spring. I've never used liquid mask before and haven't painted a lexan body in 25 years, so I think I did OK.

So, here goes. Left side of the car shows the profile of the Annapurna massif, as seen from a hill in the vicinity of Ghandruk, a Nepalese village south of it.



The hood shows Machapuchare, a spectacular peak of 6993 meters, as seen from Poon Hill (west of the mountain).



Right side depicts the seventh highest mountain in the world, Dhaulagiri, 8167 meters above sea level, also viewed from Poon Hill (east of the mountain).



And two more pictures:





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[magic_yeti]

great pain job
did you solve your upperlink mount prob? hope so cause now it's time to drive (let the beast out)

[Antsiranean]

Originally Posted by magic_yeti

great pain job
did you solve your upperlink mount prob? hope so cause now it's time to drive (let the beast out)

I'm glad you liked the paint job, thanks! Regarding the link mounts, I got fed up with waiting for a response from Denmark and ordered aluminum mounts (STRC) from Germany, figuring that was the fastest way to get them. Thanks for the link to the German vendor, by the way! Since I wanted to show the body on the chassis, I just loosely attached the plastic mounts. It looks good, but can't be driven right now.

I hope to get it finished this week, including setting of third channel endpoints, which I understand can be a bit complicated.

And since winter is coming, I have ordered a controller from Heyok and am off to buy a bunch of LEDs and resistors today. Let there be light!

[Cheez]

Nice job, looking awesome!

[Antsiranean]

Originally Posted by Cheez

Nice job, looking awesome!

Thanks!

One sheet of polycarbonate, some cutting and some bending aided by a heat gun generated this chassis dirt protector. Not perfect, not beautiful, but purposeful. Should be good enough to keep most of the dirt sprays out.





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[Cheez]

Interesting concept, do you think heat will be an issue?

[Antsiranean]

Well, I actually didn't even think about heat. I've seen other people doing the same kind of thing, but never read about anyone having heat issues.

On to another subject, it has been a frustrating evening. I spent two hours trying to bind the rx to the rx, unscrewing the ESC and disconnecting every single wire before I found out that everything was connected as it should, but the binding instructions were faulty. Well, now radio is finally working and all the wires are tucked away again, although not as neatly as before.

Third channel endpoints are set and gear shifting seems to work all right when I roll it around on the floor - I have no pinion mounted yet.

Problem: motor is running wrong direction. I know that the differentials are assembled in the wrong direction, since I read somewhere that they had to be with the SSD rear axle. Later I realised that wasn't true, but since the front differential housing already was assembled, backwards, by then, I continued doing the same with the rear axle. I thought I could get the direction right electronically, but no! I can't! If I switch the motor leads, the motor does run in the opposite direction, but it sounds awful. A really sick noise that I do not dare to ignore. And if I reverse channel 2 on the tx, the brake switches direction as well, so that does not cut it.

Will I have to disassemble both different, or is there another solution?

[magic_yeti]

Originally Posted by Antsiranean

Well, I actually didn't even think about heat. I've seen other people doing the same kind of thing, but never read about anyone having heat issues.

On to another subject, it has been a frustrating evening. I spent two hours trying to bind the rx to the rx, unscrewing the ESC and disconnecting every single wire before I found out that everything was connected as it should, but the binding instructions were faulty. Well, now radio is finally working and all the wires are tucked away again, although not as neatly as before.

Third channel endpoints are set and gear shifting seems to work all right when I roll it around on the floor - I have no pinion mounted yet.

Problem: motor is running wrong direction. I know that the differentials are assembled in the wrong direction, since I read somewhere that they had to be with the SSD rear axle. Later I realised that wasn't true, but since the front differential housing already was assembled, backwards, by then, I continued doing the same with the rear axle. I thought I could get the direction right electronically, but no! I can't! If I switch the motor leads, the motor does run in the opposite direction, but it sounds awful. A really sick noise that I do not dare to ignore. And if I reverse channel 2 on the tx, the brake switches direction as well, so that does not cut it.

Will I have to disassemble both different, or is there another solution?

Check the ESC settings there you can change motor direction via Castle link.

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[Antsiranean]

Originally Posted by magic_yeti

Check the ESC settings there you can change motor direction via Castle link

Thanks! Exactly the kind of easy fix I was looking for.

[Antsiranean]

My build is doing progress, in the last few weeks I have mostly been working on the light setup. Lots of soldering, which I am now getting quite comfortable with.

Thanks to a very nice and cheap (30$!) controller from Heyok, I now have interior lights and headlights, rear lights, brake lights and reverse lights. 21 LEDs all in all.

Almost three weeks after I contacted Axial distributor in Denmark about the missing four link mounts, I finally got an answer, saying that they will send me a pair of Axial aluminium mounts. Nice! But too late. I have already mounted a pair from STRC. If I prefer rhetoric look of Axial I might change them, but they'll probably go in the box of spare parts.

Tonight I will change motor direction via Castle link, and then I should be ready to go!

The internal lights doesn't look very good when viewed like this, but when turned on in the dark they are just what I wanted. Pic of that to be posted later.


Four separate LED circuits, all bundled up together in the middle, for ease of connecting to the nimble Heyok device.


Lots of rear lights! Six red brake lights and four white reverse lights.


The roof light bar does obscure my carefully painted Yeti a bit, but I recon the coolness of the lights themselves makes up for it.


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[Antsiranean]

The co-driver is bathing in the green light from his map display, while the driver only has a little red light from his instruments spilling onto him. Background is set on fire by the brake lights.

I tried with blue lights on the passenger side, but green looked way better.

Thanks again, Al at Heyok, for a fantastic gizmo!







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[Cheez]

Outstanding!

[JatoTheRipper]

Damn that's a great looking Yeti! I love the paint scheme. And the wheels and tires are sexy. Nice job.

[Antsiranean]

Originally Posted by Cheez

Outstanding!

Originally Posted by JatoTheRipper

Damn that's a great looking Yeti! I love the paint scheme. And the wheels and tires are sexy. Nice job.

Thank you! I am glad you like it. I am rather proud myself actually. Since this build really doesn't bring anything technically new or exciting to the Yeti scene, I decided to try hard with the look instead.

I hope to get out on Snowmans maiden run today, weather permitting.

[Antsiranean]

Snowman has now seen snow, mud, water and slippery rocks. Great! I ain't got nothin' but a 2WD brushless Arrma Fury SCT to compare with, but am very happy so far.

One small problem became apparent immediately and one turned up after twenty minutes.

1. The front light bar, which is supposed to to light up as soon as I hit the gas, doesn't behave quite as it should. On low speeds it remains off, and turns on only when I am doing maybe five km/hours in first gear, or ten in second. This is a bit annoying, since those lights are really helpful when trying to negotiate rough terrain in the dark. And after four o'clock, it's dark where I live. Any suggestions on what to do? Reverse lights starts shining the instant I touch reverse. I have tried adjusting trim for channel 2, but that does not help.

2. All of a sudden, I could only turn left, not right. I think it was because the servo arm (axial aluminium) slipped, since the screw was slightly loose when I checked. It is now fastened with some loctite added, and the small screw running perpendicular to it, through the arm, has been fastened as well. I had forgotten about that one before.

My snow shield exceeded expectations, not letting a single speck of dirt or snow into the technic compartment - saved me a lot of cleaning.

I need to add some lights for the inside of the chassis. When I try to change batteries in the dark I can't see anything. And if I just want to check on something it's even worse, since I have the headlights blinding me, while everything behind them is pitch black. I guess I could bring a flashlight, but how much fun is that?