Chester's VSCX4-10.2 chassis kit build

[Chester]

Originally I planned this as a simple build.

Just an SCX10.2 builders kit, supposed to be a simple trail rig for the occational river bed run in the free time after work...

Chassis:


Wheels: 1.9 RC4WD 5-lug steelies
Tires: 1.9 RC4WD Ground Hawk II


ESC: CC mamba micro x
Motor: Novak brushless crawler 13.5t


Body: used Honcho


Shocks: Traxxas GTS with SCX10 rodends and shock collars for using the screw to not lose them anymore


Took it for a run at a river:



Even jumped it a bit:


Plan was to a add a different body and call it a day:


Then VP released the VS4-10 chassis kit and my plan of keeping it simple (and within a reasonable budget) was burried alive

Next post: new chassis an dsome personal impressions of it...

[Chester]

It took about three weeks to get the kit to my home in Germany. 4 days half around the world from Sacramento to Frankfurt, 2.5 weeks through german customs...
So actually I paid roughly double the money you lucky guys in US need to pay to get this nice piece of a chassis

First thing that greated me on opening the box:
some nice guy said thank you for ordering at their company:


Laid out all the pieces:


Mounted them up:


Sexiest kit part ever:


Some new wheels/tires added to the game:
1.9 RC4WD Raceline
1.9 Voodoo KLR X4 red compound
shot them as a bargain in german forum


Complete chassis:


GTS shocks aren't working completely with the chassis (upper shock ball is way longer) so I replaced it with some axial metal ones that I had in a box:


Body doesn't fit over the battery tray:


Battery tray will need some hacking...

For the rear part I'll go with a 3D printed cage that'll hold the side parts of the PW bed:


Currently I'm working on making the cage a multi part assembly before I'll get it printed via shapeways. Hopefully it'll hold up to my abuse...

I'll keep ya posted...

[OSRC]

That's how it usually starts... a "simple rig" .....

[MaX-D]

Subscribed! Can't wait to see how this turns out

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[wheelhaus]

Nice.. Sometimes the not so simple things are the best things...

[Chester]

Thx guys

It's always been my style to do things a bit complicated and thinking outside the box. Having my daily profession in designing industrial machines has given me access to those cool tools like CAD for designing the parts I want to have. And shapeways has made it possible to get these parts produced.

That's why I ordered all 6 parts needed for the cage via shapeways yesterday.



1. Front main hoop (green) which attaches to the front cab of the Proline Power Wagon
2. Side frames (yellow) left and right (designed to be one part for printing, have to be seperated later)
3. Rear bumper part (orange)
4. main center structure (blue) that ties everything together
5. (not shown) 2x mounting bracket to mount the cage to the Chassis

The cage is designed to be flipable while staying attached to the chassis and the front cab will be kept in place at the chassis by velcro...

Shapeways said parts will ship at 08-09-2019 but they are already in production. So maybe I'll have a bit earlier

Until then: get the rig wired up and get it running with the old Honcho body...

[Brandon]

Looks great. Nice CAD work on the cage too!

[MaX-D]

Originally Posted by Chester

Thx guys



It's always been my style to do things a bit complicated and thinking outside the box. Having my daily profession in designing industrial machines has given me access to those cool tools like CAD for designing the parts I want to have. And shapeways has made it possible to get these parts produced.



That's why I ordered all 6 parts needed for the cage via shapeways yesterday.







1. Front main hoop (green) which attaches to the front cab of the Proline Power Wagon

2. Side frames (yellow) left and right (designed to be one part for printing, have to be seperated later)

3. Rear bumper part (orange)

4. main center structure (blue) that ties everything together

5. (not shown) 2x mounting bracket to mount the cage to the Chassis



The cage is designed to be flipable while staying attached to the chassis and the front cab will be kept in place at the chassis by velcro...



Shapeways said parts will ship at 08-09-2019 but they are already in production. So maybe I'll have a bit earlier



Until then: get the rig wired up and get it running with the old Honcho body...

I'm interested in that cage. Will it be available for everyone? Cost?


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[durok]

Unglaublich!

THIS is what's so cool about CAD and modern 3-D printing - the days of insanely-priced welded cages will come to an end...

In most situations, 1/10th scale crawlers just don't need the strength of a welded steel cage.

Nothing against those who craft those (admittedly quite lovely) custom welded cages and sell them on the internet, but most people (myself included) just can't afford them.

This is looking like it will be a seriously trick truck!

[Chester]

Originally Posted by MaX-D

I'm interested in that cage. Will it be available for everyone? Cost?

Well, I'm not sure about making it available for public use. When I'm not working on my designs at work I'll mostly do it on my private computer with a questionable license for my prefferred CAD system. So it would somehow be against my understanding of "private use" of this questionable licensing system...

Originally Posted by durok

Unglaublich!

THIS is what's so cool about CAD and modern 3-D printing - the days of insanely-priced welded cages will come to an end...

In most situations, 1/10th scale crawlers just don't need the strength of a welded steel cage.

Nothing against those who craft those (admittedly quite lovely) custom welded cages and sell them on the internet, but most people (myself included) just can't afford them.

This is looking like it will be a seriously trick truck!

Don't be too happy about the possibilities shapeways offers. This cage is still pretty expensive (~115€ or ~128$) readily shipped without real prove of fitment...

Luckily shapeways was way faster then they expected when I ordered and I will have the cage in my hands tonight after work, latest tomorrow (after the wifey and my daughter left me alone for going on vacation with mummy in law for the next 6 days )...

So there will be progress on the next days, I also ordered paint for the body and will have the rig ready for photo shooting at the end of next week...

[MaX-D]

I understand about the whole license thing. I hope this cage works out for you. Can't wait to see the pics next week

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[durok]

Originally Posted by Chester

Well, I'm not sure about making it available for public use. When I'm not working on my designs at work I'll mostly do it on my private computer with a questionable license for my prefferred CAD system. So it would somehow be against my understanding of "private use" of this questionable licensing system...



Don't be too happy about the possibilities shapeways offers. This cage is still pretty expensive (~115€ or ~128$) readily shipped without real prove of fitment...

Luckily shapeways was way faster then they expected when I ordered and I will have the cage in my hands tonight after work, latest tomorrow (after the wifey and my daughter left me alone for going on vacation with mummy in law for the next 6 days )...

So there will be progress on the next days, I also ordered paint for the body and will have the rig ready for photo shooting at the end of next week...

I totally understand about the costs at this stage, but it's really only a matter of time before things begin to come down in cost - Shapeways is shooting itself in the foot with its recent cost increases - many people have been complaining and seeking other means of gettings their designs made.

We are in the early days yet of this new technology - things will change for the better as more and more people get involved and other companies see the opportunities in the field -competition will bring down the price eventually.

Anyways...

Looking forward to seeing your build progress!

[Chester]

As already mentioned my parts from shapeways arrived on saturday.
Quick unpacking:



Chassis mounts:


They'll be hold on by the two most rear screws at the side of the VS4-10 Chassis. They are long enough and don't need to be replaced...

Rear cage/bumper:


It's mounted to the chassis mounts and serves as the pivot point for the whole assembly.

Side frames:


Front main hoop:


Central main structure:


Everything loosely put together:


Finished body with side panels made out of the PW bed:


Side panels are screwed into place by 4 M2x8 each, also added the exo rear light becel.

Because it fit's the style of the truck it always was my plan to add the axial racing light bar on the roof:


There's some cutting work left on the body to refit the sliders back to the chassis and then it's time for paint. Front body mount will be made out of styrene first and then printed via shapeways...

Will update again in the next few days

[Chester]

August update: we have a runner...
Time was limited over the last weeks so it took me several weeks to get this thing wired up.
As it sit's of right now, electronics consist of:
ESC: Castle Creations Mamba Micro X
Motor: Novak Ballistic brushless 13.5t sensored
BEC: Castle Creations 10A
Steering Servo: Hitec HS-7954SH (with new gears, old ones where blown)
Servo winch: Hitec HSR-2645CR continous rotation servo (no separate controller needed)

The chassis itself helps a lot with wiring. I could almost hide all servo wires below something (especially on the sliders they are routed under the electronics tray on both sides). Now to my crappy cell phone pictures:

Motor wiring:


Servos and BEC:


Wire routing from battery tray to left slider:




Receiver wiring:


I made a small circuit board for power distribution from BEC to both servos with just signal inputs from the receiver. Works perfectly

Overall it looks relatively clean:


I also shortened the battery tray on both sides so that it fit's inside the PW body. Sadly I'm now limited to batteries that are shorter than 125mm which is a huge limiting factor to available capacities. Probably gonna end up with 2200-2400 mAh 3S...

I think it's time to build myself some kind of photo booth

[indybama]

Wat kind of C rating u lookin for chester? I recently got some ovanic 3s 3000mah 50c batts n they work great in my scx10 ii.

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[Chester]

Originally Posted by indybama

Wat kind of C rating u lookin for chester? I recently got some ovanic 3s 3000mah 50c batts n they work great in my scx10 ii.

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Thanks for the hint. That's right in the ball park, 5 of those would more than double my current setup of 5x 1300mAh 3S for one day of crawling

[indybama]

Originally Posted by Chester

Thanks for the hint. That's right in the ball park, 5 of those would more than double my current setup of 5x 1300mAh 3S for one day of crawling

Lol i got 4 1000mah batts not long ago, n then found those ovanic batts. Theyre inexpensive n seem to work well. I get better than a hr out of 1 of them

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[Chester]

Made a huge step towards completion of this years evolution. I got the body painted and mounted to the chassis. I also installed some wider offset hubs to the RC4WD Raceline wheels (+9mm offset compared to the stock hub per wheel) which gives the rig a nice stance. It also articulates without rubbing in the back and just slightly rubbing in the front...

Now to the pics:








Lighting will follow in the next days. I designed some light buckets for the front that can take 6x 5mm leds each, 5 leds in the lightbar on the roof, 2 leds in the back and 4 leds with U4 light controller in the exo rear light bezel...

There's also a printed warn winch on it's way from shapeways that I'm going to cut up and install on/in the front bumper...

[MaX-D]

The truck looks great. What cage are you using on the rear?

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[Postclanker]

^^^^^^. ???

Really nice . Looking forward to a video and how much abuse it can take. Been too many times i’ve landed on my roof, busted the hard body but the cage hasn’t even bent....not sure it would hold up IMHO

Hope i’m wrong