UMG10 - there's a FPV-time for everything

[new2rocks]

Wow...it's been a while, hasn't it? Life has been a bit exciting lately, which meant not as much time for RC. More on that in a minute. As you may have heard, Axial came out with this:



I know, I know. Nothing new here, right? Well not exactly. A few things to like. First, another kit! Hooray for kits! I love kits. Roo loves kits. Kits are the shhhh...you get the picture. Plus, this one comes with a cool new body (except for the ugly grill) and the original 10.2 kit tranny, which meant an excuse to update some of our old parts and try some new tricks.

But the timing of this release was a bit of a challenge. Because a few weeks before it was released, this happened:



Ouch! That hurt! I consulted the garage doctor, who prescribed major corrective surgery. I didn't argue:



The garage doctor also ordered an evacuation:



If you've never seen a Podzilla at work, you're missing out. What a cool contraption! Roo definitely approved. Inside, quarters were tight for a while:





Not surprisingly, Roo was undeterred, so off he went:

 

[new2rocks]

A few thoughts on the build, in no particular order...

1. Axial needs to study the packaging of the Traxxas kit. Several parts trees weren't numbered, and the bag arrangement seems somewhat random:



2. Axial included an extra bag with what appears to be a new t-case housing. Except it looks exactly like the old one on the original tree. So I decided to use the old one. Because I'm stubborn and contrarian. Here's the extra bag:



Spoiler alert - I've run the truck a fair bit, and it's working just fine so far.

3. Axial's rod ends are rubbishy, as Roo likes to say, so I went straight to the Boom racing replacements this time:



Now for some fun stuff. Our Forward Mount Tranny Cradle is a must on any 10.2 kit so the tranny isn't, well, backward:



But this time, I opted for a twist. I had always been curious about the 2-speed conversion for this tranny but never pulled the trigger for our first 2 10.2s (copper colored XJ and Roo's truggy). So I decided to go with the SSD version. Between the SSD kit and parts included in the Axial kit, you get everything you need except for the shift servo:



Roo was able to get through most of the conversion without referring to SSD's instructions (available online). With the instructions, it was a breeze for him. Well done, SSD.

With the tranny flip, the shift servo ends up switching sides. There's just enough room for a standard size servo on the side plate right behind the not-so-waterproof waterproof receiver box. All it took was drilling a couple of holes in the side plate and using the included shift servo mounts:





As a side note, because the side plate on the left side doesn't have the lowered platform for the shift servo, you don't need to use the included spacers to raise the servo mounts back up.

In the process of moving the entire contents of the garage into the PODs and then back out, I temporarily misplaced the shift servo link included in the SSD kit, so I quickly whipped up a home brew version:



So, in sum, the 2 speed conversion is super easy with our tranny flip. And I love 2-speeds. Win!

For the body, I decided to go with a moderately weathered look. This time, I started with a combination of copper, silver and black inside the cab and fuel tanks:





Then came a coat of the silver followed by the finish coats outside the Lexan, followed by some wet sanding to reveal the rust and metal:





No chance I was going to rely on the included stickers (or deck-uhls as the Canadians like to say) to decorate the bed. My other vice (Starbucks) came in handy:



After applying a little brown wash and some clear coat to seal them, they looked like...wood:



You probably also noticed some diamond plate. I had a pack of RC4WD plate sitting around, and it made for a really nice contrast against the wood:



One last note on the wheels before signing off. I chose the GMade SR 03s because they look the part of stock Unimog wheels and they add some weight down low, which will help for this short WB, tall-ish truck. They were easy to paint with rattle can paint and clear coat from the auto parts store. Since I didn't want unnecessary weight where the spare sits, I used the face and back plates for the wheel without the heavy inner ring, which makes the spare nice and light.

That's it for now. More to come...

 

[distinctive pd]

Looking great dudes!"thumbsup"

 

[soze]

Nice man! I've build, but still haven't run it! The extra transfer case supposedly is smoother on the inside than the one on the regular sprue. Supposedly the older one has some flashings or what not that affect the gears.

 

[Shinobid]

Is that diamond plate easy to cut? what do you use to cut it?

 

[HumboldtEF]

Nice little touches on the build "thumbsup" looking good

So what did your garage come down with? a fallen tree?

Is that diamond plate easy to cut? what do you use to cut it?

The Diamond plate from RC4WD is quite thin, I've cut it with some larger scissors. Though it tends to curl up a little bit when you do this.

 

[new2rocks]

Looking great dudes!"thumbsup"

Thanks, kind sir!

Nice man! I've build, but still haven't run it! The extra transfer case supposedly is smoother on the inside than the one on the regular sprue. Supposedly the older one has some flashings or what not that affect the gears.

I've heard from a very credible source that the new one addressed bearing tolerances that were a bit tight on the old one. Since Roo reported no issues getting the bearings in, I think we'll run it as is until the next scheduled service, lol.

Is that diamond plate easy to cut? what do you use to cut it?

It's pretty easy. I used curved Lexan scissors, and they worked well. It helps to mark your cuts with a marker so you have something to follow. I also found it helpful to sand some of the edges, as they can get a bit jagged in places.

Nice little touches on the build "thumbsup" looking good
So what did your garage come down with? a fallen tree?

Thanks! The garage came down with power tools and moderately heavy equipment after being diagnosed with a severe case of stunted growth. Major surgery was required to enable it to reach its full potential.

One more note on the basic setup before getting to the really fun stuff. The UMG10 kit doesn't come with sliders, which is a bit of a miss on Axial's part. The step at the back corner of the cab is quite exposed and catches on rocks easily. Without protection, it wouldn't last long. Fortunately, the original sliders from the XJ work great when installed just forward of the slots on the side trays (see my pic of the shift servo mount above). Here's how it looks from the side:


With the mundane stuff out of the way, it's time to get a bit crazy. I've driven GCM's FPV Ascender Bronco a couple of times at GCM Adventure Series Uwharrie, and it was a hoot. I decided I needed an FPV truck of my own, but with a twist. Literally and figuratively. I could have taken the easy way out and installed FPV with a fixed camera mount. Never one to take the easy road, I decided to have a go at a head tracking setup. Sounds simple enough, right? Not exactly...

Allow me to explain, as I knew precisely none of this about a month ago. Head tracking FPV setups generally work as follows:
- Goggles must include a head tracking sensor that converts your head movements to PPM signals.
- Camera is installed in your vehicle (usually a drone or plane) on a mount that includes either 2 servos (pan and tilt) or 3 servos (pan/tilt/roll) to move the camera.
- Goggles with head tracking module send PPM signals either via a trainer cable or wireless connection to a transmitter.
- Transmitter sends PPM signals to a receiver in your vehicle (usually a drone or plane).
- Receiver transmits those signals to the servos in your camera mount, which in turn move the camera according to your head movements.

And all of this is in addition to the camera and video transmitter required in the vehicle to send the video signal from your camera back to your FPV goggles or video screen. To make matters more interesting, I was unable to find any currently available surface radios that are capable of accepting a PPM input signal from a trainer cable or wireless connection. I even spoke with engineers at Spektrum and Futaba who told me they didn't make any (and weren't aware of any from other manufacturers). There are plenty of flight radio options that work, but they all have twin stick controls. And I like steering with...well...a wheel. I know, I know. Call me crazy. Whatever.

So after multiple conversations with various experts (including engineers at Horizon/Spektrum and Futaba), I decided I would run 2 radios (not including the radio that transmits videos signals from the camera back to the goggles). I would use my existing surface radio (a hacked FlySky) to control the vehicle, operate the 2-speed, etc. And I would set up a flight radio whose sole job was to transmit the head tracking signals from the goggles to a second receiver in the truck.

This required lots of parts:


Even that picture didn't include everything. I left my LHS without a video transmitter, aka VTx, so I had to go back for one of those. So without any further ado, here's the list I started with:
1. Fat Shark Dominator HD3 goggles with Trinity head tracking module and 3.5mm trainer cable
2. RapidFire Goggle Receiver Module
3. Spektrum DX6 Radio with SPMAR620 DSM2/DSMX Receiver
4. RunCam Phoenix Oscar Edition camera
5. Immersion RC SpiroNET Antenna Bundle Circular Polarized 5.8 GHz Antenna
6. Immersion RC SpiroNET v2 5.8GHz RHCP Headset Antenna
7. Lumenier TX5G25 mini 25mW 5.8 GHz FPV Racing Transmitter
8. Fat Shark FSV1603 pan/tilt/roll camera mount
9. Male to Male servo extension cable

Some of these components were picked for specific reasons:
- Fat Shark goggles play nicely with Spektrum radios, and the RapidFire Receiver Module.
- The Spektrum DX6 is the least expensive Spektrum radio that supports head tracking PPM inputs through the trainer port.
- The Fat Shark pan/tilt/roll camera mount fits perfectly inside the UMG10 (and probably many other RC interiors) and uses standard sized micro servos.

Others were recommended by the owner of the LHS where I bought this tangle of devices and wires. For example, the RapidFire Goggle Receiver Module allows for two antennas and chooses the one with the best signal. That seems like a good idea. And the RunCam camera and Lumenier transmitter are supposedly the t**s (according to a pro drone racer friend). If it's good enough for a pro drone racer, it should be good enough for me.

Hooking all of this up is a bit involved but very doable. Here's a picture showing the components hooked up and spread out:


Here's what you can (mostly) see:
- The Spektrum flight receiver is powered off of the FlySky receiver using the male-to-male servo cable.
- The 3 servo wires from the 3 servos in the camera mount connect to channels 4, 5 and 6 of the Spektrum flight receiver.
- The video signal (yellow), power (red) and ground (black) wires from the camera connect to the Lumenier VTx to power the camera and send video signal back to the transmitter.
- The Lumenier VTx module is powered directly off of the battery through a JST plug wired to the ESC battery plug (the VTx can take up to 20V). I am using the included 12V step down voltage regulator on the advice of my drone racer buddy to help insulate the video signal from noise coming from the rest of the electronics.

Here are a few pix of the camera mount before putting the interior into the cab:




And here you can see the setup from outside the cab looking in:




Range of motion is epic:








You can even look through the side view mirrors... :mrgreen:

To program the DX6 for head tracking, I was able to find a YouTube video that walked through the steps. It was quick and easy. The one caveat with the current setup is that I haven't figured out a way to override the DX6's defaults for channels 1-4 so that I can map the 3rd axis (roll) to one of the first 4 channels on the transmitter. Which means that, for now, I have pan and tilt but not roll.

I recruited a guinea pig, aka svt923, to help with the testing:


And no, that picture is not staged. He drove into and out of the creek/drainage culvert (the same one I use for sidehills in my YT videos) whilst sitting in a chair at the top of the driveway.

For a first go, I couldn't be happier. Having the ability to look around from within the cabin completely changes the FPV driving experience. You can track trees and obstacles as you drive past them to help figure out when to make your turns. If you're on an incline, you can look out the side window for visual references rather than staring up at nothing but blue sky and praying. It's mind-bending and hilariously fun.

There's still much to do. Here's a partial list:
-- The camera is currently zip-tied to the mount, so I need to come up with a better mount (which will have the added benefit of moving the camera back several mm closer to the servo).
-- The wiring is a bit of a mess and needs to be cleaned up.
-- I think I am going to turn the VTx antenna into an exhaust stack on the back of the cab.
-- I also have some work to do detailing the interior. But the concept has been proven, and it is a blast!
-- I'm holding out hope that I can find a transmitter module that is much smaller than the DX6 radio and will accept the PPM output from the goggles. If so, I will make a small enclosure so that I can carry it around instead of the bulky DX6.

Once I've gotten through my next round of updates, I'll shoot some video and post it up. In the meantime, feel free to chime in if you have any questions about the setup, etc. Thanks for following along!

 

[mthomson]

This is such a cool project!!!

 

[alexleblanc]

We need better details on the garage build, looks really nice.

 

[new2rocks]

This is such a cool project!!!

Thanks!

We need better details on the garage build, looks really nice.

That would take a build thread in and of itself. Highlights were expanding garage by 6' to the left and 10' back (now approx. 26' x 30'), 34k lumens of lighting for late night wrenching, new TPO roof for garage and rest of house (note to self...don't ever by a house with a membrane roof again, lol), extend driveway out to other street (we live on a corner), repave entire driveway, add 6 skylights to house, new swales and drainage on both sides of house, and permanent roof access ladder.

Okay...back to #tinytrucks. As you may have figured out, I got sidetracked a bit by a trio of new trucks (SSD Trail King, VS4-10 Pro and Element Enduro), so this one got put to the side for a bit. But I got it back on the bench this week for another upgrade...

We all know Mogs have portals. And 10.2s don't. Go figure.
Well, thanks to our friends at SSD, we're going to fix that!

The SSD portal conversion for the 10.2 consists of the following:
1. Front axle - aluminum portal knuckles with portal CVDs that bolt onto the stock housing (or onto SSD's Pro44 axles)
2. Rear axle - new nylon housing, rear axle shafts, and portal housings with gears

Here's what you get for the front axle:


Machining is excellent, as is typical of SSD's wares:


Make sure to use the included M3 screws with brass sleeves instead of the stock shoulder bolts:


I made an interesting discovery with mine. The M3 screws included in the bag had slightly wider threads close to the head than typical (by .1-.2 mm), which prevented the brass sleeves from sliding on all the way without binding. There's almost no way SSD would have been able to catch this, but the solution was easy enough. I grabbed a couple of screws from my hardware bin, and those worked fine.

Installation takes all of about 5 minutes, lol. Once installed, stance widens by a bit over 11mm per side. Here's a pic of the right front w/o portal:


Here's the left front with portal:


Not bad, all things considered.

The rear axle is more involved. SSD includes a complete rear axle housing because there's no way to make a portal that would bolt onto the end of both the original AR44 (which used rear lockouts) and the newer 1-piece version that uses only 2 screws to capture the bearing. Here's what you get with the rear axle conversion kit:


Assembly isn't too hard to figure out on your own if you've assembled a set of SSD Pro44's, but I recommend keeping the instructions out for reference.

You'll need to re-use some parts from your existing rear axle (ring, spool, pinion, bearings for the ring & pinion). If you are converting from the original AR44, you will also need to re-use the lower link mounts. If you are converting from the one-piece AR44, you will need to supply a pair of lower link mounts (SSD makes a set of aluminum ones).

SSD thoughtfully includes your choice of 2 diff covers:


To get started, out with the old:


You won't be needing these anymore:


But hang onto these:


Note that the SSD kit includes a pair of 11mm bearings for the ends of the axle tubes, but I chose to re-use the sealed bearings that came with the UMG10.

Also be mindful of the two different sizes of screws for securing the axle tubes to the pumpkin:


The tiny 4mm screws go in on the diff cover side. The slightly less tiny 5mm screws go in on top and on the input side.

Also take note of 3 different bearing sizes for the portals:


One of the coolest features of the SSD portals is the gearing. Stock configuration provides an additional 1.14:1 gear reduction, but the gears are actually reversible in both front and rear:


Which means you could overdrive the front axle if you were so inclined (or declined, or sidehilled). I'm going to stick with the stock configuration on both for now.

As we all know, portals increase ground clearance, but they also increase ride height (by approx. 12mm). Here's how the truck sat with portals installed and 90mm shocks in the stock position:


Yikes...my driver might get altitude sickness up there! Dropping the lower shock mounts down to the lower link mount level erases about 6-7mm of that:


That's better for now. At least until the arrival of the 80mm shocks that should show up on my doorstep any day...

More updates coming soon. Thanks for following along!

 

[Thloftus]

Fantastic build! Which wash and clear coat did you use for the wood?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

 

[Natedog]

Very nice build, love Unimogs and the red wheels! Spare could lose a little more weight with GMade's plastic version of those wheels, red's a great color and complements the cab. SSD portals definitely add to the realism, very nice that the portal gears can be swapped to OD/UD setting. What interior is that and what's new?