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Old 2011.02.03, 01:14 AM   #1
mdowney
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Blue Badge Racing: Racing classes and rules

Since we're just getting started we're going to focus primarily on running a Mini-Z stock class. You'll be able to run the stock Kyosho motor, the recommended PN 70T motor, the Atomic stock motor, or the CTP 70T motor from Reflex Racing.

As we establish a regular interval for racing and get more people involved we'll start to look at running an open mod class. We can also consider a pan car class (this is a 3rd-party body optimized for airflow that gives the Mini-Z insane traction and handling - very fun! I'll have one with me at our next race for folks to try out). If you already have an AWD Mini-Z (MA-010) you'll be able to run that in the stock class.

Also, since we seem to have a lot of drivers with the Losi 1/24 Rally cars we should consider running a special class just for them. It's a good low-cost, entry-level vehicle that might help get people hooked on the club. However, as several of you have experienced, the Mini-Z is a MUCH better platform for racing. We'll have to discuss some guidelines since some are running LiPo, and some have upgraded to brushless. I'd recommend avoiding the brushless upgrade and having everyone run LiPo but I'll leave it up to the group.

Let's use this thread to continue the discussion about classes and rules
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Old 2011.02.04, 02:49 PM   #2
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Mini-z stuff sounds good. So it sounds like we have 2 classes to start, stock mini-z and losi rally (rules to be defined). I think we should also set a target time to finish racing so people can plan and those who need to leave at specific times can help with cleanup and not leave it on the people who want to stay a bit later. 7pm is my cutoff, anyone else have hard requirements?

We should audit the current losi owners to see what people have and use that as an input for creating the class rules. I can start:
Losi Rally
  • stock am board
  • stock motor
  • 180mAh hobbyking 2s lipo

I like your suggestion of going with stock motor, but that does make it slightly difficult to upgrade from 27AM (might or might not be necessary depending on the room's RF environment) and still use lipo. I think lipo is the right way to go for simplicity of battery management and since they're like $3 each at hobbyking.

I'm ordering a new asf board to try, that will get mini-z compatibility for people buying new radios and it will work with the stock motor and servo. The only question here is if the higher voltage will kill the servo since this has traditionally been an issue with mini-z's and lipo.

The other option is the micro rock crawler board. This is dsm, so people would need a spektrum radio or module, and it needs a new 3 wire servo. It will work fine with lipo and the stock motor however.
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Old 2011.02.05, 08:32 AM   #3
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Thumbs up

Congrats on your club guys! cdog, I didn't know you worked at MSFT?! mdowney, cdog is old school - great guy to have on board there!
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Old 2011.02.06, 08:11 PM   #4
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Thanks for the kind words mini-z! I got my first RC here, a mini-x! I've been at MS for about 2 years now, its a great place to work

I thought more about the losi class and maybe we should just start it as an open class to be fully inclusive until people figure out what they want out of the class. To be honest, lipo + bl will help people a lot less than some good fundamental setup work.
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Old 2011.02.07, 01:45 PM   #5
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Not to hijack your thread further, but, I don't know if Mike mentioned, but I interned there twice while I was in school, so, I know. In the dept. I was in the second year it was required that we play online games every Friday afternoon!
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Old 2011.02.07, 02:32 PM   #6
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Very cool :P Our team does a small beer meeting on Friday, well, and now mini-z racing!

So far we only have 6-7 people (and you'd think there would be more RC fans among 40,000 mostly technical people in the area), but I think the numbers will grow once people see what an established race program looks like and can take out the club cars that Mike has gotten setup.
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Old 2011.02.07, 03:57 PM   #7
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Well, plus, the only people who know about our racing club are the small number of people who have opted in to the "RC Car Enthusiasts" distribution list. Once we start promoting the club outside of that we'll have a lot more interest.

I wanted to get the bugs worked out before we get a lot of people interested. For example, I still can't get the lap counter to call out lap times during practice. And we just got the shop vac last week so we can start conditioning the HORRID conditions on the RCP. Huge improvement already.

I also want to figure out a way to set the track up on the West campus at some point. There is a ton of open space and foot traffic there. We may just need to do it without permission and apologize later.
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Old 2011.02.07, 05:21 PM   #8
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You mean to do an expo race in the commons mixer or something?

They have some giant conference rooms on the 2nd floor we could definitely use, but it wouldn't have the foot traffic. I think we definitely want something during lunch to generate interest. Need 3-4 people racing and then a couple people to answer questions. I think to setup all the gear we'd need to do it semi-officially, at least to do it in a place we'd have good visibility. It would also be nice to leverage whatever cool data visualizations come from the coding4fun project (or at least a projection of the lap timer software).
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Old 2011.02.07, 06:18 PM   #9
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Yeah, it would have to be out in the open so we get the foot traffic. There aren't a lot of big open areas on the Commons but all of the Studio buildings have large lobbys that would work well.

The big CRs in the Commons can only be used if a rental fee is charge to an IO. Can you believe that? We'd have to pay to use them.

I'm thinking we set up in the lobby of Studio D because that's where all of the Xbox guys are and they're probably more likely to be interested.
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Old 2011.02.18, 06:09 PM   #10
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For the Losi class, I'd argue that these should be run auto-cross style in an open area with cones/dots. As much as I enjoyed running on the track, these just don't perform that well in such a limited space. If the track were made wider, it would be better, but likely worse for mini-zs. In the past we've setup "RC passes" in empty conference rooms/open spaces and had a total riot.

For spec rules, I'd mirror what's already been said; Stock motor, lipo, any ESC, turning radius mod. This would keep the entry cost very low ($110 car, $20 in lipo from HobbyKing, $30-50 charger, AA batts).

I'm all for a flash mob race track setup in the spring.
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Old 2011.02.21, 12:28 PM   #11
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Quote:
Originally Posted by multi-bash View Post
For the Losi class, I'd argue that these should be run auto-cross style in an open area with cones/dots. As much as I enjoyed running on the track, these just don't perform that well in such a limited space. If the track were made wider, it would be better, but likely worse for mini-zs. In the past we've setup "RC passes" in empty conference rooms/open spaces and had a total riot.

For spec rules, I'd mirror what's already been said; Stock motor, lipo, any ESC, turning radius mod. This would keep the entry cost very low ($110 car, $20 in lipo from HobbyKing, $30-50 charger, AA batts).

I'm all for a flash mob race track setup in the spring.
I think they can be tuned to run well on the track, I haven't had a chance to test, but I've played with my suspension a bit and will give it a test next time out. Otherwise, I think you're right, they ARE rally cars, but we'd lose the benefit of a prepped track with lap timing and it would separate us from the mini-z folks which I don't think is a good idea.

I got the mr03 ASF board to install on my rally, but haven't had a chance to install it yet.
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Old 2011.02.21, 02:21 PM   #12
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And the track I last set up was twice the size of the one you guys tried. A better setup and larger track will make the Losi's much more fun to drive. I may pick one up myself after I see how the Mini-Z board works. I have an extra one.
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