Life Hacks (RC)

[ebpwu]

If you constantly plug in and out regularly from the balancing lead for charging you may notice that one or two of the wires may pop out and comes loose. This is annoying as the charger will beep due to open circuitry and proper charging will not be carried out. Put some epoxy on the 'sensitive' areas and not only it will extend the life of your balancing cables it will also not irate you any further during charging sequence. Preferably, do it for both ends and your balancing leads and balancing extenders as well, if any. If you dislike the 'epoxied' look you can put a bigger heat shrink over it for aesthetics.

[remauled]

Cutting carbon strips and rods

Carbon rods and strips are very useful in RC application to lend strength and rigidity to the frame.

To add strength, identify the weak spot and orientation where reinforcement is required, choose the type of carbon reinforcement, cut to length, CA or epoxy to bond.

As carbon strips and rods are laminated products, and very strong, do take care when cutting and avoid splintering.

Do not cut carbon using a saw. The serrated cut will split the fibres.

A sharp hobby knife works but cutting carbon will blunt the edge.

A very effective method to use a file! Works best with a thin, triangle or files with sharp edge, fine tooth works better too.

First file a corner to get a shoulder, then extend the should to get a line, rotate to get to the other side. Be sure to rotate when cutting carbon. If the cut is not rotated, the carbon (especially hollow rods) can splinter.

[remauled]

A similar effect can be achieved by using goop. I prefer automotive goop for its endurance under heat. Goop becomes rubbery when hardened.

To reduce the twisting stress on ESC and receiver wires, goop can also be used. Use goop with care on ESC and RX though, as less experienced RC person may think the product is "dirty" when the item is put on sale.

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[ebpwu]

Good tip Ron! Ever need a wing bag for transportation and find that they are too costly and fear that they may be redundant after they crash? Simply get a few sheets of PE foam from packaging outlets (approx only $1 for a feet) and if on a tighter budget sought from fruit stall sellers they got plenty! You can custom your own size and add on with a strap with Velcro and you are good to go. No pouch? You can put your wing bolts, screws and nuts in a separate clear ziplock bag and tape it to the front. Where to find those small little handy clear ziplock bags without using your wallet? From your used medicine pill bags dispensed by your clinic.

[remauled]

epoxy tips

If epoxy is mixed insufficiently or too little hardener, the epoxy becomes gel like and is difficult to harden.

How to tell if the mixture is sufficiently mixed, feel the temperature, when solidifying, epoxy releases heat and warms up.

When epoxy gets onto fingers, it's difficult to wash off with soap or detergent. Try a mechanic trick. Use powder. Powder will soak up the epoxy and it becomes easy to rub off like eraser dirt. If after the 1st application and it's still sticky, do it again, by 2nd application, it should feel squeaky dry.


When applying around curves, I find it easier to get the corners when the glass fibres are applied in strips as opposed to broad swath.

[hoppinghippos]

An alternative to this is to buy aluminium padded sheets from daiso, comes in long rolls 2 of which is enough to do complete covers for the mini g. Just sew it up or tape it up and you have semi pro looking aluminium wing bags, etc.

Good tip Ron! Ever need a wing bag for transportation and find that they are too costly and fear that they may be redundant after they crash? Simply get a few sheets of PE foam from packaging outlets (approx only $1 for a feet) and if on a tighter budget sought from fruit stall sellers they got plenty! You can custom your own size and add on with a strap with Velcro and you are good to go. No pouch? You can put your wing bolts, screws and nuts in a separate clear ziplock bag and tape it to the front. Where to find those small little handy clear ziplock bags without using your wallet? From your used medicine pill bags dispensed by your clinic.

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[rayonnair]

If you're like me, you have purchased many APC/HQ/GWS/etc. propellers. Don't throw away the plastic shaft adapters. Keep them and use them as plastic spacers. The ones with 3mm and 4mm ID holes are particularly useful .

[ebpwu]

Alternative to switch harness

Run out of a switch harness and need a quick fix? Can't wait for your order to arrive and feels that a switch harness is too mainstream? With 2 deans connectors (1 male 1 female) make a jumper switch in the ESC red positive wire as shown. Make a small wire loop and solder both leads on the male jumper plug and cover up with a heat shrink, hot glue or epoxy with a cap.

When the male deans plug is removed power willl be disabled and thus functioning as a switch harness. Try to use an auxillary wire instead of the ESC line to keep the ESC in its original form. See raw mockup for illustration.

[ebpwu]

Wheel Chocks

Models always move about during transport, at the field or when checking control movements? Can't find a brick or wood as a chock? Use an unwanted sneaker or shoe and simply drop the wheel into/on the shoe and it will stop the wheels from moving about. You can play with different sizes by using kids sized shoes for smaller wheels and adult shoes for bigger wheels.

[ebpwu]

Soldering Motor

Trying to hold the motor during soldering and it keeps moving about? Find a plier and a rubber band and bind it as shown. You can now find that it is easier and firmer to do your soldering this way.

[ebpwu]

Old Credit Cards uses - Quick fix control horns, scraper, labels, etc

You may find that keeping a few old expired credit cards, unwanted Telco top-up cards, membership cards can be handy for a variety of purposes. They are easy to cut, yet tough and very resilient to breakage.

1) You can cut them into control horns for your foamies and substitute them for broken horns if you run out of spares. Saw a guy made horns out of old sim cards too.
2) Use the card edges (wrapped over with a soft cloth) as a scraping tool to remove difficult sticker residues and gunk from planes surfaces. They will come off faster than using your fingernails. Don't have a goo remover? Find an old perfume or cologne and spray on the residue they will melt faster than soap water! You can also use the card edges to get rid of air bubbles from the stickers on your models.
3) If you have a torn car bodyshell and you can run short of any leftover cutout lexan pieces you can substitute with these cards. Overlay over the torn area with the cut out card pieces and epoxy over it. It will be stronger and even more resistant to tear after repair. Provides added strength and bondage if used together with a fiber cloth.
4) Cut out your name on your credit card and you can use them as labels for you model cars, helis and planes!
5) One seperate application which i did was to use them as a base plate for miniature car plates on my scale RC car models printed out on photo papers. Just a further idea to share.

[remauled]

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power tip! I have used broken heli frames, G10 or carbons to make the control horns.

Ran out of carbon strips? Cut the credit card into strips, roughen with sandpaper, epoxy and insert across fractured foam as ribs.

[Sethy]

Use a brushed ESC on a knob channel on your transmitter to control light brightness and can also double as a separate BEC for 5v things like receiver/flight controller

Here's mine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ms75OMJDMs

[ebpwu]

Find that the foam sand filler sold by RC companies too expensive and grudge to buy? Simply pop by the beach and grab a handful and keep in a small bottle. By adding 'sand' filler during the gluing process with either epoxy or super glue helps to improve the bond significantly. Sand filler can aid filling holes, hairline cracks and hide gaps while improving the aesthetics of your model. The weight has been compared between commercially available sand filler and sand obtain from beaches and no perceived differences has been found. It is even better if you can find finer sands out of town as the finer the granulation of the sands are, the better the gluing result. If you find the brown sand looks ugly, simply paint it off with white paint.

[ebpwu]

Ever noticed those small little satchets of silica gels you find inside the new shoes you bought? Don't dispose them away. Simply use those satchets and put them inside yur RX box to help keep your electronics dry during storage when not in use. You can also innovate and accumulate more to keep them together with your other electronics for storage as desired. If you don't buy shoes, get those satchets from your wife or girlfriends. I am sure you can easily get a handful from them!