Darin's TFL HOBBY 34" Carbon Cheetah Build

[Darin Jordan]

Looks great Darin. I cant wait to see it run!

Thanks, Rafael. I'm about there...


Just about ready to run this thing. After doing some minor block sanding to get the ride surfaces trued up to the setup board, I finalized the strut installation and got them adjusted. Dead flat.

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This appears to be out of the mold that has the rear pads AoA a bit higher than the forward two pads. Not sure if this is a mistake or if that's how it was designed. I'm going to run it as is and see what she does. I know some of had that these act like "trim tabs", holding the nose down. We'll see what that looks like.

NOTE: The lubrication holes I installed work perfectly. Squirting the lube in there feeds up to the motor side perfectly. Pretty cool when you can't remove the flexcables without taking the motor out.

[Darin Jordan]

After receiving several leads in my other thread, I was able to track down two "Easy-Move" Battery Trays, both from MBR-RC. I think they are slightly different in size, so we'll see how that works out, but one is 40mm x 240mm, and the other is 45mmx240, or at least that's what the two websites say.

Anyhow, once I get them here, I'll obviously install them and update this build. Last step. Everything else is ready to go test!

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[T.S.Davis]

This appears to be out of the mold that has the rear pads AoA a bit higher than the forward two pads. Not sure if this is a mistake or if that's how it was designed. I'm going to run it as is and see what she does. I know some of had that these act like "trim tabs", holding the nose down. We'll see what that looks like.

That's the way mine was. There must be more than one set of mold for the same boat. It may also run totally different with twins. Tom C. has one and it's very nearly perfect where mine was hunting.

[Darin Jordan]

That's the way mine was. There must be more than one set of mold for the same boat. It may also run totally different with twins. Tom C. has one and it's very nearly perfect where mine was hunting.

Would seem to me that it would "hunt" if the hull wasn't aired out correctly. Are you talking at lower speeds?

Anyhow, I hear what you are saying and I'll be working with it. We'll see what it does stock, and go from there.

[keithbradley]

That's the way mine was. There must be more than one set of mold for the same boat. It may also run totally different with twins. Tom C. has one and it's very nearly perfect where mine was hunting.

Was yours carbon or FG Terry?

[Darin Jordan]

FINALLY getting around to this again... Received the battery holders and have proceeded to start installing them.

First I temporarily fitted the largest packs I anticipate using. These are a pair of 6000mAh 4S Packs.

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As you can see here, the lip on the hatch opening makes getting the packs in/out tight, so I decided to trim part of it away.

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I sanded the bottom of the battery hold-downs slightly and also decided to Dremel in a groove down each side just to give the epoxy a little more bite.

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[flraptor07]

I had to trim the opening on mine the exact same way to get packs in and out. The AOA of the rear ride pads is what I was talking about, mine were just like yours are. I made them match the ones ahead of them and it made a huge difference. I'm pretty sure you'll need to do yours but then again every setup is different, you'll know within the first couple laps if it's gonna need it or not.

[Darin Jordan]

I'm pretty sure you'll need to do yours but then again every setup is different, you'll know within the first couple laps if it's gonna need it or not.

I suspect you are right, but I need to run it "as supplied" first... Will be the first time I've done that with just about ANY boat I've owned...

[Darin Jordan]

Finished up the installation of the "Easy-Move" Battery Trays. Made up some Med Set Epoxy mixed with milled-fiber and Cavasil to make it into a bit of a paste, then spread it along the top and bottom edge of the lower mounts, just to help do a final securing and also to clean up the look a bit. Not perfect, but clean enough.

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I need to stop on the way home today and pick up some velocro hold-down straps to secure the cells to the upper plates.

Normally, I'd just dedicate a set of packs to this setup, but I want to test a bit first.

I think Ultimately, one would want several upper plates so that the battery sets could be heat-shrunk or taped down to the plate and then treated as an assembly.

Once this is done, it's time to hit the water. Maybe even by tomorrow.

[Darin Jordan]

OH, one more thing that Rafael helped me with...

On the Dynamite/Pro Boat ESCs, to run them as Dual systems, you have to remove the Red-Wire from the RX plug for one of them. Otherwise, you will be running both BECs, and when you turn one on, the other turns on as well, regardless of where it's ON/OFF switch is.

[flraptor07]

OH, one more thing that Rafael helped me with...

On the Dynamite/Pro Boat ESCs, to run them as Dual systems, you have to remove the Red-Wire from the RX plug for one of them. Otherwise, you will be running both BECs, and when you turn one on, the other turns on as well, regardless of where it's ON/OFF switch is.

Yes, you have to do that with any ESC that has a BEC when you run them in a dual setup. I prefer to run seprate RX packs on most of my setups anyway, I've had real good luck with the LiFe 2s packs 6.6v. Darin I also saw where you were talking about turning props in or out @ the top, the Cheetah likes it better all around spinning them in @ the top FYI.

[Darin Jordan]

Batteries fitted...

That's pretty much it. It's ready to go do some initial testing. As noted, I'm pretty sure I'll be modding the rear ride pads, but I'll run it this way first.

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To get the wires on the left pack to reach, I laid that battery pack on it's side.

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[flraptor07]

That's lookin awesome! You're probably gonna be sliding the batteries forward some from where you have them now.

[Darin Jordan]

That's lookin awesome! You're probably gonna be sliding the batteries forward some from where you have them now.

I'm not sure about that... The CG is currently around 31%... I'm worried I won't be able to get the weight back far enough... Unless this Cat likes it further forward than 31 or 32%...

I would be HAPPY if that were the case, though!

For the record, the packs I will be running are actually 6000mAh... These are just an older set of 5300mAhs that I have just to do the initial setup to try to get it close before I put in the "good" packs.

[Heath M]

Looks awesome Darin, looking forward to seeing it run.