Meatball Racing

Radio Control Blog

  • Cars
    • Electric On-Road
    • Electric Off-Road
  • Flight
    • Fixed Wing
    • Rotor
    • Rockets
  • About
  • Tracks
  • Shop
  • Cart

Solar Charging Setup

June 17, 2019 by justin 1 Comment

There’s a place I like to race at in St. Peter, MN called Shamrock RC Raceway. It’s an interesting setup because it’s a turf track set up outdoors in a hockey rink that would otherwise go unused in the summer. Rather than bring an insane extension cord to power my charger from the park restroom, I wanted to come up with a more portable (and green) charging solution.

So I put together this simple solar charging setup:

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Cars, Electric Off-Road, Electric On-Road, Fixed Wing, Flight, Rotor Tagged With: battery, charger

E-Maxx 3906 LiPo Battery Upgrade

July 30, 2018 by justin 1 Comment

My good friend Joe has an old E-Maxx – not wanting to miss out on any bashing and crashing fun, I had him dig it out. It’s an oldie but a goodie. A 1st Generation E-Maxx with dual motors, dual batteries and a 2-speed transmission. It’s the one with the chassis that looks like this:

It’s also a bit of a relic. NiMH batteries, brushed motors, and AM radio aren’t exactly state-of-the-art. But I don’t want to upgrade everything, I just wanted to get it back on the road – so where do we start?

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Cars, Electric Off-Road Tagged With: battery, E-Maxx, throwback, Traxxas

Converting to XT60

December 4, 2017 by justin 4 Comments

I did quite a bit more flying this summer than I did rc car racing. As the weather turns cold flying will be limited to golf dome outings with the local electric club and indoor FPV. In Minnesota the on-road guys drive on carpet indoors, so it’ll soon be time to race. One thing I’ve grown to like that is commonplace on quads and planes is the XT-60 connector. So I decided to upgrade all of my cars and even my rocket launcher to it.

Technically, an XT-60 pair is 2g heavier than a pair of Deans connectors, but with all of the other advantages, I’m still switching.
[Read more…]

Filed Under: Cars, Electric Off-Road, Electric On-Road, Fixed Wing, Flight, Rotor Tagged With: battery

Cheali Charger – free 4-button charger upgrade

October 9, 2017 by justin 2 Comments

If you have one of the ubiquitous “4 button chargers” you can likely upgrade the firmware to Cheali Charger. You’ll have to do some hacking to get there, but if you want to add features like LiHV and NiZN charging, and have 30 battery memories, it’s the way to go.

Example chargers that are eligible:

  • Imax B6
  • Imax B6 clone
  • Turnigy A-6-10
  • HobbyKing ECO 6-10

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Cars, Electric Off-Road, Electric On-Road, Fixed Wing, Flight, Rotor Tagged With: battery, charger

Scout CX Battery Mod

September 11, 2017 by justin Leave a Comment

I’ve tried adding an upgraded battery to my son’s Scout CX in the past, but it’s designed to only accept the tiny 70mAh batteries it comes with. After upgrading my Inductrix to a larger power connecter, I had two donor batteries to experiment with… So I took my old Inductrix battery lead and made a lead extension.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Flight, Rotor Tagged With: battery, kids, Scout CX

DIY lithium powered lawn mower

August 29, 2016 by justin 3 Comments

While this isn’t about anything R/C, it’s somewhat related… I recently converted a lead-acid battery powered mower to lithium-ion batteries. Anyone that is in R/C and has a lawn to mow should follow this course.

For the record, I hate mowing the lawn. It’s a useless pursuit. We’ve all got better things to do with both our time and our resources like water and land. This Washington Post article “Lawns are a soul-crushing timesuck and most of us would be better off without them” pretty much sums up my opinion.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Justin Foell (@jrfoell)

The purpose of upgrading to an electric mower is to get the job done faster, and without smelling like a snowblower repairman when I’m done.
[Read more…]

Filed Under: Cars, Electric Off-Road, Electric On-Road, Fixed Wing, Flight, Rotor Tagged With: battery

Subscribe via Email

Meatball Racing

Cars, kids, and crashing since 2006. Let's talk about having fun, and being inclusive not exclusive. They're just toy cars after all. More about Meatball Racing.

MMR Calendar

No upcoming events

Thunder Road Calendar

  • Open Driving All Tracks January 25, 2021 at 10:00 AM – 7:00 PM
  • Open Driving All Tracks January 26, 2021 at 10:00 AM – 9:00 PM
  • Open Driving All Tracks January 27, 2021 at 10:00 AM – 7:00 PM

Sponsors

Bangoood
Bangoood

Copyright © 2021 · Metro Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in