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Old 08-17-2002, 03:43 PM
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Namuna Namuna is offline
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My new Epoch (spec 2)

First off, I bought my Epochs here at TinyRC. My package was shipped same day, USPS Priority and I got it 2 days later! Nothing like getting a toy you're anxiously awaiting in short amount of time!

I'll be putting up a First Look soon (just got finished with all the photos, just need to do the HTML) and wanted to give my impressions so far.

What's in the Box
1- Body
1- Chassis (with a 3-cell Nicad installed battery)
1- Controller
1- Charger

Packaging
Pretty basic, nothing fancy. Pretty disappointing marketing going on there, but I could care less about a box that's going in the closet anyway.

The Body
Sturdy and nicely detailed! Clear body, painted from underneath (no scratched paint!)! Nice.

The Chassis
Compact, has an on/off switch underneath. As well as connector, for the battery charger.

The Controller
Disappointing is an understatement. This is the kind of controller I expect to see with some cheesy no-name knock-off. Though it has all the specific options (Throttle trim, Steering Trim and a speed limiter) and even a lever to adjust the grip position, it has a cheap plastic, unsolid feel to it.

The Performance
Alright, let's get to the real deal...How does this thing drive!

First, we gotta charge it. With the car kit comes a charging station. It's a little platform where you throw in 6-AA batteries and hookup a connector to the Epoch to charge it. Press the charge button, 2 minutes later the charge light goes out and the car is ready to run.

To drive on, I've got a 4'x7' little track I made, using Vinyl as the surface (which I had thought would be great, but is turning out to be so-so) so I put the Epoch down and started sputtering about.

- Steering
Responsive and predictable, but a weakness that's apparent is the Epoch's inability of achieving tight steering angles (understeer). On top of that, a quickly growing annoyance is the rubber, around the wheel of the controller, kept slipping down and I had to use increasing pressure to hold it on the wheel, or worse, had to constantly stop and re-adjust it. I'm liking the controller less and less.

- Acceleration and Speed
While it's no speed demon, the Epoch is quick and gives enough punch to satisfy. Hopefully some other motor options will be forthcomeing though, as I'm sure there are folks that are going to want MORE punch! Yet another strike against the controller, the speed limiter is nothing more than a tension adjustmet against the trigger, which if you keep squeezing negates the limiter anyway.

- Braking
From having the trigger squeezed to a neutral position, the Epoch will come to a rolling stop. If you go from trigger squeezed to reverse, the car will immediately go into reverse and start spinning wheels backwards.

** Sidenote **
The controller became annoying QUICK! So hearing some talk about how the Perfex (MiniZ controller) should work with the Epoch, I proceeded to yank the crystal from the Epoch controller and put it into the Perfex. HAPPY DAY! It works 110%!!

Now, by 110% I mean not only do the standard Steering Trim and throttle trims work, but so does the Steering Angle trim! With the steering angle trim maxxed, I was able to do pretty decently small circles.

And lastly, battery power. The pack is still new, so hopefully when they've broken in a bit I'll get better run times, as is...It takes 2 minutes to charge for ~4 minutes run time. Instead of just gradually losing speed at the end of the charge, the motor also starts stuttering and stopping. One of my first mods/upgrades is DEFINITELY a new battery!

I LIKE this thing!
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