And so ends and era...

Mattydiah · #1 11-03-2002, 05:42 PM

Well, I was up till 5AM last night working on my Zip. I did the dual battery mod, which made it extremely fast!! I was very impressed, but being a sadist I decided to go for broke.

I attempted the PCB mod and the Max Torque mod. Somewhere along the lines, something got screwed up, and I ended up with a Zip that was just slightly slower than stock

Of course, in the process, I lost the resistors because my soldering iron is just a little too big to handle those super small jobs. So I'm stuck with a slow Zip.

What do I do now? Well, like any enterprisong MicroRC'er I yanked the dual battery mod out of my Zip and put it in my Panther for a triple battery mod!!! Now all I have to do is get the handling straightened out on my Panther, but other than that, it is wicked fast!!!

Anyways, the gist of the situation is, due to my current money situation and the amazing unavailability of Zips, I guess my only course of action is to retire from the Zip scene for awhile. I'll still maintain the ZipFAQ and post here and all that jazz, I just wont have a Zip to do it all on. I'll be a bench-racer, a Microposeur if you will.

So anyways, I just had to vent after a long night of fruitless work and repeated burns by the soldering iron. Thanks for listening.

marc515192 · #2 11-03-2002, 05:58 PM

Why not put a Wal-Mart clone PCB in your Zip $13.00 repair.

Steve · #3 11-03-2002, 07:46 PM

yea, those Wal-Mart Specials are fast. I stretched the chassis on mine a 1/4 inch and now it handles better than the Zip, and it has 2 speeds. At $13, I'm still waiting for the thing to break or get sloppy somewhere, but until then I keep setting hot laps on my track.

PT Bruiser · #4 11-03-2002, 09:33 PM

Matty,

that's too bad, man. You're like a staple here on the boards with your mods and ideas. Dont give up the dream!! (I have rulin' PT Cruisers also!!!)

A few questions. About the max torque mod: Where did you find the 100 ohm surface mount resistors? I tryed some electonic/surpluse stores, and found squat. Also, any tips or hints for anyone else wanting to try it - as far as removing the old ones and soldering in new ones? I read that thread, and looked at my Zip PCB, and dam, them suckers are small!

Also, I forget, what is the PCB mod? There seems to be a few, and many discussions of what to change on the PCB, so Im confused. I think, first I want to try the no-reverse mod to direct more power and see how that goes, before doing duel cells. I dropped in a 3V Duracell battery (non-rechargeable) just for kicks once. It was fast, but controlability was out the window. (at least on kitchen flooring) .

Well, let me know anything you can. And keep us up on your ideas!! Lots of good knowledge here, thats for sure!

hbarer · #5 11-03-2002, 10:54 PM

yeah dude
don't throw the thing away
swap out the pc board
from a cheap bullet or whatever
it works really good
i've done 2 of em
and they're way faster
those walmart cars
fly cause they have
a dual battery setup stock

oink

Mattydiah · #6 11-04-2002, 11:24 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by PT Bruiser
A few questions. About the max torque mod: Where did you find the 100 ohm surface mount resistors? I tryed some electonic/surpluse stores, and found squat. Also, any tips or hints for anyone else wanting to try it - as far as removing the old ones and soldering in new ones? I read that thread, and looked at my Zip PCB, and dam, them suckers are small!

Also, I forget, what is the PCB mod? There seems to be a few, and many discussions of what to change on the PCB, so Im confused. I think, first I want to try the no-reverse mod to direct more power and see how that goes, before doing duel cells. I dropped in a 3V Duracell battery (non-rechargeable) just for kicks once. It was fast, but controlability was out the window. (at least on kitchen flooring) .

I didnt even bother with 100ohm resistors on the max torque mod, I just jumpered straight across. In retrospect, that may have been half my problem, doh

. And yes, they are very small, I wouldnt recommend doing it unless you have a small soldering iron as well. Mine was probably a little big for the job and made things a little too sloppy.

The PCB mod is this: http://webpages.charter.net/mattydia...erformance.htm

If I had to do it all over again, I would just do a dual battery mod and/or the no-reverse mod. Those are both straight forward mods and dont require a surgically precise soldering iron.

Mattydiah · #7 11-04-2002, 11:28 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by hbarer
yeah dude
don't throw the thing away
swap out the pc board
from a cheap bullet or whatever
it works really good
i've done 2 of em
and they're way faster
those walmart cars
fly cause they have
a dual battery setup stock

oink

Oh no, Im not getting rid of it, the PT is sticking around. When I get a new Zip it will be my sare parts car.

TEAM_NITRO · #8 11-04-2002, 07:00 PM

Mattydiah send me a envelope with like four stamps and i will send you a PCB out of a 49 mhz Zip Zap it is good working order all stock I swapped it out foir a clone PCB. If interested e-mail me at ddoggpitz@hotmail.com

TEAM NITRO!!!!!!