Day 2297

 I woke up at 8, played some games, and then l got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  It was a very cold day - low 40's.  It was obvious I wasn't going to do anything outside.  I surfed for a while and then called the gravel place.  I actually got someone to answer.  I ordered another 7 yards of gravel to be delivered on Monday.

I decided to finish the monster truck.  I started out by watching a video on charging LiPo batteries.  Then I got out the charger and charged one of the batteries.  I worked really easily.  I put the battery in the truck with the intent of programming the transmitter.  Unfortunately with the servos centered one of the steering link mounts rubbed the tire.

That set off two cycles of take off the tire, disassemble the steering, out to the garage to grind the part (it was cold), and put everything back together.  The first time didn't solve the problem, so I repeated the process.  When that was done I put the chassis on the ground and chased the cats for a little while.  It runs pretty good, but it's not an indoor vehicle.

More problems showed up when I tried to put the body on.  I hadn't hooked up a wire for the lights, so I had to open the electronics box.  Opening wasn't fun, and putting it back together was worse.  Then when I tried to attach the body the mounts didn't match the holes in the body.  lI was about to punch more holes when I noticed that the front mount was installed backwards.  I ended up correcting a 30 year old mistake.  After that the lights got connected and the body went on.  I did a short run.  It looks neat.  Then I put it away until it's warm enough to use it outside.

About then it was lunch time.  We went to Belterra to get cat food, bird seed, and eat lunch.  We got the cat food, the bird seed was sold out, and the BBQ was fantastic, but a little expensive.  When we got back I surfed for a bit and then started to work on the TRX-4 bodies.  Just like the monster truck the holes on the painted body didn't fit.  I figured out that the back mount was different than the front.  Fortunately I'd purchased extra mounts.  They fit the body.

Then I worked on the clear body.  The first task was to trim a lot of the back of the cab away to fit the TRX-4.  That took a while as I worked slowly so I didn't remove too much.  The body doesn't need a back mount, just some way to mount the magnets.  The front mount required significant modification.

I went out to the garage to work on the mounts.  I used the little heater again.  It made things a lot nicer.  I did a hardware search for screws to mount the magnets.  I also built little mounts for the back magnets.  I cut the nubs off the front mount, drilled holes in it, and attached the magnets.  Then it was back inside to mount the back magnets.  The front mount needed more modification.  I did that out on the porch so I didn't make a mess inside.

The last thing I did was a screw up.  I marked where the magnets needed to be attached to the clear body.  Then I proceeded to glue one on.  Fortunately I recognized my mistake immediately and removed it.  I'll still have to do some serious work to remove the glue on the body.

That was the end of the RC vehicle work for the day.  I had leftovers for dinner.  After dinner I sorted out some of the hardware I have while watching TV.  Eventually I just watched TV.  It feels really good to have the monster truck complete.  The TRX-4 is done except for the body.  I need to mount its lights, but Ellen wants to repaint it first.

I'll probably start work again on the Ryft over the weekend.