What The...? Wheels steer to the right after gyro initialized
 

I'm setting up a TC3 for drifting, and when the gyro initializes, the wheels center, and then slowly turn full right lock automatically. I can turn the rate down and center the wheels, but then I may as well not have a gyro at all. Because then I get no gyro reaction at all. I'm pretty sure it's just something small that I'm over looking,[sm=50_50.gif] But figured I'd throw it out to everyone... I need to get it runing by this weekend if I can. Thanks for any help you can think of.

This is a headlock/rate gyro.. What are all of you guys running for gyros?

RE: What The...? Wheels steer to the right after gyro initialized
 

Remove the Gyro and learn how to drift properly :D


Seriously though, a mate had one of those micro RC cars with the HPI gyro and we tried that.
It was great for 10 mins but then it became very boring as it was just to easy.


If you remove the gyro and practice in a few hours you'll be as good as you were with the gyro PLUS you'll have more fun learning.


The last nail in the yro's coffin though is, they are not allowed in any competitions and if you meet up with other RC drifters and your running a gyro you'll be looked down on.



If your determined to keep the gyro though, how does the steering respond when the gyro is removed and the steering servo is plugged directly into the receiver?
It might be something as simple as the steering isn't centred.

RE: What The...? Wheels steer to the right after gyro initialized
 

The steering was good before the gyro, ran in touring car class last season.

I'm new at this drift stuff, all the drift cars at our track are running gyros. I just thought that was how it was done. I haven't even tried to run the set up at the track yet, but my Nitro mosnster truck will just about drift on pavement, and gravel is no problem at all. and it's handling is manageable.

So lay it out for me, how should I really be setting this thing up?

RE: What The...? Wheels steer to the right after gyro initialized
 

If the steering works fine with the Gyro removed there's usually only 1 adjustment and that's for the amount of angle it sees before it makes it's correction.

To be honest though if it's going back to 1 side all the time it sounds like it believes it's correcting itself.
Is it mounted flat and not at an angle?
What happens if you try to mount it at an angle?


Pretty much any setup works for drifting, it's no where near as important as say TC racing.

For a good start though tyres and very soft springs are a good place.
HPI T-Drifts are currently the most popular, they're consistent fairly cheap and fairly hard wearing.
They're also the norm in most championships, so if you think you might be interested in competing it's no use learning and getting used to 1 set of tyres only to have to swap for the competition.

So it might be worth finding out what's allowed at the local drifting competitions in your area if you think you'll go that direction.

If your on a really tight budget though there are many guides on t'net for making your own tyres from PVC pipe.


I found that most of the softest TC are still to hard for drifting.
HPI do some drift springs, as do Yokomo and a few others.

While your replacing the springs you may as well give your shocks a clean out.
20cwt is a good starting point, and fit the biggest hole dampers you have.



That's about it really.
No much point playing around with camber, toe etc until you've practised a bit.
I made this mistake and because i didn't have the experience to judge my adjustments i just kept making it worse and worse.

Usually if it's understeering everywhere it's about perfect.



Cheers
Mark

RE: What The...? Wheels steer to the right after gyro initialized
 

Ohh and TC3's make good drifters.
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d4...s/IMG_3388.jpg



Also forgot to mention that a locking up your rear diff really helps a lot as well.
I used an old inner tube from me MTB and removed the bearings on my TC3, but others have used everything from bluetack to hot glue.


One of the guys from another RC drifting forum recommended the Traxxis friction pegs though.
So i used these on me Cyclone.
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d4...3/IMG_3142.jpg

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d4...3/IMG_3184.jpg

I found these a lot better as i'm able to adjust very finely the amount of lock up, plus they're very smooth.
If i just tightened my bearings to the same amount of lock the diff felt very notchy.


So my advice would be.
1/ Sell the Gyro
2/ Order some HPI T-Drifts with the money you made off it
3/ Lock up the rear diff
4/ If you really feel like getting the most out of your chassis, order some drift springs and carry out the shock adjustments i suggested above.


Hope that helps.



Cheers
Mark

RE: What The...? Wheels steer to the right after gyro initialized
 

you might try turning on your car and the transmitter set the car on flat ground wait like 30 seconds to be sure this works then try and drive and this will hopefully help with your gyro problem it might just not have its bearings yet if you just turn it on and start driving and that might be why your gyro is acting weird i had a problem like this on my rc heli and it was just because as soon as i started it up id take right to the air ad my problem was i just need to give the gyro like 30 seconds to make sure it leveled out

RE: What The...? Wheels steer to the right after gyro initialized
 

I'm no drift expert by any means but I had no idea you needed a soft suspension setup. Could you explain why that is the preferred route. Thx

RE: What The...? Wheels steer to the right after gyro initialized
 

Where do you get your drift springs from?

RE: What The...? Wheels steer to the right after gyro initialized
 

hpi yokomo who ever else makes drifters i would guess i run a sprint 2 my stock setup is great

RE: What The...? Wheels steer to the right after gyro initialized
 

I think the Sprint 2 will be my next Platform..

RE: What The...? Wheels steer to the right after gyro initialized
 

Hell yeah always a good thing to hear the sprint 2 is definitely a great car and theres alot you can do to it you should do that for sure

RE: What The...? Wheels steer to the right after gyro initialized
 

Do you run the same rate springs front and rear or softer up front or rear?

RE: What The...? Wheels steer to the right after gyro initialized
 

the soft s[rings are debateable and a matter opf preferance.

the weight transfer you get out of soft shock springs will actually combat the ammount of drift you get out of the car scince the weight is loading out on the sliding tires.

harder springs will make it drift much more scince the weight transfer isnt as great.

think of it like drag race cars. they use very hard springs up front and very soft springs in the rear to get the most out of the weight transfer.

as for your gyro, you need to turn on the car and the transmitter and not move it for roughly 45 seconds to allow the gyro to center. this is knowledge from rc helicopters.

if waiting for the gyro to center doesnt correct your issues with the gyro then your best bet is to call the company you got it from and file a complaint about improper function, or try calling the company to get a suggested set up for it.

good luck and happy drifting

RE: What The...? Wheels steer to the right after gyro initialized
 

When our cars are setup as touring cars they use very sticky tyres and have very high corner speeds.
This means that you need fairly stiff springs fitted otherwise the car just bottoms out.


On drifting we put no where near the amount of forces on the suspension as racing, but we still need our cars to absorb bumps and the car to roll slightly to give us smoother transitions and different camber depending on the load.


So softer springs give much more consistent drifts and really helps through transitions.


I bought mine from Ebay, just do a search for HPI drift springs.
They do a few different sets, the bigger the N/mm the harder the springs:
#6555 TITANIUM DRIFT SPRING 14x27x1.6mm 7.5coils (Orange/2pcs) 1.6N/mm
#6556 TITANIUM DRIFT SPRING 14x27x1.6mm 7coils (Yellow/2pcs) 1.76N/mm
#6557 TITANIUM DRIFT SPRING 14x27x1.8mm 9coils (Red/2pcs) 1.94N/mm
#6558 TITANIUM DRIFT SPRING 14x27x1.8mm 8.5coils (Green/2pcs) 2.1N/mm
#6559 TITANIUM DRIFT SPRING 14x27x1.8mm 8coils (Blue/2pcs) 2.3N/mm

Nope i tend to run softer springs on the front as when yo accelerate (which you normally are) a lot of the weight shifts to the rear.



Cheers
Mark

RE: What The...? Wheels steer to the right after gyro initialized
 

delete this

RE: What The...? Wheels steer to the right after gyro initialized
 

I picked up some pretty soft Associated springs today, greens and blacks. They are actually from the front of a buggy, but are softer than the softest TC3 springs I could find at LHS. I think I can get em to fit with less spring clips on the shocks. My body is nearly ready as well. I'll post up some pics soon. Thanks for the help.

RE: What The...? Wheels steer to the right after gyro initialized
 

did your gyro problem work out?

RE: What The...? Wheels steer to the right after gyro initialized
 

Well, Yes and no. I tried to get rid of the creep. but if I let it center itself, and set the horn to 90, I run out of right turn on my steering servo, so I just trimed it out on the transmitter. It's only about 4 or 5 clicks. I was mainly worried it would pull to the right all the time. Heli expert at LHS said not to worry about it, when the cars running it will take care of it's self. Alot of guys on the forums are not real fond of gyros in drift cars, I only have about $20 into the gyro.. guess I won't be out a lot if I crash and burn.

I put on a set of buggy front spring all around, blacks(front) and greens(rear) took off silver and gold TC3 springs, really soft now, 3.5lb front, 3.8lb rear, with 3mm ride height clips at each corner, 11mm chassis ride height... No clue what I'm doing so.. I'm kinda winging it now. Drift class is pretty new at our track.. Carpet Oval.. Saturday will tell all!

RE: What The...? Wheels steer to the right after gyro initialized
 

yeah just take it out dont bother with it anymore you should seriously just sell it and 20 bucks for a gyro makes it seem like its a piece of junk anyway and if anything i think it will hold you back more than it will help because if you dont have it your the one actually learning to drift

RE: What The...? Wheels steer to the right after gyro initialized
 

Is the HPi E-10 junk?

RE: What The...? Wheels steer to the right after gyro initialized
 

well this is just my opinion but yeah it is you cant slowly upgrade it like the sprint 2 you have to pretty much do it all at once and that would be a lot of money and shaft driven cars are way louder anyways but hey that's just what i think

RE: What The...? Wheels steer to the right after gyro initialized
 

Depends on what you want.

A couple of mates have 100% stock E10's and they drive the wheels off em.
There's really not much between his E10 on LiPo's and T-drifts and my hopped to hell Cyclone WCE on LiPo and T-drifts.

I drove his car for about 10 mins, then went straight back to mine and wondered where i'd spent all that money and why :(

So if your just interested in driving it's a great car.
Not much in the way of hop up's though if you like that kinda thing.

RE: What The...? Wheels steer to the right after gyro initialized
 

Well.. I was curious about the front engine car. But I like the idea of a belt drive car too. I just hate the price tag on the TC5

RE: What The...? Wheels steer to the right after gyro initialized
 

Here's a couple pics. Raced it Sat. night. First try. Pretty out of control. DNF in the main[&o] I think my springs might actually be to soft. Totally inconsistent when it drifts around a corner..loose in the front, then to loose in the rear. Then the main was starting out, and during the warm up laps it happened... "You picked a fine time to leave me loose wheel" only it wasn't just loose.. the whole center hub had cracked out of the rim around the lug nut... Oh well looks like a set of HPI drift wheels are in order for next weekend. These were only cheap Integy wheels, cost me half the money. First and last Integy products for me.. not worth a crap from day one.. Couldn't fit a wrench between the rim and the nut. Ground a nut driver down as thin as I could, and still no good. Don't know what they were thinking they would fit like that?

RE: What The...? Wheels steer to the right after gyro initialized
 

Holy Big Picture! Never knew how good I looked in my John Deere Hoodie!!! Looks like I'll be joining you in the drift class pretty soon.