ASK Cubby- You Ask The Questions, I Scratch My Head

“LiPo Charger loudness, metric system

Hello,

I read you might do a LiPo Charger Shootout. I recently bought a SkyRC DC100 and was very unhappy with the loud fans. So when you do a review of a charger could you rate the loudness, please.

I like your news and reviews, sometimes you write length in inch and cm, sometimes inch, only. For your foreign readers like me, can you give the additional metric values more often?

with kind regards

Stefan W.”

Cubby- Ya know Stefan, when I was younger I never really noticed how loud chargers were. Or perhaps, they just didn’t put out enough wattage to require a huge fan to keep them cool. But in the last 10 years or so, I too have noticed that some chargers and power supplies are crazy loud. Like, make me want to beat them with a hammer kind of loud.

I was at an indoor race last winter where it was even worse than normal. Those indoor on-road guys think they gotta charge everything at 80 amps, so the pits were filled with crazy chargers and power supplies. Heck, you couldn’t even hear the PA system. I could even hear them outside!

In my old age that kind of thing drives me crazy, so yes indeed Stefan, when we do our next charger shootout we will make sure we denote which ones can quietly charge in your garage, and which ones are loud enough to give you hearing damage.

BTW, my personal charging set-up was based Primarily on loudness. For a power supply I run a Racers Edge PRIME 30. It isn’t especially powerful, but has more than enough yank for most charging duties. Plus, it is dead quiet at low charge rates and when the fan does have to kick on, it is very quiet. The same can be said for the charger I use, an iCharger 308. It doesn’t give a particularly good charge, and it is a PITA to use, but it sure is quiet.

Oh and… about adding metric values. Yes, we often forget what a large part of our readership is from overseas. I will see what I can do about listing both Imperial and Metric units to our reviews, press releases, etc.

“RTR -Ready to run or TBYR- Tune before you run

Gorning Mr Cubby, Thomas here from Sweden..genuine Basher. I always read your reports they are state of the art. Been reading, looking on ya YT clips since the Mental RC18 with the classic Mamba micro and the 8000 rpm back in the old days.

Nuf about that, RTR, ARR, I am a retired racer and have been doing this for the last 33 years. I love to build high-end kits- shim the diffs, (which normally are included), so they will last. I do the same on my RTRs, I dont even run 1 meter before I go through the diffs.

Any thoughts Mr C why people don’t do this, first thing. Or why the manufacturer don’t include a bag of this almost a must have part, to get the cars transmission in good shape.

Have a superb weekend

Thomas P.”

Cubby- My dearest buddy Thomas, you are a true hobbyist. You enjoy taking your cars apart and making sure they are 100% ready for battle. However, the vast majority of bashers, at least now days, are not that way. They want maximum convenience and minimum fuss.

Also… as much as some of the elitist on the boards might think otherwise, most RTRs are assembled quite well now days. The big manufacturers have spent TONS of time and money to make sure their cars/trucks are assembled properly.

So here comes your answer…

If a RTR is assembled pretty close to perfect out of the box, and the average Joe Blow is likely to never see the insides of his diffs, you can’t expect the manufacturers to include things like diff shims. They also know that people like you, the hardcore/true hobbyist, will either have some extra shims sitting in his toolbox, or that you will be willing to make a hobby shop run to buy a set when you do feel like tearing things apart.

I totally agree with ya Thomas, whether it is a Factory Edition KTM 450 SX-F, or a new RTR rc car, they should be gone through quite thoroughly before being run if you truly want to get maximum life and performance out of them. However, most are not and still end up running quite well.

It’s a WRAP, yet another ASK Cubby is in the books. Be cool like the guys above and shoot me your question/rant/whatever. The email addy you want is thecubreportrc at gmail dot com. Until next week, go fast, crash hard, break lots of parts.

YOUR Cub Reporter