ASK Cubby – Your Astute Questions, My Lackadaisical Answers

“Servo Question

I need to replace the servo in my Capra RTR, which servo would you recommend that I use? I don’t need a bunch of speed, mostly I want more power.

Robin R.”

Cubby- Yo hey ya Robin, thanks for the email. As always, your snail mail will get ya one of our sticker packs.

Right now, at least for off-road use (meaning, non-racing), I am a huge fan of the Hitec 956WP. This is a fully waterproof servo that can crank out over 400 oz/in of torque. We reviewed the 956 back in September and were blown away. Better still, we’ve been using that servo in various rock crawlers and monster trucks ever since, and it is still alive and kicking butt. It has buttery smooth action across its range, more power than you’ll ever need, and is durable enough for the long haul. Pick one up, you won’t regret it.

“RC Video

Cubby,

Just wondering, what is the best rc video you’ve ever seen? I’ve got a channel on YouTube, what is something that nobody has ever done? What do you like to see in rc videos?

Christian T.”

Cubby- Wowzzzza, now that is one heck of a question ya got there. I’m going to have to actually think a bit, thanks a ton there buddy.

So, my fav rc video of all time? Well, I am not gonna be all bias and start talking about one of our videos. As far as the my single fav rc video, there just isn’t “one” sticking out to me. However, I am a huge fan of videos like This One. That links goes over to the Traxxas YouTube channel and shows one of their Revo videos.

As I see it, Traxxas is winning the video game right now, and for good reason. If you clicked over and watched the video I linked to, it is a great example of how to do an rc video. For example, Traxxas uses a wide variety of different locations, thus keeping the look fresh. Brian is always getting on us here at BigSquidRC to use different venues, nobody wants to see the exact same venue in all of your vids. Also, Traxxas uses high quality video equipment, and it makes a huge difference. Where as nearly every moment of a Traxxas video is crystal clear and completely in focus, most rc vids are a complete mess on the technical side. The vast majority of rc videos that I see aren’t even in focus, there is no thought about depth of field, and they certainly have not been framed very well (that goes for most of our vids here at BSRC as well). Furthermore, the Traxxas crew uses solid background music and they do a great job in editing.

Ya, to boil it down, this is what I like to see in a high quality rc video.

1. Great visual location/venue
2. Every shot in focus & properly framed
3. Not too short (like under a minute), nor too long (like over 5 minutes)
4. Keep the action coming (one big jump isn’t gonna get it)

Now, as far as what is something that nobody has ever done? Well, here are a couple things I’ve never seen. I’ve never seen a standing backflip on water. We tried to pull that off a couple of summers ago, but were not able to accomplish it. I’ve never seen a standing backflip on water in the rc world, and certainly not the 1:1 world, and it is something that would surely “go viral”. Also, I’ve never seen a set of massive jumps strung together. Every video has at least one big jump in it, I would like to see a bunch of massive leaps all caught with one shot.

So there ya go buddy, have fun out there getting content for your channel.

Have some sort of rc related question? Need the worst possible answer? Have a rant that you just have to get off your chest? Email me- thecubreportrc at gmail dot com.