Non-Vintage Equipment for Lunch Money

Despite the stated goal of this blog to focus on vintage R/C kits, there are a few things that will most definitely NOT be vintage. Namely, the radio, batteries and charging equipment. The idea isn't to break the bank, but I also don't want to skimp. So, what gear am I going to be running?

I just received my Spektrum DX3C, ordered direct from Horizon Hobby.  I ordered online because I had a 15% off code for completing a survey, and I had a free shipping code for Father's Day. However, I was a little concerned when I saw this in my garage:

Which resulted in the radio box looking like this:

Fortunately the lines of the crease marks did not do any damage (as far as I can tell for now), and I now have this transmitter to play with:

I really like the different grip sizes, and have changed out the Medium for the Large. I've also adjusted the steering wheel tension to be a touch lighter than stock. I had to research how to make this adjustment as its not covered in the manual. Turns out its a simple turn of a screw on the underside of the main body, right next to the throttle trigger. 

I chose this radio for the model memory and the fact that I have a micro crawler that uses 2.4 GHz DSM, so I can bind it to this Tx. 

So far all I've done is bind Lunch Money to it:

The other modern tech piece of equipment is the charger. I picked this one up at my LHS for $35:

This is all that was in the box:

That's it, just the charger & manual. It's a simple AC/DC unit but what set it apart for me was that it will charge at up to 4 amps on AC, whereas most budget peak chargers will only do 2A on AC, and if you want anything higher, you have to plug into a DC power source. 

So how does it work?  In a word, fabulously!!  It's super easy: plug in to the wall, plug in battery, select charge rate (default is 1A) using the only button on the unit, then press and hold the button until the LED stays on red. The LED gives the status: solid red = fast charging; flashing green = peak detection charging; solid green = done!  

My only quibble is that, if it charges at up to 4A on AC power, why did Origin choose banana plugs for the DC side of the input instead of alligator clips?  Of course the manual tells you to buy the 'optional' alligator clip set to charge off a car battery, but this should have been included; I would have happily paid the extra $3. 

So what am I using for juice?  So far Duratrax 3000mAH and Dynamite 3300mAH NiMH packs. We'll see how they hold up, but they have to be better than the NiCDs I ran as a kid. I probably won't mess with LiPos until after I've gotten the next project squared away. 

Next installment will hopefully be about prepping, priming, and painting the body.  Stay tuned!