For a TRX-4 Sport, the INJORA INJS235 and Power HD LW-25MG are two sub-$50 steering servo options worth comparing, provided their fitment and waterproofing claims check out. On the Sport’s 6V supply, both are rated at roughly 23 to 25 kg-cm, more than double the 9 kg-cm of the stock Traxxas 2075X. The DSServo DS3218…
On my 3m x 2m yard course, the Traxxas TRX-4 Sport handled the tight spots better than the Redcat Gen8. It maneuvered through the narrow gaps between rocks and slid over logs instead of getting hung up on them. The Gen8 is a capable crawler on open trails, but in a space this small, it…
RC car traction roll happens when your tires grip the carpet so hard that the car tips over instead of sliding. A common first adjustment for traction roll on carpet is to apply a thin layer of CA glue to the outer sidewalls of the front tires. If that isn’t enough, stiffer sway bars, a…
If your drone flips over immediately on takeoff, the flight controller is almost certainly correcting in the wrong direction. The usual causes are incorrect propeller placement, mismatched motor direction, incorrect motor mapping, or a flight controller (FC) orientation that doesn’t match its physical mounting. All four can be checked at your desk, with the props…
An RC servo that buzzes without turning may be stalled. It may be receiving power and a control signal, but something is preventing the output shaft from reaching its commanded position. The fastest way to sort out the cause is to take the servo horn off the linkage and try it with nothing attached. If…
Unplug the battery as soon as you see FPV drone ESC smoke, and leave it unplugged until you’ve checked the power path with a multimeter. Smoke at the moment of plug-in often points to a short circuit, reversed polarity, or another electrical fault in the battery power path. The ESC may not be the only…
An RC car grinding noise from the rear differential often points to worn or stripped gears, incorrect gear mesh, loose bearings, or contaminated diff oil: worn or stripped gears inside the diff, a poorly set mesh between the ring gear and the pinion (or bevel) gear, loose bearings, or old diff oil carrying metal particles….
An RC jet engine is a small gas turbine that burns kerosene-type fuel and produces thrust from its exhaust, the same basic way a full-size jet engine does. It is not an electric fan. A turbine alone runs roughly $1,500 to $5,000 or more, and it takes real flying experience to use safely, so most…
A car that runs fine in the driveway and starts twitching at the end of the street usually gets blamed on the binding. So the receiver gets rebound, the car works again at close range, and the same cutouts come back as soon as it’s a few meters away. Binding only matches the receiver to…
One Drone Motor Getting Hot? If only one motor runs hot, the cause is usually something physical, such as a screw, a bearing, a prop, or a solder joint. Tuning problems tend to heat up all four motors. The first thing I’d check is whether a motor screw is touching the windings, because that can…
