traxxaspede

Hi I'm starting a big year long research project at school. I'm in 8th grade and I've been in to RC for about 14 or 15 months now. My project is on the history of RC and how the technology has changed over the years. I'm just asking for anything to do with the history of RC like cars, radio equipment, electronics, engines, about how it started. Right now my topics not very specific but anything helps. If you don't wanna write stuff, then links to websites are good too. I'll be able to get more specific in a few days. Also pictures of old/antique/vintage RC things would be good.

Evader ---> MGT

Batteries have certainly come a long way. Do some research on NiCd, NiMh, LiPo, and A123 batteries.

Also, cars like the Traxxas T-maxx pretty much gave birth to many of the newer cars/trucks on the market. "Dale Gribble" should have some good info on the past. lol, sorry "Lunchboxer" too?

Barber420

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Wow!! I can't wait to see some of the two page long posts on this one!!!! Batteries are definitely a must to research as far as a good history sequence. Don't forget the change from brushed to brushless, in electric, and everything that happened with electric motors in between. I can't say for sure who came out with commercial RC's first, but I'm sure Tamiya, Kyosho, and Team Associated are among the first. A good little tidbit for you to look into is Nikola Tesla. Many don't know who he is, but the world wouldn't be the same without him. He was Edison times 1000. Edison was, frankly, an idiot compared to Tesla. He invented the first RC in 1896?(I may be off on the date, but I think its right) and it was an RC boat he displayed in the pond at Central Park. Their is some history!!! Their have been so many changes!!! I'm sure everyone will chip in their two cents. Good luck on the projec; hope you get an A!!!!

traxxaspede

ive heard ok Tesla, but not quite sure who he is (Tesla coil? Tesla turbine -vids on youtube) i read somewhere that associated was one of the first to make 1/8 nitro pan car kits. i think it was in the 60's

Barber420

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I know Associated was into 1/8th scale way before they got known for their 1/10 scale stuff, but I had no idea it was back in the '60's!!! Tesla is responsible for the Tesla coil, but also for thousands of other things we rely on daily now!!! Do some research on him for fun, its worth it. Who knows, maybe you can parlay it into another paper this year or in your future!!!

On2_n_On4

have fun and good luck with the project!! I wish I could go back in time and do projects like this ...... can't do that at 40 [:@] lol


here are some links:
[link]http://www.rccartips.com/rc-history.htm[/link]

[link]http://ezinearticles.com/?RC-Cars-History&id=557262[/link]

[link]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio-controlled_car[/link]

WD-40

My Feedback: (2)

I cant tell you much about r/c car history but I can tell you about my history with r/c cars. My first r/c's car was a Tamiya Grasshopper then a Bommerrang then a Blackfoot which I wish I still had, then I moved to a 4WD Yokomo YZ-10. Fastorward to 2006 I picked up a Savage, now I have a HPI Firetorm and my first 1/8 Truggy which is a Jammin X1 CRT. I dont know the dates of the release of cars that I mentioned but a quick Google search will help date any of the missing pieces, good luck with your report.

Access

Acceptance of new technology in RC is always kinda strange. Most of the 'new' tech was already in existance long before it became popular in RC, just not refined enough or commercially available.

Most new electronics start out in the aircraft world and then trickle down to cars. Car companies, racers, etc. can be kinda strange when it comes to the new stuff, claiming it's awful, it's the end of the hobby, it just won't work, it's dangerous, it catches fire, etc. For instance when Novak started releasing early ESCs (long ago) there were many who claimed ESCs were just gimmicks, not driveable, could explode, could never replace the MSC, for whatever reason. A more recent example, when brushless motors were first introduced to car RC you had commercial companies like Trinity spreading lies and mistruths about the new technology as compared to the old. ROAR also played a key part in holding the technology back, as racing was a large part of the hobby and they would dictate the racing rules. Many companies would only release ROAR-compliant products and ROAR's approval process was often quite questionable. But as racing became more fragmented, bashing became a larger part of the hobby, many tracks started using their own rules that allowed the newer technology and ROAR was forced to play catch-up or become a non-factor.

Racers tend to be somewhat superstitious and many go by the 'follow the pack' mentality. Once a new technology is embraced by enough people, it reaches critical mass and then quickly spreads to everyone else. What's popular one month to the next in most areas or racing clubs change aka. 'vehicle of the month' syndrome. But this causes people to try new things, new vehicles or vehicle types become 'hot' (ie. "short course" trucks, etc.) and other 'die off' only to come back in a few years.

Notable developments that happened in the last 5 years would be: Electric RC continuing to advance, LiPos, high-power brushless, etc. to the point it exceeds the nitro part of the hobby by any meaningful performance measure; Spektrum radios or general 2.45GHz radios, a few other similar formats; High-power brushless, $50. LiPos, etc. There is a lot of price pressure on the new technology, especially brushless where decent setups that used to cost in the $300. range now go for $130. or so.

One more thing. Find a local track, take along a digital camera and try to chat with everyone there. They can probably show you some of the older stuff and talk a great deal about current and past trends, how things have changed over the years, etc.

zjwhitrock

I did a short paper a cupple years ago, I found that tamiya had the first "rc" that you could by, it was a plastic model that you bought and had an option of buying the "rc" kit for it, but I wasn't able to find any more info on them besides that thy cost ~$500(1960s $$) and FLEW off of the shelves

TIGER76

One of the UK mags 300th edition had great info on the development on rc including motors,msc-esc,batteries,recievers almost everything!!
It has all the inof u would need for the project bro
The mags called RRCI (radio race car internationa) november edition its has a silver cover..

TIGER76

Heres a link for the mag well worth looking for

[link=http://www.radioracecar.com/issue/issue.aspx?cid=4160&iid=3812]http://www.radioracecar.com/issue/issue.aspx?cid=4160&iid=3812[/link]

It was a great read learning how components have changed over the years etcCant believe the size of the ESC firsted used like the demon in 1980!!
and how early servos had square output shafts lol
and lots were racing on 1200mah nicads back in the day

Barber420

My Feedback: (1)

I remember when I was a kid the best battery you could get was a 1700MAH NiCd!!!! They cost like $45-60!!!![X(]

Specialzed

My Feedback: (2)

I'd do your project on a different subject, you most likely get a much better mark.

Barber420

My Feedback: (1)

Any GOOD teacher will give you a good grade for a GOOD paper. I wrote papers on all kinds of topics throughout grade school and college, and I always got A's regardless of what the topic was. Be thorough, cite your sources, don't quote too much, and make sure your grammar/spelling is correct. That equals an A paper all of the time. Besides your only in eighth grade; they can't be expecting a college level paper!!

P.S. - I just found a paper the other day I wrote my sophomore year in college and got a 98% on!! It was about the PROPER way to wash and wax your car(wash, shammy, clean, polish, wax, etc...)!!!! This was at a private school that was generally much harder than public university too!!! Good papers get good marks!!!! Don't be discouraged!

zjwhitrock

ROTFL!!!!!![sm=lol.gif][sm=lol.gif]

Access

What teachers generally like to see is papers that are unique and creative. If he's the only guy who's writing about hobby RC that's a plus. If he does it on something common like football, sports, movies, or automobiles, several others from the class will also do the same thing and that's a minus. Think of it from the teacher's view, a teacher has assigned and read thousands of these things in her time and will generally get bored of reading the common topics.

NitroVette

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyosho

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamiya

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Associated_Electrics

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Team_Losi

Williwa

cite the sources that Wikipedia uses, not Wikipedia. teachers hate that website

Barber420

My Feedback: (1)

Wikepedia is terrible for research. It's alright to just look something up on real quick, but being as anyone can post information on their it's WAY not credible enough for research papers!!

Nitro Fumes

I originally got into this hobby in '83 racing 1/8 on road nitro. I started with an Associated RC500. That was the first generation of on road cars to have fully independent suspension. Prior to that they were just "pan cars". Other changes that came along was the development of the 2-speed automatic transmission. That was in about '85. Radios improved. I got the very first pistol grip radio then too. It was a Futaba Magnum. Some of the features on it was servo end point adjustment, servo reverse switches, a transmitter module that was easily removable so you can change frequency crystals. It also had exponential rate adjustment for the throttle. Engines improved and got more powerful, servos got faster, tire compounds improved and traction got better. Quick change rear whee;s were developed, eventually they did that for the front wheels. Today's radios now have cordless phone technology that bond the transmitter and receiver together in the 2.4 gigHz frequency. No more frequency conflicts or interference. Those are some of the things that have changed through the years. Other people will tell you stuff I missed, like alot about electric cars, not to mention the many different types of cars there are now too. In '83 there were was no such thing as an RTR. Kits only (I still prefer kits anyway and have never had an RTR). Also the only types back then were 1/8 on road nitro, 1/12 on road electric and 1/10 off road electric. They were more like toys those early off road cars. I also say in the late 80's 1/4 scale gas cars come out. They had them for Nascar, drag racing, Outlaw sprint cars too.

ShoestringRacer

No history of RC can be complete without discussing Tamiya. They started it with the on road Porsche 934 and their Sand Scorcher and Rough Rider were I think the first off roaders that led to what off road RC really is. As silly as it sounds, making a fully functioning off road suspension was a revolution back then. The Hotshot from the mid eighties was the first Tamiya 4wd off road vehicle. I don't know if another company such as Kyosho had a 4wd off roader before the Hotshot)

I would suggest registering at the Tamiya Club forums to get additional info on the history of RC. Many of their members have great in depth knowledge of tamiya as well as many of the other companies that were involved in the hey-day of the 1980's RC initial growth.

I dont know how recent you want to get with technologies changing but something like brushless motors and lipo batteries are really only applicable to very recent changes in RC - thats not really the history of it. Going from the mechanical speed control to the ESC might be more significant (but there will probably be a time when NIMH will go the way of the MSC. I mean you rarely see nicad batts and NIMH will go that way too I think)

You may also want to mention that almost everyone used two stick transmitters, no wheels. Futaba did have a wheel version which was a clumsy box with a hard to reach throttle but that didnt catch on right away. It wasnt until that the controller was better designed that the two stick version became history.

EDIT - One more thing to mention is old electric RC used 4 AA batts to power the servos. Then there was a BEC -battery eliminator circuit - switch that was developed to allow the servos to be powered off of the 7.2v pack. That made RCs lighter and less cramped for space and generally reduced the complexity and hassle of extra components.

ShoestringRacer

Beginning with Tamiya's Porsche 934 kit number 58001, you will find a complete chronological order listing below:

http://www.tamiyaclub.com/cars.asp