2.5KW R/C Tracked Vehicle on 12S!!!

[@Highspeedfutzi]

This might even hydro-plane over water like those high power ski-doo’s.

[@JosephHarner]

If nothing else, I'm sure we'd all love to see it try!

[@JTM670]

i was thinking the same shit xD

[@johnmills8786]

It will definitely hydroplane. With those crazy motors and batteries and the huge surface area on those track I would really like to see it on water. Not sure how turning would go…

[@5.0_foxbody]

i have one of those ski doos and i can confirm that they hydroplane good you can even turn you just lean where you want it to go

[@Roobotics]

One part of me thinks it wouldn't hydro, because while you are laying the front tracks down, water still has some time to get between them and on-top of them and quickly add a lot of drag to the back...but if it doesn't make it over them fully I think it would work, the under-chassis shape might even act like a lifting body. It might need something that is equivalent to the front skis on the ski-doo that is a low friction gliding lifter to keep things angled up, else slowing down at all will possibly cause an immediate nose-down event and *bloop*

[@liggy287]

I love seeing the tracks act as reaction "Tracks" and correcting the vehicle mid-air!

[@ransomxvi]

this makes me think of old video game physics where you could slam into reverse mid air to change your pitch. i assume it's sort of a real thing?

[@DiveTheseClips]

@@ransomxvi well sort of, due to the law of conservation of angular momentum if the wheels stop mid-air, the whole vehicle will start spinning forward, albeit at much lower rpm due to mass difference between wheels and the body.

[@lio1234234]

@@DiveTheseClips this is exaggerated if you pump it into reverse!

[@sjorsangevare]

@@ransomxvi Yes! Stadium trucks also let go of the throttle mid-air to avoid landing on the rear wheels.

[@JimOHalloran]

The same thing works on RC buggies. When you hit a jump, you can use throttle and brakes to control the pitch of the buggy in flight. Come off a jump and pin the throttle wide open, and the nose will lift and you'll land back wheels first. Do that on a jump that'll launch you fairly high, and you can get a full back flip in before landing. Lift off the throttle, or brake in the air and the nose will drop. When racing you modulate the throttle in the air to try and land as flat as possible. This lets the car settle onto all four wheels quickly on landing, and you can get power on and accelerate away earlier than say landing back wheels first and waiting for the nose to land before getting power on.

[@FarmEngineer]

I would find it very interesting if you can add esc stabilization to minimize the pitch rate to prevent flipping it.

[@Barnaclebeard]

Hell yeah, have it maintain a perfect wheelie. (Trackie?)

[@gem-squared]

Was thinking that'd be cool for RC cars. Set it up on a momentary switch of sorts. Guess we could try do it with a cheap Arduino and an IMU.

[@erictheepic5019]

@@gem-squared What's interesting is that it could be set up automatically for any time it's in the air by just seeing when the IMU measures no acceleration (or below a threshold) which implies that it's falling, and therefore in the air.

[@yuxuanhuang3523]

interesting，if you are free falling, that would measure 0 G. I never thought of using that to determine being airborne. Perhaps adding rotational stabilization is necessary to keep it from flipping over

[@zxggwrt]

They have a anti wheelie system for drag racers who got tired of rebuilding the front end of their cars from slamming down all the time. I'm sure this dude could concoct it.

[@petermuller608]

I'm really surprised about the amount of beating this thing could withhold

[@Jacob_graber]

Especially since plastics tend to get brittle at low temperatures!

[@mannythehunter]

Impressed with those gears! 3d printed, hard on the throttle and stopping they kept on going.

[@waynehines1719]

That Subaru-truck at 2:35 is awesome!

[@nolanyoung6271]

3:33 I spent about 30% of my life standing 50yds from that literal spot. Nice tech and cool vid!

[@logantaylor19]

Where is this? It reminds me of Whistler in Vancouver. I'm new to the channel

[@Lucid-Visions]

You have to design a modular snow cat with tracks than be swapped out for wheels in the summer for all year fun and maybe use torque vectoring to steer

[@lost4468yt]

Even just smaller tracks for the summer would make a difference

[@lost4468yt]

It's crazy how much air control those big heavy tracks can give it. Would love to see a huge drop to see it do a flip followed by stopping spinning in mid-air.

[@andsto]

The BMS doesn’t strictly need to be installed in the vehicle. You could have a multi-pin connector and an external BMS that is connected for charging only.

[@fynnli6685]

naw but discharge protection tho

[@andsto]

@@fynnli6685 you’re right, but RC vehicles don’t normally have discharge protection. You can limit the ESC if you’re worried about overdischarge.

[@parajared]

During the yard test portion of this video I saw a bunch of "normal" vehicles parked along the road and then there's just this one lifted Subaru Justy 4x4 converted from a station wagon to a pickup truck-like vehicle and I have a guess who that vehicle belongs to.

[@mathewmantas]

I still have an original one that I want to fix. It's going to cost but I think it will be worth it for myself.

[@Raddlesnakes000]

hahaha yeah I spent the video thinking about that subaru

[@Alex-gg8rt]

You should code something so when it's in the air it uses the tracks as reaction wheels to keep the vehicle level in the air. Could be a button u press while in the air.

[@Gwilo]

5:33-5:36 what the hell typa noclip voodoo was that? snowcat's got skills

[@jacobgold5845]

Uploaded 7 seconds ago! Edit: You should get a spot welder, direct soldering really damages the internals of the battery. Just check internal resistance of one before and after direct soldering to see.

[@blake_schwanke]

Not if you do it fast. That way the heat doesn't have enough time to spread.

[@jacobgold5845]

@@blake_schwanke Well sure, thats why a spot welder works. Super high heat, very short duration. It can be difficult to get solder to stick to the contacts without heating the whole contact up first though.

[@blake_schwanke]

@@jacobgold5845 Yes that is very true. However some folks like me are too cheap to get a spot welder ;)

[@Goodgu3963]

Those slowmo shots were absolutely FANTASTIC. Well done!

[@jasongooden917]

Love the filming at 3:30 with the tracked vehicle in the background. It's like a Tyco Fast Traxx RC car commercial

[@dextrodus]

2,5 kW is an impressive number. Electric Cars can drive 120 kph with multiple people with 10 times that. Or at the same speed with the same wattage probably.

[@foxtrotHQ]

Invest in a spotwelder, don't torture lithium ion cells with a regular soldering iron, it can seriously affect their performance and lifetime.

[@BeefIngot]

I know people need sponsorship money, and there isn't any hate for that, but as a former player, and a very good player at that (purple for those who knows what that means) its anything _but_ free. It's one of the most pay to win games there is and leverages all sorts of strategies from fomo to loot boxes to currency confusion and more. It basically uses every dark pattern you could think of from temporal, to monetary to psychological to social. There are things like missions designed to feel easy at first that take full work weeks to complete with limited time meaning most people end up having to pay their way out, timed events that you have to schedule your life around,artificial scarcity with pixel tanks and more. Honestly the more you look into it the worse it gets. The core game underneath it is quite fun, or I wouldn't have played thousands of games, but free it is not. It's quite expensive if you want to actually have fun, and its increasingly pay to win with all the ways you buy advantage, and they are so plentiful its completely confusing to figure out just how many there really are. From skipping stock grinds to ensure you never have to play a disadvantaged vehicle to skipping bad tanks, to affording better premium ammunition more easily to .... the list goes on and on, but the point is that its definitely, most assuredly not free.

[@lanthan598]

and that, ladies and gentlemen, is why I never, ever download sponsored/advertised games.

[@KerbalRocketry]

2nd this as a former player, also World of Tanks now has Gambling Mechanics and that really should be disclosed in the ad read.

[@killstrees]

@@lanthan598 especially when they have absolutely nothing to do with the video

[@SnapSV]

I'm honestly surprised that there are not any RC Snowcat tournaments. Definitely a fun way to spend winter!

You could just make the BMS "plug & play". I didnt had space in my electric longboard so i had to plug the bms from the outside while charging. You could do the same and keep the upside down driving still possible.

[@ddegn]

Agreed. I don't think a BMS is really needed during use. There are lot of cheap battery alarms which will sound if the voltage of a single cell gets too low. One of these alarms would be smaller than a BMS.

[@Goose_Omega]

I’d love to see a snowcat based autonomous solar rover. Would be a good way to test durability.

[@TekedixXx]

I wonder how effective one of these would be with FPV for Search and Rescue. Maybe in weather where you can't fly a drone? You could cover a lot of ground with something like this.

[@JosephHarner]

Maintaining a datalink for control and video is the obvious challenge there. With typical RC hardware you can't go much beyond Line-of-Sight. Maybe if you set up relays on a couple of surrounding mountaintops to bounce signal between.

[@twt000]

@@JosephHarner Red Bull (Dutch Drone Gods) just did it recently with drones on the Mountain bike urban downhill in Valparaiso Chile.

[@Eradicationist]

@@JosephHarner you can get 4g lte adapters on drones now...that connects to your phone or laptop and then to your remote software for your remote you are using for flying the drone giving you unlimited range...the only limit is the battery life.

[@ddewaard3265]

Would it be an idea to add a weight in the front (and to an extend the bottom) to minimize the tendency to pitch up and flip over? I'm thinking using lead roofing slab as it's thin and pliable yet heavy.

[@sjorsangevare]

The reason it tips over is because the tracks gain a lot of speed when they let off the ground. If you release the throttle at the right time you can play with rotation and make it land smoothly, like he did at 4:48

[@ddewaard3265]

@@sjorsangevare absolutely, but by increasing the weight on the bottom and/or front, you are shifting the CG forward / down, making it harder for that to happen in the first place since the moment arm for the rotation in pitch direction will increase, making it harder to pitch up. I could imagine it would also allow for faster acceleration because the tracks have more contact area. if the vehicle is doing a wheelie, it has less surface area in contact with the ground so all that power gets wasted to slipping and shooting snow backwards instead of propelling the vehicle.

[@chrisschaefer3863]

@@ddewaard3265 Active control on the force the tracks putting out to prevent flip would be better because it would keep the power to mass ratio higher.

[@BPBomber]

I think that’s why the tracks on the Howe & Howe Ripsaw are shaped in the configuration they are; helps with forward and backward roll.

[@sand2096]

You shoud add suspension . You could do it so the tracking weels/un powerd weels are in sets of 2 sharing damper. Btw love your videos. :)

[@28th_St_Air]

Watching it lift off the ground during high acceleration made it look like you’d achieved a snowcat with ground effect all-in-one vehicle.

[@DorsetSaferRoads]

Looks like it could benefit from a little yaw stabilization? Maybe some pitch angle based power limiting?

[@swissfreek]

Nothing says “PNW” quite like an Outback Sport with half its roof missing.

[@twt000]

So true.

[@CraigTaylor]

Impreza?

[@swissfreek]

@@CraigTaylor yes, it’s an Impreza, but in the US they called the hatchback version “Outback Sport” for a while.

[@kip266]

That's the NoBack.

[@yuvallegomotorized]

Cool mate. I love how you control the jumps landing with the tracks powering. Your shoots amazing. I got lego 2s ripsaw. Its looks like 1/3 or 1/4 of the power of your 12s ripsaw. Its the 1 or 2, strongest lego tank ever made with lego. Markpex got lovely one too.

[@martylawson1638]

Awesome machine! I learned from running Battle-bots that they get WAY easier to drive if put the steering mixer on the 'bot and put a helicopter tail-rotor rate gyro in the steering channel. Made me a drift master :D Even tried it on some ice and it still gave amazing control.

[@thinkflight]

Always a good day when RCTestflight uploads....

[@captivenut4122]

Yeah, especially when on that same day Think Flight uploads as well! Love the content coming out from both of you guys. And what an awesome collab on the ecranoplan!

[@AverageMichaelJordans]

Yo what is that beat up Ute at 02:33 ! I'd love to see some of that thing on your YT channel! Also great to see that your lawn wasn't completely screwed by all the endurance testing, I wasn't sure it could recover after watching that vid

[@danielnagler4267]

you could add a distance sensor on the bottom at the front, so you could correct the throttle to avoid "wheelies", like a "tractioncontrol"

[@recklessroges]

Looks like you drag-racing snow cat needs a spoiler to keep the nose down. But this video was so much fun.

[@Jacob_graber]

If you extended the body of the snowcat just an inch or so behind the back tracks you could eliminate the tendency to flip over, like a wheelie bar on a drag racer. As the whole vehicle tilts up, the tail end of the body would slide on the snow and help maintain a wheelie.

[@alskjflaksjdflakjdf]

Another thought: run a curved bar over the top, so when it does land upside down it wants to roll back upright, or at least to the side so one of the tracks touches the ground and the tank can spin back back upright. Right now it is highly stable when upside down, so anything to disrupt that can help.

[@Big-H517]

I really have been waiting so long to see a snowcat with insane speed like this

[@RoboticsSideProjects]

You might like the video of my custom “rc bashing tank” on my channel then. I design a 3d printed tank to go fast and jump! It’s not as beautiful as the snowcat, but it’s fast and strong.

[@Ezra411st]

maybe to prevent as mush bouncing round well on bumpy areas maybe add suspension to the top and bottom on the snowcat

[@chrisschaefer3863]

I was going to say remove the BMS using some connectors so it's "flippable". But I actually think you should add a lever which can flip it back over in the case of overturn. Even if it takes 30 seconds, it's better than hiking to the machine.

[@entropysalamander]

The only good thing Wargaming has ever done for anyone is to sponsor content like this

[@luxmonday]

Battery nerd here with some friendly advice: I like the frames you made to hold the cells, and I like the space you put between each cell... however I'm not a fan of soldeing to cells. Soldering to cells vs tab welding can damage the cell. That's not to say you can't get away with it, but it's not great practice. We put so much effort into our 3D printers, gearing, and motors, we should put the same effort into the battery. There are cheap tab welders out there that do better work than overheating a cell with a big blobby blob of solder. I like that you have a BMS for charging and balancing. Ideally all power would flow through a properly designed BMS, but I understand why you pull the discharge from the raw cells even if I wouldn't do it that way. If your motor controller has an under voltage cut off (UVLO) you should set that to no lower than 2.8V per cell. If you are not using any discharge cutoff you should also make sure to unplug the cells from the motor controller when done for the day as the quiescent of the controller will slowly draw the cells to Zero volts and kill the cells (they often fail shorted as the chemistry eats itself.) You should also put a slow-blow fuse between the cells and the motor controller. It should be inside the "pack" in such a way that you can't bypass it. It can be rated quite high, (1.5X or 2X your max current) but it should be there to stop the insane short circuit currents these packs produce. This prevents small shorts from becoming self sustaining plasma arcs. Oh, and never ship a home made battery pack anywhere ever.

[@j6sj7]

Impressive. Gone are the days when we'd see "RC Testflight" written on the body in Sharpie ink. Now it's engraved direct on the top panel. I'm trying to think like Daniel here, so consider this... Since the latest mod won't allow the cat to run inverted, a long hinged arm on a servo needs to be added to the top. Then, whenever it flops on it's back, a flip of a switch on the radio deploys the arm from it's lay-flat stowed position to umm... "fully erect," so it flips the body over and off it goes again.

[@redeemedrigswheelingvideos8002]

Needs a 'Flip-Me-Over' lever on the top you can operate with a switch on the remote. Excellent little unit right here!!!

[@thijsvanliempd2824]

if the tracks weight so much, why not use them as a gyroscopic mass, and write some code to stay upright in midair (to land flat instead of on 1 corner)?

[@Azeazezar]

Fitting, for a snow cat.

[@Nixqy]

Would be fun to watch you make a similar video to your autonomous tug boat pulling you around the harbor, but with this and a sled

[@callumkingunderwood]

Nice to see the tracks themselves hold up, makes me wonder if larger projects could be built using them

[@jacobdavidcunningham1440]

Awe thought it would be RAAAIIIIIIDDDDDDD Also thinking the batteries could be hot-swappable looks like they're soldered in place 5:40 whoa that's neat it's able to re-orient itself in the air like a reaction wheel ha 6:54 wires look thin

[@matthewgroom8032]

I wanna see more on the Subaru in the background at 2:36

[@MikeStallone]

This build is so cool, and the fact that it's running on 12s now is crazy haha. I just built a twin 8s motor Armma infraction that I'm trying to break the RC speed world record with.

[@jamesvarner758]

Thanks!

[@elilenz9696]

what song did you use at 3:31?

[@bb_bb_]

It's so cool how when you stop the tracks mid air, it tilts forward and you can kinda control the rotation!

[@FriendlyMint]

I love the diy Subaru ute! Had a buddy in high-school with a 4runner chopped the same way Equally as jank build!

[@PlaneAwesome]

Love the slo-mo shots with the life-size Snowcat in the background!

[@CurtSlaten]

Have you thought about testing the snowcat on water. It’s no banana slug, but you never know.

[@Tipsyweeb]

i think extending this by only enough for a extra wheel and using tracks that are more studed than paddle and a bit more narrow would be super interesting cuz atleast in theory thats stop the back flipping and allow you to more reasonably control the vehical and even maybe, drift

[@drnickuk]

I think 2 of these mounted to the bottom of a snowboard would be very interesting!

[@dustinbrueggemann1875]

How to obliterate your knees in 3 easy steps. Would probably be fun as hell though yeah

[@LukesterInc]

2:36 what is that green monstrosity of a truck in the background and where can I get it Also great vid as always

[@YoungTeeke]

I’m in love with the snow cat, what if you folded the design over and made it one track with a U shape from one side to provide a platform which a skateboard deck could be mounted to a stretched out version of this. Then put some foot straps on the skateboard. It’d be the coolest sorta electric mountainboard ever. Even more tricky and cool would be to sand proof it so it could be a sand skimmer / snowmobile - board Or a tank track electric skatevoard

[@gadgetmerc]

just got my TRACKing numbers! I'm going to put ardupilot in mine. Can't wait!

[@gadgetmerc]

When i got the package I immediately wondered, "damn this is big and heavy, did i accidentally buy two of everything AGAIN?" This thing is larger than i expected which is awesome. I expected a killer kit but I'm still blown away by the quality. It's really impressive.

[@qtipextra]

I love how it has enough torque to initiate a wheelie on flat ground! Sweet vid!

[@adamward9310]

I have an idea for this Winter and this build. What if you use Mission Planner to write or draw something in the snow. Then people can see messages printed in the snow. It could be used by ski resorts to print something on the slopes. Who knows maybe a laser could add details.

[@dextruax4903]

At this point I won't be surprised if he adds suspension. Keep up the great work!

[@FrozenFold_Bread]

In the video where you drove the RC snowcat around the actual ones I could only think of the audio of ‘You’re doing great Dad’

[@JH-tc3yu]

Autonomous solar snowcat when. Long range South Pole solar snowcat mission when.

[@jimpalmer1969]

Nice work on the 12S snow cat. I might suggest a stretch to the chassis to allow for the battery protection. It also might make it a little easier to drive.

[@Ualik123]

Will u make it waterproof to run on (or under) water?

[@dfgaJK]

5:38 looks like it needs a flight controller for pitch control

[@Krasniye]

if you made that thing any faster you'd have to add flight controls too

[@DaneGlick]

Cool stuff! Would love to see a sand performance!

[@lemmythebulldog8812]

I’d like to see a high powered version of the terrain twister. One of my favorite RC’s I had when I was growing up

[@planespeaking]

I wonder what the torque output is in watts?

[@john-r-edge]

One great visual feature (which has been there since the early prototypes) is the contrasting colour segments of the tracks. Makes it look dynamic any time it is moving. How about three colour tracks, RGB?

[@aaronwest2402]

Question, couldn't you just use the BMS externally only for charging? Like a 16 pin connector mounted somewhere. would be able to maintain the upsidedown driving.

[@Nici619]

Suggestion: 6384 Skateboard Motors + Vesc Controller

[@miraclo3]

if you aren't using the BMS for discharge cant you just remove it until you wanna charge it? since you dont need it for low volt cut off. so you can take off the top body and be able to flip it and drive it still.

[@iawai340]

excited for possible future flip-over-able 12s rugged electronics unstoppable cat action, cheers dannymane

[@chrisw8794]

OMG SUBARU WITHOUT BACK IS STILL ALIVE

[@kjtemmes]

How about 1:17 gearbox and 12S on old snowcat.? I have 6s and 17 gearbox and its allready fast enough :)

[@GhostRyderFPV]

Wheelie - Trackie? I use those P42 Molicels on everything, they've been the best battery find I've ever made; my cars, trucks, planes, and goggles/screens all use 'em. If you have interest in a 240v Chinese spot welder for them, only used once, I'd be happy to support the cause :) (Mrs. Ghost-Ryder did _not appreciate_ spot welding nickel strips on her washer and dryer, the only place I have 240v lol. Besides, my soldering iron can be in-n-out of a 21700 in 3-ish seconds)

[@brandon45-70]

wtf is that car in the background at 2:36?

[@pauljs75]

Ripper cat seemed pretty fun. With a good bit of nose weight, it could probably be setup for high-marking.

[@TheDarkrad3r]

Hell yeah! Since you like high voltage stuff, you should get into electric skateboards. I'm in the PNW also , I'm trying to make an electric skateboard using your tracks!

[@johanfarnestam7652]

Could it power/drag you on skiis? On a straight plowed snow-road?

[@JeromeDemers]

the orange section in the tracks makes it perfect for slow motion

[@vejl]

Why not run without the bms? I don't fly my helikopters with a bms. I'm more worried about under voltage than the cells being discharge differently.

[@nelsongrubb8620]

A suspension might help part last longer that does not handle impact such the battles longevity from jumps and drops. But, looks cool.

[@fugginrambo]

Bringing back some of my favorite 90s memories. Tyco Fast Traxx!

[@PullingWrenches]

I could smell burnt plastic during the whole video lol

[@nocknock4832]

man this channel just makes me so happy

[@AerialWaviator]

Nice trackie moves (track vehicle wheelies). Wonder if could use a drone gyro to limit maximum pitch-up angle, so could do prolonged trackie runs? Such an option (combined with a foam belly pan) might allow crossing small stretches of open water. A trackie day at the beach. ;) Regarding cell balance and protection, you could save a bit of weight by wiring in a balance lead, and only connecting the balance and overcharge protection when charging.

[@brunoheinich5021]

It would be soo cool if you could control the pitch during the "flight" by changing the speed of the tracks so it would always land completely flat.

[@Breathe-slowly]

All I wanna know, is if you can use it to FPV walk your cat/dog around the block?

[@matthewallen3375]

This is a testament to the durability of the tracks. I can't wait to get my kit!

[@PTMG]

Thanks for reminding me how much I can't wait till next season

[@Stambo59]

That looked like fun, could you add some sort of flipper to tip it over again when it ends upside down?

[@gunalx]

Really cool. A bit conserved about soldering and not spot velding the batteries at 1:50.

[@alttabby3633]

That's really cool. It would be nice to be able to go upside down. You'd be unstoppable!

[@OregonOutdoorsChris]

Your first test drive footage is kind of what I envision how the testing of the USS Defiant from DS9 went... "Put simply. It's over gunned and over powered for a ship its size. When they tested the engines at 100% it nearly tore itself apart."

[@mickeylerch]

Never thought you would need a wheelie bar on a tank ! Lol 😆 that things rips!

[@callumkingunderwood]

Just call it a trench crossing tail like on WW1 tanks

[@alizaimovic]

After seeing how fast it is and how powerful it is I can't help but imagine how would it look if u optimised the design to be able to tow a let's say snowboarder on snow. Think that would be a real sales kicker and a small yoestick you can easily control with a glove.