TOPIC:

That's awesome

My wife was managing a go live in her company this morning, and she is having her desk in our room when she is working home. The result is that I woke up quite unusually early this morning. And it seems that my neurons are melting right now...

I did progress this afternoon, but sometimes it was more difficult than usually...

First, I did check the data for the bevel gears on the same calculator I used when I did the bevel gears for the Spirit.


Once you know the cone information, it is easy to derive the data from there. First you use a plugin to create spur gears in the proper module and move them as per their definition rings.


Next you pivot them on their contact point as per the angle defined by the cone (check the calculator for this). And you Loft the profile of the tooth on the cone...

And you repeat this for the next bevel gear


Then a mirror for each bevel gears, and you get your diff bevel gears....


Next was the rest slipper rings and spring rings...

(I may need to do the full transmission like this. On the box art there is just this representation (with different colors), and I find it would make sense to have the same with the front and rear diffs as well )

I've put the diff in the gearbox, and I'm not too happy with it. 


I do have to model a few elements which would add into the gearbox : flanged ball bearing and setting system. and there is one of the axis missing. once this will be done, i'll have 5 part to add to get the full transmission done... It definitely goes faster than what I expected...

After my last post, I was supposed to stop the Fusion 360 work... But I'm in vacation currently, it was raining outside, and I have this front gearbox bugging me...
Review all the parts and positions one by one, identified a few mistakes (i'm no perfect), and corrected everything, and completed with the additional missing parts, washer  and spacers. Only things missing are now the motor and its pinion...


At this stage, some of the parts  of the differential don't have the minimum thickness to be printed anyway... I'll try to do something, but when you have .5mm of material and no room to increase this there is no other option than to reinvent the differential. I may eventually do that at some point (I've been contacted by a Nichimo owner asking for a solution to be able to use an Exceed without the slipping differential issue), but for the time being, I'll finish the CAD model, and I'll try to understand how this things work in reality (I suspect I'll have to work without printed gears this time but that may be for later...)...
 

Wahoooo 😲

Added knuckles assemblies within the rear gearbox


Once that was done, I went to the chassis to add the propeller shaft. I had a doubt on the full chassis dimensions but I think i'm not in bad shape


Transmission is now complete... (I'll have to work out an exploded full transmission). I still have to add motor, pinion and radiator material (2 parts), and this will be done in the chassis file, as I need both front gearbox and chassis for the dimensions...

While at it, I also added the servo savers.


Shocks are the same as the spirit, and steering tie rods as well, at the exception of the input rods (and there is 2 of them); sway bars are the same as the front Spirit one.

In short, still missing (not in CAD yet - taking into consideration what I have from the Spirit):
- radiator (2 parts)
- input steering rods
- servo horn
- Midships : body shell, wing, roll cage (10 parts), resistors support, tire, wheel hub
- Exceed : body shell, wing, roll cage (8 parts) resistor support (wheels, hubs are the same as the Spirit)

Progressing small step by small steps...

Had to add the motor on the gearbox to build the cooler component... It's presently with a 15T pinion (there is 2 other positions for 12T and 18T pinions - I'll talk about it later ).


While at it, I checked the pinion was lining up with the spur gear of the differential.


Once this was done, my first action was to check the chassis... and I had to rework the motor cut slightly.
After having done the modification, I also check with the extreme position (18T) to see if it worked


Next I designed the motor cooler. 3 parts : one on each side of the motor, and another that close the chassis. The right part is also going under the chassis and participate as a reinforcing it...



On the bottom view, it gave me an occasion to check the position of the chassis fixation holes. and they were wrong of a 1/4 of millimeter. That was quite quick to correct


I had also a small issue on the top chassis, and that was corrected as well...

Yesterday evenning, I added the shocks to the common file


And this morning added all the rods and rear sway bar. The front one need to be added on the respective files as there is some specific part that also serves as support for the roll cage...


Front sway bar aside, all the mechanical elements are now done.

After my last post, I did tackle some Lexan (virtual one, even though I have a bodyshell to cut for one of the car I need to finish)...

First, I focus on the Ari scoop, which is common to both Midhsips and Exceed if my understanding is correct... I used the same principle as with the top chassis : multiple bodies and cut applied distinctively to bodies before combining them and apply the shell...


Then I had one other complex part to deal with: the body shell. Compared to it, the wing will be very easy.
First started to create a sketch to describe the top view (the picture doesn't have everything, as I added other thins later on.


Once that was done, I defined y different bodies. The platform, the center part, and other additions, and again applied features to each of the bodies distinctively before combining and apply the shell...


Once the shell was applied, I just had to finalise and work on the sides...


And I did not resist to apply some paint to it


(The summary is quite short compared to what it was really... )

Wow, thats absolute incredible work.

+1 for me

Still in vacation, so I took benefit to move forward on that beast...

First, I wanted to complete the wheels. The hub is different from the Spirit hub, so I had to model it. At some point, i noticed something : what I was thinking to be a chamfer with wear is actually something else. I had to remove my glass and look closer to discover nuts ... It's useless, but since I know it is there, and the fact it is super easy to do, I did it


After that, I had to take care of the tire. I'm still thinking about TPU for printing tire, and I saw some videos with some rubber resin printed tires, and the result seems very good... I keep that in mind for later, but in the meantime, applied a profile, a revolve...


Then two sketch , 4 revolve and 2 circular patterns after, I got a tire...


This tire was later reviewed as the profil was too flat...

I also inverted the steering rod ends, so it looks proper now...


This morning, I started the roll cage, and I'm likely to post about it at some point tomorrow, as there is still one part to tackle... I did not finished today, as I got multiple interruptions within my day for lot of various reasons.