New racing tank

[drakoracer]

Hi everyone, not sure if this is of interest – a friend and I have been building racing tanks for a few years. We think it’s pretty fun, and we have managed to make it super robust. Pure aluminium construction, 15kg, but even so it still wheelies.

We are wondering about crowdfunding the project, and of course we wondered what people thought about it, and if there are any suggestions.

Pic attached, and I put up some videos here: drakoracer.

What do you think? AMA!

 

[Dan B.]

Welcome. Looks cool, would like to see more pics. And we all dream of having our hobby crowd funded.

 

[WickedFog]

Looks very cool.

 

[drakoracer]

Thanks. I will add a page with photos to the website when I get a chance.

 

[ground_zero298]

What the price on them going to be?

 

[drakoracer]

I don’t know yet. My friend machined everything himself, so depends mainly how cheaply we can get a batch machined for. I am guessing it could be in the $2,000 range.
Here's photo of it jumping over a log, and a couple of screen crabs from the CAD assembly. I think I'll have some time to update the website later tonight.

 

[drakoracer]

Maybe these video links will work here?

 

[Tunedfrog]

These are pretty cool, good luck with promoting them. I assume you are going to add the rest of the details like the cockpit and what not?

 

[drakoracer]

Thanks @Tunedpipe . Previous versions we built up like a racing cockpit.

We could do the same again, but actually I am curious for ideas. We left mounting points so anything could go on top, a turret, a crane, a cockpit. 3D printed or otherwise.

Maybe we design a few options, but leave it moddable?

 

[Tunedfrog]

Sounds like offering a choice of detail with mounting points is a good idea.

 

[ground_zero298]

What is different about this one compared to the same ones on Amazon? It looks like the same chassis the chinas pumping out. And those kits start at $130.

 

[drakoracer]

We built Drako for speed and robustness, we like to drive it offroad at full speed, and wanted to see how fast it could go. It reaches 14mph (6.25 m/s) with a 4S battery and 25mph(!) with a 6S (you need a big big garden ). And so far it hasn't broken, even when hitting logs etc at full speed, so we are pretty happy with it.

To get this far we had to design the tracks so they basically "self-align", or dirt, leaves or just turning aggressively can rip them off. The tracks are solid CNC aluminium pads with steel bolts, not stamped sheets.

In order to get a tracked 15kg vehicle to wheelie from a stand still we built our own ESCs – 3000 watts, 100 amps per motor, no fans necessary so the chassis can be firmly shut.

So I think the biggest different is that it is great fun.

 

[ground_zero298]

Looking forward to the progress.

 

[drakoracer]

Thanks @ground_zero298 . I found an old photo showing the previous iterations we played tested thoroughly.

 

[Iowa_dude]

Ripsaw!

 

[drakoracer]

It does look like a great drive

 

[ground_zero298]

See if you can make one with a robotic arm too. Need one for flipping buggies back over and would be cool to recover scx24’s with it. Pretty much just the base with a robot arm on it. Been looking on Amazon. Haven’t found a big enough one yet. Would like the arm to be able to manipulate 10-12 pounds.

 

[drakoracer]

We’ve wondered what people might like on top, a robot arm sounds great. 12 pounds is not a small arm though, need to check. Have you found any arms that might work?

 

[ground_zero298]

Couple on Amazon that fit the size. I know the servos can be changed out to stronger ones but not sure on the frames stiffness. If it’s capable of recovering a 24th scale or flipping and dragging a 1/10 scale would be perfect. Actually a need for those. Plus pulling wire and recovering other items.

 

[drakoracer]

Found an old video where we 3D printed a servo digger arm and put it on a smaller scale version: