Jeff Hoy, American » micro-t

Building a track for the micro-t

Jeff Hoy — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 08:28:12 +0000

Somebody recently found my site by searching for how much it would cost to build a track for a Losi Micro-T in a basement. My quick and cheap answer: nothing. If you have some old cardboard boxes, wooden dowels, a roll of duct tape, and other typical crap that people have laying around in their basement then you can make an off-road style track for essentially no cost. You can cut some circles out and paint them to use as corner dot and use some tape, string, dowels, or tubing to mark your lanes. Have some three-ring binders left over from school? Instant ramp. You can form jumps, bumps, banked turns, and more with a little work and creativity.

If your basement is unfinished, a concrete floor can make for a great racing surface. Carpet can also work well, as long as it’s not super plush or shag. Vinyl, tile, and wood floors are a little too slick for micros, unless you’re interested in practicing your drifting.

The bottom line here is to use your imagination. Go through your junk and find stuff that will work for what you want to do. You don’t really need to buy anything to make a track for your Micro-T.

I may expand on this in the future. Maybe I’ll create some templates or something for jump designs that people can easily put together.

Playing with macro.

Jeff Hoy — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 07:01:27 +0000

I was playing with my macro lens a while ago. I didn’t have any bugs or flowers or any of your typical macro targets, so I found the next best thing – the Micro-T’s wheels and tires and a quarter for comparison. Just for the record, these tires are tiny. Here’s a picture of the setup I used to take these pictures.

In the picture you can see my Canon 5D with an EF 100mm f/2.8 macro lens and Speedlite 580EX II flash. Everything is sitting on my Bogen-Manfrotto 190CX Pro 4 tripod and 488RC4 Midi ball head. I used Canon’s remote shutter release switch to minimize camera shake. I used my r/c hobby shelf as my table, just cleaned it off a little bit. One thing you can’t see is how I managed to get the quarter to stand up straight in the tire. Well it took a little bit of acrylic glue and a small allen wrench to prop it up from behind. I framed it just right so that you can’t see the wrench behind the tire.

I’m planning on spending quite a bit more time developing my macro skills and I will definitely be spending more money on macro specific equipment. I think I’m going to avoid your typical macro scenes and see how I can utilize the technique to highlight some interesting things in my other hobbies.

Here’s the info for the pics.

Canon 5D, EF 100mm f/2.8 macro lens, f/18, ISO 800, 5 second exposure, tripod mounted.
Canon 5D, EF 100mm f/2.8 macro lens, f/18, ISO 800, 2 second exposure, tripod mounted.
Canon PowerShot SX110 IS, lens @ 6mm, f/2.8, ISO 200, 1/60 second exposure, handheld, flash used.

Losi Micro-T Review

Jeff Hoy — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 08:01:16 +0000

Losi’s Micro-T is the next step in the fast growing mini and micro market of the r/c hobby and industry.

Everything you need is included, and it is the first truly self-contained, travel anywhere off-road r/c truck. The entire package includes a RTR truck with 27 Mhz transmitter, a battery powered peak charger for the included NiMH battery installed in the truck, a full compliment of AA batteries for the transmitter and charger, and some spare parts and pieces. The box itself has a carry handle and is very easy to repack exactly as it came from the factory. The entire package is small enough to be packed in a suitcase and taken with you where ever you go, for those times when you need your r/c fix while sitting in a motel room in the middle of nowhere.

The Micro-T is a downright fun little truck. You can race it anywhere, use it to harass play with your pets, or just bash around your living room or basement. It’s perfect if you live in a cramped apartment. Or if you live in an area with harsh winters it’s a great fit for tooling around in your just shoveled driveway. It’s a fast, jumping, agile, wheelie popping machine that will give you many hours of entertainment.

I’ve been driving the crap out of the Micro-T and it’s been holding up well to the punishment I’ve dished out. You might think this truck would be extremely fragile given it’s small stature. But it’s pretty robust and has taken many head-on impacts and tumbles down stairs without one broken piece. If you do break something though there’s plenty of options to replace it with because quite a few third party manufacturers have created a load of hop-up parts for the T. Aluminum, carbon fiber, hotter motors, wheels and tires, bodies, and tons more stuff is out there for the customizer in all of us.

The feature that the Micro-T has going for it is that there’s nothing else like it anywhere. It is a truly unique platform and market that nobody else has decided to get involved in. Smaller in size than the Kyosho Mini-Z platform and the Radio Shack Xmod series, but not nearly as small as the ZipZaps set. The Micro-T is small enough to be driven pretty much anywhere, but still big enough to be worked on and adjusted. And it’s about the only real off-road micro performer. The Micro-T is an excellent compromise between size, performance, and ease of use.

I’ve given the controller to many friends and let them rip the Micro around for a while. They all loved it. The Micro-T’s size and performance give it a near universal appeal that almost nobody can turn down. I highly recommend you add the Micro-T to your hobby shelf. Find it online or at your local hobby shop for around $80 with nothing else required to buy. There’ll be plenty you’ll WANT to buy though just to make this baby your own.

A brushless Micro-T

Jeff Hoy — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 00:15:06 +0000

would be totally awesome if I didn’t have to completely gut my Micro-T’s electronics. So not only do you have to buy the brushless motor and ESC, you also have to buy a new micro receiver and micro servo. So that $50 brushless bargain easily adds up to well over $100. I’ve already invested $350+ in my Micro-T, I don’t know how much more I can spend. Oh wait, I love my Micro-T, so no amount is too much to show it how much I love it. It’s going to be a while, but I will have a brushless Micro-T conversion on a carbon-fiber chassis with all aluminum parts. And when I do, it’ll haul balls. It’s gonna be insane.

A Brushless Micro-T

Jeff Hoy — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 05:50:21 +0000

would be absolutely amazing. Team Losi realized this and has released a complete brushless system for the 1/36 scale micro line. I cannot wait for this, I’ll be heading to my local hobby shop (American Pastimes) tomorrow to see if they have it yet.

Specs and more at RCeasy.

Team Losi's Micro-T: Coming soon…

Jeff Hoy — Sat, 07 Apr 2007 18:25:58 +0000

0…to a desk near me.

Team Losi’s new Micro-T. A 1/36th scale radio controlled stadium truck with full proportional control and four wheel independant suspension. Expect a review after some lengthy playtime.