A saying that applies to our hobby.

[trout]

I am rewording this to apply to our hobby, but came from another site and it struck me as so true,

Don't let anyone talk you out of spending $500 on a used sub. That $900 will be the best $1700 you ever spent.

It can apply to our wtc as well. How many times have you heard that a new WTC is too expensive? And that a person wants to build their own. Well that savings quickly becomes a more expensive adventure than just buying a new WTC.

[vital.spark]

Amen Tom! I thankfully built 5 Subs all using David's fitting kits and Subdriver!

[RCSubGuy]

I am absolutely going to steal that about the cylinders...

Yes, that $500 cylinder you didn't buy was the best $1000 in time and materials you ever spent building your own! (Besides, losing your sub in 20ft of water is character building...)

[CollectiveBorg]

Then I'll throw in my two cents. Even if I were an Arab sheikh, I still wouldn't buy a ready-made WTC.

What I would buy is a WTC kit and build it myself. And if I messed it up the first time, I'd buy another one. If I messed up the second one, I'd buy a third.

It's just so much fun-and so satisfying-to build something with your own hands! That's where a lot of the enjoyment comes from.

[trout]

Then I'll throw in my two cents. Even if I were an Arab sheikh, I still wouldn't buy a ready-made WTC.

What I would buy is a WTC kit and build it myself. And if I messed it up the first time, I'd buy another one. If I messed up the second one, I'd buy a third.

It's just so much fun-and so satisfying-to build something with your own hands! That's where a lot of the enjoyment comes from.

I do not disagree with this. The best thing I did was tear apart David's cylinder when I got it. It allowed me to overcome fear from not knowing what was going on and allowed me to be able to diagnose issues because I now knew what the mechanical features were and the specs it needed to be within.

[CollectiveBorg]

The best thing I did was tear apart David's cylinder when I got it.

There is a great person who developed an open-source control board for radio-controlled tanks (the OpenPanzer project).

I'll go even further and say that, in my personal opinion, it is the best control board for tanks, half-tracks, cars, and boats that exists anywhere in the world.

I started recreating his project back when a board based on his design was still being sold by HobbyKing. At that time, my PCB layout skills and my understanding of P-CAD (and similar software) were at the level of: I've heard of it, I've read about it, and I theoretically understood how it worked.

In the end, though, I created my own version of his design. I could have bought one from HobbyKing for much less than what I ended up spending on my own journey. But the amount of knowledge I gained in electronics was invaluable.

I made a somewhat stripped-down version of his board for getting 1:35 scale tanks and other vehicles up and running:



Back then, I could still solder components like that without using a microscope.

I also made a simplified version for 1:16 scale vehicles:



]

At least six versions of my design were produced. I keep thinking that I should make a display panel for the wall:

Lukes original design at the top, and below it, my versions arranged by revision number.

[CollectiveBorg]

P.S. Tell me, where can I publish my personal worklogs here?

I'm a bit of a klutz, but I want to share what I've managed to do. A most exciting experience awaits me soon: how I'll attach (if possible) a 40 MHz transmitter module to my (more modern) equipment.

P.S. It really ****es me off that they're asking huge amounts of money for this old piece of junk.