This RedCat Racing tutorial delves into how to set up your nitro vehicle. This is the first part of a series of tutorials that deals with familiarizing and setting up a nitro-powered vehicle as well as the basic parts and safety instructions to follow while setting up your vehicle.

The RedCat tool kit comes complete with all the important tools and parts that you need to assemble your nitro vehicle. Get the package out and examine all the package contents. Make sure that your package is complete. The primary tool kit includes cross wrenches, screwdrivers, nitro bottles and more.

Your glow plug igniter will help run your vehicle. It’s important that the glow igniter has enough charge to power your vehicle. Charge your glow plug igniter with a charger that comes with the tool kit. It is usually located at the back of the kit.

Connect the charger unit to an electrical socket, and then connect the other end to your glow plug igniter by pulling the plug in, placing the charger end inside and releasing the igniter.

The light on the charger should turn on which means you are charging it correctly. If you are using your glow plug igniter for the first time, charge it for a full 5 hours.

Ready all the other tools that you may need to assemble your nitro vehicle. You may need a set of pliers, scissors, tape, extra batteries (alkaline or rechargeable), a complete set of screwdrivers, extra glow plugs, Loctite brand glue, oil and nitro fuel containers.

Ready your RedCat assembly manual in case you need extra instructions on assembling your vehicle. This contains your antenna and a RedCat keychain.

A quick run through of your Redcat Racing Nitro Vehicle will look similar to this

Redcat Racing Nitro Engine

Redcat Racing Nitro Fuel Tank

Exhaust Manifold and Engine Exhaust

Steering Servo

Throttle Servo

Central Differential Gear Box

Receiver and Battery Compartment

Redcat Racing Air Filter

Carburetor

The parts of your race car that heats up are your nitro engine which is near your exhaust manifold. The throttle circuit is located near the exhaust area and this controls your car’s breaking system. The disc brake system is attached to the central gear box facing the throttle. The battery compartment is a large box located near the throttle system where there is a large on and off switch to power the car. Removing the air filter (a circular attachment at the center of the engine) will allow you to examine the carburetor.

There are several valves in a race car carburetor and understanding how each valves work will help you get to know your car’s engine performance better.

Make sure you see the Daft Gadgets Article: “Setting Up Your Redcat Nitro Vehicle Part 2”

For more information on Redcat Racing Nitro Vehicle Set Up See Articles:

Setting Up Your Nitro Redcat Racing Vehicle

Redcat Racing Nitro Basics

How To Use a Redcat DSM Radio

How To Tune Up Your Redcat Nitro Engine

How To Tune Up Your Redcat Nitro Engine Part II

This tutorial gives you an overview of a RedCat DSM – 2.4Ghz radio remote control and receiver, How to set the fail safe and How to bind the Receiver to the Radio

First make yourself familiar with the DSM – 2.4Ghz, its parts and its receivers in detail. It is the initial part of learning all about working with a RedCat DSM – 2C remote control.

The Redcat Racing radio remote is a simple radio that has the basic parts of any remote control system: it has a throttle, a steering wheel and a 2.4G antenna that protrudes from the unit. Take care not to drop the radio remote since it will significantly damage its antenna.
The DSM – radio remote controls are composed of a large on and off switch, three trim switches, and a red power LED light and a green battery indicator LED light. The controls also has a black Bind button in the middle, a normal and reverse steering switch and a normal and reverse throttle switch.

The two receivers were identical except for a very small hole found on the upper left hand corner of the panels. The receiver with a punctured hole showing the green PCB is a receiver that has no fail safe, while the other one with a button in the hole has a fail safe.

First, a receiver is hooked to the remote control car; all the wiring is accessible from the underside of the car. The receiver has four channel inputs: the first channel is for steering controls the second channel input is for the throttle controls, the VCC or forth input is for the Power.

The third port is in between the Red and Black inputs and is used for the binding cable.

As soon as all the cables are connected to the receiver and the binding cable is collected to the third channel input power the unit on. A red LED light will continuously flash which means that it is ready to bind to a radio receiver.

With the receiver blinking on one hand and the radio control on the other, press and hold the Bind button in the middle as you power on the receiver.

When the receiver red LED light stops blinking, it means that it is now bound to the radio control. You will then see a blinking Green Light on the receiver. Power the radio off and turn off the power on the race car. Take the binding cable out.

Next power the radio on first, then turn the power on. Then move the wheels to test the steering, the grip controls for the throttle and other buttons especially the three rim switches.

Learning the basics of installing your DSM -2C remote receiver is the most important part of any hobbyist’s concern. Any errors in connecting the wires and cables at the receiver’s end as well as following the binding technique will cost you your race and could totally affect the overall performance of your vehicle.

Testing the controls on the radio control to check for the steering and how to use the normal and reverse steering button located at the upper left hand corner of the control panel. Moving the button to either normal or reverse steering will easily correct the steering controls so that left is left and right is right as opposed to backwards.

Testing the throttle controls is next and using the normal and reverse throttle buttons will fine tune the throttle especially when you need to make drastic corrections on your breaking mechanism. When the wheels of the car are not driving in a straight pattern, you can easily correct it with the steering trim. You can make the slightest modifications to straighten the wheels’ path in an instant. Using the throttle trim increases or decreases the idle and the breaks of the car, but this method is not recommended. Your car’s idle speed should be set using car tuning methods. the final trim button is used to calibrate bow much steering you will need to maneuver the car. It could be adjusted from as less as 0 to as high as 400.

Setting the failsafe on the RedCat DSM -2C 2.4G radio. Setting the fail safe stops the car from going full throttle as the power is turned off from the radio control. First Power on the radio control, set the throttle trim so that the car is on breaks.  Then press the failsafe button on the receiver for a few seconds. The steady red light will blink, stop pressing the failsafe and the red light will stop blinking.

Turn the radio controller off and you will see that the throttle remains where it is. Even when you power on the radio controller and place the car in full throttle, it will return to breaks when you power it off.

Don’t forget to check out our other articles like how to tune your redcat racing nitro engine!

For more information on Redcat Racing Nitro Vehicle Set Up See Articles:

Setting Up Your Nitro Redcat Racing Vehicle

Redcat Racing Nitro Basics

How To Use a Redcat DSM Radio

How To Tune Up Your Redcat Nitro Engine

How To Tune Up Your Redcat Nitro Engine Part II

Yes, you heard it right. Redcat Racing has lowered their pricing on the Hurricane XTE, Avalanche XTE, and Monsoon XTE Models as well as the shredder Short Course and XB Buggy from their 1/6th Scale line.

For you “Large Scale” lovers, the notorious line of Redcat Rampage vehicles also has a price reduction in the Rampage X-SC short course gas truck.

Here is a list of the lowest prices you can find on the internet (the lowest price Redcat Racing will allow their stuff to be sold at)

You can expect the lower pricing to last at least until April 15th. Get em while they Last!

Before you read this article you may want to see how to tune up your redcat vehicle part 1

Let’s take a look at the effects of tuning on the high speed needle and low speed needle on the redcat racing volcano which is using an SH .18 3.0cc 2 stroke nitro engine with rotary carburetor. Before seeing the rotary carburetor, the air filter must first be removed. The rotary carburetor opens and closes by rotating the drum inside make sure that the carburetor opening get is 1mm or so. Use an idle speed screw in doing so.

This is to ensure that your Redcat Racing Vehicle will not run away on you!

A properly tuned Redcat Racing engine should be able to handle full rpm on at full throttle.

If you purposely enrich (max fuel to air) the High Speed needle,  you will see that it cannot take on full throttle. (The high speed needle or HSN controls air and fuel mixture for partial and full throttle.) The mixture would be consisting of more fuel and less air. If your HSN setting is too lean (too much air to not enough fuel), the engine might bulk or quit when you try to go to full throttle. If it doesn’t quit, it might bulk on full throttle, which is a very dangerous thing for your engine because when an engine overheats it gets damaged.

Now, let’s look at the effects of the Low Speed Needle (LSN) settings on the Redcat Racing engine. Certain precautions must be noted and practiced so as to avoid damage to your Redcat vehicle.

When the LSN is leaned out, you will see that the idle will change. When the LSN is closed (clockwise), you can hear the engine starving for fuel and begging for it. If it speeds up, your truck or buggy might take off by itself even if the carburetor opening gap is set to 1mm! This will give your Redcat Vehicle the tendency to overheat, which is clearly not good for the engine of your race car.

If you enrich the LSN by opening the needle (counter clockwise) You will see that the engine won’t start or the engine would quit as soon as we take the ignitor out. This means the LSN setting on your Redcat Racing Vehicle is too rich.

The Pinch test is the best way to check if you have the LSN properly set on your Redcat Vehicle or not.

This is done by pinching the fuel line and the engine should raise its rpm or speed for around 3-5 seconds and then it quits. This means that the LSN is properly set. If it quits too quickly, the LSN is too lean or when it quits too slowly, the LSN setting is too rich. If your LSN is too rich 0 to partial throttle, the engine will stutter to go from 0 to partial throttle or when it’s too lean,0 to partial throttle will fail to take place and the engine would quit, resulting to it speeding up immediately.

For Redcat Racing Parts and Hop Ups see our online store at DaftGadgets.com

For more information on Redcat Racing Nitro Vehicle Set Up See Articles:

Setting Up Your Nitro Redcat Racing Vehicle

Redcat Racing Nitro Basics

How To Use a Redcat DSM Radio

How To Tune Up Your Redcat Nitro Engine

How To Tune Up Your Redcat Nitro Engine Part II

Here’s a simple and quick guide on what you need to know about your Redcat Racing nitro engine and how you can tune it. Before we dig in and talk about tuning the engine, let us first know some basic information about Redcat nitro engine.

There are actually a lot of available sizes for your RC engines like the SH18, SH21 and so on. For this tuning guide, we will use two different types of engine that is most commonly used by RC users. There are 2 different kinds of carburetor a slide carburetor and rotary.

This is a Redcat Racing .18 3.0 cc 2 Stroke Nitro Engine with Rotary Carb.

This is a Redcat Racing SH .21 3.5cc 2 Stroke Nitro Engine with Slide Carburetor.

For a rotary carburetor, you will find a bronze part of the carburetor and this is known as the HSN or the high speed needle which is responsible for controlling the fuel mixture and the air during partial or full throttle, another part of a rotary carburetor is the LSN or the low speed needle. You can find this part in the middle section of the carburetor. It functions as a controller in the air and fuel mixture during idle or partial throttle. The Idle Speed Screw makes the carburetor opening gap to close or open. It is recommended to set your opening gap at a 1 mm size to let your racing car start on idle. It controls the amount of air that gets mixed with the fuel affecting the idle speed to either an increase or a decrease.

For a slide carburetor, the same with rotary carburetor, it also has a HSN that controls air and fuel during partial and full throttle. The LSN in a slide carburetor that controls fuel and air mixture during an idle or to partial throttle is located at the center of the throttle arm. An Idle Speed Screw controls the air that mix with the fuel in the idle speed.

For a slide carburetor, the same with rotary carburetor, it also has a HSN that controls air and fuel during partial and full throttle. The LSN in a slide carburetor that controls fuel and air mixture during an idle or to partial throttle is located at the center of the throttle arm. An Idle Speed Screw controls the air that mix with the fuel in the idle speed.

Make sure to check out part 2 of How to Tune Up Your Redcat Racing Nitro Engine

For Redcat Racing Parts and Hop Ups see our online store at DaftGadgets.com

For more information on Redcat Racing Nitro Vehicle Set Up See Articles:

Setting Up Your Nitro Redcat Racing Vehicle

Redcat Racing Nitro Basics

How To Use a Redcat DSM Radio

How To Tune Up Your Redcat Nitro Engine

How To Tune Up Your Redcat Nitro Engine Part II