mdwaeracer

iTrader: (19)

Sorry to hear that HobbyTown doesn't help promote your track. Seems counter productive to selling more parts and kits etc... I used to work there. We would have promoted you then.

Mike Winters

syndr0me

iTrader: (32)

I see more old racers than new ones. What I mean is guys that raced when they were young and then get back into it when they're older and they've got some disposable income. That's how I got started back up 6 years ago. I bet it's a similar story for most people at the track.

New blood is great, and we should embrace it as best we can. But this is a difficult, expensive, often frustrating hobby, and it has to compete with things like video games, Internet, TV, and to some extent, the instant gratification of off-road. Because on the dirt, even if you're not good, you can still get a little thrill as your car goes flying through the air and smashes into 15 other cars on the track. In on-road, you just break.

Lot's of guys have gone through two major races in the past month, and more like 3 if you consider nats. Take a week or two off, remind yourself how much you love this hobby, and then come back refreshed.

Summer slows a bit, especially after the end of the traditional carpet season. Things will pick back up. Keep practicing, working on your game, and looking to IIC as the next big challenge, and you'll emerge from the summer a better racer.

syndr0me

iTrader: (32)

Clegg

iTrader: (9)

Mega beta brite???

syndr0me

iTrader: (32)

Something like that. Writing Python for Windows certainly wasn't the greatest experience of my life.

noyz

iTrader: (4)

that thing is going to be sweet hanging on the wall!!!

noyz

iTrader: (4)

Adam, is that able to do a multiple display section? like race #, positions and time? or practice info? like lap times, # of laps and times,,,,all at once?

syndr0me

iTrader: (32)

That's part of the plan. I've been writing a companion program to RC Scoring Pro that handles all the BetaBrite stuff, and in theory could be very cool. Unfortunately, the sign is giving me some trouble still. I'm waiting on another part to see if I can make it work.

beanforge

iTrader: (5)

This is Jason, the guy that bought Joey's TOP Rebel... As, probably, the most recent person to have "the novice experience" at CORRC, I thought I might chime in.

Have you guys looked around the pits? You are all engineers, IT guys, electronics hobbyists... maybe you ought to be throwing up flyers in your local business parks or wherever those folk hang out in your area. You've got Sparkfun right up the road in Boulder and they are having the 3rd Annual Autonomous Vehicle Competition in there parking lot on June 16th. You guys should DEFINITELY have flyers there.

I wouldn't rule out MHOR, either. I started in off-road because that's what I had available. Once your in the hobby and know that you enjoy it and revel in the occasional frustrations, you start to look around at other facets of the hobby. Short Course is just a gateway drug. There is no reason CORRC can't be their boutique narcotic. Granted most off-road guys are going to explore rock crawling before on-road, but not all of them. Give it a shot.

Speaking of Short Course... F1 IS your Short Course. When I walked in there I was really hoping to see some F1. It just looked really cool from a total noob point of view. You guys should really do what you can to get that class going. It is the most interesting to people, like me, that walk in without a clue.

Loaners. If you guys have some clapped out TC laying around, a spare 17.5, Clegg's $50 MX3, keep it at the track. When somebody walks in, say "Here. Give it a go." A couple laps is all they'll need to get hooked on on-road.

You guys have a great program going there. You just need a little exposure in the right places.

hanulec

iTrader: (28)

Let me know if your project needs any naming help..

Also, just keep in mind the price of that device. With flat screen TVs getting super cheap, you need to make sure this solution is competitively priced.

For a minute I was hoping u where building a fast laps that I could buy!! I hit up John C. Every time I see him...

al dente

clegg's post of the year!!!!!!!!

hahahaha, just giving you a hard time, buddy. you know i love you.

LloydLoar

iTrader: (20)

For what it is worth, this is exactly what happened with me as well this past fall when I first started racing. The biggest thing that makes the F1 thing difficult is just that F1 cars are pretty expensive considering the materials used to make them and the level of tech on them, which means that for guys who have been racing already (or new guys) it isn't an easy class to get into when you see you are spending the same amount for a car made out of plastic as you would for a pretty nice 12th scale made out of carbon and aluminum. The best solution to that issue would be to race the 3racing F1 cars, since they are significantly cheaper. The FGX is pretty cool looking, too, and you can get a couple different carbon chassis for it.

I really don't think F1 is a silver bullet to finding more people though, I just think that the more active classes we have the better, that's all. Adam and Art are right though, this is May and the next big indoor race isn't until IIC. Even as a newer guy who hasn't been around for a single summer yet, it naturally seems like you would see a decline in racers when the weather is nice and there are no big races.

Clegg

iTrader: (9)

Jason, good post.

and yeh, I would happily offer up my MX3 to a loaner "give it a try" deal if we can find the proper way to go about it. I dont need the $50, so if it can go to a good cause, the radio is free to the club.

Take an old TC chassis, build it into a fun looking VTA car? or 17.5 and let people drive that around to get a taste/demo of R/C? the sheer volume of unused cars/hardware most people seem to have - it would make sense we could do something like that. I'll even offer up the BMI 1/12th (which is a pretty robust and durable car, if not fastest chassis on the market) chassis to the cause if we wanted to get a few different class loaners/test cars going. I have tons of spare parts for the BMI as well.

This could go along with the open house concept, maybe have a mid summer party/bash/open house/BBQ something... get people in, show them what we do, etc...

syndr0me

iTrader: (32)

It's currently checked into svn as "BetaHack." I might need to work on that. I doubt it will see any exposure outside our track, though, it's going to have pretty specific hardware requirements.

A cheap flat screen TV is another solution, especially if you can write something custom that displays big letters. If you're just trying to mirror the computer's display, it's going to suck from more than a few feet away.

The LED signs are clearly visible from 100' away, which is deal for a big track. TV's and (gack) projectors can't do this. At our track, with 8000 fluorescent lights, even the LED signs are hard to see in any color but red.

Bull_Dog

iTrader: (1)

Joe, I for one really appreciate your novel like posts. I get extremely bored sitting in a tractor all day, it's nice to read about what's going on with the club and its members.