How high tech can a piece of foam be to protect the receiver or
battery of your model? Actually, by starting with an open
mind and a clean sheet of paper we can do a lot to make things
better!
First, we begin by ditching the cheap plastic-type open-cell
foam most commonly employed for this by the unknowing.
Frankly, while it's cheap and readily available, it leaves a
lot to be desired when it comes to protecting a $150 receiver or
$75 battery. Why? Simply because it's been designed for
a completely different purpose, i.e. low frequency events -
like padding for something being dropped from 3 feet while
enclosed in a cardboard box! However, engines turning 17k RPM
are, by definition, high frequency events, which play havoc on
delicate electronics when wrapped with the wrong material. So
basically, we need to match the right material to the job.
We turned to a more sophisticated, though costly, closed-cell
foam-rubber material, which has been expressly
designed for high frequency vibration isolation. Added
to this, recognizing the need to occasionally open the foam wrap,
i.e. for unplugging a servo, or swapping out a switch, we
opted to ditch the lowly rubber bands usually used and
instead turned to that marvel of the space age, Velcro. While
we were at it, we designed a molded plastic d-ring
to make securing the strap easier, i.e. for holding the
foam rubber wrap closed.
- High tech closed-cell rubber-foam
- Velcro closure with d-ring
- Coordinating colors
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