mounting antenna on gpm rear plate?

hpcgy · #1 03-01-2005, 08:29 PM

Dumb question - how do you remount your antenna on the gpm rear upper plate?
there is a hole there but it is not threaded
any suggestions a trick ideas??

thanks in advance

Horshu · #2 03-01-2005, 09:03 PM

Whenever I tried to anchor my antenna to the aluminum deck plate, my antenna heated up, so what I did was buy a #4 plastic screw (although I have a different antenna; you'd want to buy a #2 one), threaded it up, put a #2 nut over it, and then put a rubber spacer over *that* to ensure that the only metal is the antenna and the wire. No otherpart of the assembly should touch the aluminum (although probing the plate didn't show current travelling through it, so I'm not entirely sure why the antenna is shorting otherwise)

hpcgy · #3 03-01-2005, 09:28 PM

thanks, sounds like a good idea,
where did you buy the plastic screws??
I thought abot computer motherboard standoffs but they were too large.

Thanks again

Horshu · #4 03-02-2005, 01:09 AM

I found them at a Fry's Electronics for about $1 for a bag of 20 or so.

hpcgy · #5 03-02-2005, 10:59 AM

cool - thanks

Fry's is one of my favorite stores

hpcgy · #6 03-04-2005, 03:35 PM

had to make the hole larger on the rear plate but #2 screws worked.
I used washers to get the height and nuts to hold it together

thanks again

gorbasho · #7 03-13-2005, 09:22 PM

whats gpm?

Horshu · #8 03-14-2005, 04:42 AM

GPM Racing. They make aluminum alloy parts for various mini scale RC cars, including XMODS and Mini-Z

Horshu · #9 03-18-2005, 06:59 PM

I'm overhauling my antenna rig. Basic issue is that every time I would screw on the antenna, I'd go through a 5 minute period making sure there isn't some short somewhere as well as the fragility of the plastic screws. So I dismantled my antenna housing, which doesn't fit on XMODS to get the #4 screw for it (this is a Dean's whip antenna, not an XMODS one). It came with a grommet, but it wouldn't fit on the deck plate. So basically, I dipped the screw about a 1/4 inch into Plasti-Dip rubber coating as well as one side of the nut. After letting it dry about 6 hours. I masked the deck plate with liquid mask (although this isn't absolutely necessary, as the rubber peels off clean) and dipped the deck plate. Very quickly, I put the screw into the antenna screw hole (which I had to bore out with the largest XMODS drill bit to give some insulation spacing.). After drying, I cut away the rubber with an exacto knife and took that off. I've next got to put the nut on to secure the screw and then dip one more time, but the idea is to insulate the screw from the plate (not sure why it shorts things given my multimeter readings, but it does) while being much sturdier than the plastic and increasing the conductivity between antenna wire (haven't had good luck with 18 gauge superflex here, but I'm giving it one more try in a more controlled situation) and antenna.