Never told you before, but I have a radio controlled model speed boat, long story short, last night at work, I fitted a larger motor to it and a new speed controller.
Time for a little play I thought, nips out on the pretence that the dogs need a walk, uumm the waters a little rough today, but I can go nice and steady (Flipped the last boat) Off I go, gently on the corners, fast on the straight 
going really well, I am most pleased, until the speed controller decides to play up and sticks the boat flat out :eek: 5 minutes later after doing large circles the batteries start to run out and a manage to recover the boat without any harm done. My heart is still racing now :chuckle:
Luckily I had the lake to myself, I dread to think what could have happened, the boat will do about 20-25 mph flat out.
is it a mechanical speed control ? (by servo)
becos no way an electronic one should have jammed, glad to hear you recovered it tho:)
Originally posted by andrew
[B]is it a mechanical speed control ? (by servo)
becos no way an electronic one should have jammed, glad to hear you recovered it tho:) [/B]
Very true, it’s meant to default to off if it looses the signal, there are not any signs of a heat problem or anything else really 
Its an electronic speed controller, I have tested it now and everything seems fine, I think it was, maybe the reciever got a little wet, I am not sure though as its been far wetter before and I never lost the stearing thank goodness, I will give everything a good clean and have another go tomorrow.
Do you have an interest in R/C then Andrew?
yeah m8, used to be heavily into car racing, 10th scale to be exact. Theres a large in door track not far from me, offering on road and off road on carpet both trutam (standard tamiya class and open (anything goes)). Its all done electronically, you stick a little plastic thingy in your vehicle and everytime you pass the strip it counts up onto the race conductors laptop, quite good software as it calculates seedings for the next weeks meet etc… They were generally 8 heats, 1 been novices upto 7 where it was long standing members, and 8 was open (modified stuff 1/10th and 1/12th scale allowed).
For about 2 years i raced every weekend. I then discovered a taste for pc hardware, and shortly after that i wanted gforce 2’s instead of new parts etc…
Its a great hobby and i loved it, been seen as tho i was 14/15/16 at the time i had very little in the way of cash, so my mam got a little annoyed at me constantly borrowing 50 quid here and there every other week. Once i have been to uni / get a job i will start up again, unless i get into full size cars in some way:cool:
Still got a fair amount of my kit here, towards the end tho i sold some of better stuff (speedo etc) and replaced it with cheap stuff. My m8 who i used to go with still has all of his kit, and he had a massive amount, we both sed we’d start back up tho…
edit: just re read that and the 1st paragraph and well the whole thing is badly explained and layed out, but hey:p
Interesting stuff Andrew.
I have swapped out lots of bits and it looks like the ESC has failed, I did another test and the same thing happened after 30 Secs, now the ESC defaults to flat out everytime I connect the main battery pack 
. I have mailed the supplier and he will exchange, but it’s still a real pain as I am off work after tonight for 20 days and a guy at work did the soldering for me.
Ho Hum
Plug for Pandan Model Boats I really nice guy who answers his e-mails quickly 
I think the speedos are the same/similar design to that of cars, this may mean they get hot, but i doubt that, its probably something else.
Certainly if you are running some mad motor on some crazy gearing you’ll need the additional heat sinks, used to burn ya fingers if you were not careful.
I was worried about the heat issue, its a 700 motor with 12 cells, the ESC (Speedo) is rated at 60 Amps water-cooled, I am running air-cooled with my set-up, but I am led to believe that would be fine, the 1st thing I did after the boat slowed down enough to catch it was feel the ESC and it was not hot, its still a bit of a worry, I guess I will only get the ESC replaced once, although the supplier is fully aware of my set-up.
New ESC arrived this morning, just fitted water-cooling as well 
If it stops raining long enough and may have another go in a bit :scared:
I’d be quite interested in getting into some kind of remote control hobby, dunno whether to go for RC planes, cars, or boats
Planes are very tempting to me but no doubt they are very difficult to fly and I am likely to crash it and land myself in debt
Might go for RC cars, anyone got any recommendations on where to start?
He’ll overclock anything 
Reminds M@tt never to buy a
jetski
It costs, I think I have only been once when it did not cost me anything, water and electrics do not really mix, the faster you go, the more it costs in damage :chuckle:
Cheaper than computers though.
Is the RC Reciever not in a water proof container/case?
Or are we just talking the RC Transmitter getting wet?
No, I bag it up or cling film it, the Speed Controller is the expensive bit but luckily its fully water proof even submersible so they claim.
The crystals seem the be the most sensitive bit to water damage, but they are not to dear.
Two Channel Transmitter, Receiver, two crystals and two servo’s cost £40 ish so that’s very good value IMO
The 1st boat I had, flipped and nearly sank before I got to it :eek: I have loads of foam in this one, so fingers crossed it should never sink at least.
This is what it looks like
And this is the one I want to build next
Originally posted by M@tt
[B]
Two Channel Transmitter, Receiver, two crystals and two servo’s cost £40 ish so that’s very good value IMO
[/B]
heheh wen your looking at decent car setup, some guys were running a £500 transmitter and its reciever, servos were bought seperately, usually called fast ones becos of the good gearing and speed they offered and also size, a decent servo your looking at £50+
@metz, planes cost a LOT and are also technically difficult to use. My m8’s dad is into it and i know its not cheap at all, and also the club where you fly from will insist your of a competent level to fly on your own;)
Thats not to say cars dont cost a lot neither, if i went back into regular club racing i’d be looking to spend about £600 in all honesty, as a car and readio gear your gonna hit £350 straight away. You’ll also need it balancing well with a few good hop up options and things like foam tires. Not to mention all your pit gear : spares/tires/charges/cells, Cells can be expensive if you go for a good make but 4 packs @ £40 is reasonable, and a decent charger (lots of ppl had like mini computer ones with fancy graphs etc…) will set you back £150-£200.
IT can be cheap as well, but if you want to be any good/improve and are semi serious it will cost you an arm and a leg:D. Although its bloody good fun and you’ll make new friends and learn a lot:)
With boats I guess you don’t need the precision of a car for racing, but I guess there are some boat racers that spend big bucks
My run went fine 
I had a 4-5" jet of water coming out of the side of the boat at speed, I did not really know if the water cooling would work, it relies on the forward motion of the boat to create a flow.