Electric boat project - Need some advice

[Lowgear]

Alight, I've been meaning to get a boat since moving to a house with an inground pool about five years ago. Well I finally won one yesterday that met all the criteria I was looking for. Now I have a few problems. The first one is can anybody identify what model this is? The second is about the electronics.

I've figured out that the motor is a Turnigy AquaStar 3650-3500KV, and the ESC is a Turnigy Marine 60A (part # TR-M-60A) The problem is this ESC seems to be nearly non-existent. I'll need to know how to program it or if I need to buy anything in order to program it. I really don't want to spend the extra money but would it be in my best interest to just buy a new ESC?

What controller/receiver combo would you recommend I get.

What type are the reddish connector ends on the battery and ESC? I think they're called HXT?

Last but not least, what charger would you recommend I get? Believe it or not, this will be the first time I've run an R/C with a LiPo.

Now on to the (eBay) pics:

[RC10th]

There's not much help I can offer but that will too fast for a pool, unless it's massive.

Ditch the HXT connectors, they are dangerous as you can plug battery into battery, and are a pain to solder and seat in the plug.

The Imax B6AC is a great charger for the money.

[Lowgear]

The pools not huge but I think I'll be fine if I dial back the throttle setting to an extent that it's controllable. I may take it with me when I go fishing to rip around with as well. We'll see how things go.

Thanks for the tip on the HXT connectors. Any specific ones you'd recommend instead?

That charger looks like exactly what I'm after, I'll probably go with it.

The boat should be here tomorrow so I'll have a better idea of what I need.

[klavy69]

can't help anymore than RJ already did but like he said...definitely ditch those connectors. I cut all mine off and use standard old deans on my boats. That way I can run whatever batteries I have charged .

Also thinking that you will have to dial back the throttle to nonexistant to be able to control it in a pool. My first brushed boat that I ran on some old wore out nicd packs was even too big for a friend of mine's 50 square pond.

Good luck and keep us posted on your progress.

Todd

[RC10th]

Agreed on the Deans, I'm still old school and still prefer them. If you can find genuine Deans use them, there are many many many cheap chinese copies out there that aren't very good. Boats are notoriously hard on plugs and motor/esc's.

If you figure out how to program the ESC the most crucial setting is the lipo cut off, but be careful as if you have to dial the throttle back far enough like Todd said you could miss the cutoff and run the battery too flat. Boats also almost never have reverse because it usually pulls the back of the boat down into the water, so if you end up with a boat that has reverse, turn it down to the lowest setting.

Just make sure the receiver is in a balloon and make sure the hatch seals well, waterproof tape is normally used but I'm not sure on a wood boat.

[Lowgear]

Thanks for the tips! I had a Shinsei Voyager toy grade boat in the 80s, then a Kyosho Viper and Jetstream 800 in the 90s. I ran all of those in a pool so I know what you mean. Then in the early 00s I had two huge gas powered catamarans that I never completed unfortunately. I needed to have the best of everything, and everything had to be perfect or I wasn't going to be happy. Needless to say I ended up selling them out of frustration.

I received the boat yesterday and love it. Whoever built it you can tell they took their time and did a really good job. It does have its share of minor bumps and bruises though. It could stand to be completely sanded down and refinished/painted. I know if I did that now, it would not see water this year and I'm very eager to try it out. The only thing I'm really peeved about is that somebody for no reason epoxied the servo in! So I'll eventually have to carefully grind the epoxy down to remove it.

Today I modified the PVC boat stand I had for the huge catamarans to make it smaller to fit this boat a little better. I also removed the prop so I can replace it with a better one, and also removed the rudder as it got bent a little in shipping. Speaking of shipping, the USPS completely trashed the box in transit. The bow of the boat even put a hole in one side of it. I actually started sweating unboxing it as I was sure the boat was going to be destroyed. Luckily it was unscathed which was a small miracle.

I'll post some pics soon.

[clm]

The connector is nothing but a set of 4mm bullet connectors of a size you would use for most standard bullet connectory things with a fancy double housing. I bought a pack just to have a good selection of gold plated bullets when I was wiring up my novak and castle brushless esc's

And this should be what you need for esc programming,

https://hobbyking.com/en_us/turnigy-speed-controller-programming-card.html

[matt1ptkn]

I had a Kyosho Viper and Jetstream 800 in the 90s.

Me, too! And I still have both mine. Fun boats, but not speed demons or agile handlers.

Speaking of shipping, the USPS completely trashed the box in transit. The bow of the boat even put a hole in one side of it. I actually started sweating unboxing it as I was sure the boat was going to be destroyed. Luckily it was unscathed which was a small miracle.

I'll post some pics soon.

Glad to hear that it arrived mostly intact. Would have been a real shame for it to have been broken. Looking forward to more pics. This looks like a very interesting project.

[Lowgear]

As an update, so far I've done tons of research and ordered a bunch of parts that came in yesterday. I'm also putting together a new rudder for it. From the auction pictures it looked like it had a red plastic rudder but it ended up being brass. That was a nice surprise but I ultimately decided not to use it which has opened up a small can of worms.

It was all bent up so I spent an hour or two stripping the paint off, and trying to straighten it back out. Even though I got it as straight as I could, It's still off to me. Most people would say good enough and run it, and it would probably work just fine but not me. This is where I get into trouble with a build because I make unnecessary extra work due to not being happy with something that can be perceived as trivial.

This rudder either came with the kit, or is something homemade. The shaft used is magnetic so it's not stainless as I feel it should be, and the blade is paper thin brass. The two pieces are brazed or soldered together but weren't done all that well. This is perhaps why it was then painted.

I thought a new more modern direct replacement rudder would easily be available these days but that's not the case. I was surprised to find that a good plethora of aftermarket R/C boat parts have to come direct from China. Also for my style of rudder, there are very few options. I eventually found what I wanted but the shaft it uses is way too short for my application. So now the concern was how is the shaft attached to the rudder blade, and if it's able to be removed or not so I could replace it. I asked the seller who stated the shaft is screwed on and easily removable which was good news.

Now the bad news is how was I going to attach a longer shaft? I need to figure out what threads they used in order to replicate them on the longer piece of shaft I have to make. After deciding that wasn't going to happen, I then decided I'd just drill the threads out and press fit the new shaft. Upon looking around for stainless bar stock to order, I came across bar stock on Amazon in the size I needed that was threaded on either end. Visually the threaded ends looked identical to the threads used on the Chinese parts but it was going to be a crap shoot. I ordered everything, and as mentioned the parts came yesterday. I tried threading the rod I ordered into the rudder blade and they threaded into each other!

BUT it ended up not making a difference. The reason being is that all the shaft diameters aren't what they're supposed to be which is really aggravating. The shafts I'm working with are all supposed to be 3mm but they aren't even close. I'm afraid if I use too small of a shaft, water will leak up through the rudder shaft tube into the hull. So the hunt continues.

[RC10th]

Sounds like quite the drama, lol.

Water wont leak into the boat through the rudder as long as it's above the water line, same with the flex cable/stuffing box.

[SFC K]

You probably got most of your answers however, most boat guys run bullet connectors. Deans plugs tend to melt/separate when running boats due to the high amp draw. I run the 5.5 bullet connectors on my Impulse 31, but that draws a lot of amps. You will probably be fine with your set-up. If you are going to take it to the lake and open it up, make sure you purchase a Lipo battery with a high discharge rate of 50c (Constant)or higher.

HK has Program cards on their site if you are still looking to change the settings on the ESC.
https://hobbyking.com/en_us/rc-boats/speed-controllers-esc.html


Would love to see some more pictures of the rubber and prop installed. Once I see the layout, I might be able to point you in the right direction for parts.

[Lowgear]

Sounds like quite the drama, lol.

Water wont leak into the boat through the rudder as long as it's above the water line, same with the flex cable/stuffing box.

Yeah, story of my life.

This is the fully submerged rudder type that sits underneath the boat which is the reason for the worry. If the rudder shaft is too small, water will definitely leak up between it and the rudder shaft tube into the hull. I ordered some stainless bar stock from onlinemetals.com yesterday which I'm hoping will be closer to the right tolerance than the crap from Amazon and eBay I've gotten.

You probably got most of your answers however, most boat guys run bullet connectors. Deans plugs tend to melt/separate when running boats due to the high amp draw. I run the 5.5 bullet connectors on my Impulse 31, but that draws a lot of amps. You will probably be fine with your set-up. If you are going to take it to the lake and open it up, make sure you purchase a Lipo battery with a high discharge rate of 50c (Constant)or higher.

HK has Program cards on their site if you are still looking to change the settings on the ESC.
https://hobbyking.com/en_us/rc-boats/speed-controllers-esc.html


Would love to see some more pictures of the rubber and prop installed. Once I see the layout, I might be able to point you in the right direction for parts.

I'd eventually like to change to XT60 or XT90 connectors in the future but will be running the HXT ones it came with for now just to get the boat in the water. Thanks for the tip on the battery, that will come in handy to know.

HK was exactly where I was going to get the programmer from but have to figure out which one to go with. I was going to buy a new esc from them as well just because the one it came with is discontinued, and there's nearly no info about it. I've already spent too much as it is so that will have to wait until next summer if this one works.

I'll post some pictures soon as they're always a lot better than words. I just haven't had the time to take any.