Getting frustrated with ProBoat Shockwave 26 Brushed Version, please help

[Tamelesstgr]

Ok, I bought my son a ProBoat Shockwave 26 brushed version off eBay from a hobby store. Everything was new in the sealed packaging, finally this Spring we had a chance to take it out.

First problem, charge the 7.2V 2400mah NI-MH with the included wall charger, put in the boat, boat goes in the water and barely moves. I thought how hard could this be right? Green battery light was on. Try charging battery again with same result. Call up Horizon hobby, suggest maybe the battery is bad, or that it may need to be discharged and charged over 5-8 cycles to see improvement. Over a weekend I did this and I started to see improvements.

After the boat started gaining speed after the battery cycled, I could only get maybe 30 seconds of full speed (for this boat) and then it would stop in the water and revert back to a slow idle mode where the boat doesn't even come up on plane. Called Horizon again. Battery is getting 8.8V at full charge, somewhere around 7.8V when the idle mode takes over. I have been getting anwhere from 15 seconds to 2 minutes and 30 seconds of what I call "fast" run-time out of this boat. Just this evening I had charged the battery but it was off the charger a little while. I threw my voltmeter on it and I read 8.2V, took it out to run and it went 15' out into the water at full speed and then stopped and began to idle. Then I thought to myself, I bet the battery discharged a little bit. I wanted to try taking a fully charged battery off the 2A wall charger and I measured 8.8V. Hooked everything up and got 2 minutes of run time out of the boat.

Now my goal is simple, the speed is plenty fast for my 8yr old son right now (I know, I know, the speed bug will come quickly) but to learn the basics, this is a good platform for us. I would just like longer run times. From my reading I see that I can step up to a 7.2V or 8.4V NI-MH with the ProBoat ESC in this set up. Also going up to 5000mah should increase my run time correct?

I am sure people will tell me to go LIPO, and maybe in time, but I honestly just need to know:

Do I need a better battery charger? (Was thinking of getting a unit that can charge NI-MH and LIPO for future upgrades, other boats/trucks)
Should I go with the 7.2V or 8.4V 5000mah battery?

Thanks,
Ken

[bigcam406]

sounds to me that your ESC is to blame,not the battery.also,have you lubed the flexshaft and checked it for binding? if your flexshaft is fine,i'd be checking into getting another ESC to try.

[Tamelesstgr]

I have removed the flex shaft and greased as well. I all ready ordered and installed a new ESC, and it is exibiting the same problem as before, leading me to believe that the original ESC was not the culprit.

[kfxguy]

Is the switch on the esc that switches from lipo to Nimh set to lipo cutoff?

[Tamelesstgr]

The selector switch is set to NiMH when running, I only have a NiMH battery pack. Instruction booklet states: Connect a fully charged battery to the ESC. Set Battery chemistry switch to the approperiate setting: ON=Li-Po / OFF=Ni-MH. Please tell me I am doing this correctly.

[Tamelesstgr]

from ProBoat website:

Configure Your Speed Control

Many of the latest Pro Boat models include a brushless motor system and programmable electronic speed control, or ESC. The programming allows you to alter the cutoff voltage of the ESC to protect your batteries from over-discharging. If you are going to use Ni-MH batteries, then there's nothing you'll need to do. If, however, you're going to use any of the latest generation of high-performance Li-Po battery packs, you'll need to program the ESC with the proper profile for Li-Po batteries. There are two different ways you can set up and configure your ESC, thanks to the fact that Pro Boat makes this a simple process. There are two different programming methods depending on your ESC. One is a simple toggle switch that allows you to quickly switch from a NiMH to Li-Po cutoff. The other option is to program your ESC through the use of their ESC Programming Module. This module will also make it possible for you to activate braking, set cutoff preferences and choose throttle curves. Even if you're not using Li-Po batteries, this is still a helpful tool to have at your disposal.

[kfxguy]

Well i tried. you might have a bad battery. try a different battery.

[Luck as a Constant]

Battery is junk

[Tamelesstgr]

Called Horizon, they suggest hooking up the battery directly to the leads of the motor and see if the motor dies about the same time as the previous runs. This would help diagnose if the battery is bad, and I hope so, I have a hard time believing that two new ESC's are bad. Other thing they mentioned is that the LiPo/NiMH switch could be labelled wrong, they had a few calls regarding that. Two more things to check tonight.

[Tamelesstgr]

LiPo cut-off switch didn't seem to solve any issues. Also ran a fully charged battery directly to the motor while in a kiddie pool to simulate a load on the motor. Hard to say if the motor behaved the same way it does in the water. I guess my next course of action is a new battery.

[bigcam406]

try a new 8.4 battery,with a mah rating of at least 5000.they're pretty cheap.

[Tamelesstgr]

A new Venom 7.2V 3000mah resulted in a constant full throttle run time of 6 minutes, which made my son and I very happy. I ordered an 8.4V 5000mah, so we should be all set!

[Luck as a Constant]

Ding ding!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Tamelesstgr]

Now I have an extra perfectly good speed control........I guess I should look for a cheap ProBoat parts boat and race my boy!

[Tamelesstgr]

8.4V 5000mah resulted in 8 minutes of run time. Motor and battery were pretty warm, I need to investigate why I am getting water in the boat as well. Need to pull the propshaft and re-grease.