questtek
05-25-2009, 09:26 AM
I live on a man-made lake in southern California where the electric boat of choice is a 16 foot fiberglass Booze cruiser with a carrying capacity of a half dozen or so adults who are doing their best to help California become debt free by their excessive contributions to the State Liquor Tax Department.
This Labor Day our modest yacht club, The Lake Forest Yacht Club, held their first annual RC electric power boat regatta. Entries were a wide range of RC electric boats picked up at various garage sales and piloted by adults trying there hardest to induce a wine coma. The boats raced through a series of colored buoys and their accurately timed runs were recorded by the stopwatch function of a $10 Casio wristwatch. The speed trial was won by a $29 electric boat and thus the coveted 48’ high, sterling silver US Challenger Cup Trophy was awarded to him…well, at least a photo was given to him.
My contribution to this cutthroat electric race boat regatta was to introduce the (nearly) World Famous Pink Flamingo Racing Team. I think the pictures say it all.
I posted this as a build site since some of you may be interested in developing a similar electric craft. I first built two 12 VDC underwater motors using some spare Graupner Speed 600 brushed motors properly sealed with o-rings. The motors are mounted to some ½” PVC sprinkler fittings that mate via ½ to ¾” adaptor to a larger sprinkler head.
Inside the sprinkler head I have a 3S 1500 mAh LiPo battery pack and a tiny 4-channel wireless controller that I developed. This controller takes signals from a small 4-channel remote unit with antenna to control Bang-Bang style four 25 amp, 12 VDC relays…almost enough power to do some light arc welding.
Button A on the remote turns on the left motor full bore, button B turns on the right motor and pressing A and B at the same time turns both motors on thus giving the Pink Flamingo Warp Speed dead ahead. Some hydrodynamic shaped 1” thick foam provides flotation. The 4-channel receiver antenna runs up the hollow tube into the butt of the flamingo. Range on the receiver unit is over 1000 yards and it uses an FCC approved frequency a tad over 300 Mhz.
While the speeds attained by the Pink Flamingo Racing team remain classified, it is evident from the build that no cost was spared to make these birds capable of taking on must ducted fan jets!
Happy Labor Day Week End Day to all from Professor Joe Valencic,
Pink Flamingo Racing Team Director.
This Labor Day our modest yacht club, The Lake Forest Yacht Club, held their first annual RC electric power boat regatta. Entries were a wide range of RC electric boats picked up at various garage sales and piloted by adults trying there hardest to induce a wine coma. The boats raced through a series of colored buoys and their accurately timed runs were recorded by the stopwatch function of a $10 Casio wristwatch. The speed trial was won by a $29 electric boat and thus the coveted 48’ high, sterling silver US Challenger Cup Trophy was awarded to him…well, at least a photo was given to him.
My contribution to this cutthroat electric race boat regatta was to introduce the (nearly) World Famous Pink Flamingo Racing Team. I think the pictures say it all.
I posted this as a build site since some of you may be interested in developing a similar electric craft. I first built two 12 VDC underwater motors using some spare Graupner Speed 600 brushed motors properly sealed with o-rings. The motors are mounted to some ½” PVC sprinkler fittings that mate via ½ to ¾” adaptor to a larger sprinkler head.
Inside the sprinkler head I have a 3S 1500 mAh LiPo battery pack and a tiny 4-channel wireless controller that I developed. This controller takes signals from a small 4-channel remote unit with antenna to control Bang-Bang style four 25 amp, 12 VDC relays…almost enough power to do some light arc welding.
Button A on the remote turns on the left motor full bore, button B turns on the right motor and pressing A and B at the same time turns both motors on thus giving the Pink Flamingo Warp Speed dead ahead. Some hydrodynamic shaped 1” thick foam provides flotation. The 4-channel receiver antenna runs up the hollow tube into the butt of the flamingo. Range on the receiver unit is over 1000 yards and it uses an FCC approved frequency a tad over 300 Mhz.
While the speeds attained by the Pink Flamingo Racing team remain classified, it is evident from the build that no cost was spared to make these birds capable of taking on must ducted fan jets!
Happy Labor Day Week End Day to all from Professor Joe Valencic,
Pink Flamingo Racing Team Director.