Project: Ugly Cat

[srislash]

Stuffing tubes bent and sized. I went with the larger 1/4” drive struts in hopes of getting bearings in there for the cables to run on but I couldn’t find a proper fitting bearing. So I sized the appropriate tube and strategically soldered them together. I am also going to try CraigP’s seal system on the prop end. Maintenance will be the reasoning here.



I have the tubes epoxied in so here they sit till tomorrow :



I also got my lipo sleds yesterday (ala fweasel) so they are getting sized up in the background. They are gonna work nice!

[Jesse J]

You’re looking committed now! Super clean job!

Are you gonna glass the stuffung tube slots where they exit the hull?
I would expect potential trouble there if you had to adjust the strut height or angle much.

I love the steering rods exiting one of the strut bolt holes!!

[srislash]

You’re looking committed now! Super clean job!

Are you gonna glass the stuffung tube slots where they exit the hull?
I would expect potential trouble there if you had to adjust the strut height or angle much.

I love the steering rods exiting one of the strut bolt holes!!

I am filling some reinforcement into the bottom side Jesse as well as contemplating tube braces on top. Fortunately I have the BlownAway R42 hull for reference so I’m thinking not much adjustment should be needed. I have a few years on BlownAway and haven’t needed to you know adjustment yet.

[srislash]

Been pretty active on the boat as of late. I made some parts to hide the Rx gear and help strengthen the servo mount

[srislash]

I have been having better performances from ESC’s when they are paralleled. Also more even battery drain. I don’t think anything has to be overkill on this so this is what I did this time:



And this is it all installed:

[srislash]

So I did hit the water with this... briefly!! I forgot to charge the Rx lipo so it didn’t last long (HK ships them near dead). And one ESC is actually fresh out of the box so needs programming, this shall happen this morning and we shall hit water Saturday morning.

I was intending on just using hatch tape on this one but I think I’ll give a seal a shot, if it works well I’ll throw some paint at that hatch.

[fweasel]

All the little carbon bits around the servo look really nice Shawn. What thickness carbon plate is that?

Tell me more about the ESC setup. You just ran power wires between the two and tied the power leads together? Seems easy enough.

[srislash]

All the little carbon bits around the servo look really nice Shawn. What thickness carbon plate is that?

Tell me more about the ESC setup. You just ran power wires between the two and tied the power leads together? Seems easy enough.

1.5mm CF used Ryan. The ESC’s I have found just sync up better when joined. Discovered this on my twin mono.
Both motors lit up in unison once o did this. Quite simple really, just find the shortest path possible to run cable to get them paralleled. The Fantasm shall be receiving this treatment as well.

[fweasel]

Ok, I might give that a shot. This weekend's task is wiring up my ESC's now that I've settled on a mounting location. Thanks.

[srislash]

Ok, I might give that a shot. This weekend's task is wiring up my ESC's now that I've settled on a mounting location. Thanks.

And that’s the hardest part isn’t it? Settling!


Well here is the vid from this morning, I have done some adjustments on the radio since, it needs some tweaking. Be back ou5 in the morning again.

[srislash]

Ok I’m going to say that my pushrod seal idea was a bust. Water pushes thru in a spin out or say a airborne trip.
And the problem here is that the Rx is just inside those holes. Futaba has always been touchy to water for me. Anyway a long story short, I sunk the boat. I did my run and was planning on putting my foam in next (put foam in first !!!, before CG is established), I know this but just wanted to run.

I did bring the boat back after this flip and all seemed good, so back out it went and just stopped in the middle. I went home for kayak and returned to find it close enough to cast the rod and weight to. Got it within 25ft of Dock when it went nose up and then down.
Then the water ski crew showed and I couldn’t get to it again till yesterday after work. I got it but...

[srislash]

So the but...: ESC’s, main packs, and Rx, pooched.
I’m going to try to revive the packs because I got my RX pack back to snuff.

[Peter A]

That's a bummer Shawn. I understand how it feels after destroying a bit of stuff already this year, mostly due to not making sure I did what I knew I should do. Even still we take shortcuts and stuff things. Nothing like having to give yourself a kick for dumb stuff aye?

[fweasel]

oh man, that hurts. Let's leave the balloons for the parties.

[srislash]

oh man, that hurts. Let's leave the balloons for the parties.

Agreed, well it’s all cleaned up, motors with new bearings. Aluminum will always show the trip from the deep. I thought I had a couple choices in HV ESC’s yet here but all I have is the Etti 220’s. Way overkill so perhaps just new 120’s