A Day of Fustration

[keysguy]

Posted this on the new forum but thought I would post here as well....

I got my Pursuit from Kintech Racing yesterday and the radio gear, servos, battery and charger came today. Life is good right? Well not really.....

The boat came in on Monday by noon via Fed Ex. I carefully unpacked it looked at everything, and looked it over. Funny how the smell of a new boat and a new RC boat are about the same. This produced a big smile on my face. In the boat came 3 rolls of tape, One 3M white electricians tape and two small rolls of what look like clear Scotch tape. What are they for? After oo-hing and ah-hing for 15 min. I packed it back up until the rest of the stuff needed to run came in.

This evening the UPS man (I'm the last on the UPS route) I carefully unpacked the new 2.4 radio, servos, battery charger and battery. I figured a good place to start was with the battery and charger. I read the manual, unpacked the battery and started following directions. It starts going downhill from here. I plugged the battery into the charger (Venom Pro charger and Venom 4s 14.8 500025c battery) The battery charger keeps beeping and telling me there is a "connection issue" I read, re-read and try again and again. Same results over and over try plugging and unplugging. No dice. The internet is our friend and a quick Google search located several threads on several forums that helped. Apparently you need to plug in the main battery leads as well as the "balance wires". Not a word of that mentioned in the handy booklet that came with the charger. I quickly figured out the battery has no ends, just wires that have been cut and capped, so therefore I was not going to be charging it. I took the battery back to the boat to look and see what kind of connector I was going to need to connect to the boat. With the help of Google I now know I have "deans" connections. I guess need to solder "deans" connectors onto the battery leads? Somebody please tell me if that is the wrong assumption. I also discovered that the battery does not fit into the boat well. There is foam cut to fit and pushed into the bow. I guess the easy solution is to cut the foam out so the battery fits. How snug can I do this? Do I have a worry that the battery will get to warm and melt the foam? Or did I order the wrong battery? If so should I return it and get a different one?

Thanks for any help,
Keysguy

[Basstronics]

Hell if that is as bad as you have it- then you got it good.

I dont run Deans anymore- stepped up to the XT60's. With that battery people are going to suggest to use 5.5mm bullet connectors more than likely. While these are probably the best bet they are not newbie friendly (yes Im a newbie too).

Color coding the wiring with shrink wrap is the best solution Im aware of.

[BHChieftain]

Most of these boats are shipped to you assuming you will be customing the components somewhat to fit your needs. For example, most lipos are shipped without any connectors on the mains, because there are just too many connector options out there. You'll need charging leads that match your battery connectors as well (time to bone up on soldering skills. Be sure never to use acid core resin solder with electronics by the way...)

I don't know offhand if 1 single 4S pack is the right pack for your particular boat... hopefully others will chime in on that. Regarding heat, it is ok if the foam is touching the pack as your goal is to set up the boat so the pack doesn't get hot in the first place (easiest way to modulate heat is by starting with smaller props and working your way up until you find some heat problem you can't resolve).

If you are running a 4S lipo pack, Deans are going to be too small to handle the current and the connectors will get too hot (note, many of these boats were bulit assuming you'd be running NIMH packs, so you'll often see Dean connectors for the ESC). Go with at least 5.5mm bullets, or EC5 connectors. I use 6mm myself.

The clear tape is for sealing your hatch to make it waterproof and secure when you run it. Do not rely only on magnets to hold your hatch on.

Happy boating!

Chief

[electric]

I had a pursuit, but not the one from Kintec. I too would recomend going with the 5.5 bullets. You can buy them here at offshore. They actually will be easier to solder than the deans connectors and will handle way more amperage.

I originally ran nothing but deans connectors in the begining and they are great connectors to a point. But once you start running bigger boats(like your pursuit) you would do well to go with the bigger 5.5's. Here is the basic thing with your deans. Since you already have the esc set up that way just solder the deans on to your battery and then see how it goes. What will happen is the solder will melt if you are pulling to many amps and the wire will unattach from the deans connector. That started happening to me with the very boat you are runnning, so I made the switch to the 5.5's at that time. The only down side is you can "short" things out if you are are not paying attention. You know, stupid things, like talking and then pluggin the positive and the negative together for the battery rather than to the esc!!! You will see an arc weld and a pop that will cause you to pay VERY close attentionthe next time.

A word about your battery. C ratings are very important. The battery you purchased has a rather low C rating for a boat your size it may work ok, but it is more likely to "puff". I would recommend you look at turnigy lipo's that are rated at 40c to 50c.

I would also say two 14.8 packs run in parallel would be ideal, but one will probably work if it is a good battery. At this point, since you have the battery, just go for it and see how it does.

[electric]

One more thing. If you have never soldered and you just want to "play" with your boat quickly. You can get this battery on ebay. This is a good brand with a deans plug on it so you can just buy it and go try it out. You can get these batteries much cheaper from the vendor, but then you are back to the solder issue.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Nano-5000mah-2S-7-4v-25C-50c-Lipo-BATTERY-TRAXXAS-DEANS-/200602774016?pt=Radio_Control_Parts_Accessories&hash=item2eb4db6a00

Oops, the above is a 7.4v (2s) battery. Of course two of these will yield 14.8volts in a series. They do sell a 14.8 volt version as well, but could not locate ones with a deans connector already soldered. I am asuming you have not soldered much, so trying to locate something that is ready to go for you.
Have fun!

[keysguy]

Getting closer to a run with the boat. Today I soldered the 5.5mm connectors. charged the battery, replaced the 2 piece shaft with the one piece one. The transmitter and receiver are all set. Steering works.

I do have one problem. It could be a major one. When I connect the battery wires I get a VERY large arc. I have not left them connected because of the arc. red to red and black is to black. I disconnected the wires to the motor and tried connecting with the same result. Any ideas?

Thanks,
Keysguy

[Alexgar]

All my escs arc to it's the caps charging up

[Make-a-Wake]

Hell if that is as bad as you have it- then you got it good.

My thoughts exactly! Heck, i thought he was gonna tell a story about the boat going up in flames and how he paddled out to it in his canoe, and tipped over ruining his cell phone, dropping his reciever in the lake as well, and bobbing in the water in his life vest while the boat slowly did the "titanic"

You will have quite a "pop" when connecting............imagine when i connect my 9s batts up..............

[Diesel6401]

Getting closer to a run with the boat. Today I soldered the 5.5mm connectors. charged the battery, replaced the 2 piece shaft with the one piece one. The transmitter and receiver are all set. Steering works.

I do have one problem. It could be a major one. When I connect the battery wires I get a VERY large arc. I have not left them connected because of the arc. red to red and black is to black. I disconnected the wires to the motor and tried connecting with the same result. Any ideas?

Thanks,
Keysguy

Like mentioned the arc is normal. Just commit to plugging it in. Not a problem at all. Once you get the boat hooked up correctly she will run like a dream! http://forums.offshoreelectrics.com/...ad.php?t=24874

[keysguy]

Glad to hear that the arc is normal. I figured I had screwed something up and was going to spend more $$. (and get and earful from the GF) This is already way over budget. I'll hopefully be ready for a test run this afternoon.

make-a-wake, this is frustrating not tragic...yet. Tragic is unpacking a new RC heli charging the battery. Spending an hour going through it to make sure all setting are right. Taking it outside and spinning it up then hovering about 10 feet off the ground to "check things out" only to have it nose dive into the pavement. 3 min of flight time $200 worth of damage.

[BHChieftain]

Glad to hear that the arc is normal. I figured I had screwed something up and was going to spend more $$. (and get and earful from the GF) This is already way over budget. I'll hopefully be ready for a test run this afternoon.

make-a-wake, this is frustrating not tragic...yet. Tragic is unpacking a new RC heli charging the battery. Spending an hour going through it to make sure all setting are right. Taking it outside and spinning it up then hovering about 10 feet off the ground to "check things out" only to have it nose dive into the pavement. 3 min of flight time $200 worth of damage.

I, too, have ventured into the Land of Great Expectations and Inevitable Sorrow that is known as RC helis... (but I can't help myself, they are too much fun)

Chief
-Gaui 200, Walkera 120, Blade MSR

[sundog]

Yup, I'm in that club as well. Costly few minutes of 'fun' with a Walker60. Eventually sold it (with a lot of spare parts) for cheap. Kept the 6ch radio, and eventually bought simulator program. That's when I discovered the Tx was faulty! Should have bought the simulator first. $$$

[sailr]

Helis and I don't get along. I don't go there.

[keysguy]

The first run was less then stellar. Something happened and I lost steering to port. Unfortunately my real boat is in the shop getting some fiberglass work done. and my next door neighbor took his for a ride this evening. Lucky for me it was drifting back to me. For some reason I cold see the rudder turning to one side but not the other. All of the sudden it started working again. I got the boat back to my dock pulled the boat out of the water and looked for something binding the servo or control arm. Could not find anything. I put the boat back in the water and started to run it again. I did a few slower speed circles verified that water was flowing and everything was working, about that time the neighbor came back down the canal. I pulled the boat over to the dock to let him pass and that was it. There was water in the hull and some splashed up onto the receiver and it stopped working. Hopefully it will work when it dries out. I guess I'm going to have to come up with some way to "Water Proof" the electronics and stop the water from coming in the hull.

[electric]

Well at least you got the boat back. And it did run..pretty much eh? The other good news I will tell you is that one by one you will eliminate all the "issues" and after that, you pretty much just run it.

So water leaks need to go. The first think to check is all the screw holes in the back. What I do is get some silicon and then take one screw out at a time, put some silicon in it and then re-screw it back in. That usually does the trick.

The other big cuprit is the cooling system. I take a little plastic cup and epoxied a brass tube on the bottom, then connect the water line to that and pour the water into the cup and let it flow through. You will sometimes be amazed at what you find.

The last one is through the shaft, not usually if you have a LOT of water, but can pull in a little.


As far as waterproofing. I use some of the plastic stuff you dip tools in and I have also used corrosion-x with great results. You might also like the traxxas water proof servo's, I have great luck with those in boats so far.

Esc's are a bit more difficult to water proof, I usually just use corrosion-x for those.

Really though, the goal is NO water then you are much better off.

Good Luck!