New to FE, and have some questions!

[Flying Scotsman]

Tony, I use the same faucet method on every build and it works like a charm and on some ESC I do not water cool as they are large.....this lad has to report his temperatures as the drive system may have been abused...just my 0.25 cents.

Douggie

[properchopper]

Whoops; forgot to mention another thing to check for blockage : often the barbs on the motor cooling jacket bottom out on the motor, restricting flow. I often use different fittings to re-direct lines to keep them short and have run into this before. If bottomed out; no flow. Two cures : screw out a turn & seal threads with sealant OR cut a SMALL notch on bottom of barb.

DSC02869.JPG

[properchopper]

Hi BG,

The lack of flow on your cat can be two things, if you don't count blockage of the barbs; the slit in the rudderblade needs to be elongated forward, so the waterflow actually reaches the vertical hole and the water gets pushed in.
Secondly, the Chinese tend to go overboard on the length of the silicon tubing; shorten it as much as possible, without kinking it and replace the long stretch from the inlet on the rear to the ESC with Ø4 mm aluminum pipe, this will drastically reduce the drag in the system and give you more than enough waterflow.

Regards, Jan.

Hey Jan,

Nice to see you jumping in again. You helped lots in my Twinstorm days !

[Mattwarner]

haha just sold my twinstorm!

[Mattwarner]

getting back on topic, I replaced the stock rudder pivot with a piece of brass for an extra pickup and combined with 4mm silicone tubing i get tons of water squirting out of both outlets (incidentally something which was also poor on the twinstorm!)

Heres some pics of the extra pickup.

P1000178.jpg

P1000179.jpg

[Bubblegoose]

When I say super hot, I mean hot to touch, but I could hold my hand on all components easily. They didn't burn me to touch them. So I guess that would make them somewhere in the vicinity of 55-65 degrees?

I have an IR thermometer, and will get a true reading next time I run, which will be once I can get a new battery charger! In the mean time i'll be working on a new pickup (I pretty much had the same idea as Mattwarner)

Also what would be a better charger out of these two Cellpro 260w and iCharge 300w. Take note I have this power supply PS35 350w (if it's a piece of crap PSU, I can buy a new one). Money really isnt a factor, I just want a good charger that is going to give good results and wont leave me without a charger. (I might even throw another cheap one on my order, just so if I kill my new one from pushing it too hard, I can still charge albeit at a slower rate.

[Flying Scotsman]

I use Cellpro chargers and endorse them, the power supply you mention, I have no knowledge of.

Douggie

[Bubblegoose]

Thanks for that Douggie.

Is that particular model of cellpro any good? Is there a better one I should be looking at?

[properchopper]

There's a lot of decently priced chargers out there; the Cellpro is probably the best. BUT CONSIDER THIS :

The Cellpro 10S is only putting out 180 W at 12VDC input - it's totally maxed out charging two 4S 5000 mah packs at once at 1C (and your setup is 4S2P so you'll want a charger that can charge two packs at once at a decent charge rate. The Cellpro is good for this, btw)

The iCharger advertises 300W at 18VDC in (who has an 18V power supply?)

Give some thought to the top-of-the-line Hyperion (1000W) and Thunderpower (800W). A little over twice the cost, but four times the power.

Get to know the specs ! The majority of chargers on the market are for car and plane/heli guys who only charge a single pack at a time.

[Flying Scotsman]

Tony, you are correct that is why I own 3 Cellpro chargers and a suitable power supply that can power all 3 chargers and multiple batteries at the same time....Hyperion make a very good charger and if I had to make a descion today that would be the one, as you state read the specifications and understand the limitations prior to a purchase.


Edit

Also please note that I charge at a low C rate and after use store my batteries at 50% capacity in a fire proof safe.

Tony, how is life and I trust you are not molesting any turtles?

Douggie

[Bubblegoose]

Cheers properchopper & Douggie

I think I might just settle for the cellpro 10s for the time being. Charging two batteries at once at 1c is fine by me, and charging times are not really that much of an issue. I just want a good quality charger that will not break like the other one did, as well as providing a good balance on the batteries to keep them tip top.

I plan on going out and having a drive about once a weekend. So I will have plenty of time to charge batteries during the week and i'm thinking I might stockpile a few more batteries too, get a combination of 2S and 4S batteries so I can run the boat lighter/faster as well sometimes.

[Bubblegoose]

Also, I noticed you are a SAW record holder properchopper. I have been meaning to ask someone, what the hell is SAW? From what I can gather, it seems to be some kind of straight line top speed or time trial?

[properchopper]

Go with the Cellpro. While I haven't used one, all those that I know of that have one, including Sir Douggie are happy with them.

SAW's are Straight A Way races against the clock between two 330 foot timing beams. Two runs in opposite directions (in a five minute interval) averaged give the speed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxNrlVCNdH8

Douggie, building boats, boats, boats. Readying for Winter Warmups VIII next month in AZ - have seven boats in seven classes entered

Then in June SoCal FE hosts the NAMBA Nationals (with the SMB) at Legg. Got Valium ?

[sanyijr]

One more thought to the cooling loops. I took off quite a bit of resistance from my system by reaming out the couplings on the cooling jacket, esc and the inlet/outlet fittings. Some of these fittings neck down pretty bad (inside diameter), so a little reaming of the openings will clear any sealants and open the throat a bit. Just don't over do it.

Sean