Help with beginning boater.

[TheJCcarvalho]

Good to know about the battery placement tlandauer! and one more question, are the connectors on the rtr blackjack deans, or tamiya type, this is something that still confuses me very much with the rc world. I understand tamiya connectors are not so good but it is really hard to know what your rc comes with, does someone know a battery that comes with the right connector but 1) would give me good runtime and 2) is cost effective? if somneone could direct link me to that it would be extremely helpful. Not to mention relieving since im going to order my boat soon and i really would be bummed to see it sit until i got the right connectors. haha, thank you!

[tlandauer]

I thought you already have a boat, my bad.
PROBOAT and Horizon Hobby use EC5 connectors http://www.offshoreelectrics.com/pro...d=dh-EFLAEC503, they are 5mm connectors in blue plastic housing, you need to get batteries that either come with this type or solder them on yourself. They are not the easiest to solder in my opinion, you need to do a neat job of soldering or the plastic housing would not go on to the brass connectors easily.
Forget about Tamiya connectors, they are obsolete with the arrival of lipo batteries. You won't find them on any boats.
The other popular RTR boats that still come with Deans are from AquaCraft , so I don't think you need to worry about that for the moment.
Most of us are using bullet type of connectors. Whether they be

5.5mm http://www.offshoreelectrics.com/pro...d=ose-55bullet,

6mm http://www.offshoreelectrics.com/pro...od=ose-6bullet or

8mm http://www.offshoreelectrics.com/pro...=ose-8mmbullet.
Depending on the set up, more powerful set ups would require larger connectors for better amp flow.
As for lipo batteries, some come with Deans like the ones from AquaCraft http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...&I=LXAXFS&P=SM, you need to de-solder the Deans and put on whatever you use, in your case would be the EC5 type.
Some batteries come with bare wires, you need to solder on the connectors anyway.

http://dinogylipos.com/2s-65c/65-5000mah-2s-65c

or:

http://www.store.revolectrix.com/Products/SilverHV-Label-70C-427HV-LiPO/Revolectrix-5500mAh-2SHV-7-6V-Lipo-70C-SILHV-label

They all require the user to solder.

[TheJCcarvalho]

Im glad i found somewhere to get good, straight forward advice. I see allot of ec3 type batteries but no ec5's. I wanted to stick with the same battery to run my crawler on the same ones in the hardcase but ive read they dont fit, and the adapters from banana to ec3 or ec5, ive heard... are not good for your battery/esc. Which leads me to ask

1) do you think my local hardware store will solder it all (esc and battery wire) for me if i order bare wire lipos and 6 or 8mm bullet connectors?

2)Is there a specific battery that comes with ec5? that i can charge on this charger?

http://www.hobbypartz.com/73p-ac680-accharger.html

[TheJCcarvalho]

and once again thank you all so much for the help! im sure ill get some running videos and post a thread showing how it went if it clears up a little bit or i head to florida! haha

[tlandauer]

You are right about staying away from adapters, the more bottle neck you have, the more impedance you have on your system.
Horizon Hobby does sell lipo batteries with EC5: http://www.horizonhobby.com/product/...ec5-dynb3810ec
Although i must say that I don't know these particular batteries and i can't say how they perform. The subject of WHICH BRAND to use is a topic by itself, often people with different back ground and experience tell a different story.
I don't know how well your guy at the hardware store does his soldering job. The answer is YES, he can change that for you. It is not rocket science but it needs to be done correctly. One way to tell how the job is done is by looking at the solder joint: it should have a smooth shiny appearance, a dulled , grainy blob indicates a "cold solder'' which will come apart under use.
You can always make adapters for your charger, there won't be any problem here for using adapters.

[TheJCcarvalho]

`i appreciate all the help ten fold. Im going to buy a couple of well reviewed 2s lipos and bullet conectors. and just grab the other 2 hardcase gens ace batteries for my crawler. only downside is ill only have a single run every time i go out. I have an outlet adapter in my van so i can charge batts while out running, but unfortunately not using the same battery limits my use to one run every two hours or so, where as my crawler ill get unlimited use all day. I know this is a tough question because it vary's but how long of a run do you think ill get off of two 50c 5000mah 2s lipos? even just a rough estimate? i havent found any information on that.

[tlandauer]

One more thing: buy good lipo batteries, with Constant discharge rate no less than 40C, some will say 50C, but don't be fooled by factory hype: those that say 90 or more are not worth believing.
The two brands like Dynogy and Revo are good ones, actually the AquaCraft ones are damn good too.
Never use the ones with hard case and plug-in 4mm banana wires, the hardcase with wires coming out is ok, but in general people use soft packs and that is something to keep in mind.
Never mix different brand, different C rating and capacity.
Something to read: http://forums.offshoreelectrics.com/...unning-too-Wet

[TheJCcarvalho]

for the blackjack 29 that is.

[tlandauer]

`i appreciate all the help ten fold. Im going to buy a couple of well reviewed 2s lipos and bullet conectors. and just grab the other 2 hardcase gens ace batteries for my crawler. only downside is ill only have a single run every time i go out. I have an outlet adapter in my van so i can charge batts while out running, but unfortunately not using the same battery limits my use to one run every two hours or so, where as my crawler ill get unlimited use all day. I know this is a tough question because it vary's but how long of a run do you think ill get off of two 50c 5000mah 2s lipos? even just a rough estimate? i havent found any information on that.

The run time on a boat on a set of batteries is short compared to land vehicle and especially a crawler. I would say around 4 minutes the most, do NOT over discharge your batteries, you need to have 30% reserve left in them, another words for a 5000mah battery, you should be able to put back 3500mah, leave that last 1500mah in the battery, lipo battery's life is shortened if over discharge occurs. I am sure you know that.
When you first run the boat, bring it in after a minute and a half, check the temp on your ESC and motor. VERY Important!
When you get the boat, put it in a bathtub or pool loaded for proper ballast, for several minutes, and see if there is water inside. Also find your way to pump water through the cooling lines and check for leaks aroung the motor cooling jacket and ESC water fittings. Any place that might have issue you need to visually check, no steps should be skipped.

[tlandauer]

for the blackjack 29 that is.

Not for his boat but for the discussion on which type of batteries to avoid in boats in general.

[TheJCcarvalho]

wow ya i definitely do not want my batts burning up or catching fire AT ALL hahaha i have read to run the same battery on both sides for even weight and even charges, among other things. softpacks seem to be my best option. i didnt know, as i saw in the other thread, that banana connectors are not up to par! Im glad i decided on the bullet connectors early.

[TheJCcarvalho]

any suggestions on how to get water pressure through the cooling? and i can use a temp gun for the temperature of my esc and motor. i have one. ill look into the warranty of the blackjack if there is one at all, just so i dont get screwed haha. will there be a section of the owners manual with the blackjack for prop-shaft greasing? seen allot of unboxing but still havent seen the owners manual. i know i should do a run around every time i go out with my boat. is there something i should watch out in particular for? i have heard that sometimes the steering servo wont go back into neutral so ill definitely have to check that. Is there anything when on the water that i should watch for that could mean bad news?

[TheJCcarvalho]

and man do you have a beautiful collection of boats! The Yellow cat i had seen on there blew me out of the water. Literally love that cat. looks amazing. is that outboard racer a custom setup the way the motor was mounted? that is some of the most beautiful work ive ever seen in rc'ing. Seriously impressed man.

[tlandauer]

and man do you have a beautiful collection of boats! The Yellow cat i had seen on there blew me out of the water. Literally love that cat. looks amazing. is that outboard racer a custom setup the way the motor was mounted? that is some of the most beautiful work ive ever seen in rc'ing. Seriously impressed man.

Thank you!
I am sometimes actually ashamed of my fleet, you should see some other people's. They could be in a show room. But thanks for the kind words!
I bought the OB tunnel used here, it is a ML-295PS, check out all the wood boats ML makes, they are some of the best wood kits available. I did rig the motor cooling pipe, actually the photo shows a prototype, now it is brass tube instead of aluminum.
The easiest way to get some pressure going in your cooling loop for testing is this gadget I use:http://www.rockler.com/glue-bottles-...nd-applicators It's the second or third one on the left hand side. They call it a glue injector, I call it a giant plastic syringe. I pull the cooling tube off from the rudder water nipple, stick the syringe nozzle into the tube and inject water, you might have to get a second load of water because you will be surprised how much water it takes before it will fill up the entire loop before any water is coming out on the side exit hole. I then place a finger to block the hole and apply pressure until I can no longer inject. if there is no water inside the boat, you are good to go. This is just to prevent the rare ( and not so rare perhaps) event that the "O" rings in the motor jacket are not sealed properly and/or the connection on the ESC water fittings are not secured...
I don't know how detailed the owners' manual is, last I checked it was not a very well detailed instruction.
You do need to lube the cable, what I do is after each outing to the lake, I take down the cable and run a couple of "smoker's pipe cleaners"DSCN7218.jpg thru the stuffing tube and wipe away the water-mixed-with-grease substance on the cable, put a light coat of WD-40 on the cable and let the boat and everything else air dry.
When I go the next time, I put grease ( not too much) into the strut bushing ( that Proboat grease gun comes in handy) and coat the cable with grease ( again , just a thin coat) .
This thing is amazingly convenient to grease your cable: http://www.horizonhobby.com/pro-boat...e-5-oz-prb0100 , well worth the money. It allows you to "inject" some grease into your strut's bushing.

P.S.
As far as the method of getting some pressurized water thru your loop, some people have successfully used garden hose with stepping down hoses/nozzles or what not so they can just hook it up to your house hood faucet to do the test, it's trick, but I never did it, so my way is definitely not the only/best way to do it, don't want you or other people to think that I am out here washing brains, lol....

[montymike]

I use 60 cc syringe with a cooling hooked to it to find leaks in cooling
Systems. Good for checking cooling jackets before installing motor in boats escs ect.