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I just bought this sweet boat and now I need to figure out how to power it. It's got hardware, but I need to provide a radio and power system.
Mike is including a .187 shaft and the bits to connect it to motor & prop, not shown in the photos. Thanks Mike
I’ve done a little research on this, but I’m by no means ‘knowledgeable’ about boats, so any help you can offer would be most appreciated. I’m planning to make these decisions by Monday so I can get all this ordered and be ready to play when I go down to my friend’s in hotlanta for the 4th. He just got a superv 27. I need to make the right choices the first time or I won’t have what I need to play.
The radio will be a Nomadio Sensor, for those of you unfamiliar with this, it’s a 2.4 with realtime telemetry for rx voltage, pack voltage and up to 2 temp sensors and rpm (magnets and a hall effect sensor.)
Background and batteries
I fly a lot of different ships and have settled in on the 6s2500-3000 size pack as the standard for my machines. For a while there I had packs that would only run one ship and this was a pita, so now it's either they fly on these or I don't get them.
Most of them are of the cheap Chinese variety: Zippy or Turnigy 6s30c2650 (440g ea).
My big t-rex heli uses two of these in series for a 12s setup. It is awesome, I LIKE it. Peaking at nearly 4kW!
This'll be my first boat. It will also run two batteries, though I've yet to decide if it'll be series or parallel.
I know that I could do them in parallel for 6s pretty easily without breaking any new ground, but 12s is more efficient and of course, 12s is way kool
bling bling
Voltage, runtime, amps, etc
When using two batteries it doesn't matter if they are run in series or parallel, it still has the same stored energy and higher voltage gives better efficiency. This much I think we can all agree on.
These batts are rated at 75A continuous, so in parallel, that's 150A continuous.
6s config: 6s2p 60C 5300, max continuous 150A, 200A burst
12s config: 12s1p 30C 2650, max continuous 75A, 100A burst
Fyi: my experience with these packs is that they can't pull that kind of amps for long without getting real hot. I think the Chinese overrate them.
If we say we are going to load them to the max, then we'd set it up to pull 75A on 12s or 150A on 6s.
However, it's been suggested several times that a 120A speedy would work, so clearly we aren't planning to load it to the max. Again, back to 12s, now we are saying 60A, which is a more reasonable maximum. 40-50A would probably be plenty. Just 30amps on 12s would be 1500 watts. 50amps would be 2500watts.
Calculating runtime , we take our mah and convert them to amp minutes, do the math and we come up with 2.65min at max power for either one (assuming no losses, 120A for 6s and 60A for 12s.)
Seems to me that the higher efficiency of 12s would give better runtime and less heat than the 6s setup. This assumes we motor and prop them for equiv watts.
Are we all still on the same page or did I jump the tracks somewhere?
The choice: 6s or 12s
When I asked this question to Mr. Vaccaro, he advised 6s, the feigao 540 13xl (13.1oz & 1339kv) on a 120A Castle speedy with the 2317.40mm carbon prop as a starting point. Another person said that the Neu 1515/1Y (12oz & 2200kv) on 4s is very fast. So if we extrapolate this to 12s something like the Neu 1515/3Y (12oz & 725kv) ought to be pretty close to the same, pretty much a 12xl feigao (again, not taking into account differences in efficiency.)
**edit, looks like the Hacker B50 20xl (789kv) or 21xl (751kv) might also be candidates, both are 11.9oz. I found the 20xl for $150, the diameter is 35.8 mm, length is 74 mm and the shaft is 5mm
At 1.53” (38.9mm) the neu is a bigger diameter than the 35.8mm feigao, this may make finding a water jacket more difficult, the neu is listed as ‘finned’ which may further complicate this. They both have 5mm shafts. The neu is quite a bit shorter at 44mm than the 75mm long feigao which might be easier on the motor mount when it's bouncing across the water.
The feigao is $70, I haven’t found the neu in stock yet, but I’ll bet we are over $200 for it, msrp is $255.
The speedy for 6s also opens up some options like the cheap Chinese ones by Turnigy or Hobbywing. I won’t consider the Turnigy since it’s not in stock even though it’s less $, but the Hobbywing seems to be the same and is $85 for the 120A or $100 for the 180A (give it a little headroom.) The castle 120A comes in at $180. The Hydra HV-60 is **edit, found it for $190, the 120HV is an eye popping $345! Will need a castle link if going with castle, add another $20.
The turnigy/hobbywing speedy has a built in bec, which'll save a few bucks over the castle which can't do 6s on the bec. I have a couple BECs here that I'm not using, one is a Hercules HC ($60 unit) and another is a turnigy $10 one. Either would probably work and I already have them.
6s setup
Motor: Feigao 540 13XL, $70
Speedy: Hobbywing 120 or 180, $85-$100
Castle 120, $180 + $20 link.
Total: $155-$270
Waterjacket: ?
Prop: 2317.40mm carbon
12s setup
Motor: Neu 1515/3Y, msrp: $255, street price:?
**edit Hacker B50-20XL (or 21XL if I can find one.) $150
Speedy: Castle 60HV, $190 + $20link
Total: $360 to over $500
Waterjacket: ?
Prop: ?
This may just come down to a ‘wallet’ type decision. This is after all a used hundred buck boat, putting $500 of power into it may just be ridiculous when it can be done for as little as $155, though I have little faith in these cheap Chinese speedys so I’d probably pick the 180a one for more headroom, so $170. Being my first boat and under a bit of a time crunch running down the 12s bleeding edge path may just not be practical.
**edit, having found the castle HV for less and a Hacker B50 the 12s is now coming in around $350.
And that’s all I know. Any and all advise towards getting this boat setup would be most appreciated. Advise outside of the power system would also be most welcome (like: do I need to add turn fins?)
Thanks in advance.
Mike is including a .187 shaft and the bits to connect it to motor & prop, not shown in the photos. Thanks Mike
I’ve done a little research on this, but I’m by no means ‘knowledgeable’ about boats, so any help you can offer would be most appreciated. I’m planning to make these decisions by Monday so I can get all this ordered and be ready to play when I go down to my friend’s in hotlanta for the 4th. He just got a superv 27. I need to make the right choices the first time or I won’t have what I need to play.
The radio will be a Nomadio Sensor, for those of you unfamiliar with this, it’s a 2.4 with realtime telemetry for rx voltage, pack voltage and up to 2 temp sensors and rpm (magnets and a hall effect sensor.)
Background and batteries
I fly a lot of different ships and have settled in on the 6s2500-3000 size pack as the standard for my machines. For a while there I had packs that would only run one ship and this was a pita, so now it's either they fly on these or I don't get them.
Most of them are of the cheap Chinese variety: Zippy or Turnigy 6s30c2650 (440g ea).
My big t-rex heli uses two of these in series for a 12s setup. It is awesome, I LIKE it. Peaking at nearly 4kW!
This'll be my first boat. It will also run two batteries, though I've yet to decide if it'll be series or parallel.
I know that I could do them in parallel for 6s pretty easily without breaking any new ground, but 12s is more efficient and of course, 12s is way kool
bling blingVoltage, runtime, amps, etc
When using two batteries it doesn't matter if they are run in series or parallel, it still has the same stored energy and higher voltage gives better efficiency. This much I think we can all agree on.
These batts are rated at 75A continuous, so in parallel, that's 150A continuous.
6s config: 6s2p 60C 5300, max continuous 150A, 200A burst
12s config: 12s1p 30C 2650, max continuous 75A, 100A burst
Fyi: my experience with these packs is that they can't pull that kind of amps for long without getting real hot. I think the Chinese overrate them.
If we say we are going to load them to the max, then we'd set it up to pull 75A on 12s or 150A on 6s.
However, it's been suggested several times that a 120A speedy would work, so clearly we aren't planning to load it to the max. Again, back to 12s, now we are saying 60A, which is a more reasonable maximum. 40-50A would probably be plenty. Just 30amps on 12s would be 1500 watts. 50amps would be 2500watts.
Calculating runtime , we take our mah and convert them to amp minutes, do the math and we come up with 2.65min at max power for either one (assuming no losses, 120A for 6s and 60A for 12s.)
Seems to me that the higher efficiency of 12s would give better runtime and less heat than the 6s setup. This assumes we motor and prop them for equiv watts.
Are we all still on the same page or did I jump the tracks somewhere?
The choice: 6s or 12s
When I asked this question to Mr. Vaccaro, he advised 6s, the feigao 540 13xl (13.1oz & 1339kv) on a 120A Castle speedy with the 2317.40mm carbon prop as a starting point. Another person said that the Neu 1515/1Y (12oz & 2200kv) on 4s is very fast. So if we extrapolate this to 12s something like the Neu 1515/3Y (12oz & 725kv) ought to be pretty close to the same, pretty much a 12xl feigao (again, not taking into account differences in efficiency.)
**edit, looks like the Hacker B50 20xl (789kv) or 21xl (751kv) might also be candidates, both are 11.9oz. I found the 20xl for $150, the diameter is 35.8 mm, length is 74 mm and the shaft is 5mm
At 1.53” (38.9mm) the neu is a bigger diameter than the 35.8mm feigao, this may make finding a water jacket more difficult, the neu is listed as ‘finned’ which may further complicate this. They both have 5mm shafts. The neu is quite a bit shorter at 44mm than the 75mm long feigao which might be easier on the motor mount when it's bouncing across the water.
The feigao is $70, I haven’t found the neu in stock yet, but I’ll bet we are over $200 for it, msrp is $255.
The speedy for 6s also opens up some options like the cheap Chinese ones by Turnigy or Hobbywing. I won’t consider the Turnigy since it’s not in stock even though it’s less $, but the Hobbywing seems to be the same and is $85 for the 120A or $100 for the 180A (give it a little headroom.) The castle 120A comes in at $180. The Hydra HV-60 is **edit, found it for $190, the 120HV is an eye popping $345! Will need a castle link if going with castle, add another $20.
The turnigy/hobbywing speedy has a built in bec, which'll save a few bucks over the castle which can't do 6s on the bec. I have a couple BECs here that I'm not using, one is a Hercules HC ($60 unit) and another is a turnigy $10 one. Either would probably work and I already have them.
6s setup
Motor: Feigao 540 13XL, $70
Speedy: Hobbywing 120 or 180, $85-$100
Castle 120, $180 + $20 link.
Total: $155-$270
Waterjacket: ?
Prop: 2317.40mm carbon
12s setup
Motor: Neu 1515/3Y, msrp: $255, street price:?
**edit Hacker B50-20XL (or 21XL if I can find one.) $150
Speedy: Castle 60HV, $190 + $20link
Total: $360 to over $500
Waterjacket: ?
Prop: ?
This may just come down to a ‘wallet’ type decision. This is after all a used hundred buck boat, putting $500 of power into it may just be ridiculous when it can be done for as little as $155, though I have little faith in these cheap Chinese speedys so I’d probably pick the 180a one for more headroom, so $170. Being my first boat and under a bit of a time crunch running down the 12s bleeding edge path may just not be practical.
**edit, having found the castle HV for less and a Hacker B50 the 12s is now coming in around $350.
And that’s all I know. Any and all advise towards getting this boat setup would be most appreciated. Advise outside of the power system would also be most welcome (like: do I need to add turn fins?)
Thanks in advance.
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