Avoiding Problems with the UL-1 Hydro

[Doug Smock]

Nice boat!! You know, for a nitro unit J/K

Doug

[Ub Hauled]

I like the 'depth' on the paint job.. pretty sweet...
and then I saw the pipe... Boooooo, also j/k

[ReddyWatts]

Can anyone help this new member?

Guys, just got a UL-1 Superior and the boat flies man! Still a noob here and I also got a Proboat Brushless Miss Elam a few weeks ago. My dad was driving the Elam and I was driving the UL-1. Didn't seem to have any problems with the radio frequencies but i guess later we did. Anyways, somehow I didn't turn sharp enough and the boat ended up banking itself while trying to turn. So I jump in the golf cart to get over there too it and when i got there the boat was running full throttle and water shooting up from the bank like a fountain. Yes, the propr was still somewhat in the water. So I pulled all the hockeytape off and immediately disconnected the lipos. Propr was still running wide open while i am doing this so it was a bit scary. Didn't seem to have had any damage except for a few chips taken off the plastic prop. No worries there since i also bought the hop-up prop when i bought the boat. Nonetheless, I took the boat home, cleaned her up, and recaharged the lipos. Now I am trying to restart the boat but the ESC or motor just keeps beeping - not giving me a chance to arm it. How do I fix this or is my ESC or motor shot? Nothing felt really hot when I got there after the accident so I wouldn't think anything was blown...I can steer the servos but I cannot get it to stop beeping or for the throttle to spin the prop at all. FYI, the servo is plugged into the CH 1 Slot and the ESC is plugged into the CH 2 slot inside the boat. Please help. Thanks so much!

Treydog.

[Grimracer]

Check the throttle trim on the TX...

Grim

[alvinsmith75]

I had the same "arming" problem and it was simply the throttle trim. It should be centered.
Alvin

[Treydog]

I just checked and all of the knobs on the transmitter are straight up and all switches are in the "R"position. I will tell you this though. I have found that the beeps will eventually stop when instead of pulling the throttle trigger, I actually push it forward. I hear two quick little bleeps and then it stops. Then when i do it again, The throttle goes wide open again just like on the bank when i came upon it. I can sorta get it to stop when I quickly depress the throttle a few times it will kinda sync up with the transmitter but it will still act funny like it's picking up stray radio waves or something. So I disarm the lipos and when I retry, the beeping process starts all over again. Open to any other suggestions you all might have.

Trey

[Ub Hauled]

if the ESC is anything like the 35amp one, it has a safety feature... you hook the main power and then you need to go full throttle, listen to the beeps then neutral, listen to the final beeps, in order for it to arm.

[Treydog]

Ub, I'll remember that from now on. BUT, I managed to get it running properly again. After typing that last e-mail, I ran down to the shop just to try it once more before I gave up for the day. Darn thing worked like a charm this time. No continuous beeping. Strange.

Fluid, I even powered up the Miss Elam and you are correct, neither one interfered with the other.

Here is my theory of what happened, The Brushless Miss Elam has a radio reciever in a balloon inside the watertight tray. The UL-1 does not. Now, I have heard stories of water getting inside a boats reciever and causing it to do all kinds of crazy stuff and while I do like the openess inside the UL-1 (The Miss Elam has no room inside except for the batteries) I guess I need to know if I should be wrapping the reciever inside some watertight "balloon"?

[Doby]

(The Miss Elam has no room inside except for the batteries) I guess I need to know if I should be wrapping the reciever inside some watertight "balloon"?

Always a good idea

[Fluid]

Once the water jacket is sealed and if the hatch is taped on well, there should not be any water in the hull that a piece of paper towel stuck in the bottom can't absorb. I used to put my receivers in balloons, but I soon discovered that water got in anyway. Because of the hassle I would seldom open the balloon to check. Result - ruined receivers. Now I take off the receiver case and spray the board with CorrosionX, then reassemble. I have not had a single problem due to a wet receiver since I started doing this - even with a hull completely full of water. I don't know that CorrosionX is safe on the Tactic receiver, but I bet it is. Mike?


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[Steven Vaccaro]

Here is my theory of what happened, The Brushless Miss Elam has a radio reciever in a balloon inside the watertight tray. The UL-1 does not. Now, I have heard stories of water getting inside a boats reciever and causing it to do all kinds of crazy stuff and while I do like the openess inside the UL-1 (The Miss Elam has no room inside except for the batteries) I guess I need to know if I should be wrapping the reciever inside some watertight "balloon"?

You are probably on to something there. Before running again I would take the rx apart to check for water and dry it out completely. It only takes a single drop to move around on the rx to cause another issue.

[Grimracer]

Jay. that is funny.. has to come only from experience.. I also never place my personal race RXs in balloons. O I know.. some guys like em so we do indeed sell them..

The tactic RX was water tested and it will stop working like the rest of everybody’s if it gets wet.. good news is that all the units tested all came back from the dead.

If you like.. hammer away with C-X..

Grim

[egneg]

The problem with the cooling jacket is a bit beyond a quick fix with WD-40. As many have stated the problem is with the cooling jacket around the motor, it leaked at 10 psi. The problem is the lack of surface area for the o-rings to seat properly - the threads run all the way up on the jacket and the end pieces - not to mention the side walls are a bit too thin. If nothing else I will use silicone to seal it. This seems to be an inherent design flaw that needs to be addressed in order for this boat to be called an RTR. All I had to do was squeeze the ends with my fingers and the leaks became much worse.

[Fluid]

The problem with the water jacket is easily fixed as I described, unless someone has already damaged the O ring by getting medieval with it. The jacket which came on my UL-1 was fixed just as I described. There is sufficient sealing area for the deformable O rings as long as they are not scored or cut.

I have another UL-1 jacket I bought for another project, and I installed it on the same UL-1 motor and performed the same procedure to seal it. Zero leaks when forcing water through the system with a fuel bulb squeezed as hard as I can. That's two for two. As I said, easily fixed if not damaged first.

Would I design the jacket this way? Probably not, but then it isn't my company. I imagine there is a reason for a three-part jacket versus a one-part jacket. Bottom line is it can easily be made to work, although I agree that it would be good if they all worked as they come from the factory. That is for the next shipment.


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[Jetbill]

Outside of some plumbers tape on all water jacket threads, it’s clear it was sealed @ about 30psi. I ran it and no problems. The O rings were seated however the larger threaded ends were barely screwed on. The brass fittings were loose and just needed to be tightened and added tape.

The turn fin I had noticed right out of the box had a crack by the hex, around the edge and on the bottom. This caused a leak in the boat that was easily drained by the rubber plug (I like this design-a quick clear epoxy fix)

Overall, this thing drove like a dream and handled like it was on rails- steering rate did not help the steering issue, likewise changing the servo horn hole to the next helped increase overall servo throw. (75'tirn radius didn’t quite suite my play area).

Gps @ 42.2, on Flightpower evo 30's-stock prop- run time was a bit lower than the my stock sv.

I like it; hopefully it will be somewhat stable with some wind..:
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