So electric boats CAN have runaways!

[koolstrike]

Yes, I just learned the hard way this morning while running my SV27 at the far end of the lake, they can have runaways.

The boat did a runaway and since my lake is concrete lined when it hit the side of the lake it destroyed the boat.

Bow has a huge non repairable hole, bottom of the boat has large gouges. Boat hit so hard that believe it or not the brushless motor cover was torn off leaving the rotor sitting there staring me in the face once I pulled the cover off the boat.

Both batteries disconnected and torn off their mounts, the radio box completely torn off the bottom of the boat.

So I guess my big question is can use use a nitro car style fail safe on an electric boat?

[crazzy maxx]

pics????
as for a fail safe i dont know if that would work...

[Fluid]

Sorry that you had this experience. Cheap ESCs will continue to run even without a signal from the receiver. That means a potential runaway. Ditto cheap radios. You get what you pay for in this regard. Higher end radios have a failsafe - the Spektrum and Futaba PCM come to mind. But even then, the failsafe is only as good as the guy who programs it - or who forgets to program it.

There are separate cutoffs for ESCs available, get one.

http://rcvehicles.about.com/b/2006/05/10/avoid-a-crash-the-fail-safe-way.htm

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[JeepRubicon2k3]

We don't have throttle servos so how does this help? You could put it on the steering servo and hope it takes the boat off plane, then you could jump around like a monkey and try to get signal to the RX... lol. Whats a good cheap replacement for the cheapo Aquacraft radio?

[Fluid]

We don't have throttle servos so how does this help?

Sigh. Neither the radio nor the failsafe knows what is connected to the throttle port. When the transmitter signal is lost, the failsafe turns whatever it is connected to - off. It does not matter if it is a servo or ESC, it will see the same signal from the receiver as it sees when it is at its "stop" position.


.

[smm_cbf]

can you take pics, this seems cool......i mean, sorry for the loss

[SweetAccord]

You may use a fail safe from Duratrax and it will work with any ESC/ receiver and I recommend it over any other one out there for cost and features. You can program it to a throttle position when the unit does not receive a radio signal from the receiver it was programmed with during programming.

http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXHLV3&P=ML

Now if you get someone on your same channel, you are at the mercy of the other radio, which ever is stronger. That is where a digital radio shines as they are locked to only the TX and reject others. On a side not, I use a channel scanner to find out what is going on in the area before running to be safe (ounce of prevention but no gurantee) . Tower carries a 61-90 75MHz scanner.

http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXJUP3&P=7

But like I mentioned about other TX's on your channel:

"This frequency checker indicates when another R/C transmitter is on a particular channel. It's important to note that the frequency checker is NOT well suited to show very brief, intermittent Rf signals that could cause interference which may be present in the environment near or between R/C channels."

Hope that helps.

[JeepRubicon2k3]

I got the duratrax failsafe, but I'm having trouble setting it and arming. When I plug it in, I can get the first arm but not the second. Is there a trick here?

[m4a1usr]

Were you running with all of the stock electronics? It was probably the stock radio system. Most good radios will shut down Rx outputs when the Tx signal is lost. Sorry to hear about your loss. If you like the SV27 just keep your eyes open in the equipment exchange. Used SV27's pop up pretty regular.

John

[JeepRubicon2k3]

I guess the stocker ESC has one built in, I can run the motor and turn off the radio. It spools up quick but then shuts down.