Jesse's ex Proboat Fastech

[BHChieftain]

Hi,
Bought Jesse's modified Proboat Fastech for my son for Christmas-- today was the first day out at the lake.

A little bit sketchy at first-- I'm using NiMh batteries, and put them in the far rear position, which makes the boat too tail heavy-- on the first run she took on a lot of water and nearly submerged... got a little wet retriving her.

Second run, moved the batteries up towards the front-- much better balance. But figured out that the left and right were reversed on the controller (Jesse, are you a lefty??). Still took on too much water-- needed to seel the hatch better.

Figured out how to change the servo direction on the remote, but the engine seemed to be out. Was worried water got into the receiver, but it looked dry. Messed around with the parallel connector for a bit and engine revived. Third run was a beauty! Noticed she turns much better to the right vs. the left.

Looking forward to Monday when we'll run the batteries in serial.

Any tips on drying out the batteries? I have proboat nimh, and they got pretty soaked-- I can see water inside the shrink wrap. Is there a BKM on waterproofing these?

bye

-Chief

[Justiniousrowe]

I don't think the batteries need to be waterproofed.
I wouldn't be worried about them getting wet, just lay the On a towel for a little while. Just make sure the electronics don't get wet. Over time I found that most of the water gets in through the hole up the top of the boat for the antenna. Seal this a bit better and the water shouldn't come in as much. Also, glue a couple of sponges under the waterproof container. This helps the water to stay away from the batteries.
Good luck!

[BHChieftain]

I don't think the batteries need to be waterproofed.
I wouldn't be worried about them getting wet, just lay the On a towel for a little while. Just make sure the electronics don't get wet. Over time I found that most of the water gets in through the hole up the top of the boat for the antenna. Seal this a bit better and the water shouldn't come in as much. Also, glue a couple of sponges under the waterproof container. This helps the water to stay away from the batteries.
Good luck!

Thanks for the tip--
Question for an AM radio receiver-- does the antenna need to extend outside the hull, or can I keep it inside? (I know for a 2.4ghz setup I could run them inside as long as the hull isn't carbon).

-Chief

[egneg]

Yes, and the higher the better.

[BHChieftain]

Rough day yesterday... first time running it with battery packs in serial-- she took off screaming, but lost control coming out of a turn and she capsized--- right in the middle of the pond, well out of casting distance...

"No worries" I thought, as I took out my trusty 2nd boat for with a modified front end for retrvial... except that when it got about 30feet out she sank... my modified front end drove the nose down and she flooded...

So now I had 2 boats sunk. I was able to fish for the 2nd boat and got it out, but the Fastech was too far away... and she was taking on water fast. After about 10min she was completely under, except for the nose peeking out (foam in the hull).

Nothing to do but wait for the wind to blow her in. We left the pond, and returned 3hours later, and there she was, bobbing like a cork next to the shore. I pulled her out and took her home.

Compartment was flooded for over 3hours. "Completely destroyed", I thought... all of Lipo's and Jesse's modifications gone to waste...

Well, I dryed her out, put in a new set of batteries, and lo and behold, she roared back to life! Even the receiver, which I simply wrapped in Glad Press and Seal wrap was dry and working!

Darn thing is indestructable...

-Chief

[Arctic Fire]

hahah I love this thread.. "A little bit sketchy..".. then a couple posts later.. the poor thing sinks. i feel your pain, I have lost 2 old boats to the bottom of my cottage lake despite Ample floatation.

Did he have it set up for Parallel and if so what was he running in there?

[Doby]

i feel your pain, I have lost 2 old boats to the bottom of my cottage lake despite Ample floatation. ?

How did they sink with ample flotation??????????

[Arctic Fire]

hahah.. lets just say the flotation in the first boat worked a little too well! I glue gunned the foam into the bow, and as we all know (well, we know now) that glue gun glue is not really waterproof. I was sitting on the shore casting for it and the foam popped out of the bow, and down went the rest of the boat. i did save the foam though, so that was good.

next one got ruun over by a pontoon boat as it was floating dead in the water, and I was getting the canoe ready. The foam was securely fastend to the bow, and all the parts that were fastened floated back to surface. Unfortunatley it wasn't secured to the Reciever, batteries or the esc and motor. I ended up with a bow of a boat with foam in it.

the good news is I used the bow part as a waterline marker for a couple years. until it was run over again.

I am so glad your fastech is still running!

[Jesse J]

Hey Chief, just found this thread, what a gas! Yes these boats are tough! Sounds like you are well on your way to enjoying FEs. How are the twins? I think I remember you got a second? How does your son like his boat after a month of playing with it?

[BHChieftain]

Hey Chief, just found this thread, what a gas! Yes these boats are tough! Sounds like you are well on your way to enjoying FEs. How are the twins? I think I remember you got a second? How does your son like his boat after a month of playing with it?

My son loves it. He's got the cornering down pat-- so we're running serial config no problem. I did get another one-- I was planning to run it, but now I have a syncron hull on order for myself... so the second boat is pretty much spare parts for the first!

Bumped into some fellow FE boaters at the pond -- he and his son have a supervee, an aquacraft tunnel cat (convereted to FE from Nitro, using a UL-1 motor), and a small mono. We are meeting out there on a fairly regular basis.

I "upgraded" my rescue boat (the traxxas blast)-- put an eyehook on the back and I drag a fishing line out to the stranded boat and reel 'em in, vs trying to push it back. Got that idea from the fellow I met at the pond. Works much better!

You got me hooked alright...

-Chief

[Jesse J]