New to FE boats, Bought a Spartan.

[Doug B]

Got the boat out today, I'm pretty unimpressed with its performance on 5S, but it ran well, motor temps never got over 85 F, ESC was 95 F, stuffing tube stayed cool, I ran for probably 10 minutes, and the batteries took 1600 mah each to recharge.. thats two 5S packs with a combined mah of 8000, so I could easily run 15 minutes the way Im set up.

Speed? not so much.. I don't have a GPS to get real numbers, but 30mph would be my guess.. It's pretty heavy in the water, and runs wet.. even moving both batteries as far back as they go and taking off the hero cam didnt make a big difference, other than making it less stable..

So.. at 5S, should I prop up a little more? I was going to check and maybe play with the strut angle a bit, its very close to flat right now.

Ill put up some pics and maybe some video... think Im going to go run it one more time first.

[Doug B]

OK, so I must have inadvertantly switched it into training mode somehow, because I made sure all the settings were right, and tried to get the steering centered and stuff, when I went out the second time it was alot, and I mean alot, faster than the previous run. after the lackluster performance the 1st time I put the prop a little deeper in the water and started out with the batteries rearward.. big mistake.. was a huge handful, wanted to roll ofver onto its side, jump out of the water, that sorta thing.. ran about 10-12 minutes anyway, moved that batts forward a little with limited effect.. motor came out at 85 F, ESC 105 F. Got hero cam footage of all of it.. I think Im going to move the strut back to level and get the trim tabs down a little, as well as move the batteries further forward yet, and go for one more run. If I can get her stable on the water and run close to the speed I was getting I think Im more or less happy with the way it performs.

[Doug B]

independence day, part three.

I need some help / advice / input please.

I ran the boat a total of 3 times today, and on the final run I had the batteries all the way forward and then moved them 3" back, The strut was set flat, the inner trim tabs bent to have the trailing edge even with the bottom of the hull. The rudder was set parallel to the transom. Stock prop and motor, 5S power. GoPro installed. (Video is uploading now, will link once its viewable.

My problem is mostly the fact that the boat won't ride on an even keel at speed. At half throttle or below it appears dead level in the water, but at any speed higher, it falls over to the side, usually the right hand side, but when I turn to bring it back up it just flops to the other side.. this is pretty apparent in the video Im uploading.

The previous run I had the batteries towards the rear of the boat, and then 3-4" forward from the rear, and it was slightly more stable in the water left to right, but was trying to 'jump' out of the water alot. At this point the trim tabs were still up a bit.

Now, I do have 2 relatively heavy batteries, twin 5S 4000mah 30C packs, but they arent that much taller or heavier than a pair of 5000mah 3S packs, and I would think that would serve to make the boat ride lower in the water and be more stable, not less?

I know the GoPro adds some weight up high and makes the boat a lil bit top heavy, but ideally Id like to have it stable with the go pro installed, Im hoping to use it to get some good footage of my buddies hydros when I get a chance to run with them.

What adjustments should I make? is raising the strut the answer? I tend to think that getting the back of the boat deeper in the water is what I want to do..

Sorry if Im being a little vague, I tried to include most of the info, and I think the video will tell the story.. its kind of long, I didnt bother editing anything..

[Doug B]

[Diesel6401]

I ordered 2 4000 mah, 30C 5S lipos, to be wired in parallel.. this again will cost me some speed but should help keep the stock electronics alive a good long time.. and with this setup Ill have 8000mah and 60c continuous discharge, so I shouldn't struggle with available amperage, nor should it stress the batteries more than necc.

Only the mah rating is increased running in parallel. You will not have a 60c discharge it will still only be 30c. The "C" rating is the cells individual ability to deliver running in parallel doesn't change the cells chemistry...

Running parallel:
2x 5s 4000mah 30c = 5s 8000mah 30c.



remember even though you might have the capacity to run 15m's, if the electronics will handle that amount of runtime is a different story. 3-5 minutes is typical in FE boating.

[Doug B]

You are of course correct, it would still be 30C, but it is indeed twice the available amperage, all the same.. I keep forgetting that C rating is dependent on battery capacity.. ofc we didnt use C rating anywhere before lipos came around, and Im an old guy, set in my ways. Thanks for correcting my syntax, my point still stands.

As far as run time, if I can only run 3-4 minutes then I have a boat for sale.. luckily Ive already run 10-12 minutes without overheating anything, and probably need to point out that I havent got this thing running on the ragged edge of what its capable of.. if mph were my only concern Im sure Id only be good for 3 minutes too, but im not racing, Im just playing around, and Ill de-tune to get the runtimes I want.

[Doug B]

Sunday I ran 4 more times with the spartan, and I think its much more stable, the biggest change was changing the strut angle to very slightly upward. Before making the adjustment I disassembled the strut and removed the blue anodizing where the pieces make contact, as no matter how tight I had the bolt, the strut still moved while running, ie: set the strut slightly up and it would be slightly down when you pull the boat out of the water.. anodizing makes the surfaces slippery and now it seems all good.

Anyway, the boat was fun to run, and stayed pretty even with the two Miss Elam's that were there, I had fun chasing them around, and being able to run the boat at WOT. I ran about 6-1/2 minutes per charge, and the stuffing tube stayed cool, the motor showed 109, and the esc got to 115. This was on a near 90 degree day, so as it sits it seems pretty dialed. I was only using a little over half of my batteries charge per run, so that seemed pretty acceptable too. The dive cable had a film of grease after 2 runs, don't think Id be comfortable going 3 runs without greasing it.

Im going to lower the strut just a hair the next time I run it and try to find the sweet spot, I think I can get some more speed without making it totally uncontrollable.

Anyway, the gopro was on and recording most of the time, I threw some of the clips together and made a video, its not great or anything, maybe Ill try to put a better quality vid together next time we run.

[Just ADD Water]

That video was cool!! very nice ... ran mine today for the first time with 6s !!! wow what a blast... i have to say thanx to all the very smart guys here ! for all the info ..if it had been for this forum i would have been in alot of trouble ...lol .. My spartan is the new update model with new motor ...all i did was add bigger water lines and drilled out the pick ups and outlet on side .... motor ran 98 degrees and ESC was 109 degrees..i ran 2 3s 11.1v 45c 5000mah proteck lipos..packs were 99 degrees ..ran for 10 mins ..water was about 70 degrees ...hope this sounds right ...if i doin somthing wrong please let me know thanx David

[Doug B]

Thanks bud! I'm just getting started with the video thing, hope to do some in the future that are a little more than just chopped up footage :) Sounds like you have a pretty good handle on yours, I'd make sure to give those packs a little time to cool between runs, but under 100 is still plenty safe.

As an aside, I just returned from the hobby shop, where I ordered a Miss Vegas Deuce from Aquacraft.. I know, I know, its nitro, and this is an electric forum, but after running my buddies nitro hydros the other day, I couldn't resist.. Im not too concerned about tuning the engine, I was a gas racer for quite a while, this shouldnt be substantially different.. Ill probably get a fast electric cat after Ive recovered from this purchase :)

[Just ADD Water]

Boat pics and video 012.jpgBoat pics and video 011.jpg....nothing special !.. just some still shots of her before a run !