Project Fast cat maiden run

[kfxguy]

I don't know why but an hour before I got off work I had a urge to run my Rivercat. I've been nervous about it I'll admit. It's been ready to run for over a week now. I usually try and run them before they are even finished lol. I didn't get any video this time because my video man (son) was too busy playing xbox. So here's some pics and narration lol. Ps....Shawn (srislash) I'm coming for you! Lol! J/j

I did nothing to the rudder at this point. I barely sharpened it but I did not shorten it or modify it at all. I've picked up 5mph from modding a ridding on the Daytona. 3mph on my mono. Just to put that in perspective. I've cut 1/4" off the rudder off my other Rivercat and picked up a solid back to back 1mph.


Very first pass. M445 prop. 5s.



Sitting pretty.






Prop change. Still 5s. Not too bad I think.

[kfxguy]

Battery change. 6s. No other changes.



Close up lol

[Spartanator]

Lookin' good!

[kfxguy]

Thanks! For comparison the fastest my other ricercat went was 83.3 on 6s with a 1/2" shorter, razor sharp rudder.

[kfxguy]

Have some logging info.

Max current in all sessions was 215a. That's great in my opinion. Max temp is 116f so I guess my modified mamba xl2 is getting the job done. Here's the graph with all sessions compiled.

[Luck as a Constant]

Damn that thing is fast


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[flraptor07]

Man Travis, you're deffinetly on to something there with that modded Castle Mamba XL2. looks like that thing is working great! If I picked up a couple, would you do them for me?

[kfxguy]

Man Travis, you're deffinetly on to something there with that modded Castle Mamba XL2. looks like that thing is working great! If I picked up a couple, would you do them for me?

Honestly I'm not sure this thing would hold up under race conditions for a few minutes of straight wot. I'd have to test that. Right now my new pickup that I'm using isnt flowing as much water as if like so I'm going to tear drop the pickup some more today before running again. I can't say that it would be really worth it for you unless you did it yourself. The labor would make it cost prohibitive. The Esc new is about $182 and it would probably not be wort messing with for under $75 each. It's a good bit of work. I probably have over 5 hours in it lol. I disassembled the whole thing and epoxy coated it too. I don't trust these things as far as I can throw a 200lb concrete block lol. I sealed the outside of it too by filling the ends with silicone before putting the end plates on. By the time you buy one of these and pay me to do it, you could have just bought another mgm. The only plus over the mgm with this one is the software I think is much easier and user friendly. It drives just as smooth as the mgm also.

[kfxguy]

I think I have everything ready for a trip out to the lake later on today. I finished up my shorter rudder. The timing was at ten degrees for the first trip. I was advised to set it to 15 degrees which I did last night. Not sure if that will make any kind of difference but we shall see. The only change I'll start with is the timing. Then swap rudders. Will be run on 5s first just so I can gauge the difference.

[flraptor07]

Honestly I'm not sure this thing would hold up under race conditions for a few minutes of straight wot. I'd have to test that. Right now my new pickup that I'm using isnt flowing as much water as if like so I'm going to tear drop the pickup some more today before running again. I can't say that it would be really worth it for you unless you did it yourself. The labor would make it cost prohibitive. The Esc new is about $182 and it would probably not be wort messing with for under $75 each. It's a good bit of work. I probably have over 5 hours in it lol. I disassembled the whole thing and epoxy coated it too. I don't trust these things as far as I can throw a 200lb concrete block lol. I sealed the outside of it too by filling the ends with silicone before putting the end plates on. By the time you buy one of these and pay me to do it, you could have just bought another mgm. The only plus over the mgm with this one is the software I think is much easier and user friendly. It drives just as smooth as the mgm also.

Well run it a while and see how it holds up then we'll decide. These things look like the hydra ice 200 and 240 ESCs without the tubes.

[kfxguy]

Well run it a while and see how it holds up then we'll decide. These things look like the hydra ice 200 and 240 ESCs without the tubes.

I'm not sure if you saw my build thread on that Esc, it is exactly a ice 240. I have two of them that are burnt up. I've compared the boards and everything on it is the same. I also talked to a castle rep and he told me the only differences are the mamba is air cooled (top case is different) and the software is suited for cars/trucks. I prefer the way a car Esc (think mgm boat Esc manners) drives. This is a 250 amp Esc. You can limit current up to 275amps. I have mine set at 250 just to be safe. So far I'm happy with it but I still don't trust it. I'll be pulling logs after every session just to make sure I'm not over doing it. I think if I do burn this one, I will buy another and do something different on the water cooling to make it better.

[flraptor07]

I'm not sure if you saw my build thread on that Esc, it is exactly a ice 240. I have two of them that are burnt up. I've compared the boards and everything on it is the same. I also talked to a castle rep and he told me the only differences are the mamba is air cooled (top case is different) and the software is suited for cars/trucks. I prefer the way a car Esc (think mgm boat Esc manners) drives. This is a 250 amp Esc. You can limit current up to 275amps. I have mine set at 250 just to be safe. So far I'm happy with it but I still don't trust it. I'll be pulling logs after every session just to make sure I'm not over doing it. I think if I do burn this one, I will buy another and do something different on the water cooling to make it better.

I guess I didn't see the thread, if I did I don't remember. (It's that old guy thing) But anyway I don't see why they wouldn't hold up as long as nuthin' stupid happened.

[kfxguy]

Headed to the lake to do some testing and tuning. Bringing my cupping pliers this time. Wish me luck! I'm nervous because I've got a 7s battery setup with me if all goes well!

[kfxguy]

Didn't have very much good luck. The boat kept cutting out on me far away. Instead of looking at the obvious I was troubleshooting other stuff. The remote batteries were down to 5v so it's time for new ones. I went to the store and recharged my batteries. Headed back out. I did get a clean pass on 5s and it went 74.5mph so that's a gain. Report back later. I did get videos too.

[kfxguy]

Second trip was more productive. Little bit of a story to my woes today. Thoight it kept kupping up because the batts were very low in my remote. Not the problem as i put new ones in. Still kept losingbtge steering servo. Wth? Soni brought one of those orange off name receivers. That was the issue. Mr200's are letting me down left and right. Ugh. Im uploading videos right now. But for now heres gps shots of my most productive passes.

This is 5s. Thays right, 5s. Not too shabby.



Heres 6s, no complaints here!



And i had to change the short rudder back to the long one. It woukd not stay on the water. The short rudder was worth about 4mph on 5s during my testing. I think between the extra drag and the prop just being too hard to turn any faster, thats why it didnt pick up at least 10mph like it should. Thats ok. Ive got a few things to worknon and ill get there. 7s....