My New Mini Eco! Set up tips?

[sailr]

I use a cutting wheel on a dremel tool and then the little drum sander on the dremel. You can take small bites at a time and end up with a very smooth cut. The guys in Europe cut some crazy shapes into the decks of their flood chamber boats like club, spade, heart, and diamond and stuff like that. I'm not that good with a dremel to do that!

The hull is very thin. Be careful

[Rich]

How many holes should I put on the deck? Should I put them all the way back to the trans?

[martin]

Ive found you dont need to put holes all the way to the rear, When the boats upside down it sinks down one side as water enters the rear of the chamber so can trap air that towards the front. Having holes starting from around the motor area & going back say 5", I have 4 .25" holes spread 1.5" apart & it floods & rights very quickly. The more you put or the bigger they are more water will get in quicker but ive found theirs no point in putting to many unnessary holes when you can get it righting very quickly. Start off smaller & simply open them up if you find it dosnt right as fast as you would like. Martin.

[sailr]

The holes in the deck are to let the air out! Martin's advice is perfect!

[NativePaul]

I did mine with a mixture of the dremmel and a scalpel, just the scalpel would have resulted in a neater job but taken MUCH longer, Martin is right about the thin deck in the flood chamber some of my fancywork is too fancy and too weak, I broke part of the 2cell battery symbol off while cutting it out and broke a part of the earth symbol off when rubbing down for paint, the warning high voltage and danger shock hazard symbols are pretty weak too and though I haven't broken them yet if I was doing them again I would leave bigger bridges in the corners. The high voltage lightning bolt,ohm symbol, 8.4, resistor symbol and brushless motor symbol are all plenty strong enough, which should give you some idea of what you can get away with if you want something fancy.

Sailr, it is my belief that the holes in the deck are to let the water in, not the air out. By some strange coincidence mine always seems to be upside down when I want it to self right!

[sailr]

The original holes that come with the boat, a couple of small holes, are to let the air out. The water will come in the back of the flood chamber but unless the air can exit the chamber, the water can't flow in. The faster the air can exit, the faster the water can flow in. With you're extensive cutouts, I'm sure they facilitate both water and air.

Your boat is super cool!

[Rich]

I drilled more holes in the side and took her out for a spin today. It didn't self right, but i need to put some more weight in the chamber. The motor stopped and the controls went dead. Turns out there was water in the hull? I dried everything out and ran it once again. It did the same thing and again I found water in the hull. Which would explain why it self righted multiple times. I left the hatch off and placed it in the water with nothing in it. I came to find out my dumb self must have nicked the flood chamber wall with the drill bit causing a small hole right next to the motor. I am now waiting for it to dry so I can plug the hole with epoxy. ... Tomorrow is another day.

[Rich]

Well I got her all glued up and added some weight to the left side and bingo! It self rights with no leaks! I would like to thank Sailr for the discount and the advice. Thank you all!

[sailr]

Good to hear Rich! Thanks for the kind words. My main goal is to be sure everybody has fun with our boats!

[Rich]

Your welcome! I am looking to get a Starship later on down the road that would be a fun boat. I drove it again and had a mishap, it was a bit choppy today. It handled it well until it dove and didn't come back up....I had my fishing rod with me and started casting for about 45 min. My brother got some chain to see if we could stir it up since our lake is muddy. We also enlisted the help of a boater that was passing by to use his motor to stir it up, but with no success. I knew it couldn't have sunk. My gecko was submerged for 45min until I pulled it off the bottom and it popped up and drove it back to shore. I left to get some heavy duty line and hooks to snag it. My brother called me when I was on my way home about 1 mile from my house and told me it came up!!! The best part was that there wasn't more than a few drops of water in the hull!!! How the heck the Eco and the Gecko dive down 3ft and get stuck in the mud is beyond me! I think I need to design a float system that activates when the signal is lost via the 3rd channel and looks good......any ideas? I am thinking about something that can release a bobber with enough line that it can reach the surface so I know where it is.

[NorCalZ71]

the float idea would be fairly easy. just mount a traxxas waterproof micro servo in the flood chamber and make a catch pin to hold the bobber in.

[Rich]

Thats not a bad idea NorCalZ71, I'll have to look into it for my Gecko too.

[stevie]

Hey guys I'm new to boats im 20 I've always raced 1/18 brushless on road and I'm sponsored through max amps batteries. My dad had a prather spitfire 2 nitro with a k&b7.5 modified out in california years ago. I've always loved rc boats and I got my dad back into it. Then when I found minicat I couldnt beleive how much better then all the other micros. I kept reading and doing homework on them. I finally decided the eco was amazing. I ordered one from them on thursday and got it on monday ive worked on it all day and I think im gonna see how it handles tommorrow. I live in michigan and the pond were they race their nitro hydros and mono's. Hopefully my dads boat will run by then but im looking forward to blowing them out of the water. Is there any advice or tips you would share. I have 2 cells and 3 cells and the 3200 kv should I just run the 2s. I cant wait to run this boat please help if u want.

Thanks

Stephen

[sailr]

Thanks for the kind words! You can run the boat on 3S OK. That is 35K no load rpm. No worries.

[stevie]

Ok cool thanks I just got back from running it and its on rails im having trouble getting full rpms out of it though. Ive tried reprogramming the throttle response but it wont get up to plane if I adjust the throttle trim so it goes about ten mph when my throttles at nuetral itll go a lot faster but still not close to full speed. If I set the esc to auto will that work for both 2 and 3 cells. Im looking to make this boat to be a serious racer.
Thanks sailr
I would like to talk to you personally about this boat I have a few questions. Can't wait to get this boat screaming

[electric007]

Programming the throttle range using my DX3S was a pain!! I had to play with the brake travel in order for the esc to recognize the neutral position. wow!!!!!!!!!!!
im still cant get mine to work correctly>>

[stevie]

Im gonna run it with a 4 cell tommorrow but does anybody know what prop I should use

[sailr]

Seems a lot of people have trouble with the Spektrum radios programming with various esc's. We can't help you if you're using Spektrum.

[sailr]

Good luck with that. You run the chance of blowing the esc and motor on 4S. That will produce 46,080 no load RPM! Too high for the motor. It will NOT be warrantied. You definitely will need a smaller than stock prop on 4S but we don't carry any because the boat is not designed to run on 4S.

Im gonna run it with a 4 cell tommorrow but does anybody know what prop I should use

[stevie]

Ok thank you I havnt yet and im not going to now were going to the pond in an hour what batteries should I be using all my packs are between 800 and 1200 mah 3 cell and they dont power the boat it will only have power for about 5 seconds then slower than 2 cell I need new lipos what should I get

[NativePaul]

Use your 1200mAh 3s pack it should net you a little under 4 minutes of runtime, if your in the states I doubt you will be racing it, but the Naviga rules for mini ECO give you a sub 110gram 2-3s LiPo pack which is about 1500mAh in 3s, with which to do a 6 minute race plus in lap.