Another successful Revolt maiden! W/video

[fwlbp]

Hi all, I'm new to the forum, but have been reading for many months of what boat to purchase. I had a Kyosho jetstream nitro boat back in the 90's as a kid. It was fun and as a kid, always thought it was incredibly fast, maybe the sound of the nitro engine winding out embellished my sense of speed. Anyhow, I decided FE was the way to go and learned from everyone here on how to run a FE boat with little experience outside of nitro. I got what I believe is the last silver/red revolt right here at OSE last week. I did the following based off what you guys recommended:

1. Graupner K48 prop (recommended by Doby)
2. New Kintecracing drive shaft & coupler
3. New kintecracing cooling lines
4. Kintecracing transom cooling line fittings
5. plumbers putty under all hardware on transom
5. rebuild hardware with loctite (blue removable kind)
6. adjusted turn fins back and up

Well I have to say, the boat drove like a dream. I ran the grim 5000 mah batteries in middle of the tray for a neutral balance as there was a chop today. This thing flew, it would've slaughtered my old kyosho nitro!! I flipped it once and the wind blew it back into shore and guess what, not a drop in the hull!! The neighborhood kids gathered and really got into it, maybe they'll get hooked into the hobby, who knows, maybe I'll get a boat club going in the neighborhood.

Anyhow, the videos:



Overall, just wanted to say thanks to the OSE community for getting a old nitro runner up to speed in the new FE world.

[fwlbp]

Here's the flip:

[fwlbp]

Just a question about the accuracy of my equipment. I have a Onyx 245 charger & also a Futaba BR-3000 battery checker (essentially a rebranded EOS Sentry). When I charged my Lipo's to 3.85 v/cell yesterday, I let the 2S packs run up to 7.7v on the Onyx, then when I took them off, the BR-3000 read them as 3.83v per cell. So I'm not sure which is the inaccurate one? I have a feeling that the BR-3000 is more accurate than the charger. When I got the packs in the mail, the checker read them at 3.85v/cell, which is what I assume Grim does to them before shipping.

Also, I noticed that the boat would tend to slowly drift right when going straight at 100% throttle. In order to go straight it needed a touch of left rudder. I assume that this happening due to motor torque? It looks like good weather this weekend, I want to see if I can combat it some by moving batteries to the left side of the hull. I believe this would be better than lowering a trim tab and inducing more drag.

[G-UNIT]

Hows your steering trim?

[fwlbp]

It was set neutral at 2 o'clock position. The rudder visibly looked straight to me.

[TheShaughnessy]

Maybe there is a way to calibrate the 245. I used a eos sentry Hyperion checker to calibrate my tp 820 cd.

[fwlbp]

Hmm, I'll have to check the manual to see, thanks for the suggestion!

[fwlbp]

Did some aquacraft durability testing today :-)
http://youtu.be/yOuEor3sEBA

[Bking1340]

Looks good. Will do my Revolt Maiden next weekend as we had some freezing weather the past weekend. Are you still using the graupner prop?

[fwlbp]

Thanks Bking! Yes, I am still using the graupner, it really is a good prop for a beginner. Cheap to replace if you break it, no need to balance it, and gives good performance. You must be in the north to have freezing temps in June! Wish you good luck on your maiden.

*EDIT*
Also wanted to mention, the Onyx 245 doesn't have a calibration that I coudl find. I then performed a "redneck" calibration while charging. I ran the batteries up to 7.72v on the onyx and pulled them off. Checked them with the BR-3000 and they were both sitting perfectly at 7.7v.

[fwlbp]

Hey guys, big update on my Revolt 30. After approximately 8 runs, I had a malfunction yesterday. I wanted to post my experience to help anyone in case they encounter this issue.

I was running yesterday on some heavy chop (was good fun!). I didn't flip or anything, just hit a few 5" waves and it stopped running. It then "sailed" back into shore. I found that when I gave it throttle, the prop would vibrate back and forth. To me it appeared that it binding. So I took everything apart, flex shaft, collet, motor off mount, prop, drive dog. Reassembled and it would still do it!

I continued to fiddle with it for another hour and by chance was wiggling a motor wire while giving it some throttle and it magically spooled up. Turns out one of the three wires coming from the motor (red wire) was internally broken from the base of the bullet connector!

I've read of people recommending changing out the connectors, now I'm living it. So I just ordered $50 worth of shrink wrap, wiring, bullet connectors for motor, EC5's to replace the deans on the grimracer batts, soldering jig, etc.

See as how I went cold turkey into this hobby, the "getting started" price I told my wife was $320 for the boat, and it has now ballooned to $750 for accessories, batteries, charger.....etc....

[tlandauer]

When I ordered parts, I used to tell my ex these boxes would not be able to hold anything more than $15!!
You had factory cold-solder. Common on these mass produced products. In fact when I change the connectors from these motors I am always amazed at how easily the joint "melts" away from a mere touch with my solder iron tip.

[fwlbp]

I like your $15 box explanation, maybe i'll put that one in my back pocket for the next time I need some "upgrades" or "accessories". I'm hoping my connectors & supplies come in by this weekend so I can dissect these poor joints and see how bad they came from the factory. I'll see if I can get a pic of the cracked solder joint and show you guys. Overall though, I know these things happen with RTR's. The boat has been awesome, and if I have to deal with putting on a few connectors, then so be it. I enjoy working on it and upgrading, so it doesn't bother me too much. Now if the wires had somehow shorted and caught fire, then it'd be a different story.

[G-UNIT]

How funny, I ran my revolt yesterday and was just about to bring it in when it stoped also but when I took it out and and hit the trigger it did the same thing.
although I knew what it was before I even took off the hatch, and when I did I started checking all my connectors as sure as %^$%#@ it was one of my battery connectors gave way, resoldered and back on the water it went, so as you can see even with 5.5 bullets a cold solder joint can come loose.

[Mike Caruso]

I started RC boating in 1972 and the Revolt I have is one of the best ever boats made just follow the rules.

[Mike Caruso]

Hey guys, big update on my Revolt 30. After approximately 8 runs, I had a malfunction yesterday. I wanted to post my experience to help anyone in case they encounter this issue.

I was running yesterday on some heavy chop (was good fun!). I didn't flip or anything, just hit a few 5" waves and it stopped running. It then "sailed" back into shore. I found that when I gave it throttle, the prop would vibrate back and forth. To me it appeared that it binding. So I took everything apart, flex shaft, collet, motor off mount, prop, drive dog. Reassembled and it would still do it!

I continued to fiddle with it for another hour and by chance was wiggling a motor wire while giving it some throttle and it magically spooled up. Turns out one of the three wires coming from the motor (red wire) was internally broken from the base of the bullet connector!

I've read of people recommending changing out the connectors, now I'm living it. So I just ordered $50 worth of shrink wrap, wiring, bullet connectors for motor, EC5's to replace the deans on the grimracer batts, soldering jig, etc.

See as how I went cold turkey into this hobby, the "getting started" price I told my wife was $320 for the boat, and it has now ballooned to $750 for accessories, batteries, charger.....etc....

Correct but next time you can tell her hey I have batteries already LOL

[fwlbp]

LOL Mike, I also now have charger, checker, soldering station, lipo bags, etc. It makes getting a micro boat a "cheap" proposition for my upcoming birthday, hmmmmm

Anyhow, I got my Revolt back in the water over the weekend. Received new EC5's for ESC, batteries, & Charger. I also got castle creation 4 mm bullets for the motor. I thought about using 5 mm, but the small 14 gauge wires on the motor don't seem to necessitate larger ones. The cotacts on the male castles have MUCH more surface area than the stock 4mms that came on the motor. I also got a weller WLC100 40 watt station to put it all together.

I didn't get a pic of the poor solder joint because I just wanted to get the job done and get on the water! The red wire was not soldered at all and I am suspicious if ever had a connection. I think the heat shrink was giving it a mechanical connection! The solder in the bullet looked like the surface of the moon, pitted and flat grey. My new joints were nice and shiny with fillets up to the shrink wrap, so I was happy.

Took it out and did three runs. Ran beautifully. Now I'm not sure if it is me or not, but it appears that it is running a tick faster, maybe 2-3 mph. I seriously wonder if the cold joints were giving some resistance and impeding the motor from reaching full chat. I didn't make any adjustments other than connectors and it ran much looser than before. It had some slight chine walk even, which i had never encountered. Overall, very satisfied with what I've accomplished with my boat!!

*Edit*
Just wanted to give a shout out to Kintecracing. Every order I've placed to them has been flawless and quick. I received the above components within days and was back in the water in under a week, minimizing my down time.

[fwlbp]

Hey guys, just wanted to enter another update on my progress so far. I ordered and received a S&B Octura M545 prop from here at OSE. Pulled off the carbon Graupner K48 and ran with the m545 yesterday for the first time. My jaw dropped when I saw the top end of this prop, amazing! My dad, who has been an observer of my FE boat journery this summer, was laughing like a mad man. It was running extremely dry with chine walk & air time over wake. To my untrained eye, it looked like it was in the upper 40's.

It was interesting to see the difference in performance. It definitely didn't accelerate as hard as the Graupner, but the top end is well worth the trade off. Even mor interesting is how cool my entire setup ran. Motor, ESC, batteries, connections all were luke warm to the touch even though it was running the fastest I've ever seen.

My last point of discussion after seeing it run at these speeds is why do people feel the need to bump it to 5S or 6S. The 48 to 50 mph range seemed like about the most I'd want to run this boat as it was slightly unstable. I feel like I'd have alter the setup and run the hull wetter just to handle the 5S/6S increase. So not sure what the point would be as everything would run hotter and more unstable.

[G-UNIT]

An M445 works great on this boat also running 4s and stock esc.

[fwlbp]

Thanks for the suggestion, how does the m445 compare to the m545? The m545 runs so great I don't know what the advantage of the m445 would be.

[Brushless55]

Thanks for the suggestion, how does the m445 compare to the m545? The m545 runs so great I don't know what the advantage of the m445 would be.

The m445 has less pitch

[G-UNIT]

True it has less pitch and would load up faster I believe, also your temps might even go down a bit.

[fwlbp]

Hmm, well maybe I'll pick one up in the off season to try out in the spring. I'm just having too much fun with this M545 to take it off the boat!

[Brushless55]

Hmm, well maybe I'll pick one up in the off season to try out in the spring. I'm just having too much fun with this M545 to take it off the boat!

If you like that prop I would not prop down with a M445