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[CliveJ]

I have assembled 2 x Club 500 boats

The set up is as follows
Standard running gear as supplied
Futaba 2.4 radio
Mtroniks speed controller

One boat on first outing died (speed controller fault - controller replaced by Mtroniks)
Second outing boat suddenly went into reverse - managed to manoeuvre backwards to the shore - motor then stopped all appeared ok - motor then starts of its own accord in reverse can be stopped by initiation of full reverse on throttle stick then return to neutral - if left after approx. 30 secs it again starts in reverse of its own accord !!!

Has anyone else encountered such a problem ?

Thanks Clive

[unbuiltnautilus]

Sounds like some sort of failsafe action by the radio, due to something...What set is it? 2 Channel or multichannel? What stick is the throttle on, ratchet or sprung to neutral? What voltage and type are the batteries?
That's a good place to start

[Netleyned]

Check your Tx aerial connection.
It appears you are losing signal to the Rx intermittently
which, as UBN says puts the Rx into failsafe mode.


Ned

[CliveJ]

It is a new Futaba T 8 J

After advice from above I have researched the manual (usually a last resort !!)

From my testing it appears the Tx is confused by the fact that as boaters we remove the ratchet thereby centring the throttle stick - the middle we call stop
The system does not recognise this as stop (it's an aircraft set) as far as it's concerned this is mid or half throttle !!
The fails safe in the system takes (electronically) the throttle to stop/idle which of course in boating terms is full reverse !! not helpful
The failsafe can be set that the controls stay in the last position before interference which I have done - the one failsafe it does not appear you can alter is the battery fail safe within the receiver that at a sensed low voltage (electronically) takes it back to stop/idle again full reverse thereby putting even more demands on the battery which it has already sensed as low !

I have spoken to the supplying model shop who unfortunately cannot help !

Looks like a call to Futaba on Monday

Others must have encountered this and got round it  ?

Any help appreciated 

[unbuiltnautilus]

If you have only one battery on board and it is going into fail safe that quickly, you could have a faulty battery. I assume they are 7.2v and not 6v batteries, which will give you a greater margin of error until the voltage drops below a critical level, triggering the fail safe. Also check your charger to ensure it is working properly, this could be the cause of any voltage problems.
As an alternative, move the throttle on to the sprung stick on the other side of the set, this wont have the same fail safe setting as the 'proper' throttle channel.

[Danny]

Change the Tx to the other mode (mode 1?) and plug your ESC into channel 2.  This will give you an up/down centered stick on the left.

[CliveJ]

Thanks for advice

I am reluctant to change Mode as I fly aircraft as well (flying for 20 yrs)

I am not sure my brain would compute or cope with the change 

My hopes are with Futaba service centre on Monday !

[dazzle]

As use my hitec  9 tx mode 2 for both my fsrv boats no rachet on chn 3, for my scale I use channel 4
(aircraft rudder) right stick is forward,  centre neutral, left stick for reverse,  my rudder is on chn 1 ailerons left and right I found this the easiest, you can also if want reverse the channel for rudder stick left for forward,  centre neutral, and right stick for reverse if easier,  hope this helps and easier than contacting futaba

[red181]

you can open up the tx, and transfer the spring centring from the elevator to the throttle. Its not the ratchet, that has no input to the throttle stick position, so you can just disregard the ratchet if you want

You then need to reset your esc. Not sure which mtroniks you have but mine are this:

turn on, red/green leds flash, press the button, it goes into reset, make sure your throttle stick is centre. Move stick to full throttle, green led illuminates confirming full throttle position is set, move stick all the way down, this brings on the red led, reverse is now set. Put stick back to centre, both led illuminate, confirming centre stick position. You actually don't need to have the sprung throttle, its just far easier to operate the boat with it, if you knock the stick accidentally you could end up with full throttle and the stick will not automatically return to centre killing the throttle.

I raced club 500, if you intend to race, you don't actually need reverse, just set the esc as you would a rc plane.

[dazzle]

Re my post me brain dead as usual, should have changed the word rachet to spring, my tx is unchanged from when I used to fly planes both electric and nitro with no spring centering on channel 3 which I use on my nitro boats.

For my electric boats which have reverse I plug the esc into channel 4 aircraft rudder stick which is spring centered and set the fail safe for that channel ie centre aircraft rudder is esc stop position, my tx will not even allow me to transmit unless channel 3 throttle is fully down at the stop idle position my receiver also senses the same as your futaba, a centre spring on channel 3 will not work the receiver will ignore it and still put it at minimum throttle ie full reverse, I have been seen and done is why I use channel 4 for my boat esc.


 
 



 

[CliveJ]

Update

Spoke to Futaba Service Centre today - Very helpful 

There are two options

1) As Danny suggested above - change to Mode 1 (sorry I was a bit dense on this Danny - I convinced myself that I would be moving the throttle to the RH stick ... doh) the 'new' throttle (LH) will then in effect be the 'elevator' stick/channel which does not have the same constraints as the throttle in respects of failsafe

2) Programme the Failsafe to default to the settings you want (i.e. centre stick - neutral) the transmitter signals the receiver as soon as you switch on - it tells the receiver what position for each channel to move to in the event of signal disruption - to be fair this is explained in the manual
What is not so clear in the manual is the 'secondary' failsafe within the receiver in the event a low battery is sensed - Futaba advise that this is automatically set to your programmed default settings even though this is a failsafe generated by the receiver and nothing to do with the transmitter

So that's that except ..............  having done all the above when you switch on the transmitter you still get the throttle warning alarm because it 'thinks' the throttle is set at half and not neutral because the stick is in the middle

So maybe the way forward is to move to mode 1 - however the throttle warning alarm will still sound until you move the RH stick to 'full back'

The only way you can turn this alarm off is to use the multi copter settings ................. and to me these look too complicated for words 

I suppose this is what happens when you use a system for something other than its design use i.e. aircraft

Hope this helps others

Clive

[Danny]

Glad you're sorted now Clive. At least you will know how to turn the alarm off easily.
One more thing to watch out for - if your MTronics is the "self setting" Viper (without the little button), make sure you push the 'new' throttle throttle fully forward immediately after switch on EVERY TIME!  If you forget or knock it downwards first, when you then try to go forwards the boat will go full speed BACKWARDS (you can get it back by pushing the stick down which will give you half speed forwards!!) - or just chuck it in the drawer and get a button one like I did!