Model Boat Mayhem
Mess Deck: General Section => Beginners start here...! => Topic started by: woody_294 on October 14, 2010, 11:36:11 pm
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Ok, my dad has this boat:
(http://www.cornwallmodelboats.co.uk/acatalog/aerokits_sea_queen_large.jpg)
And what we'd like to do is put twin electric motors in her, with a rudder for each. The original design is a single motor and rudder which have never been installed, it's half finished my dad had it given to him by the man next door as he got too old to finish it and he wasn't well. It's something for my dad to do as he's homebound nowadays.
I'm kinda getting the hang of what I need after lots of googling and a couple of questions but I still need some help with the planning. I have no idea what kind of motors I'm going to need, and wether I'll need an ESC per motor as we want the motors controlled to slow on turn. I'm not entirely sure on how to go mixing the signals either.
would like to have reverse for stopping as neither of us will be great I suspect at controlling her, so I want the controls as easy as possible, hence the mixing. I suppose I really need the help in selecting components.
Thanks for reading!
P.S. I'm an electrical engineer and dad's a retired mechanical one, so feel free to go crazy about electronics to me, but I'm not the greatest on boat terms, although I am learning, and I know how to search!
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Have a look at this:
http://www.action-electronics.co.uk/pdfs/P94.pdf (http://www.action-electronics.co.uk/pdfs/P94.pdf)
ACTion
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Nice bit of kit there ACTion, pretty much does all my thinking for me! I was thinking about making my own circuitry for this but now I'm thinking otherwise.
Can anyone recommend some motors for this? I was thinking maybe a couple of stock 400s or maybe a little larger. Would these be sufficient to put it at around 4-6 knots? Is this a little fast for this boat?
I need to get a ball park figure to my dad for a price for this build so he can yea/nay it.
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PM sent.
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I cannot see why you need to fit two motors, two rudders and all the other complications such as mixers when the boat will perform extremely well with the single motor setup it was designed for. I have an identical Sea Queen which was given to me for the same reason, the elderly owner had not finished it in over twenty years. I managed to get it going and he saw it run before he passed away which was good. I used the original 1960 Taycol motor with modern R C gear. I am not suggesting you do the same as it takes a bit of effort to get it all working and suppressed but there are plenty of modern motors which would push her along far better than the old one and she will carry a big 12 volt sealed lead acid battery which will give hours of run time. Even with the 12v 7AH battery I still had to add lead but she puts up a lovely bow wave. Keep it simple and reliable. Cheers, Ian.
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Thanks Ian, I've been thinking about that. I think my dad really wants the twin motors and rudders because it's a bit of a project for him. I guess I'll have to price up a dual and single build and then show him some numbers and see how he takes it, I have a funny feeling he may be surprised when I show him how much the dual setup is!
But then again if it's easy then its not usually as fun!! I'll probably read that after several hours failing miserably at getting it done and think "I am an idiot!"
It hasn't come with any running gear at all afaik so i'll have to source parts either way. Just as a thought, as you have a sea queen, I've been doing some measurements from photos, does a 440mm prop shaft sound about right?
*Edit* I should say that it's only half built at this point, half of the hull off and no painting done :)
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have a look at this on the fire boat web site, it's a sea Queen with a single brushless motor,brushless motors are more efficient , so longer run time.there are a few sea queens on there and if you look at theposts you will sea what motor set up they are using, also look at red181 s huntsman from the same era similar size and weight again brushless.
http://modelfireboats.com/videogallery/
Huntsman
http://www.modelboatmayhem.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=21584.0
peter
in case you cannot view it as you may not be a member
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSmuYujPobQ&feature=player_embedded
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I cannot see why you need to fit two motors, two rudders and all the other complications....
I echo kiwimodeller's concern, since the boat is designed for a single propshaft passing through and supported by the keel. If you want to have two you will need to add quite a bit of local skin stiffening to the base of the hull, and arrange for structural support for the prop shafts as they will be unsupported in their new positions. All this can be done (though it would have been easier at build time!) but it may be tricky to get the propshafts truly in line without any pre-existing support structure to act as a reference point...
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Thanks for the links Peter, seems no-one else is running 2 motors on one of these, that I have seen. Maybe there's a very good reason for that!
Those guys seem to be getting a pretty good speed from a single 800 or such.
I know what you mean geezer. I'm not up to putting this point across strongly to my dad, seems he's quite set on two motors/rudders. The bill racks up to about £160 at the moment so I'll see how he takes it. I don't doubt my dad's ability to make it anew for two motors, I've been looking quite closely at photos of the frame and I feel it wouldn't be too hard to create some new framework for the shafts and motors.
I was wondering about the planing section of the lower hull though, would it need to be flat between the props/rudders to make it work, with a new keel line for each motor, if that makes sense (need to learn more boat terms!)
(http://www.jotika-ltd.com/KitPics/LRG/Sea_Queen005_Lrg.jpg)
(http://www.jotika-ltd.com/KitPics/LRG/Sea_Queen017_Lrg.jpg)
It's in a similar state to the top photo presently.
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The hull shape was designed for a single screw so might not perform so well with twins. Also, with all that framing inside just where you would need to install the twin shafts it looks like major surgery would be needed!
Colin
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... I don't doubt my dad's ability to make it anew for two motors, I've been looking quite closely at photos of the frame and I feel it wouldn't be too hard to create some new framework for the shafts and motors...
It's certainly possible - I suspect it may be a fair bit of work to ensure that everything is true, however....
I was wondering about the planing section of the lower hull though, would it need to be flat between the props/rudders to make it work, with a new keel line for each motor, if that makes sense (need to learn more boat terms!)
That comment makes me wonder how a twin-propped Sea Queen would handle in turns. You might find that as she banks air gets dragged into the outer propeller - the hull shape is intended to roll in turns...
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Yeah it doesn't look like a small job Colin, I'm gathering momentum for a single prop pitch, the price is over £200 now!
That is a very good point, guess I'll have to watch some videos back and see how she rolls.
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woody_294 I think you will find that the boats in the videos are brushless motors not 800 it is a big boat to get moving , the huntsman is a geared brushless motor defiantly as I helped fit it. brushless it not that expensive the motor is about £29 and the speed controller about the same from Giant cod http://www.giantcod.co.uk/
peter
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PeeWee,
GiantCod are showing five pages of brushless motors - several motors of which are around the £30.00'ish price. If it's not too much agro, could you be a cherub and give the make/mode/part number of the particular motor which you used, pse? Also, ditto info. for the speed controller?
Top thanks.
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PeeWee,
GiantCod are showing five pages of brushless motors - several motors of which are around the £30.00'ish price. If it's not too much agro, could you be a cherub and give the make/mode/part number of the particular motor which you used, pse? Also, ditto info. for the speed controller?
Top thanks.
+1 I'd like to know which motor too, I've been pointed to a huntsman of yours from another site Peter! Looks like it goes like stink :)
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+1 I'd like to know which motor too, I've been pointed to a huntsman of yours from another site Peter! Looks like it goes like stink :)
OK ill get the info on the motor, the Huntsman is not mine ,it's far to nice for one of my boats it's Paul RED181 s, I just helped a bit with the drive train he did all the hard work to make it so nice.
Peter
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the boat in video has a 50/65 380kv 65mm prop 4 blades running on 25v he just uses a 80 amp speed controller their are lots to choose from he did not give me the details of that I hope it helps Ill ask red181 to post his info for the Huntsman.
Peter
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Thanks Peter, I showed my dad the video of that huntsman to convince him that he'd get enough manoeuvrability and speed from a single prop and rudder.
That does help, I was going to put a 7.2v system in! Maybe not... would I be able to get anything like that performance from a 12v motor?
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Am I right in thinking that that's an Aeroplane motor? Would I need watercooling? It looks like it has an 8mm shaft too, not a problem just thinking. Would I be able to run this off 2 12v lead acid batteries with the right diodes and such??
Also, is the 2.4kg of extra weight from 2 of these (http://www.cornwallmodelboats.co.uk/acatalog/graupner_2590.html) 4.5Ah batteries going to be a problem?
Andy
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the Sea Queen can probably handle the weight without a problem, BUT the lead acid batteries may not be able to handle the drain from the motors if you wanted fast runs, you can not pull the current out of lead acid batteries very fast.
weight will also slow it down the huntsman all up weight in the link is about 5 kg so you need to think about weight but if you just want to sail around with the od blast you should be ok , keep the batteries as low as you can and at first make the so you can move them about to get a good balance.
Peter
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Thanks Peter, I guess the max constant you can pull from LAcid batteries is about 20Amps? In that case is there a way to run this motor much slower and use less amps? I am confusing myself here now. The motor says max efficiency at around 18-45A and at the lowest I'm looking at around only 15 minutes of run time on about 4Ah.
I would really like to get at least half an hour of run time without spending a fortune on batteries. An hour would be nice if I could find a setup that worked on LAcids, being as this boat is big I'd like to use them for the Ah/£.
I need to learn about this. Any advice would be great as I go and try to learn all about motors!
I'd like a motor that will make this thing shift nicely (not super fast but still fun) and draw about 10A, am I asking too much??
*Edit* I read somewhere that on a planing hull the centre of gravity should be around 1/3 from the rear, is this true?
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Apologies for double post, won't let me edit the last :D
Ok! After lots of reading threads on here, and some other bits and pieces, I am slowly getting my head around this. For all intents and purposes I'm looking to get the a simliar, if not better performance to an MFA 850 Torpedo (http://www.cornwallmodelboats.co.uk/acatalog/mfa1115_1.html) from a brushless motor, because brushless motors are more efficent, which helps me out in wanting to make the batteries last longer for better performance.
I've think I'm after about an 800kv brushless for 12v, giving me the max of about 10k rpm of the torpedo. What I can't figure out is why the brushless motors I look at around the 40 Amp mark! What Amps would this (http://www.giantcod.co.uk/xyh4250-800kv-outrunner-p-405282.html) pull whilst doing 10k rpm pushing the Sea Queen through the water on say, the stock prop, which is a 65mm three bladed brass one.
[rant]
On a side note Wesbourne Models reckon that this (http://www.westbourne-model.co.uk/energ-c60-brushless-motor-6934-0.html) motor is ideal for the sea queen, and frankly it looks like a monster and would last not much time at all on a lot of batteries. So WHY!? is this comparable to the Torpedo 850? I am totally lost on this front. Should I be looking to FILL this boat with Ni-Mh or Li-Po batteries to last an hour with all this new motor technology? [/rant]
I am fairly sure that with time and revision, motor technology has not gotten worse, so it MUST be that I am understanding this all wrong, please help!!
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Hi woody294, the 850 torpedo is a high torque 5 pole brushed motor. It's true that if you found an equivalent brushless motor you could probably expect +30%, however, there is an upgrade brushed 12 pole 900 motor which can offer very high torque performance without drawing huge amps from your batteries. I refer to the MMB 900 and it may be ideal for your single prop setup and hull size. Research the link below and judge for yourself.
http://www.modelboatmayhem.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=16941.0
http://www.marksmodelbits.com/
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If you want run time and a bit of speed run brushless by the way the person in the link now seems to run brushless in his boats, if run one of them they seem to need water cooling to stop them getting to hot.and I think you said you wanted to keep it simple.
Peter
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Thanks Perkasaman! I do like the look of that 900, would be nice to start out in 12v and maybe do 18-24 at a later date too, what with us being rc boat amateurs. Any idea what amp ESC I would need with this unit? It doesn't say a lot about it on the site.
Would it get the boat to plane on a 65mm prop on 12v? Or would I need more volts?
Can I use Lead Acid batteries with it?
Yeah I am leaning to wards brushless very much Peter, only I'm still a little confused to to finding an equivalent motor to the 850 or the 900 :)
I'm not too worried about complicating the build, just the controls I needed to keep simple :)
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Hi woody294, I've re-read the thread/posts and feel that your dad's original 'gut' feelings were much closer to the original design of this boat than he realised and worth re-consideration.
The Sea Queen and Huntsman kits have near identical 'Vee' hulls and both kits were intended for the marinised i.c. aero engine/single prop propulsion of this earlier era and now sold, many years later, largely unchanged as 'classic' model kits. The S.Q. kit is a modern re-manufacture which has been 'slightly' modified for a single electric motor. This clip is a build with a glow plug .61 i.c./single prop:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqBLIpfdbKU
The Huntsman kit is a popular 'evergreen' design based on the famous Fairey offshore boat which achieved fame and some success in 'offshore' competition at Cowes for some years. The Sea Queen hull is a near identical design to the Huntsman and both models share 'vices and virtues' inherent to both the Fairey hull form and the limitations of these elderly single prop kit designs.
The original boat/hull was designed for twin shaft/props/rudders.These kit designs were adapted to suit the only power source available to modellers at the time to get these large/heavy 4 footers planing. This expediency added a second layer of problems and issues which aggravated the stability and handling of this hull form which modellers experienced, especially in turns etc. when planing.
Be guided and inspired by the original............. You and dad can adapt the kit and 'personalise' 'your' boat......... get the hacksaw out and modify/adapt the existing and return it correctly to twin everything as the original designer intended............ it's a lot more fun and offers the challenge your dad was interested in taking up for enjoying. You are a team with more than enough skillsets to research/modify and build it.............. it's your cash/effort and enthusiasm which is at stake.
All the equipment apart from the shafts and riudders you buy for SQ will easily transfer to other large/planing boats of similar size you may wish to build in the future .......... MTB/MGB, RNLI etc. or use/swop the gear to power a pair of single proppers when the mood takes you. Buy multi-channel rc gear (minimum 3/4 channel) and you can use it for any of your builds. Unless you want to fit a bow thruster, then a mixer is unnecessary and a lot less fun than 'twin stick/throttle' or 'tank steering' on 3 channel with independant matched esc's which gives all the handling options of independant control on both props that the original craft enjoyed. :-)
(I entirely agree with Peter on the points he's raised re. the single brushless route.)
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The Sea Queen and Huntsman kits have near identical 'Vee' hulls ...
I thought the Sea Queen has a much flatter hull at the stern for planing, while the Huntsman 'V' continues all the way to the transom? And were the original Huntsman's props quite close together at the centre? Almost like a single prop...?
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Hi DG, The non-race or standard craft were fitted with 2 x 250hp diesels, however the racing versions tended to use tuned American V8 units with much more hp. The shafts/props were not located equidistant between the centre line and chine at the transom which is a common alignment rather they were less/slightly closer to the hull centre line to keep the heavy engine/gearbox and drive line as close as was practical to the centreline and also ensure that this weight was mounted as low/close to the keel line as possible to aid stability. This arrangement also helped in keeping the props lower and more submerged when planing. Both models exhibit a reduced, but distinct' vee' at the stern compared to the original boat and plan. There was some variation in stern vee between the Fairey types and the Huntsman was built in two sizes (28' and 32') and their sterns and degree of vee were not the same. As for the original twin prop arrangement acting like a single prop.... neutral handling is a real advantage when running a high performance hull.
I am writing from memory, however there are plenty of photos among the Huntsman threads on Mayhem for comparison with those of the Sea queen given here and available on the kit seller's site.
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I'm the one with the brushless Huntsman :-)) that HS93 worked on. Its way over scale speed, and goes like a rocket. It handles perfectly, which seems to be a contradiction with most of the other recent Huntsman builds, but all this comes at a price. High speed and run times are not partners! I run on 6 cells lipo 5000mah, and on a 2.5:1 gear ratio, thats 15 mins flat out. Lead acid would be completely useless in this boat, they cannot give up the amps quick enough, even my 4600 mah nims will not produce the lipo performance. I run a number pf props, depending on the sailing venue, most used is a 52.5mm 2 blade "x" prop
Now, if I was building it again, I would do twin screw (as per real boat) and it would be direct drive to a pair of brushless giant cod (way cheaper than westbourne) motors, like the sea queen on fireboat site, this setup is far more efficient than mine, which is now 12 months old. Its amazing how much cheaper lipo/brushless setups have become in the last 12 months, many of the large chinese suppliers dont even stock brushed motors and nimn/nicads now, just lipo, so the future is upon us! ok2
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.... This arrangement also helped in keeping the props lower and more submerged when planing. ...
Yup - my concern was that a flatter-hulled Sea Queen might have trouble keeping the outer prop submerged during a turn, especially if they were quite wide apart....
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Ah cool, thanks all!
So I guess I'll have to ring my dad and tell him he was right, haha.
Ok, twin motors, does it need to have twin rudders to match the motors? I'm finding it very hard to select some brushless motors because all I've managed to find out is that they don't directly compare to brushed.
I think I understand Lithium Polymer batteries now, I haven't read into how to go about making sure they don't go under voltage though, I understand there is some kind of alarm system you can put in place.
I'd like it to run for around an hour without having to muck around changing batteries but I don't want to spend a fortune on batteries either. Can anyone recommend a motors/batteries combo?
Noted about buying a Tx/Rx'er with more than just 2 channels, I can see the benefit of buying one with 3/4 channels for future possible changes etc.
He's more than likely going to be doing the woodwork without me being there so I shall advise him not to put the two prop shafts too far apart. Should he be keeping the same position (fore/aft) and angle/location of exit from the hull as the original one?
Thanks again all, this is all very helpful!!
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I think I understand Lithium Polymer batteries now, I haven't read into how to go about making sure they don't go under voltage though, I understand there is some kind of alarm system you can put in place.
Usually your ESC handles that.
Boaters are a minority - most brushless motors and ESCs are made for aircraft. They like to have a system whereby the motor cuts out when the voltage drops below a certain figure (though the ESC still continues to feed the receiver and servos. The aircraft can then be glided in. That is probably the way your ESC will work.
Of course, while that is fine for the flyers, it's not so helpful for a boat in the middle of the pond...
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Yeah I can see how that would be a problem! Is that why so many people have tugs? {-)
Seriously though, I'm guessing that I could rig another kind of warning circuit in place, maybe an LED on the boat? Although that wouldn't really be very visible if it was sunny... I'm thinking a small solenoid, a sprung flag to pop up, or other indicator, am I being a lunatic?
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I'm guessing that I could rig another kind of warning circuit in place, maybe an LED on the boat? Although that wouldn't really be very visible if it was sunny...
Super-bright LEDs would resolve the sunshine/visibility issue. Apart from that you might want to point your browser here: http://www.dawnmist.demon.co.uk/rcm.htm#2
It doesn't do pop-up flaps or such, but it does have a pretty clear audio warning indicator.
Good luck.
DG: If you're earwigging, bear with me - I shall reply to your PM. My excuse for the delay is down to more hospital visits and I'm still feeling a tad lethargic/lazy just now.
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Seriously though, I'm guessing that I could rig another kind of warning circuit in place, maybe an LED on the boat?
I suppose that what I was trying to say was that, if you go for a cheapish ESC, you probably won't have a choice - the motor will be cut out when the volts drop below a figure built into the ESC. And it probably won't have a reverse.
You can get ESCs developed specifically for boats and cars - these have reverse and may have a more friendly voltage cut-out feature - I know very little about the different ESCs. I know just enough to be aware that there are some non-intuitive features of brushless ESCs - setting up can sometimes be tricky, for instance - and they tend not to have good low speed controls. Ideally you should get advice from someone on the board with a bit of experience in this field ....
@PMK - no problem - I'm always here if needed....
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most brushless controllers have a cut out for li pol batteries it stops the batteries being damaged but you usually know as you get the odd hesitation so you can bring the boat in. there are plenty if controllers with reverse and have been for some years there are some cheapish ones that are not bad and give good slow speed as well as reverse, there are some better ones that give good slow speed very high amps (that you will not need), and are great to set up in seconds via a pc link, you can get them that can tell you after a run what amps watts where drawn etc and there are relatively cheap ones of these as well as dearer ones, there is a number of rc sets available that have a two way link there is a new budget one that looks good and that will give battery temperature amps revs as you tootle around the lake Oh and speed, if you want more info on any of these systems or address let me know, but don't think moderately priced speed controllers are no good I am talking £ 35 /40 and Giant cod do a rc set with feed back.
Peter
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... if you want more info on any of these systems or address let me know...
I think that many people here would be interested in any data you have in this field, which seems to be moving quite fast - I would be, for one...
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Hi woody,
I posted a reply over at RC Universe before I noticed this thread :-)
Nick
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Again, thanks for the replies all! We've decided to go ahead with a 2 prop setup. I'm thinking 2 of these:
http://www.giantcod.co.uk/xyh4260-500kv-outrunner-p-404601.html
on 5s LiPos, an 80A esc each, and some kind of mixer that I haven't found yet!
Going to get a 3 channel 40MHz set, and I'm thinking about 50mm props, although that is a guesstimate and in no way calculated! If someone could help with prop choice it would be a huge help :)
Also, does anyone know if these ESCs have a reverse on them??
http://www.giantcod.co.uk/80amp-boat-p-404814.html
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A pair of 45X (2 blade plastic ) props would be a starting point. A good idea is to mount/align the shafts as horizontal as possible.
It will help to install longer (12" minimum) shafts to obtain this more horizontal angle and also offset the twin rudder alignment to enable the shafts to be withdrawn without the rudders having to dismounted first. It is wise to leave sufficient clearance between the rudders and the end of the shafts to allow the props to be unscrewed/removed with the rudders in situ. The last item you buy is the shafts.
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Ah right, good to know! I think we were just going to go with the 440mm standard sea queen props and put them in the same alignment as the originals, about 3" apart.
I'll be sure to pass on the points though.
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there is a twin screw set up just posted on the fireboat web site that may interest you it's in the setup section, I converted one of my wooden fire boats to twin screw the method i used may be of some use to you, basically I copied the keel but did not cut in to the skin but notched the bulkhead so the keel could go through as in the original including the transom then put the ply on eather side of the keel to build it up as in the original just between the bulkheads then drilled the shaft's and this way i also had a rudder support as per the original, it was also able to take a lot of power without movement.
peter
http://modelfireboats.com/rc/setups.php#3552
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there is a twin screw set up just posted on the fireboat web site that may interest you it's in the setup section, I converted one of my wooden fire boats to twin screw the method i used may be of some use to you, basically I copied the keel but did not cut in to the skin but notched the bulkhead so the keel could go through as in the original including the transom then put the ply on eather side of the keel to build it up as in the original just between the bulkheads then drilled the shaft's and this way i also had a rudder support as per the original, it was also able to take a lot of power without movement.
this was built 20 + years ago
peter
http://modelfireboats.com/rc/setups.php#3552
this is how I do it now with a fiberglas fire boat much lighter and it will be geared and brushless Ill find some pictures of how it is now these where during the build.
Peter
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Woody,
I think that set-up will be OK for 50 mm props, 80 amp ESC good choice expect around 30+ amps at full throttle,
Peter,
I like your set-up for the fibreglass hulls, very nice.
Nick
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Thanks Peter those pictures help a lot! Especially with the rudder linkage. Nice boats :)
Thanks Nick, would it be advisable to get a few props for trial and error? What are the pros and cons of brass vs. plastic?
I'm getting there, I'll soon have a shopping list!
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Plastic props are good to get an idea ALWAYS start small and work up, check temperature off all the electrical components at minute intervals at first till you know its not going to over heat, it seems like hard work but one overheat can cost a lot of money, once you get a good set up buy a nice pair of shinny props from the prop shop (thats what I use) another way is to borrow props to try when you get a few more boats you can pinch them off them.
peter
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Thanks Peter :) I'll get some 45mm, see how they go!
I am having problems with mixing :( Does anyone know the difference between a w-tail and a v-tail mixer? Is it just that the w-tail is programmable? What do you twin prop guys use if you mix the signals?
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you need a boat one try action
Peter
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Hi woody_294, I dont't bother using any mixers of any sort. I have adapted my Tx to have 'twin stick' both up/down - so twin throttle/esc's which may be used together or independantly (like tank steering - but props rather than tracks), however one stick also continues to move laterally ( left - right ) for rudder control. I would only use some sort additional control if my model also required a bow thruster. My esc's (both 40 amp and identical )are on velcro fixing to enable them to be transferred for use in other models, seperately or together, as needed.
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If it's your first twin screw model for the price of them just get an action unit very simple and cheap and all you need is a two channel radio when you have got the mixer sorted , then play twin stick but it can be difficult to get used to the boat. http://www.action-electronics.co.uk/mixers.php you will find some of the things that twin motor can do like pirouetting on the spot BUT all mixers have there down side the do drop the revs on the inside motor on turns as in full size practice, ( I wish at full speed the mixer would turn off).
Peter
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Thanks for the replies all :)
I bought a v-tail mixer with the stuff from GiantCod but I'm not definitely going to use that because it seems to be pretty noisy. The tank steering option seems quite interesting but I may have misunderstood. How then do you control the rudder? I have the Zebra Transmitter and Reciever and there are some jumper pins in the back for mixing which I'll have to look into.
Here's a summary of the electronic kit bought thus far:
2 of the motors i mentioned earlier
2 60A hobbywing seaking 60 escs w/reverse program
a 5s 4.5 Ah LiPo battery (may need a second for run time in the future)
a 2-6s LiPo charger
a 5A 12v DC unit from Maplins
a V-Tail Mixer
I found the difference between a V-Tail and W-Tail mixer, the W-Tail mixer provides you with originals of the input signals, which you already have :) But the one I was looking at had programmable end points so that may have been a useful feature.
Also I bought 2 3 bladed 45mm props and 2 large rudders (55mm top to bottom) from cornwall model boats, along with some 2mm threaded rod, clips, and 2 universal joints with the relevant inserts. My dad is going to go about finishing the boat when he's well enough and provide mounting for the kit so I can come along and wire it up. As soon as there is some kind of progress I hope to provide some photos!
Thanks again guys, couldn't have got this far without you, at least not this swiftly :D I think the plan is to have the boat ready in time for some nice weather in spring.