Model Boat Mayhem
Mess Deck: General Section => Tugs and Towing => Topic started by: freightliner009 on August 08, 2014, 02:57:48 pm
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Hi all,
I'm new to this site, some may know me from the Model Tug Forum. Has anyone modified the Hobby Engine Southampton RTR tugboat? I want to replace the cheap stock 280 motors but they are funny looking things encased in a black plastic box. Also, the prop shafts are quite low to the hull floor, all help gratefully received.
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Hi Andy
I have one of these and as you say the shafts are very low to the floor, I have removed the original plastic things and replaced them with home brew brass units with Teflon bearing at the prop end and ball race at the drive end and in the process of building 2 gearboxes (4 : 1) with 1500k/v brushless motors but not a task for the faint hearted.
Forgot to mention the new shafts are still low to the bottom so it seems that you have to stick with the original plastic unit or do major mods. I know this doesn't solve your problem but feel sure that someone out there has done other mods and can help, best of luck
Lionel
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Hi Lionel,
A friend of mine sent me this link saying these motors are used as upgrades to the existing ones and they come with their own mounts http://www.cornwallmodelboats.co.uk/acatalog/mfa-re385.html
I only got the tug last December and not even sailed her yet as I had major problems with the stock ESC. I wanted to use a larger mah battery pack for a longer run time but on my boat the original red and black wires going to the Tamiya connector were back to front (reverse polarity!). I have invalidated the warranty by changing the ESC to a Viper Marine 25 which solved the initial problem. Luckily I was just doing some final checks in the bath before taking it to the lake when she suddenly stopped working, just as well really otherwise I may not of got it back!
It's a lovely looking tug with good detail for a rtr model, I just want to get everything going as it should and at least the electronics will be of a far superior quality than the stock rubbish they put in these things.
Andy
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I have kept the original motors in mine as they work well. I just put two Mtroniks speed controllers in and changed it to 2.4Ghz and added some extra ballast.
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I have kept the original motors in mine as they work well. I just put two Mtroniks speed controllers in and changed it to 2.4Ghz and added some extra ballast.
I did much the same, but used a couple of cheap ebay escs. Also put a bigger battery pack in (4700mAh).
I wouldn't think it was worth changing the motors until/unless one fails. (If it was a single motor/prop I might think otherwise, but having two motors means you should still be able to get the boat back if one fails.)
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I'm not sure what is actually happening here but I took it all apart and it started working again with a different battery pack, but a couple of hours later after being switched off it's dead again. This proves the motors are ok, what I did do was leave the battery connected but just switched it of using the on/off switch, is it possible the battery is draining some how even though the on/off switch is off? I'm just charging the battery to see if it works on a freshly charged one.
All I did was like you change the esc (and the battery pack) and the rx to Orange. When it decides to work there's a flashing light inside the rx which goes solid once the 2.4Ghz tx has picked it up. But when it doesn't work the is a very faint but solid light inside the rx that just isn't right. Each time the ESC is showing a solid red light.
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Well, finally things are looking up for a change, after installing the AR6100e rx and leaving it for a few hours I've just switched it on and it is still working! I'll now leave it over night and see if all is well tomorrow morning.There is definitely something not quite right with these Orange rx's. I kept trying to bind them last night using a spare battery pack and all I was getting was a very low static dim light and I could do nothing with them. Tonight however, I plugged in the battery in turn and they both had the bright flashing internal light that was missing last night, most strange, anyway I cannot afford to chance using them after what has happened on either the Southampton or the Zeeland and so I have decided to bin them. So if anyone is thinking of buying an Orange rx unit just be careful what you are actually buying. I am not referring to the 'proper' Orange units which work fine but on EBay these copies are so good you'd be hard pressed to tell the difference. The two types I have are the 2.4Ghz R610 and R620 - beware! Andy