Tim:
I lost interest in Maplin since they went into the consumer market. It's my loss, else I would have seen them smart blades sooner. A nice little gadget. Not a bad price, neither.
Smaller AND neater than my £97m contraption.
M'frary:
I too considered the bi-colour LED idea. It wouldn't have worked in this instance, though.
I suppose it could be done by using two separate LEDs, but by then the damn thing starts to look gimmicky.
BobF:
I know!
It all came about 'cos I was bored witless. Using a fuse is just a cover for an excuse to make something with LEDs.
I likes LEDs... gizmos... gadgets...
Fact is, I don't know much about boats. I've only built one or ten. No fancy-nancy, no scale, no skill... just something to stuff some gadgets in.
Did you ever see how they did it years ago? Every spare bit of room would be packed to the gills with batteries, huge receivers, massive actuators, more batteries for the valves... (tubes, to our colonial cousins)... switch banks, fuses...
Boats by todays' standard all look a bit... 'empty'. There's nothing in there.
But you are right... a fuse wouldn't have helped one diddly.
Bridge rectifier?
Ah! - now we're cooking!
And I would have been thirty-nine-quids'-worth of ESC better off if only I used one.
So why didn't I?...
Laziness. Besides, who wants an ugly great, clunky 25-amp rectifier hanging off their batteries? Who's interested in safety when rushing-in like a berk is much more fun? And think about it... Bridge rectifier... that means FULL-wave rectification... and THAT means TWO diodes wil be conducting at any time. Hmm... 2 x diodes equals.... Blimey! That means 1.4 volts of precious battery juice will be sapped by the bridge BEFORE it gets to the ESC!
I spent too many years heeding poncy advice like that.
If you can live with a bit of voltage drop, then Doc's suggestion is about as good as it gets.