Right, things have been a little slow recently, but I've managed to get some more work done on the Tarpon.
I've re lacquered the original handmade copper port holes and fitted them back in, they seem to be 12mm copper pipe with a washer of copper soldered to it, then blanked off with P38, inside painted black. I quite like the concept, so I decided to re use them, rather than getting some pre made replacements.
The rudder is now in with a micro servo from Hobby King (HK 15168), seems to have ample power, and was easier to fit as it was just the right height for the rudder arm.
The motor that I'm going to use 1st off is a rewound 12V Johnson 5xx long can motor from a battery drill. It's 5 pole which is why I chose it from the pile, but it went round too fast, and drew about 4A no load at 6V
So, Ive rewound it so it goes round at ~1000 rpm/volt, unfortunately Ive misplaced my notes from that evening, but from memory it was about 50 turns per pole of some wire I salvaged from a TV deflection coil.
It runs at about 1A no load now and nice and slow. It's been in the bath, and doesnt slow down too much under load, so seems to have the grunt I need. We will see when she gets in the water whether Ive got it right or not.
The motor mount I custom made to place the motor as aligned with the prop shaft as possible, 3mm aluminium will help to cool the motor a bit.
So the radio shelf is fitted, with an old Traxxas XL-1 ESC, and the FS-R6B 2.4GHz receiver. Ive disabled the BEC on the ESC so if I need to go to 12V it wont complain.
Receiver batteries are in the foredeck hatch, and the receiver switch and blue LED indicator are on the radio shelf.
Hopefully I will get it on the water this weekend.
Batteries are the next contemplation. The 6V 10Ah lead acids I have are just a little too heavy as are the 12V 7Ah, so I have some 1200mAh NiCads (8.4V) and the Lithium 'LiFe' batteries (6.6V or 9.9V) so I think I'll work out what voltage the boat needs and let that decide. Just have to add a reasonable amount of ballast if I go NiCad or LiFe.
The rebuild continues.