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Author Topic: thunder tiger tt5520 neptune sub  (Read 4549 times)

wadsworthj

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thunder tiger tt5520 neptune sub
« on: March 08, 2012, 04:49:08 pm »

Can anyone tell me when this sub was frirst produced, and if possible when they started to do new motherboards for them because of problems.

many hanks    .W.
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Re: thunder tiger tt5520 neptune sub
« Reply #1 on: March 08, 2012, 05:31:13 pm »

They came out in 2008. I remember seeing one of the first in the country at 308 hobbies. I thought the basic design looked a bit 'fisher-price', but that can soon be remedied with a bit modification. The pressure hull is very strong and well engineered.

No idea when the revisions were made. I think most of the problems were due to quality control of the electrical components as opposed to design faults, and this seemed to get straightened out fairly quickly.
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wadsworthj

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Re: thunder tiger tt5520 neptune sub
« Reply #2 on: March 08, 2012, 06:09:16 pm »

Hi Andy.
           Thanks for your reply, it is most helpfull.

Cheers   John.
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Patrick Henry

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Re: thunder tiger tt5520 neptune sub
« Reply #3 on: March 08, 2012, 06:43:50 pm »

As far as I know(and was told)mine was the very first of the boats in the country with the revised electronics, and that was delivered to me on the 28/04/2011.

Thunder Tiger did recognise the problems with the first two issues of the Neptune and organised the revisions...main problems were the main power distribution board and the ballast pump controller. There were also some issues with faulty speed controllers, I believe.

Any boat built after...say, February 2011(at a guess)will have the updated electronics, and should include the uprated speed controller. As I've said before, my first two were total rubbish, they wouldn't even work in the bath, but number 3 has been perfect since the day it arrived.

Rich
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wadsworthj

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Re: thunder tiger tt5520 neptune sub
« Reply #4 on: March 08, 2012, 07:31:29 pm »

Hi Rich.
           Thanks for your input, it gives me a chance to know what to look out for.
Great stuff!!

Cheers    John.
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Re: thunder tiger tt5520 neptune sub
« Reply #5 on: March 08, 2012, 07:38:50 pm »

The power distribution board is a fancy name for a couple of switches, one to switch the main power, the other to switch the on-board camera if you have that fitted. How Thundertiger managed to screw that one up I'll never know, but a switch isn't difficult to fault find on.

A chap who used to post on here had an early kit. The ballast pump kept cutting out, usually when he was on the bottom of the pool! Once retrieved and safely on the shore, it would cooperate in the fault finding process by working perfectly- typical!

He contacted the distributors, Amerang, and they sent him a new pump control board, but he got the same problems.

He lost patience with it, and flogged it to another board member, who re-sweated a couple of joints on the pump board, and the thing ran like a top.

Good thing about the TT electrics, is that apart from the ESC,  all the components are fairly straightforward items, and non surface mount. That makes fault finding fairly simple if you have a basic grounding in electronics, as the component leads are big enough to get probes on and datasheets for the pinouts on the components can be downloaded free from t'internet.

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Patrick Henry

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Re: thunder tiger tt5520 neptune sub
« Reply #6 on: March 08, 2012, 09:17:35 pm »

There's a bit more to the power distribution board than a couple of switches..in fact, the switches very rarely give any trouble.
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wadsworthj

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Re: thunder tiger tt5520 neptune sub
« Reply #7 on: March 09, 2012, 06:44:54 am »

Hi Andy and U33.
slightly conflicting views, but keep em coming.
dry joints are common in certain makes of t.v. and are simple to put right.
thank goodness,   but the last paragraph of the testing routine, went completely over my head.  never mind all good info.
many thanks.
Cheers    John.
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6705russell

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Re: thunder tiger tt5520 neptune sub
« Reply #8 on: March 09, 2012, 07:36:16 am »

This was my first Neptune sub purchased in 2008 two days after they were released, no end of problems and eventually found out it was the relay board...

Russ
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6705russell

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Re: thunder tiger tt5520 neptune sub
« Reply #9 on: March 09, 2012, 07:39:38 am »

This was the modified one which had a few dry joints on the same board, re-soldered and never had any trouble with after....

Russ
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essex2visuvesi

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Re: thunder tiger tt5520 neptune sub
« Reply #10 on: March 09, 2012, 08:01:39 am »

Every time I see the engineering that goes into one of those neptunes it makes me want one.

Would have to "reskin" it tho as Im not a beatles fan lol :D
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Patrick Henry

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Re: thunder tiger tt5520 neptune sub
« Reply #11 on: March 09, 2012, 08:51:33 am »

Now, these boats are very well made...the engineering that is applied to them is of a very high state, it seems.

It would be nice though to have a choice of outer shells, at the moment you are limited to modifying the exterior rather than a complete change of shell.

Here's mine...


Here's a couple of others...first one belongs to AMS member Paul Cook.


This one belongs to an American modeller, Dave Amur...



And this one is a real radical conversion, again the property of an American modeller...he called it "Doodle Bug".




Rich
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Re: thunder tiger tt5520 neptune sub
« Reply #12 on: March 09, 2012, 10:53:44 am »

The last conversion was built by Dave Welch. It only uses the forward and aft shells of a Neptune, so it's more of a new build really, everything else was scratchbuilt. Uses an RCABS ballast system and the nozzle at the back tilts to control ptich.

The boat was built to carry a Kodak Playsport, which is a small underwater HD camcorder. It got christened 'I-spy', where did you get 'Doodle Bug' from?
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Patrick Henry

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Re: thunder tiger tt5520 neptune sub
« Reply #13 on: March 09, 2012, 11:27:29 am »

The last conversion was built by Dave Welch. It only uses the forward and aft shells of a Neptune, so it's more of a new build really, everything else was scratchbuilt. Uses an RCABS ballast system and the nozzle at the back tilts to control ptich.

The boat was built to carry a Kodak Playsport, which is a small underwater HD camcorder. It got christened 'I-spy', where did you get 'Doodle Bug' from?

That's what DW told me it was called....
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Re: thunder tiger tt5520 neptune sub
« Reply #14 on: March 09, 2012, 11:36:36 am »

Don't know where he got that one from. Here is a film with Dave going over some of the details, and you can see in the description he calls it 'I-spy'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1DAlPWgrLw&hd=1
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Patrick Henry

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Re: thunder tiger tt5520 neptune sub
« Reply #15 on: March 09, 2012, 11:57:46 am »

Maybe he changed his mind...not that it really matters, does it?
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