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[CharlieH]

Hello. New to forum as I am planning to build a bait boat for my fishing. I am a complete beginner when it comes to RC and looking for some advice. I have been researching various products and systems. My boat is going to be a rudderless catamaran with twin independent motors controlled hopefully by one two axis stick (left side). I have been given an old 35mHz futaba 6-channel radio but no Rx. I plan to upgrade this with frsky 2.4 module and Rx as I believe it is illegal to use the 35mHz band for boats?? My questions are:

1. What motors and escs would be sensible for such a build. The boat will be large enough to carry 4 kg extra weight/bait.
2. What props?
3. What batteries are best? Lipo or other
4. Will I need a v-tail mixer or similar to work motors independently with single stick? Will the old futaba mix signal itself.

Any help really appreciated. I'm in the hull making phase now.

Charlie

[AlisterL]

Hi Charlie,


1: How big is the boat? Length & width and if possible, the likely displacement.
2: See 1: :)
3: Also see the above, but kind of depends on shape of the cat hull and how much ballast you will need - SLA batteries are heavy, but make for good ballast as long as your current draw is low. Nothing wrong with LiPo as long as you already have all the bits you need to charge them and so on.
4: If your Futaba has a computer in it then it could potentially be used for this. However, the P94 on this works well for many and may solve the ESC problem (depending on motor requirements): http://www.action-electronics.co.uk/mixers.php


I'm sure others more knowledgeable will chime in once we know the size of the hull.


Alister.

[inertia]

This may be a good place to start  http://www.action-electronics.co.uk/pdfs/Bait%20Boat%20-%20Jon%20Nutter.pdf
DM

[Stavros]

Charlie first of all welcome to the madhouse so to speak...now as a carp fisherman I am beggining to have serious doubts in your carrying estmation of 4k....Now the reason for this is rather simple really WHY......I have never come accross a water that will need that much bait.....Please DO NOT think this is a put you down far from it.....having seen the adverse effect a big bed of bait does to carp...not only in the Uk but in France as well....Having seen Carp do a U turn when they come accross a big bed of bait....In my opinion a carrying capacity of around 1 kg Max will be sufficient.Personally I use a Pva bag full at a time wheether in the UK or France....sorry about the pun.....Food for thought
 
 
Dave

[CharlieH]

Dave,

Thanks for welcome I absolutely agree. I am not a big bait dropper. I quite regularly fish singles. I have never used a boat in uk. My boat will primarily be a feature finder and tool for France. The 4kg was meant as a maximum as I want a boat to cover all situations. There are occasions where big beds work and 2kg of bait over each spot can seem minuscule in a 100 acre lake. But for the most part I will be dropping a sprinkle or a squeeze.

It's great to find a place where fishing and model making can be discussed. I have made enquirees on other forums and rc specialists and so far have been blanked. Whilst on the subject, do you know of any info regarding remote sonars? I have seen some v expensive systems, but like shop bought bait boats I am not going to pay those prices as long as I have able hands and a soldering iron.

Alister, As for boat dimensions I am in design phase, and when you say displacement is that total weight?

Thanks for responses so far

Charlie

[AlisterL]

Alister, As for boat dimensions I am in design phase, and when you say displacement is that total weight?

Charlie

Yup, that's what I meant.

[CharlieH]

OK, so this is an update on the boat dimensions.  The hull will be a tri-hull design, dimensions 65cm x 46cm x 25cm. Absolute max displacement with bait, I'm guessing would be around 15 kg (6kg battery + 1kg motors + 1 kg electronics + 3kg hull + 4kg bait).

I think after a bit more research I am going to go for an SLA battery (12V 10Ahr), because I can't find any high capacity LiPo's and LiFEPo are too expensive.

So I ask the questions again:

1. What motors and escs would be sensible for such a build.
2. What props?

Cheers

Charlie 

[tigertiger]

Just some thoughts.


The following are not important
Super long running times
Speed
Light weight


The following may be important.
A simple feed mechanism that is reliable
Easy clean feed hopper, so you don't get mouldy feed dust.
not freaking out the fish


With the above in mind, a larger slower motor prop may be appropriate, perhaps with a step down gear box (like they use on the battleship or liner models). This may freak out the fish less if she runs quietly.

If you are going to have 4kg of bait high up (on deck) for easy handling and feeding the feed system, you need to get some weight low down, to help with stability, including lateral and steering. With a tri-hull you won't flip, but bobbing like a cork may not be desirable as you will lose feed where you don't want it.

You may want to consider spending lots of time on the feed mechanism, as the running gear may not be that critical (will it float? will it move? will it steer?), but if the feed mechanism doesn't  work well it defeats your purpose.


This is not my field but those are my immediate thoughts.

[Stavros]

Right then I might just have the ans to your Problem give Andy Grigg a ring at Models By design as he does a lovely trawler cat hull which in my mind is IDEAL for your needs.Find his no in Traders section.The Hull is plenty large enough and a Central hopper can be easily cut into the hull.As for powering hte hull you have a couple of choices.
 
1 Use a pair of Rule Bilge pumps for propulsion
 
2 MY favoured route would either be a pair of 900 motors (steve modle boat bits has the in stock) or a pir of jet drives(EXPENSIVE).Obviously if you went the 900 motor route then you would most defo need a weedguard around the props...easily done using some mesh. Prop size on this set up is a pair of 2 bladed 55mm props,as the hull of this is quite large you can use a pair of 12v batts.What I would reccomend is an ACTion combined Mixer/Speed controller.Now I can hear you ask what is that.Well it is simple really,using the left hand stick on your Radio set as throttle up for fwd and down to reverse....Now hte cleaver bit of this is that your left stick would obviously be left and right...BUT you will NOT need rudders as the combined controller will slow one motor down and quicken the other thus allowing you to turn....and in fact it will allow the boat to spin in it's own length.Using this set up you woint need a v tail mixer.
 
Using the above set up you would have a run time in excess of 2 hours as the 900 motors hardly draw any current
 
If you want more info then ASK
 
Dave