Model Boat Mayhem

Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length.
Pages: 1 [2]   Go Down

Author Topic: Switch Capacity  (Read 3905 times)

malcolmfrary

  • Full Mayhemer
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 6,027
  • Location: Blackpool, Lancs, UK
Re: Switch Capacity
« Reply #25 on: June 03, 2019, 09:20:38 am »

I'm new to RC boats, but have raced cars and flown planes for years. I've never fitted a switch to isolate the battery.


On cars, the usual way is to have a small switch on the ESC, and keep the battery disconnected until it's time to race.
The small planes that I've built haven't used a switch at all - just unplug the battery. Saves weight, and one less thing to go wrong.


I've stuck with this for boats. Connect up the batteries at the lake, turn on Tx, switch on ESC.


I guess the difference is that, with cars and planes, it's normal to change the batteries several times during a session, whereas most boats run for long enough without swapping or recharging?


I wouldn't charge a battery inside a model either, incase something goes wrong. I've seen people doing it with SLA and a trickle charger, but anything else seems a bit risky. Batteries out before charging, and keep the battery/charger away from anything flammable. Maybe I'm just over-cautious?
Very valid points for planes and cars, and probably fast elecrics.  But the normal run of scale boats tend to have the battery as a large part of the ballast arrangement, and not easily available.  With a small boat, the placement of the battery can be very critical for trim, so having it in one place and keeping it there trumps everything else. 
Most of my plastic conversions to date that have run on NiMH have a charger circuit built in.  Usually a plug to match a cheap battery eliminator, a resistor to limit current, and a small bridge rectifier so I don't have any problems remembering the polarity of the eliminator.  As I shift to lithium, this might well change.
Logged
"With the right tool, you can break anything" - Garfield

CJK

  • Full Mayhemer
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 101
  • Growing old is mandatory - growing up is optional
  • Location: St Leonards on Sea, East Sussex
Re: Switch Capacity
« Reply #26 on: June 03, 2019, 11:22:46 am »

Lateral thinking! The main advantage this forum is providing - thank you all.

As you can see below the access to under deck stuff is limited, I just do not yet have the modelling skills to cut and rebuild the deck to make it better. The decision to permanently glue the existing top side structures was to try and gain the best water tightness.

The deck is removable for build/major maintenance but would be a bit of a pain for battery removal/charging etc. However with 'lateral thinking  :} ' it wont be a problem making the battery connector easily accessable so that it can be disconnected when not in use and a charger connected as needed - plus no switch to source.  :-)) I think  :-)
Logged
Pages: 1 [2]   Go Up
 

Page created in 0.087 seconds with 22 queries.