I own a beautifully built paddle steamer which I recently acquired second hand. When I first got the boat everything was working as expected.
Having not used the boat for 3 to 4 weeks I found two problems when I tried to connect the power supply:
1) The transmitter (Futaba F14 "Navy") and receiver appeared to be not communicating.
2) As soon as I switched on the power supply the motors ran at (probably) about 80% of full speed.
With the help of a member of my local club we traced the first problem to a failed BEC, which is taken from a power distribution board. Once this was bypassed we were able to get the transmitter and receiver working, e.g. rudder control was restored.
Unfortunately, the motor problem persisted. Moving the throttles to full did result in a slight increase in motor speed and reversing them abruptly reversed the motors. So some communication appeared to be present, but there was no neutral position or proportional throttle at lower power. Unfortunately, the ESCs are amongst the least accessible electronic components, but I believe from the information I have they are Action Electronics P80s.
Does anyone have any thoughts or suggestions as to how I could further investigate and hopefully fix this problem?
Many thanks in advance.
Peter