RSEA
Posts: 40
Joined: 2/20/2007
From: Scottsdale,
AZ, USA
Status: offline
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Been away from this thread and forum for a while now... Ran my GATOR Saturday afternoon, in a small diving pool that is about 10 feet deep on the diving end. Was the first time I had it in the water in over 8 months! Had to remove a couple of the metal weights from the fins, as it was getting slightly negatively bouyant after it went down deeper than about 4 feet. Took it all the way down to the 10 foot area and let the sub sit on the bottom for a minute. First attempt to get it to come back up resulted in no response from the sub... Had to stick the transmitter antennae about 6 inches into the water...got the vertical thruster to run, but still didn't want to budge from the bottom. Next, I ran the drive motor in reverse and it started to slide along the bottom backwards until the tail raised up off the bottom. Hit the vertical thruster to go up, and it finally started to rise, tail up and nose down! Hit reverse again on the drive motor and up she went, until it surfaced tail first. Recovery was a success! At that depth, the sub was still a little too heavy, and still a bit negatively bouyant.
After that I ran the sub for a good while at 3 to 4 feet deep running it around in circles, occassionally tapping the vertical thruster to keep it at depth and submerged. Was the best run I'ved had with it to date in a pool! The 10 foot plunge to the bottom was the deepest my GATOR has been since I've had it. After this deep dive, it appeared to have NO water leaks! I'm impressed.
Has anyone opened up the drive motor housing on their GATOR or SHARK and examined the electric motor? I am thinking of possibly using the motor and housing as the drive motor for a small static model conversion. Was wondering if this motor is similar to a Speed 180 or Speed 250 motor. There is a little compartment between the motor housing and the prop shaft, that looks like it may contain some sort of reduction gearing, can anyone confirm that? When I run my GATOR I notice the propellor spins faster in reverse than it does in forward motion, so I think the electronics are set up in the sub to limit the power going to the motor for forward running....in other words, I think the sub would be capable of running faster when going forward (propellor spin at higher RPMs), that it currently does, if the same voltage was sent to the motor in forward as it currently gets in reverse.
Again, if anyone has taken the GATOR/SHARK drive motor assembly apart, I'd be interested at what they found inside, such as identifying the motor or found reduction gearing, etc.
Thanks!
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