RE: Aquacraft Mini Rio

RE: Aquacraft Mini Rio
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RE: Aquacraft Mini Rio - 4/26/2008 5:04:48 AM

Nina Roses Dad

Posts: 125
Joined: 2/12/2008
From: San Francisco, CA, USA
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I used a 7/64 bit to bore out the holes for the setscrews on the replacement rudder arm. If you do that, they screw in easily and you won't strip them. You'll also need to bore out the holes in the rudder arms where the link between the two rudders slips in (not sure which bit to use, as I used a #0 phillips to ream them out). Use a 1/8 bit to bore out the hole on the starboard control arm where it connects to the pushrod that comes from the steering servo. That way you work around the sticky balljoint at the end of the pushrod and it won't break the rudder arm.

Took the boat back to the pond and ran it 4x. Only a few drops of water inside. If you nail the throttle wide open from a standstill it takes awhile for the boat to accelerate and get on plane, up and out of the water, partly exposing the prop, taking some of the load off the motor, and getting the RPMs up. I'm not sure how much of this is cavitation and how much of it is a big, fully-submerged-until-things-get-moving prop (much bigger than the prop on the RR2) putting a heavy load on the motor.

So since this may be unnecessarily heating up the motor, draining the battery, and reducing your runtime, don't just nail the throttle wide open with this boat when it's sitting still - give it a slow, gentle squeeze (or tell your kid that's the way to do it).

In the M-R the motor definitely runs hotter than the RR2, which is no surprise with the bigger prop and also since in the RR2 the water cooling coil wraps around the motor and the MR just has that little tube attached to that motor mount/heatsink plate. Probably ok running on the stock pack, but it will run hotter on a 2S lipo. At the end of the first two runs I couldn't keep my little finger on the motor can for more than 5 seconds, but once I figured out how to finesse the throttle, the motor was barely warm at the end of the 3rd & 4th runs.

I wasn't running on a new pack, but on two used packs from our RR2s (bought on eBay used), as I am going to eBay the still-sealed pack & charger that came with the boat (and put the $ toward LiPos).

I should be able to use the Lipos for this boat in the Sky Fly airplane that I just bought as well as in my Hammer EP (connected in parallel) and in a helicopter (someday) so they'll get plenty of use and I won't need to have a lot of money tied up in 3-4 packs for each one of our toys.

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Post #: 76

RE: Aquacraft Mini Rio - 4/27/2008 1:48:55 AM

Wheelnut

Posts: 4768
Joined: 10/25/2003
From: Annandale, VA, USA
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Hey guys,
as most of you know I have gotten out of RC boats for the most part and have sold off most of my stuff. I am still finishing up the Aquacraft Nitro Hammer Dual outboard conversion this spring. If it doesn't rain tomorrow, I will be making a vid of the final testing before I sell it.

I ran across an ad for this mini Rio boat and it had me very interested, I even had one in my shopping cart at tower, but after reading this thread I don't know if I am going to get one or not. I was hoping for a nice mini like this without worrying about upgrades and durability problems. From one of you guys it sounds like it is pretty slow out of the box and then Russ is saying that it is not recommended to put brushless in it. That's a shame because I have a 380 AMMO motor and a brushless esc that was waiting for a cool project like this. Someone finally put together a mini that looked like it was worth getting, but I guess not. I was hoping for a mini that ran good with a decent speed (like 20 to 25mph), was reliable and with little maintenance.
I will keep my eye on this thread and see what develops, but so far it doesn't look so good.

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Post #: 77

RE: Aquacraft Mini Rio - 4/27/2008 4:40:27 PM

Nina Roses Dad

Posts: 125
Joined: 2/12/2008
From: San Francisco, CA, USA
Status: offline

It's a fun little boat and I don't regret buying it at all.

However, the need to mod the way the pushrod connects to the rudder arm and (when you break a rudder arm) bore out all the holes on the rudder arms so you don't strip the screws is going to frustrate anybody who has limited mechanical ability/ingenuity.

I'm sure that, over time, Aquacraft will make improvements & refinements to this little boat. It's a much better boat out of the box than the offerings from ProBoat or that ugly ZigZag thing that looks like a sneaker.

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Post #: 78

RE: Aquacraft Mini Rio - 4/27/2008 5:35:04 PM

wamf

Posts: 57
Joined: 8/4/2007
From: vancouver, WA, USA
Status: offline

quote:

ORIGINAL: Wheelnut

Hey guys,
as most of you know I have gotten out of RC boats for the most part and have sold off most of my stuff. I am still finishing up the Aquacraft Nitro Hammer Dual outboard conversion this spring. If it doesn't rain tomorrow, I will be making a vid of the final testing before I sell it.

I ran across an ad for this mini Rio boat and it had me very interested, I even had one in my shopping cart at tower, but after reading this thread I don't know if I am going to get one or not. I was hoping for a nice mini like this without worrying about upgrades and durability problems. From one of you guys it sounds like it is pretty slow out of the box and then Russ is saying that it is not recommended to put brushless in it. That's a shame because I have a 380 AMMO motor and a brushless esc that was waiting for a cool project like this. Someone finally put together a mini that looked like it was worth getting, but I guess not. I was hoping for a mini that ran good with a decent speed (like 20 to 25mph), was reliable and with little maintenance.
I will keep my eye on this thread and see what develops, but so far it doesn't look so good.

Put the brushless in it and heat up the prop shaft to remove the cable and solder in a .047 wire and you are good to go. The octura x431 prop works well the stock prop accelerates real well with bl, better than it does with the stock motor. The mini rio hull is thicker and it is better sealed against water. I broke mine so I bought a mini V and put the electronics into it. It is faster than a mini v but doesn't handle the chop as well The mini rio also turns way better than the mini v
The plan is to make my miniv into a straight surface drive and use the dual mini rio rudders.
MikeV

< Message edited by wamf -- 4/27/2008 6:43:21 PM >

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Post #: 79

RE: Aquacraft Mini Rio - 4/27/2008 5:35:08 PM

Wheelnut

Posts: 4768
Joined: 10/25/2003
From: Annandale, VA, USA
Status: offline

Thanks dadio,

that's all I needed was a little encouragement. Mine is on its way. I just ordered it.
The cool thing was that when I placed it in my shopping cart at Tower, it was only $74.99 instead of the $89.99 it was advertised for. Plus $8.99 for shipping, so that is $83.98 to my door[)] I can live with that. I ordered the orange one. Now I can't wait to see it in person.

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Post #: 80

RE: Aquacraft Mini Rio - 4/27/2008 6:50:12 PM

Wheelnut

Posts: 4768
Joined: 10/25/2003
From: Annandale, VA, USA
Status: offline

quote:

ORIGINAL: wamf

quote:

ORIGINAL: Wheelnut

Hey guys,
as most of you know I have gotten out of RC boats for the most part and have sold off most of my stuff. I am still finishing up the Aquacraft Nitro Hammer Dual outboard conversion this spring. If it doesn't rain tomorrow, I will be making a vid of the final testing before I sell it.

I ran across an ad for this mini Rio boat and it had me very interested, I even had one in my shopping cart at tower, but after reading this thread I don't know if I am going to get one or not. I was hoping for a nice mini like this without worrying about upgrades and durability problems. From one of you guys it sounds like it is pretty slow out of the box and then Russ is saying that it is not recommended to put brushless in it. That's a shame because I have a 380 AMMO motor and a brushless esc that was waiting for a cool project like this. Someone finally put together a mini that looked like it was worth getting, but I guess not. I was hoping for a mini that ran good with a decent speed (like 20 to 25mph), was reliable and with little maintenance.
I will keep my eye on this thread and see what develops, but so far it doesn't look so good.

Put the brushless in it and heat up the prop shaft to remove the cable and solder in a .062 wire and you are good to go. The octura x431 prop works well the stock prop accelerates real well with bl than it does the stock motor. The hull is thicker and it is better sealed against water. I broke mine so I bought a mini V and put the electronics into it. It is faster than a mini v but doesn't handle the chop as well The mini rio also turns way better than the mini v
The plan is to make my miniv into a straight surface drive and use the dual mini rio rudders.
MikeV

Thanks Mike,
That sounds strange that you would have to heat up the prop shaft to remove the cable. I guess I will better understand the stock setup once I get it and can look at it.
I found this Octura 3/16 to 1/8 prop shaft for .062 wire. Is this a good choice?
http://www.offshoreelectrics.com/proddetail.php?prod=oct-31618sft&cat=107
Then I would just get the .062 wire from our piano tech or I guess some hobby stores have it.
I did see this premade setup
http://www.offshoreelectrics.com/proddetail.php?prod=jw-wire062
But this is exactly what I did not want to do, (Spend more money on this boat) I really just want something that is good to go when I get it. Or spend VERY LITTLE money to get it right. So I will be looking for the cheapest way out. I don't even want to spend the extra $20.00 for the premade wire drive. Then there is the problem with the Rudder system.

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RE: Aquacraft Mini Rio - 4/27/2008 7:21:06 PM

wamf

Posts: 57
Joined: 8/4/2007
From: vancouver, WA, USA
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Remove the cable with prop shaft from the boat. The cable is soldered into the prop shaft. I corrected my earlier post to note that .047 wire is the correct size not .062. I tried .062 .055 and .047. .047 was the biggest that would fit easily. Sand the end of the wire with fine sand paper then clean with a solvent or spray. A solder gun is adequate to heat the prop shaft up so you can remove the cable and solder the wire in. I used piano wire from my LHS and it cost 42cents to make a wire drive. I am using this exact set up on a boat with a 540 motor as well and it holds up fine. The coupler that comes with it will need to be bored out on the motor side but the shaft side works with the wire the way it is. I apply loctite to the screws and end of wire and it is very well connected. It is really straight forward once you see it.
My rudder broke first thing but the repair I made didn't break. Buy some spare arms from tower just to be safe, they are cheap. I also tapped every set screw hole for 6/32" makes life easier especially on the coupler
SSE and a few others sell the shaft end for .062 for a few bucks but it might be tight in the rio stuffing tube.
MikeV

< Message edited by wamf -- 4/27/2008 7:25:38 PM >

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Post #: 82

RE: Aquacraft Mini Rio - 4/27/2008 10:45:40 PM

Wheelnut

Posts: 4768
Joined: 10/25/2003
From: Annandale, VA, USA
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I checked with the LHS and they have two pieces of the .047 left so I am going to pick one of those up tomorrow so I will have it. The girl that answered the phone said the pieces are about 2 to 3 feet long. I may just wind up buying some rudders that are more durable. Rudders can be pretty cheap.

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Post #: 83

RE: Aquacraft Mini Rio - 4/27/2008 10:55:00 PM

DRAGONFIRE81M

Posts: 1162
Joined: 1/9/2007
From: PORTLAND, TN, USA
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well wheelnut glad to see your getting back in to boating

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Post #: 84

RE: Aquacraft Mini Rio - 4/28/2008 12:30:23 AM

Nina Roses Dad

Posts: 125
Joined: 2/12/2008
From: San Francisco, CA, USA
Status: offline

quote:

ORIGINAL: Wheelnut

I checked with the LHS and they have two pieces of the .047 left so I am going to pick one of those up tomorrow so I will have it. The girl that answered the phone said the pieces are about 2 to 3 feet long. I may just wind up buying some rudders that are more durable. Rudders can be pretty cheap.

The rudders aren't the problem - just the rudder arm on the starboard side ($1.79 for the replacement pair) - but only if it's binding up on the ball-joint.

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Post #: 85

RE: Aquacraft Mini Rio - 4/28/2008 12:50:59 AM

Nina Roses Dad

Posts: 125
Joined: 2/12/2008
From: San Francisco, CA, USA
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I ran the boat 3x at the pond again this afternoon (today's Sunday). There must've been 5-6 kids there with their brand new, crappy, Radio Shack toy boats their dads had bought them yesterday. After I had literally run circles around a couple of them they came over to check out my boat. A couple of these kids forgot about their new boats and let them drift into the middle of the pond and out of range of their 9v-powered tx. Lucky for them, the wind started to pick up just as I was leaving. They asked me what to do and I told them "You just walk over to the other side of the pond and wait!"

Last night, I left all the packs on a trickle charger so they would top off to a full charge. Made a difference! The boat got on plane and up to speed much more quickly.

At the end of each run today the motor was too warm to just change the pack and take the boat out again. Thinking ahead, I brought along a cordless air mattress inflator that blows a nice blast of air on the motor to cool it off before taking the boat out on its next run. I want to improve the motor's cooling before I send it out on a 2S LiPo.

The water cooling setup is a joke - and there are two parts to this joke. The first part of the joke is when you realize that there's no "water cooling jacket" around the motor as Aquacraft says there is on their website.

"The factory-installed 380 motor features a water-cooling jacket for efficient performance even at high speeds."

http://www.aquacraftmodels.com/boats/aqub15-features.html

There's just an aluminum tube that's attached (using two nylon cable ties) to an aluminum plate that's attached to the end of the motor. The plate is solid, it blocks the vents on the shaft-end of the motor, so it actually interferes with what little airflow there could be through the motor. The water cooling coil in the RR2 worked just fine, so why not carry that over?

This week I'm going to take apart one of my RR2s and put the coil around the motor in the Mini Rio. Before I do that, I'm tempted to see if the motor in the MR will run cooler without that plate attached to the front of it. Wish I had a point-n-shoot thermometer.

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Post #: 86

RE: Aquacraft Mini Rio - 4/28/2008 1:29:14 AM

wamf

Posts: 57
Joined: 8/4/2007
From: vancouver, WA, USA
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I ran mine stock about a dozen times with lipos and it didn't get hot. There is no reason that removing the plate will keep the motor cooler. There is no air flow and if anything the plate acts like a heat sink. It does shoot water out the side and it looks cool. I think you would need to cut out part of the motor mount for cooling coils to fit. Out running my mini v today. Wish I would have bought another mini rio
MikeV

< Message edited by wamf -- 4/28/2008 1:31:03 AM >

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Post #: 87