damfurst

After having a bunch of parts left from gutting my mini-v I decided to try my hand upgrading a cheap catamaran hull. Before I reveal the true nature & manufacturer of said hull I thought I would post a couple of pics of some of the spiffy decals that they had on the outside. It actually didn't look too bad. And there is a bit of humor in them if you think about it. So here are the decals..

justintime2w8

My Feedback: (1)

How long is that hull? there are a few manufacturers that build nice micro brushless ex. Neu, Lehner

damfurst

The hull is 20" long.

SV27dayton

TELL US WHAT IT IS MAN!

Stokes

hey Dayton...yet another NQD conversion...;-) it's not too bad actually. It's a miniature kyosho lambo cat, same dimensions as the MHZ micro iceberg, with 2 x 380 motors. Hull is flimsy ABS, and the double bottom would have to be cut out to get to the electrics. The electrics are held in place with screws going through the hull bottom (brilliant idea eh?). In any case, once these things are sorted - hull is gutted, holes filled and reinforced, and possibly ride pads stuck on, it should make a reasonably quick budget hull. Was tempted to go that route a few times....but i always end up going for the ABS hulls from ASTEC models...:
http://www.astecmodels.co.uk/catalog...e9202cad14f1ca
scroll down the list

This will make an interesting project i'm sure....keep posting please! Just one tip, it might be a good idea to soften the lip where the hull and deck join - it's way too wide (around 4-5mm i think), and i'm sure that cutting it down and sanding almost flush (be super careful) will do much to improve the aesthetics of the boat.

A

Stokes

OOOPS - did i let the CAT out of the bag? (bad pun sorry couldn't help myself)....;-)

Stinger9d9

In reference to the decal that says "First Grade Product", does that refer to the age of the child labour used to assemble it?

damfurst

Well since 'the cat is out of the bag' as stokes said I'll start now. It is a NQD Predator 2 which I got off ebay for less than $40. It is as Stokes described it & I know that it's not the best hull let alone electronics. But I had bought it thinking of trying to make a dual jet drive in it, but instead decided to use some of the extra parts from another build to see what I could do. I've only been running rc boats for a couple of years now so I claim no expertise, but do enjoy figuring things out. My other goal is not too spend too much money on parts initially unless it turns out half decent.

I ran this boat once on the pond to see how it acted before I opened it up & gutted it. One ebay listing said a top speed of 10mph while another said 15mph. I'd say either would be pushing the truth, maybe if you strapped a rocket to it... It did turn on a dime though with it's vector steering(shutting one motor off to turn right or left). But all this gave me a base to start off of.

So far I have opened the hull up & removed the electronics. There is ample room once this is done. I will move the antenna for the receiver to the hole in the middle of the hull where the on off switch was. The original antenna hole will be used to route cooling tubing through. The drives I've decided to leave in place for time being. I did remove the screws out of the bottom of the hull & replaced with flat headed ones. I also counter sunk the holes & used silicone sealant on the screws when they were installed.

Stinger, I was wondering if any else would catch the first grade product thing lol. I especially liked the ones on the side that said multu-functional optimal crashing. I'm not sure what multu is, but we can be assured of optimal crashing. That's our goal right? Anyway here are a few pics of progress so far.

Stinger9d9

Just check out:

[link]http://www.engrish.com/[/link]

And it might (or might not) start to make sense.

damfurst

Stringer, There is some funny stuff on the link that you sent. I'm sure that some of the stuff that we say is funny to them also, But I still am laughing after looking at some of that.

Still working away on this thing. I installed an antenna tube holder where the on/off switch was originally. Also, a cowl lhold down from a mini-rio. Installed a rudder w/water pickup on transom. Decided that since I had water pickup would be worth maybe putting cooling coils on motors. Made 2 of the them from 1/8" aluminum tubing. I had to remove the motors from their mounts to do this. After I got the port one out I discovered that the soldering was very poor on the wires & that the red one had come completely off. Resoldered these & soldered bullett plugs on the ends of all the wires for the motors. I'm just planning to run these until they burn up anyway. Then I'll decide what else to try on this boat. The drives are all plastic, but should work with these motors. Will change these out when I change to different motors

Water proofed receiver, a traxxas 2215, with tommy tape. Laid out where receiver, servo will go tentavly. Servo is a scanner metal gear mini which has already been waterproofed with rubber coating.

One thing that I discovered is the drive shafts are 3mm and so will be upgrading to octura 430x props when the time comes. Here are some more pics.

damfurst

I was able to try this boat out after making some y connectors coming of the motor side of the esc. I also got the cooling all routed & hooked up and weather stripping put on the hatch. Last Sunday took it done to the pond and tried it with a 9.9v 2300mah life battery. It ran faster than stock and did come up on plane, but it bunny hopped all the way around (well it was easter you know ). The water cooling did put out much water either. But before I could see how hot the motors were or weren't it quit out in the middle of the pond. I think there must be a bad connection somewhere from the battery to esc. The battery was barely half down. So, after the wind blew the boat to shore everything worked once I opened it up. The watt meter only showed 11.1 volt peak on it so I know I wasn't overworking anything. I'll have to give another try here soon to see if I can figure out what happened. Here's few pics of rest of build.

damfurst

Well it has been awhile since I posted anything on this boat. Sometime this summer I went to run it and the receiver screwed up. I lost control of it and the boat took off wot across the pond. It landed in on the edge of the pond in a tree that sitting out in the water. Hung up on a branch there you could hear one motor running wo. The other one wasn't turning though I didn't know it at the time. It took a little bit of doing to get to the spot since I had to wade through the cattails and such. I eventually was able to retrieve the boat, but by that time the motor was barely running. Damage, one motor fried, esc fried, battery was alright since it was 9.9v life. So I pondered for awhile what to do since the stock motors were shot now. I didn't want to go brushless but I didn't want to spend alot on it either. After some experimenting I decided to put 2X MIG 400 12v motors in it. I also stuck a 50amp chinese waterproof esc. I had to do some fitting since the new motors were longer than the stock ones. Also had to drill one side of the couplers and put set screws in it since it wouldn't hold very well. These motors do very well. They barely get warm after running 15 min. They really do work the best on 11.1v lipo. I'd like to to go up a size on the props which I think are 30 mm now. Does anyone know where I could get a lh and rh 31-33mm props? The drive shafts are 3mm.
This boat drives well now. On the 11.1v 30c battery it barely porpoises at all now and can make sharp turns with no prob. The water cooling for the motors is also working well now.

damfurst

Finally got video uploaded of this cat running on 3s 11.1v 30c 2200mah lipo. With this setup these motors will run for 15-20min and the motors will barely get warm. I'm still trying to find some props to upgrade to, otherwise I'll have to change prop shafts and motor couplers and go to 4mm. If you have any suggestions on 3mm 31mm-33mm props please let me know. [link]http://www.rcuvideos.com/video/Nqd-20-Catamaran[/link]

BACKEMF

Spare me pleeeease, not another NQD toy thread.... AAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!![sm=drowning.gif]

damfurst

I can understand if you don't like NQD boats. I don't have a problem with that. Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't all the threads here concerning toy boats? I mean if you can't ride in it it's a toy isn't it? No matter what you paid for it or how much you put into it? Just a thought.

sundogz

Amen Brother, Amen. You've got your pricey toys and you've got your cheaper toys, but they're both toys and both fun. But when you wreck a cheaper toy, it is likely to not be as painful!