Rich404

Hi captains,

Yesterday the rebuilt motor came in and last night I tested it. The motor quickly came to life and the issue has been resolved. Kudos to Astroflight for repairing my motor quickly and professionally.

So then last night I got busy. The motor mounts were not yet painted so I painted them and the surrounding floors light sea gray. While that was drying I painted the owners cabin floor the same color. Eventually the stateroom will get a gray carpet but the rest will remain painted gray.

I tried coiling brass tubing around the motor. I filled the coil with salt and went to work. I found that the coils kept unwinding enough to not have proper contact with the can. I'm sure that I can practice more to get it right but offshoreelectrics.com has watejackets so I may just look into one of those. If that doesn't work I will try the coiling process again but rather than wrap it around the 2" can I will wrap it around a smaller motor and let it relax back to 2". I'm sure there is a method to get this right. I did underestimate the amount of tubing needed to wrap one of those motors so if I have to do it again I will have to get more.

Since I installed the LIPO trays the floor raised up about 1/8" so the owners cabin floor and walls would shift every time I put the cabins on. This was slowly ruining the walls. I made up two sections of flooring that got glued on top of the existing floor on the port and stbd side. These floors were what originally kept the removable floor in place. Now that they are in the removable unit plugs into the hull once again which will keep damage from occuring.

Eventually I am going to install an adjustable track assembly in the engineroom so that the cabins can lift up as needed without removing them. It will be one of those units that lock in place. Afterwards once the batteries are put in or taken out, the cabins will slide right down onto the hull perfectly every time. This will prevent a lot of damage down the road. Actually, I am going to look into this sooner than later and think it will be something found in a kitchen hardware area.

After the owners cabin floor was painted, I did an epoxy repair on the radar becauseI knocked it loose the last time I took her out.

Finally, I installed the Astroflight cooling fans on the motors, tested them and finally re-installedboth motorsin Dauntless. She is up and running again.

BTW guys: RCU sems to have finally redeemed themselves. The forum is back to normal.

-Rich.

rblubaugh

My Feedback: (5)

Carlos,

My information came from a table I copied from the Graupner website two or three years ago. I have to agree with you that running the 700 Turbo at 4.8V would not be a very good idea if you wanted to power a boat however, I think Graupner was indicating the range of voltage(s) at which their motor would operate. For the purposes of breaking in the brushes on a new motor it is recommended by many people to run the for a little while at 5V and to also lubricate the end bushings thoroughly and put some contact lube on the brushes. I'm sure that most of the time hobbists don't do this, myself included. Three AA batteries, properly oriented, will provide sufficient voltage to run the 700 and more than break in the brushes.

See Graupner's website for the 700 Turbo 8.4V http://www.graupner.de/en/products/5...6/product.aspx

Bob

rblubaugh

My Feedback: (5)

Yes, thankfully, it is back to normal.

deep sky

i think im starting to see a dauntless still tons of work she kind of looks a lot like anouther dauntless i had this one will see the water.

dauntlessfan

DS she looks remarkable! Here's to your kid staying out of trouble this time around !

rblubaugh

My Feedback: (5)

Deep,

This boat is beautiful.   The hull and superstructure have a mirror finish, just excellent.  True craftsmanship.  Your long, hard work really shows on this boat.

Bob

rblubaugh

My Feedback: (5)

Captains,

An update.  While working with the drive shafts, before tying down the motors on a motor mount, I noted that the motors wobbled around as I turned the shaft with the prop, the starboard shaft being especially wobbly.  After IMing Rich about the situation and learning how this tore up his universals, forcing him to replace his drive shafts I went ahead and ordered two new shafts from Dumas.  Both of mine did the wobble thing so I decided not to take a chance and ordered two even though the port side was minimal.  They should be in by the end of the week.

Bob

Rich404

Hi captains,

We already learned that standard behind the prop cooling doesn't like to make long journeys so today I bought a brand new pair of Mercedes-Benz windshield washer pumps for my boat. Hopefully they will get the water flowing to and from the motors. If the pressure looks good coming out the transom I may add a pairto the dummy exhaust pipes.

For the time being they will be powered by the power distribution panel but later on I might add a lipo to power just the cooling system in the boat which will consist of 4 fans and 2-4 pumps. I also have my eye on those 'air conditioned" Intel fans that Carlos showed us.

All this will keep things cool on those hot summer days.

-Rich.

Sound Sailor

Better remove some ballast Rich. She gets heavier and heavier.

Bob really nice to see you working on yours.

Bill

Rich404

I have a 10oz lead weight sitting out back, that's coming out..Here on in i'm putting Dauntless on a very strict diet. I may even redo certain furniture pieces in very thin lightweight wood just to save weight.

-Rich.

Sound Sailor

Rich, sorry I couldn't talk last night sinceI was deep into changing out the propulsion unit on the Baron (soldering, cussing while trying to get the screws aligned for mounting ). I gave up on the whole 14v thing after the motor (rated for 14v) cooked while running it yesterday. I changed to the Graupner 700BB8.4 motor I had laying around and shoehorned in 2-5000mah batteries in paralell. Just got back from the test pond and the change was good. Ran with good speed and no overheating.

Ahhhhhh, I feel better now

Bill

deep sky

hi captains i bought a new electronize fr30xh esc 6-24 volt 30 amp for my dauntless wondering if im going to need 2 of these for 2 700s

Sound Sailor

I like having the redundancy in case of a problem. It was proven helpful when one of mine burned out at thea club sail andI was able to run Dauntless back on one. I am in the process of replacing them with Astro 208D s.

Bill

Rich404

Hi Bill,

Sometimes it takes a few shots to get a boat to run right. Today was my best run to date. With the motor fixed performance was noticably better and with the Astroflight fans installed they were able to make the motors noticably cooler.

I did two runs today with video. The first was with my wife & kids. My baby son started whining which can be a bit much but welcome to my world. I need to learn how to edit and add music... After they left to the playground I took another video. This time I used a tripod which made it much easier to shoot and drive. I notice that the sound module needs to be grounded better because the feedback is rough on the ears. The second video the volume was on higher so it was noticable but you can hear the motor sounds plus the airhorn and the ships bell.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tm7FRMMQTY


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SPQo-sjZC8
-Rich.

dauntlessfan

Holy (expletive) Rich, she looks remarkable on the water now. WOW! I love how the boat really digs in on the turns. Great videos and congratulations. You've definitely captured the performance and power of the S&S Dauntless!

Sound Sailor

Hi Rich, definately a lot better as I expected with that motor now "hitting on all cylinders". Looks right on for speed. I wasn't impressed with the sound system on the video but I'm sure it's better in person.

I went down to Fushing today and also had good results with the repowering of the Baron. The boat ran well and the motor passed the touch test. The guys will probably only run another week or two and I'll be on my cruise so thats it for me this year. (for down there that is) Maybe we can sneak in a sail at Binney when I get back. Still need to wire in switches and fuses in Dauntless but it can be run plugging the batteries direct to the ESCs.

Bill

guapoman2000

Bill,

Consider visiting this thread before you do go with the Astro 208D's

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=465523

Carlos[8D]

Sound Sailor

Thanks, but i already bought them and I have them in the boat. I was running 2 Electronize fr30xhwhich were supposed tobe goodand had problems twice with the last being completely dead so i gave up on them. I also put a 208D in my racing lobster boat and so far it has performed really well. All the newer esc have thermal shut down which I have experianced in the past. once they cool a little they work again. The best cure is to find why they are overheating which is usually the motor drawing to much current or ambient temperture from a overheating motor.
Bill

guapoman2000

Bill,

Does any company out here in the USA sell a Brushed ESC that can withstand 50-AMP continuous and without reaching thermal shutdown?

The PRO BOAT 50-AMP ESC that I have in my large 6-Foot Plywood PT311 did gave me a shut down momentarily on the 2nd Run this past Saturday for the Still High Resolution Picture session and the motor just quit. I am amazed since I have the Forced Water Cooling System with Water Cold Plate system and when the Motor finally restarted (less than one minute) I commanded the model to shore only to find the ESC just luke warm???

I am willing to spend some additional $$$ for a very robust ESC such that I do not find myself with an unresponsive Motor and heading to the rocks!

Appreciate any leads.

Thanks!
Carlos[8D]

Rich404

Hi Carlos,

I know exactly what was happening to his ESC's. I knew the guy from back in the day...He was running one ESC for both motors and he like many guys back then was running huge props direct drive on his boat. When his boat was at speed you could barely see the wake because he ran big props and it was a big load on one ESC. The ESC would shut down because there wereso many amps onone ESC because he had two big Astros in addition to the large props.. That's a recipe for a thermal shutdown.

If he had one ESC per motor and smaller props (1 1/2"- 1 3/4" max) he wouldn't have that problem with the 208D's. I have thoseESC's in two boats and absolutely love them! Even when myother motorswere running hot the Astro ESC'swere as cool as can be.

-Rich.

Sound Sailor

I can't answer that Carlos since a motor drawing 50 amps continuous is not very common in RC boats. i know you are running one big motor in your PT. you might check Novack for an esc, also I don't know if you are water cooling onyour esc. as well as the motor.
Bill

guapoman2000

Thanks for the replies guys!

Nevermind, I will allow you all to continue to discuss the Dumas Dauntless....

Regards,
Carlos

Rich404

Thanks Dauntlessfan,

This is the type of performance I always dreamed of for this boat. Thanks to all of you for the inspiration that helped me bring this dream forward.

-Rich.

Rich404

The sound system still needs work. It needs to be properly grounded and the storage doors on the transom need to be installed so the sound can be let out. It currently sounds muffled trapped behind all that mahogany & epoxy. So far, this was the first time I turned it up during a run because it can be annoying listening to the feedback. One of the good things about it is that once you shut down the volume you don't hear it. I don't think I would get another one especiallysince the Astroflight motors sound so darned good as is.

I think a session at Binney is inevitable. I do think that the Empire State clan should push forward with each Sunday until the pond freezes but that's just my opinion. I'll try to get down for a wrap up session but I have been really busy with other things to make the trip. I'm glad the Baron is doing good. I cannot wait to see it in person. We'll have to meet up very soon.

-Rich.

deep sky

today started puting rudders on and fitting servo i just thought i would see what it looks like with the props on