Reverse ?
 

Hey Friends,
I have a Question????
Last year I built an FPV/Autopilot 32"X16" Catamaran/Airboat with twin brushless motors with 8" props with differential steering. It worked great except that it didn't turn sharp enough. So this year I am going to build another Cat with a single brushless motor with a 10" prop and typical Airboat rudders.
I am thinking about reversing the direction of the prop to to see if I can get enough power to back up a little.
What do you think?
The only way I can think of to do this is to swap a couple of the motor wires. Do you know if there is a switch I can control from my transmitter that will do this?
Thanks
Jerry

EDIT: I think I found the answer.
Use an ESC that has reverse capability.
The elevator controls the throttle up/foreward and down/reverse.
The ailerons are the boats air rudders. Being spring loaded to center when you let off the stick the motor stops.

The more I think about it, the less I like the idea of not being able to set the throttle and let it cruise.
Does anyone know of another way to reverse the prop?
Jerry

Thanks, that's great. I have a few 450 heli tail assemblies laying around. I'll see what I can rig up.
Jerry

I wonder if this motor will provide enough power to move a 32X16 piece of foam with reasonable speed?
Thank you
Jerry

Use a car/truck brushless esc that has reverse.

If I did would it be better to use a car transmitter? Being a Multirotor person I am not familiar with anything that uses reverse.
Thanks
Jerry

Yes you likely will want a car transmitter. Most aircraft transmitters will allow reverse, but not on the throttle stick. It can be done with an aircraft radio, but a car radio is much easier IMO. You could use a simple FM radio which would be fairly cheap since many guys are using or switching to 2.4GHz. An AM radio would work too in a pinch.

Programming, Programming, programming. Which radio were you planning on using with this airboat?

Rafael

Programming, ....yes. If you use a later model air radio a throttle mix should be able to be programmed and set to a switch to enable forward and reverse. Let us know what model tx you use.

Taranis Plus

Not really familiar with the programming of that specific radio, but now that is out there, someone will chime in soon.

Rafael

Thanks, Rafael
I'm fairly new to this radio too. I have only setup 2 models on it so far. And I must say the learning curve is fairly steep.

I'm not sure how a car speed controller would react to the throttle signal from an "aircraft" radio, but I'm sure you can "play" with the throttle curve in the programming until the car speed controller can interpret a reverse command by the radio. It should work almost like the trigger on car radio.

Rafael

Any speed control or servo just responds to the signal it gets from the receiver. What the receiver puts out to the ESC/servo depends on the transmitter stick position. Many modern car/boat/truck ESCs need to see a valid neutral at start-up. For planes, this is generally "stick full back". For boats, it is generally "stick central".
If the transmitter stick does not self center, it is a PITA trying to use it where a center point is needed. If its a 4 stick set, often the right stick self centers. Use that use that for the throttle. If using differential steering, use a mixer between the RX and ESCs. Brushless ESCs that do not need to go through a double flick sequence via "braking" to get to reverse are coming on the market. Those that do need that can not be used with mixers.

Thanks for the info, I have a while before I need to figure it out. I'll check on the Taranis forums and see if anyone has tried it.
Thanks again
Jerry