lchurch

I'm introducing my grandsons to rc sailing, and had a chance to pick up a Riviera very cheap. It appears to have 2 working servos but no radio. What I'm interested in is pulling one of the spare 2.4 GZ aircraft 4 channel radios I have and using it in this sailbot to get them started. That's a 0.00 cost to be as opposed to purchasing the $45 Futaba (http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...1p?&I=LXGRM7**) with new servos.
Any thought about either approach?

boomer1

My Feedback: (1)

Using your aircraft radio is what many of us do. I use my 8 Channel Airtronics RDS 8000 for my planes and boats. Works great. You will need to take one of the receivers you have from one of your planes to use in the boat, or buy an extra. You may have to change a few settings for the boats you need only 2 channels for a sailboat.

Stick radios work the best for sailboats and for power boats as well. (my opinion) Pistrol grip radios are fine for rolling stock and fast boats, personnally I perfer the stick style.

You didn't ask but I thought I 'd offfer anyway my suggestion of a great boat to start out with. In my opinion, the very best first RCsailboat is the Nirvana ll - to find out about them check out this link for details: http://sailrc.com/sailrcnirvana/home.html They are not to expensive, are simple enough for a novice and complex enough to keep the attention of advanced sailors for years.

There are many other fine boats, but none that are as simple to set up and learn on as the Nirvana. These is a brand new one listed in the classified section of this forum right now for only $150 asking price. Who knows the price might be flexible?

If you want to learn more about RC Sailing may I suggest you check out the sailboat section of rcgroups.com it is a much more active boating forum than any I have found thus far. There is information there on just about all of the RC boats out there. Here's a link to that site. http://www.rcgroups.com/sailboats-59/

I posted a few pictures of my Nirvana to give you an idea of what they look like. I have been sailing foryears and will alwayshave aNirvana in my collection. Great all around boat!Let us know if you need more info. Enjoy.
Boomer

lchurch

Good looking boat, but given that this is just for the boys I'll start them small. they already have a family pond boat from the 30's that i rehabed for them, so this is an add-one

lchurch

On stick translation, I'm thinking that rudder control works well in both environments, and the elevator works well for the servo that handles the sail control. I think Ican bypass the ESC and just wire teh battery directly tothe receiver. Thoughts?
Pond boat below

boomer1

My Feedback: (1)

Rudder should be the right stick - left to right - Set it so when you pull the stick to the left the boat should turn left and of course to the right the boats goes to the right.
Theleft stick should operate the sails. All the way down = sails all the way in and up the sails would then be all the way out.

What batteries are you using? These guys using operate on 4.8 to 6 Volts (4 AAs @1.5 Volts each -6 Volts and that you can plug into the receiver power slot.

Make sure all the electronics are matched. I quess that is kind of obvious sorry. Do you have a diagrahm for your receiver. If so it will help you find which side is the ground side.
All the plugs have to be in the same alingment or you can burn out the receiver.

That is a very nice boat and shouldbe just fine for the boys.

Boomer

lchurch

The Lipo for the airplane is 11.1, but the receiver is powered through the ESC, and that probably steps it down. The Xmit and Rec are matched so there should be no problem there. Left stick up/dn normally runs the motor up or slower. It seems more intuitive to me to use the l/r for the rudder, and the servor for the sails turns eithe rclockwise or counterCW, just like the rudder servo on the plane. But the ESC may mimic that capability and being able to set the sail poistion would be an advantage. I'll give it a try.

boomer1

My Feedback: (1)

Just be sure you confirm what the output voltage is so you don't fry the components. Some radios come reversed for lefty's - whatever "floats your boat" as they say. I am so used to it the way I described I'd be running the boats into things if I changed now. Having rudder on the right is natural to me as that is how I turn my aircraft.

I know guys that use lipos on sailboats - don't because you can sail all day and more on a set of AAs. I have some rechargeable 6 Volt set ups which work great. I really don't need any more sail/run time that I get. I have a bunch of lipos but haven't seen any need to convert over to them on my boats.

Good luck
Boomer