Mini-Sub
 

Hi All,

I have this mini sub (see pics) I got "mostly" for my 5 year old. Supposedly it would dive a several feet (8-10 feet on some web sites) under water, I haven't been able to get to much more that 8-10 inches under water. The other problem is it doesn't last long on the charge side. I may run 1-3 minutes and it's done. Paid about $20.00 for it last fall. It's no comparison to the Walmart subs, of which I have two. So my question is, do I change out the NimH batteries and that will help? Anyone have much exprience with this sub? Better signal reception would be good too....if an one has any thoughts on that. I'd appreciate any help....

Skitt

RE: Mini-Sub
 

If you add more weight on it to make it close to neutral buoyancy , you can make it dive as deep as you want. However, because of increasing pressure as your sub goes deeper, its volume will decrease, making it more & more negatively buoyant, resulting in staying at the bottom. :)
Usually the batteries do not choose to weaken & die together, & if one of the batteries in the pack dies earlier, your whole pack will not hold electricity as good. Replacing the weak battery link is a good idea & will help.
Extending or re-locating the antenna sometimes help but interference is inevitable due to closeness of components low power of RC system.

RE: Mini-Sub
 

Thanks for the suggestions. On working with the sub, I discovered that the battery based charger is basically crap. The batteries are NIMH inside the sub and I created a connection for it to my Radio Shack NIMH/Nicad charger. For once, the batteries really got a decent charge and the run time was FAR better. So my thinking was that the batterys were never getting a decent charge from the beginning. And on top of this the radio reception is terrible and I was looking at placing the antenna outside of the sub to get a better range. Still thinking about that one.....

Now I have a new problem, where one of the wires broke and took the circuit board track with it. Seems I will have to create a jumper to get it working again and i'm wondering whats the point. I'm getting tired of the toy subs as they have these little problems and don't last very long. The Walmart subs have been pretty decent and I have two of those, and they have been better to work with than this one. Maybe others here on the forum will benefit from the pics and the trouble I have had with this particular sub.

Skitt