Gaijin

Fuego Update
*************
I'm told that Fuego means fire and this seems very apt...

Okay i took it to the pond today for a test run, I'd just peaked the packs that I rebuilt a few days ago with battery bars to handle more current, let them cool and off we go

get to the pondside, slap the packs in and hook the together to make a split 14.v pack (I use powerpole connectors so this is easy), just about to hook up the batts to the esc when one starts to smoke, yank it out quick as poss and it goes into terminal meldown spitting and fizzing and causing a chain reaction swelling all the cells and melting the heatshrink.

I've heard of it but this is the first time it's happened to me, I guess I used too much heat/solder on the battery bars and it melted and shorted the cell, you live and learn!

Still a quick test on one pack gave at least an idea of handling characteristics, she pulls to the right (too much angle on the turnfin, I'll adjust it) and only turns neatly to the left (I thought hydros only turn right, my sprint does with an almost identical hardware layout) but gets up on the plane and moves pretty well considering it's only at half power.

One other thing to come out of it is that @ 7.2v the Astec MHF80 ESC and 20turn stock 540 fitted (what was I thinking?) got pretty warm, no way will that motor handle 14.4v, time to swap it for an Mtronics Vision marine 500 I have around, at least I didn't fry it all with too much power, so some good came out of the battery meltdown

Just thought only one cell pack, uneven weight, of course it heels a bit - doh!

Of course the cells blew up I connected it to itself! what a stupid mistake, the wires are hidden in the nose and I didn't check properly which was which, what an Idiot I am

Budweiser

Hi,

can you say me how much speed do you have with your transformations on the NQD boat ??

Excuse my for the language

See you

SJN

Gaijin, I have not modified the hull in aany way....other than cut the two little fins off the bottom at the stock shafts.
Your Fuego looks nice, good luck with it. I just bought a Hydro sprint myself......see what it can do


Budweiser, the NQD is not very fast compared to other hydros in its size. I would say about 25-30 km/h tops.
You can judge yourselfe from the video a few post`s back.

Gaijin

Fuego V2
*********

Okay, I managed to cobble together another 7.2 pack from a 3000mah stick pack I had spare from the same supplier so that's sorted

Swapped the motor for a Mtroniks vision marine 500, says up to 12v on the can

Test run started well, no shorted cells! The fuego showed a clean pair of heels and accelerated well from rest giving a reasonable turn of speed, quick shore check cells not even warm

Second laps trimmed out some right hand wander, pulled 5-6 laps with good pace although the prop is cavitating and flexing a little, generally pleased with it

Back on shore, top off, a little bit of smoke! Panic, but no it's okay, I've started to cook the motor which won't pass a touch test, It say's upto 12v and they mean 12v, doesn't matter I kind of expected it and the motor was disposable anyway.

So get ready for V3 sometime in the 2 next weeks, Cen 550 class motor to better handle the voltage/current (I would fit a Graupner Speed 600 8.4v but I've just sold it on Ebay, bummer), Hopf Alloy rudder (as soon as I receive it) and 40mm carbon prop

Couple of iffy videos here on http://www.putfile.com:

[link=http://www.putfile.com/media.php?n=Fuego-V2-1]Fuego V2-1[/link]
[link=http://www.putfile.com/media.php?n=Fuego-V2-2]Fuego V2-2[/link]

Budweiser

Hi everybody,

I have a Miss Budweiser 1/12 Nitro and I'll convert it to an electroboat. I search a good motor, I have not enough knowlegde about Brushless motor. What are the important points to make a choice ?

SJN

I would also like to know :-)

Gaijin

This any help?

[link=http://www.astecmodels.co.uk/brushless-motors.htm]Astec guide to brushless motors[/link]

Oh Sonnich, you might like this one too...

[link=http://www.mhz-engines.com/]MHZ Modellbau[/link]

Crabstick

go on over to www.finedeisgnrc.com and have a look, all of his motors are good quality, he only sells the best! - check out the lehner 2280 ! its a monster - 4.2 hp

So Sonnich i can see you are really bitten by the hydroplane bug, have you seen www.bbyracing.com 's range of hydros? check out the winston eagle lobster boat.

Also to make your miss bud kick ass id put a cmb .21 in it - 2.9hp instead of the dynamite

For brushless in a bigger boat you can go past a Lehner .. although Astroflight, Aveox, Hacker, Plettenberg, Nemesis, and The Rum runner racing chili peppers (same as nemesis but different color) are some of the names i have seen in the top 10's for a lot of classes in the states

I havent worked on my NQD hydro for a bit as i have a new Climate Boatworks Matrix 12-18 cell rigger, new Cordite SS1, and New Astro 207d esc ... having a lot of fun with it, got a video last night with a dvd handycam but when finalising the disc it wiped it

The NQD now has no rear wings i am pleased to say... I finally have got rid of a boarder so have the house back to just me and the mrs and got my Boat room back yay!! i have to start fixing my miller 1/8 scale nitro so i can get racing and get some points this season

hydrojet looks good, but i think you should look at some surface drive setups(it will go faster overall and not loose bugger all speed in the turns) - check out fine design - also to lift the boats rear you dont need a deep prop, just a lifting prop ! the ends are shaped like a spoon and give off a much wider thrust cone producing lift with no prop angle needed

SJN

cool, thanks for the links guys.

pompebled

Hi guys,

I was fooling around on eBay this afternoon and all of a sudden I had bought me a NQD Hydro......

I'm very curious what kind of speed I can get out of this hull, with a 700 Neo, a flexshaft and 14 cells.

Now I have to wait for the postman to arrive....

Regards, jan.

SJN

Im glad you got one....

now you can show me how to properly fine tune it for performance !

Crabstick

i will be back working on mine again soon Sonnich, got other boats to focus on at the moment, but am slowly progressing on the NQD, i have decided i will modify the front sponsons to give them a lot more angle off attack.
That is my next plan

Crabstick

the correct place for the turn fin is bolted to the back of the right hand sponson

pompebled

Got the boat yesterday.

Man it's big!

First testrun out of the box; disappointingly slow and half full of water, motors very unhealthy hot, battery quite warm.

Second testrun on seven cells; faster, but nowhere near getting on the plane, lost one prop in the process...

Next: gutting the hull and determen the layout, so the CoG doesn't sit so far back as in the original configuration.

I'm guessing the sponsons need a stepped bottom with a steeper angle to get this heavy hull on the plane.

Regards, Jan.

Crabstick

Hey Dude, dont despair!!

yeah they will not plane in factory for and they do leak like a sieve.. strip it out, remove all unnecessary plastic and throw a 700 and 12 cells in ! front sponsons dont need the step but they could do with angle of attack! the rear ride shoes would also Benefit greatly from angle of attack.. i havent worked on mine for a little while cause i have had a climate boatworks matrix rigger to play with and im building a 470mm cat for a 6 cell class at my boat club

I will be using the RC gear from it to make a rescue boat to rescue my nitro boats when they stop in the pond

you could do what SJN has, and run a subsurface drive that will get it up out of the water and onto a plane, but you will find that it wont be as fast as a surface drive setup (which hydros are meant to be driven by) and also it will loose a little speed in the turns due to water drag

For a prop this hull needs a LIFTING PROP like an octura 1640

I have chopped my rear wings off and might do some more work on mine this weekend, i just need to fibreglass over where the rear wings were, and put the motor back in and im in business.. hopefully the removal of the rear wings will eliminate a lot of drag

pompebled

Hi Novacat,

No despair here, just the conformation, that it's a real dud out of the box.

I can't understand why NQD would put such a lovely hull, SO underpowered on the market.
Even the twin 380 powered winged hull they sell, gets on the plane, so they know how it's done.

Think I'm gonna drop them a mail, see if I get a reply.

Regards, Jan.

pompebled

Well, I've finally gotten around to gutting the "Speedstorm" hydro (I wonder what idiot comes up with a name like that for a boat this slow...).

My first impression is that there will be enough room for a 700 and 14 cells.

Due to the peculiar shape of the watertight compartment, a floodchamber is probably out of the question, but maybe, maybe just the left sponson can function as such, I'll have to do some testing.

First I'll have to make a strut, rudder and flexshaft, before the refitting can begin.
Or, when the motor will sit way up front, under the canopy, a 1,5mm spring steel shaft will do the trick, as a flexshaft would be very long, having a lot of friction along the way.

I'll keep you posted.

Regards, Jan.

Gaijin

Fuego 2 Rudder & Prop upgrade
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Just finished some upgrades to the Fuego:
New 550 series motor installed
Hopf Profi 1 alloy rudder arrangement (A great improvement over the horrible plastic kit rudder and much more postive action)
Graupner 40mm K series prop (I had to run a die up the shaft and make a dog drive out of stainless bar but the end result is okay, the kit prop is badly moulded and very flexible)

Will take it out for a test run soon, expect pictures!

N.B I now have a secondhand Kyosho WaveMaster tunnel hull I picked up cheaply, it needs quite some work, but hey, it passes the time!

SJN

haha.... I also wonder the same.....

Crabstick

ahha yeah i was thinking the same thing !

I got a new Hydro too by the way guys - DPI T - plus

this exact hull - http://www.finedesignrc.com/gallery/jimvaugn/tplus4.jpg

mine doesnt quite look this good yet but its getting there, just put some fullers hardware on the transom and put the motor in, tonight i will rig the steering servo, then it should be ready for a test thursday

Matt

gulfstreamI

I think your improvised water cooling pick-up tube on your Fuego Hydro will cause too much drag.

BTW, well done on your latest find : The Kyosho Wave master "tunnel hull" boat. That boat is a bit of a pain in the *** to modify for speed.

Gaijin

Thanks for the advice, any suggestions to improve the pickup?

A hull mounted pickup is unlikely to touch the water enough to function and seeing as I'm running on the cell limit it really needs the cooling!

I suppose I could rig a rudder mounted pickup!?

As for the Wavemaster, yeah I could see it was a bit of a dog when I picked it up, it's Huge, not a very nice quality hull, very flexible running surfaces with a massive plasticky outboard and very little room for a larger motor unit under the cowl, I will probably give it a wash and a tidy up, play with it a little and sell it on...

any advice welcome

gulfstreamI

A rudder mounted water pick-up tube would be a better solution. Use your hydro's prop wash for water cooling.
Something similar to anyone of these .....

Or you could bend the water pick-up tube similar to photo #2

zjjeepster

Hi Sonnich,

I'm interested in modding a NQD as well and yours looks like a winner.

My question is your "strut", so to speak. It looks like it's made out of balsa? If it is that'd be really cool considering the weight savings. Is it epoxied on there? Are most of your parts epoxied on? Would JB weld work 'cause I have a bunch.

Anyhow, great job on that plastic hydro and thanks for sharing it.

SJN

Thanks [sm=thumbup.gif]

Yes, I used Balsa....thats what I had lying around. After gluing it on with epoxy, I soaked it with thin CA glue to make it water resistant.

Engine mount and servos and wood is glued in the hull with rubber RTV. I did this because it is fairly easy to remove so I can try all these different setups without damaging the hull. But the RTV works VERY well, and is a permanent solution.